Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Discuss Pink Floyd tribute acts including NPF projects too!
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cwta eugene
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by cwta eugene »

Absolutely Sean! I love the idea of just going at it bare-bones style. The over-the-top production of Charybdis was, unfortunately, its' down fall. I propose, though, that we do it fast. We keep coming up with hugely-extended deadlines for new projects and then enthusiasm seems to fade as time goes by. I say a month, tops! I already sent Sean six or seven songs a while back that I'd love to contribute. Moom, Massed Gadgets, Hudini, nosaj, flashback...I know you're all competent enough to knock out one or two tunes in a month! Let's do this! No grand themes, no trying to tie it all together into a concept album, let's all just submit songs and see what happens. 8)
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by moom »

Alrightie then :D I'm working on a tune right now, anyway, it's quite early Gary Numan-influenced, this dark synth thing, a bit similar to his track M.E.
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by Hudini »

I'm a bit short with time at the moment, but I'll be very glad to contribute, if not with a recording than at least with a composition for someone else to record. :D
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by cwta eugene »

That's the spirit! :D Who else is on board?
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by Massed Gadgets »

I would love to, but after having just moved and being in the middle of renovations, I am not set up to record right now, and probably won't be for another month or two.
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by nosaj »

cwta eugene wrote:Moom, Massed Gadgets, Hudini, nosaj, flashback...I know you're all competent enough to knock out one or two tunes in a month! Let's do this! No grand themes, no trying to tie it all together into a concept album, let's all just submit songs and see what happens. 8)
Well, my problem is I bought a device so that I could record onto my computer, but I can't figure out how to make the damn thing work. I have had it for a year and gave up long ago.
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by moom »

Tried consulting a computer specialist, nosaj ;) ?
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by pastchristmas »

It's a real shame this thing never got fully off the ground. It would have been great to see the finished product. I am, though, looking forward to seeing what you guys can manage to come up with though. I am sure it will be interesting and entertaining, and I mean that in the sincerest way possible.
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by Annoying Twit »

Can anyone summarise to me what happened with Charybdis. I was involved in the artwork, and also did a single sample 5.1 mix. But life intervened. What happened after that?
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by Hudini »

The Charybdis project fell apart when Geoff (also known as bpmolder), who hoarded most of the recorded material, disappeared from the forum. Geoff cited health issues as the reason for his temporary absence (as he then announced it), which would turn into a permanent one. Most of us folks involved with the project simply gave up afterwards, having already spent too much time and energy on it to be working from scratch. Even though I still have most of the artwork I made somewhere on my computer (some of yours, too), I don't have anything related to the song I recorded, except for the vocal track which again wasn't even recorded by me. I believe that most of other people working on this project found themselves in a similar situation after Geoff left the board. We've also tried to work on a new album, with completely new material, but we never really took it seriously, or at least as seriously as the Charybdis project.

Now, about Geoff...

All until this day I wasn't certain whether he's still among the living or not, but something made me google his name after reading this post of yours, and now I firmly believe that not only he's alive and well but he's among us, too. I mean, he's still a member of the board, only under another username. 8)
Last edited by Hudini on Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by Annoying Twit »

I have had times in my life where I have taken on far more than I can manage with my other real life commitments, and have let people down. So, I think I can understand how Geoff feels. If material was around, I could have a go mixing and mastering it, but it would have to be a rough and ready mix with no more than a couple of hours per song, and a working day doing the mastering, spread out over the next few months.

If there was another album, I'd suggest this. I'm not saying starting another album is a good idea, but just making one suggestion of how it could be done.

We could aim at doing a mock Roger Waters solo album. We could make it a mock up of him producing a more acoustic singer/songwriter album than he's done before with it being mainly his voice, and fingerstyle acoustic guitar. Perhaps backed by occasional sparse synth lines which I could add. I can do fingerstyle guitar, but not good enough for the final recording. But, if someone like Filthyfish is onboard (I hope I remember who can do what), then perhaps he (I hope I remember genders correctly), could take the demos, and record the fingerstyle guitar backings. Someone else could be the "Rog" vocalist (solo album, so only one lead vocalist), and perhaps there could be the occasional guest vocalist or occasional backing vocalist. Space could be left for lead guitar, Hitch-hiking style, which again could Filthyfish do? There would be one or two "full band" songs with drums (programmed or real) and bass. I could supply programmed drums and bass if things are kept within my playing ability. People could then also contribute "found sounds" to mix into it to make it a bit more Floydian. 40 minute album, no double albums or anything. There would be strict agreement beforehand as to how complex the production would be to prevent it slowly turning into a behemoth recording. All audio would be shared and backups kept in case of someone dropping out. The album would have a very strong concept and basically tell a story. I have been personally knocking around an idea of writing a mock RW album based on the concept of a trip to Mars, but concentrating on the human psychological side of it, basically showing how people in such an environment might start out strong, but fundamentally fall to psychological pieces. But, it sits in my mind and the only precise idea I have is that the last song would have the single survivor (the last but one having suicided when both are needed to fly back to earth again) engaging in surprisingly positive thoughts that while he (unspoken) only has a limited time left with limited food, water, and oxygen supplies, that he's going to take whatever time is left to him and enjoy the rest of his life. A triumph of optimism over disaster.

Getting less pretentious, we could flesh out the concept, decide on song titles and the rough theme/story of each song, then people could pitch lyrics and completed songs for these sections. Once enough material is collected, the basic tracks could be laid down, and passed around people for completion, and produced in a central location (e.g. me). While this is a "modern" recording style, I'd be hoping that there would be some similarities to Bob Dylan in the 60s turning up at a studio with his guitar and recording a whole album in one day :)

Sorry if I've gone off on one here and/or if I'm speaking out of place.
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by mosespa »

I actually think that having a centralized person "in charge" (using the term loosely) is what was the undoing of Charybdis.

Not to hijack this thread and flog "Double Core," but I think that the only reason that that project crossed a finish line was because people were responsible for producing their own songs. There was no attempt at a "unified" production style or sound other than "Floydian" (whatever that meant to whomever was doing a song.)

Another thing that I think Double Core benefited from, which this project didn't have going for it, was the "hoax album cover" that gave us all song titles (which I think were suitably Floydian right out of the gate,) to jump start creativity. There was already a "frame work" in place.

With the Charybdis project, the task of "creating" an actual "band" by designated this person the guitarist and that person as the drummer and another person as the keyboardist, etc. (which IS an idea that I promoted at the outset,) probably didn't help. Part of the attitude behind "Double Core" was that it offered people the opportunity to create their own variation of the Pink Floyd Sound knowing that someone else would be tasked with making it all fit together somehow.

I am known (both here and everyplace else I go) as being staunchly Anti-Collectivist...but I have to admit that what made Double Core so special was that it was truly a collective effort...yet each participant was autonomous. If someone needed help with a guitar track or something, they were completely free to find someone that perhaps they knew (or already played in a band with) that could get them what they were looking for. If they couldn't do that, there was always the forum to look to for volunteers; which is how the voices on "Deep Horizon Part Two," for example, came about.

The Charybdis project has so much potential in that as it's a fictionalized retrospective package, the Double Core method could be employed with even less worry about a "cohesive" sound as it follows the evolution of a band. Each song (or group of songs) from any particular "album" could then be used as the basis for another collaborative forum album.

But...to get back to being staunchly Anti-Collectivst, "Double Core" only began life because some one person somewhere created the idea of the album for us to start with. They created some song titles, speculated about guest appearances (though I don't know whether or not that actually influenced anyone in particular,) even created some artwork (which we supplanted with the visual stylings of a forum regular,) but as far as I know, that particular person (whomever they are) did not take any hand in the actual creation of the finished project.

So...I guess I'm suggesting that what needs to happen to get this project back in gear is that someone (or maybe a committee could be formed to do it, but good luck with that,) should create the idea of this album in full; create the framework for others to start working from.

I know there was a lot of discussion about song titles...and I think everyone grabbed one as they came up and ran with it, but no one ever actually put together even a rough draft of a potential running order, just to say "THESE are the songs that make up this album."

I titled this thread not as a suggestion for the title of the album...but the general consensus seems to be that it's the title to go with. If anyone would care to comb through the song title suggestions in this thread and piece together some kind of running order, go for it, I say. If more than one person comes up with something, we can put it to a vote or something.

That is, if anyone is still interested in kicking this around and seeing what happens.
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by Hudini »

mosespa wrote:I know there was a lot of discussion about song titles...and I think everyone grabbed one as they came up and ran with it, but no one ever actually put together even a rough draft of a potential running order, just to say "THESE are the songs that make up this album."
I think you're confusing another project we've abandoned earlier this year with "Back To Square One", which we've abandoned about two years ago. I believe that the project where everyone chose a song title and disappeared into the blue with it was the one with "The Wall" mockery names, but I might be wrong. However, I'm certain that it wasn't "Back To Square One".

Anyhow, we did have an album almost complete for Charybdis. The info about it is still on the website we've set up for the fictional compilation, although the site itself is in ruins: http://backtosquareone.bravehost.com/de ... racks.html

As far as I can remember, these 10 songs were fully recorded, but the main producer vanished in the final production stages, and most of the people who originally came up with the material left with only bits and pieces recorded, since the main man recorded the large portion of music himself. Thus, we were teleported back to the early demo stages and I guess that everyone just gave up on this after it turned out all the effort was practically in vain.

Also, the artwork for the album was mostly done. I don't remember who was responsible for the album cover, but I know that I did the complete booklet design, complete with "back catalogue display", with images of fictional album covers and info. However, once I realized that Charybdis was practically over with, I deleted the project from my hard drive and all the finished artwork from my PhotoBucket albums, and I only might be left with some fragments on a CD somewhere. However, I don't think it's of any relevance to this project right now.

To sum it all up, I believe that the album (or at least a lot of it) is almost finished, and that it only needs a couple more touches, but I don't have a faintest idea about where the hell it is.
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by Massed Gadgets »

The project we started post-Charybdis involved a bunch of song titles that came from Pink Floyd bootlegs. We were all going to record songs in a Pink Floyd style using those titles, similar to the way we did Double Core. A bunch of us picked a title or two and set about working on our songs, and then the project just seemed to ride off into the sunset...
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Re: Right...Back To Square One, Anyone?

Post by mosespa »

I would say that if anyone has (or had) worked on a song with a specific title (I, myself, had chosen "Empty Room") then that person has dibs on that title. If anyone wants to get back to work on their songs (or if they have anything finished,) this would be a good time to mention it.

Maybe we can pull this thing together after all. :)