Nino's Music & Film Archive
So tonight, April 22, 2005, I played a gig in the new band
BlaBat. For those who may not know, BlaBat is simply a bass/guitar & drum duo. Me and Nuje Blattel. Of course, I played, gigged and recorded with Nuje on many occasion during my tenure in Drop Trio from its inception in 2002, to 2003, and 2004, with varying degrees of regularity. We decided to start a "drum&bass" duo, playing totally prog/experimental stuff.
So far, I've been a bit of a dud whilst Nuje (luckily) continues to impress. No worries tho, as these things need to evolve and grow. Especially since I have these visions and concepts I want to execute in this project, but have yet to figure out exactly how to do them. The duo's "sound" has yet to be discovered, but tonight opening gig (for Drop Trio) was a good launching pad for what very could be a killer project.
As self indulgent as the music we're doing is so far, its not without it's merit. Well, to me anyway. Everything is deliberate and random, all at once. To say that its like Drop Trio would be partially correct, but not totally accurate. In fact, its a small struggle for me to find new sounds and ideas that are not based on what I've been doing, musically, for the past 3 years. So I've comprised a set of guidelines for myself in BlaBat to get myself away from my recent musical flavors and textures that I have been indulging in for a few years. It works for me, as hard as it is, but I try to keep to it. I repeat it as a mantra quite often:
1.) Minimal to no funk. Take a riff, or a groove, and intentionally suck the soul right out of it. Make it clinical, then try again.
2.) Play it faster.
3.) Rock and roll.
4.) Take stupid risks. If you fail in your attempt, you succeeded.
5.) Resolve to not resolve.
6.) Be the foreground, in the background.
7.) Layer, don't force.
8.) What you think needs to be added is the wrong thing. Period. ( this is a modified version of a piece of an infamous passage by Robert Fripp )
I also forced myself into new concepts by restringing my nasty pawn shop guitar and tuning it to, once again mentioned, Robert Fripp's "NST" tuning. Which stands for "New Standard Tuning". This tuning is used by the California Guitar Trio, and also many alumni of the League of Crafty Guitarists, worldwide. What it allows you to do is get a greater range on your guitar by adding new low notes and new higher notes. What it amounts to is string your guitar in 5ths, instead of 4ths, but the 6th string is a minor 3rd up from the 5th string. As seen here:
Standard Tuning: E, A, D, G, B, E
NST: C, G, D, A, E, G
Note that the D string remains the same. Tuning your 5th and 6th strings that high is risky business, and you should replace your strings with a 9 and an 11 for your 5th and 6th strings before attempting this. Or even an 8 and a 10. Possibly even two 8's, or two 9's. Also, your 1st string drops down 2 whole steps, so a heavier gauge string, say 58 or 60, is suggested.
But what did I do above and beyond this? Well, my guitar was already strung a 4th lower than normal tuning as it was. That is, B, E, A, D, F#, B. Made some cool bass-y sounds and what not.
So I applied to NST tuning concept to my guitar tuned to B, and got:
G, D, A, E, B, D
With the 1st string G being a full 4.5 steps (perfect 6th) lower than a typical guitar "low E". Talk about your thumpy bass sounding....instrument. Its almost not a guitar anymore. But certainly not a bass. Add the fact that the guitar is cheap as hell with cruddy pickups, and you get a raw, chunky, lifeless tone that works very well for what I want to try to do.
For guitar peeps, my guitar has strings on it ranging from .009 to .070. (not a typo, its a .070.) Its a highly varied instrument now. And I am enjoying my exploration of it.
Instruments aside, I am also retraining my brain, and my fingers, into what I want to do. Its a bitch cuz I don't know exactly what I want to do just yet, but its hardly boring trying to find it. Resorting back to rudaments (albeit modified ones) is frustrating but necessary, and its particularly hard to play a gig when you have minimal confidence in your technique and instrument. Talk about flying blind! Although it leads to many wicked cool accidents, it also has the potential to train wreck super fast. I've never done a drum & bass duo. I've never used a guitar tuned like this one. I've never used 2 samplers live onstage. I've never played a 16 against 17 riff. I've never been the dominant lead, let alone "sole", tonal instrument on a project.
But I am now. Here goes nothing! (er....more of nothing!)
NINO
Ah yes, 1998. I was recalling that year the other night, and what it meant for me as a musician. It was during that year that my musical endeavors went from "noodling" to "all out devotion".
It also happens to be the year I enacted my orgy of acquisition, in terms of music gear. Still paying for much of it still. Doh!
That year, I added more guitars, basses, amps, drums, multitrack recorders, microphones w/stands, fx pedals, tons of cables and even computer stuff for music like a CD burner (which cost over $550 in early 1998, if you recall.) Believe it or not, even as far as 7 years ago my parents still let me turn their house into a studio. In 1998, the studio was the living room! No kidding. There was no couch, no chairs...just drums, mic stands, cables, guitar stands and a desk for recording gear. I won't go into the details as to WHY this was accepted as readily as it was. But anyway, it was that year that
Polyhymnia went into full recording/writing mode. For what it was worth!
It seems that Polyhymnia is not liked by, oh, anyone. And never really has been. No one I know anyway. Somehow, this makes all of us in Poly feel more endeared to it. And in 1998, we wrote and recorded several songs, all homemade, and were (and still are) very happy with what we came up with. Mostly. :) Some tunes aren't to our liking much these days.
Listen for yourself, wandering web visitor, and
tell me what you think.
The latest news on the
film...Last night was a great 2.5 hour script brainstorming session between Bill and I - and some awesome ideas were tossed around. We're convinced that things are progressing quite well, and the enthusiasm and energy grows daily now about this project. A solid premise is in place, with the actual storyline slowly formulating around it very well.
And just for the heck of it, speaking of films/video, soon to be posted here will be a video I produced for cosmetoglist Jenny Bussolati in 2003. Its a video that showcases her hairstyling prowess in some 5 to 7 minutes, and was made for a national competition of the 15 or so Aveda Cosmetology Schools. Jenny actually won this national competition with this video. I can only assume it was because her hair work was superior (it sure looked good to me), but I'd like to also think that my video helped. If even just a little. :)
More film updates to come...
NINO
Ok, so starting today this blog is now being called "Nino's Music & Film Archive". A place where I babble about my past and current music happenings as well as the new and hopefully exciting
film by myself and Bill Giffen.
So as for the update on my music, uh, there is nothing to update you on. Zzzzz...
The film is still very much in the brainstorming stage, with in fact a session happening this very evening between Billy and I. The credits of this film should look something like this, but could change:
Written, Directed, Edited by Nino Batista & Bill Giffen
Produced by Nino Batista
Camera, Lighting, Wardrobe - Nino Batista with Bill Giffen, Tara Batista
Makeup, Sets - Bill Giffen, Tara Batista
Music by: MoFoNGo
Additional music by: Kao Kang
Executive Figurehead: Raf
I'll keep ya posted....check the
site too...
Deep Elder Unplugged? :)
Well, for lack of a better term, thats precisely what happened last weekend. Members of an old band I was in,
Deep Elder dropped in to TMR to lay down some acoustic versions of DE tunes from back in da day. That is, 1999-2001 or so. :) Raf (drums) was not available that day, but the acoustic session went off with minimal technical problems, and yielded 3 very groovy renditions of the Elder songs "No Place To Hide", "She Don't", and "The Times Before". The latter being minimally modified. The other two songs are, in fact, highly modified from the original versions. Very fun.
There was a strong sense of satisfaction from this session for me. The week prior, all four members of Deep Elder had a full blown "electric" jam for a few hours, belting out most all the songs the band used to perform in one afternoon's jam. That was great! But these acoustic sessions added the element of "something new", without necessarily starting from a blank slate. All of us guys that used to be Deep Elder have not practiced together in almost 3 years. So the results from the acoustic session being what they are make me very happy. It went groovy! (if you don't count my guitar solos.....eeeesshhhh...)
I'll publish these acoustic tracks, possibly, once we finish the overdubs and mastering. Which we'll get around to eventually. Lord knows we're not in a pro studio! And heck, we're just jamming casually these days - which is nice since there is no pressure - but hey we'll get it all done soon enough. :)
Man oh man, looks like some tracks showed up from the Deep Elder days. Special thanks to Matt Phillips for providing me with a CD of Deep Elder live at The Sidecar Pub in 2001. I had 2 tracks from this show, but now having the entire show totally rules. In this show are two covers, one by Tom Petty and one by Seven Mary Three, that we did often during live performances. A nice addition to the archive - thanks Matt!
Check it out
here.
What is your music catalog without a random rough take of Girl From Ipanema? :)
Go to MOSFET section to hear a rough take done recently during a quiet jam session with Conrad and Nino while little baby Pennie slept silently nearby.
