Category : Blog

Fate Line Friday from September 12th

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Fate Line Friday from September 19th

Jen here – last week Simon weighed in – guess it’s my turn – and being a twin I’ve chosen two tunes for your listening pleasure. They are both sounds and songs I love! Straight out of the 70s, an era of music I grew up with and has surely influenced the music we’ve made on this record. There are the more obvious influences for me, sourced from my parent’s record collection: The Band, Jimmy Cliff and Ry Cooder. But today I wanted to share two sweet things (or thangs) from Shuggie Ottis and Chaka Khan – soulful songs whose vibe and groove really get under my skin. I reference Chaka’s “Sweet Thing” in “Learning to Dance Again,” a one-drop tune from our up-coming record. So please, taste the sweet and perhaps new to you – and enjoy!

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Fate Line Friday from September 26th

F A T E L I N E F R I D A Y S!!

Simon here with a gem from Robert Nestor Marley no less!

On our album Fate Line there is a song written by Jen – “Learning To Dance Again” that is based very much around the rhythm Bob Marley refers to in his song ” One Drop”

In Jen’s tune the lyric even mentions it,
“Oh.. from solo to paso doble
Oh.. Feeling the one drop!”

Pretty sure its also the world’s first reggae tune with a bluesy pizzicato viola solo in it…beautifully played by our own virtuoso soloist Jonathan Marks!

I found this excellent description of the beat in wikipedia:

The One Drop Rhythm is a drumset playing style of reggae, popularized by Carlton Barrett, long-time drummer of Bob Marley and the Wailers, created by Winston Grennan, in which the backbeat is characterized by the dominant snare drum stroke (usually a click produced by hitting a rimshot) and bass drum both sounding on the third beat of every four, while beat one is left empty.

Thus, the expected hit on beat one is “dropped,” creating the one-drop effect. A good example of this drum beat is Bob Marley and the Wailers’ song “One Drop”, which talks about this rhythm.

Heres the Master Blaster doing it Live in ’79.

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Fate Line Friday from October 3rd

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Fate Line Friday from October 10th

Jen here – so it’s my turn again and we’ve discovered that our Fate Line Friday posts bespeak our personalities – or at least according to our resident psychiatrist Dr. John. So unlike John, I’m no music nerd, and unlike Simon, I’m no muso equivalent of the Happy Buddha, but I do know what I like. What creeps into my brain and soul and gets me every listen. Here are (yes again) two songs that do it for me. And while I agree that it is “all about the bass” – I think, for me, above all else in these songs or any songs, it’s all about the voice!

The first tune is from a band of young men from New York I saw a few years ago – Vampire Weekend. I have been hooked ever since and their most recent album has become a staple in my house or on a long drive – and this song, “Hannah Hunt,” a favourite. It draws me in with its melodic simplicity, sparse production soundscape (that reminds me of the opening bass slide sequence to The Eagles’ “One of These Nights), odd harmony and haunting piano (not unlike the piano part played by Carmen on our tune “Your Touch is Deep”). But what really gets me, what I wait for every time, is the ending when the song goes epic, he jumps the octave and looses it ever so slightly in his desperate plea for love.

Another ear worm of late has come from the 70s again, and The Faces – a band whose production sound we’ve tried to emulate on this record – trashy roomy drums and jangly flat picked and hammered guitar. “OOh La La” has me from the opening strum of its loose but vibey rhythm. But the rarely heard young Ronnie Wood’s voice (pre-Stones), scratchy but still musical and ever so characterful, is what draws me in with his own hooky mournful plea about the wisdom of the ages or aged! “I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger” indeed!

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