Here’s a short piece, written and recorded this week that I hope you enjoy. I’ll will check out all the songs up here ASAP.
Meanwhile, still raining…
Rainy Day Reggae by Steve Bancroft
The clouds are dark, the air is cool
The weatherman is such a fool
The northern wind no longer howls
But thunder in the distance growls
Nothing coming down now, but it might soon
Digging reggae on a rainy afternoon
Rainy day reggae make you want to move
Rainy day reggae caught up in the groove
Under an umbrella or warm and dry inside
Or soaked to the bone with nowhere to hide
Nothing you can do but listen to it play
Digging reggae on a rainy day
Hi Steve, I’m enjoying this… the theme fits so nicely with the weather here, a lovely sort of nostalgic vibe for me. Really like the opening part, with a Doors vibe, a bit sleepy and shifty, nice.
Only able to listen through laptop speakers so do take my thoughts with the proverbial grain of salt…
My ear caught a brief pause/phrase, just between “The clouds are dark________ the air is cool” where the reverb seemed to stop for a moment which broke the spell that you were casting… a small bit, I only mention it coz here we are in ‘bashland’. At ‘under an umbrella’’ it felt to me as though the vocal had slipped back in the mix a little and was being cheekily supplanted by instruments…the rippling chords felt just a little ‘proud’.
Interesting key shifts that give a nice melodic twist. The bridge was enhanced by live thunder here while I am listening which gave me a double grin. Cool groove that fits in nicely with the theme.
Nice arrangement, great vocals, nice structure and flow.
a bit too much delay on the vocals , the guitar (i think) that comes in at 1:19 is boxy and radio like. Unless that was on purpose. If it was, I would consider turning it down a bit.
I appreciate your ears, Emma. It’s still raining here off and on, and I confess to having written several rain songs over the years.
I am going to pay more attention to the spots you pointed out, maybe it is something I can fix, or maybe I will consciously decide to let slide.
The rippling chords were the last part added, and they were an exact copy of the midi of a non-rippling track with my hand edited staggered strumming.
I’m skipping past the very positive to the critical part, Michelle, because it is not easy to get the delay to sound good. I’ve learned to duck to some degree in recent times, so it is much better than most of my old stuff which I now hear as way out of control. And that boxy radio like midi guitar is designed to have a lo-fi cheesy vibe as if coming through a cheap amp akin to what my imaginary reggae band guitarist might play.
I am not saying all reggae is like that. In fact, I have a 15 year old song that my friend in the UK performed and recorded that has amazing guitar, but as good as it is it doesn’t sound as reggae vs. fused rock/reggae/raga/dub step. To me authentic reggae doesn’t depend on the rock guitar aesthetic, more the ambiance it adds.
Having said all that, this is really the first complete mix, so it wouldn’t hurt to try these suggestions and see if it helps or hurts.
That is very true. In this case, I would classify this as just a little bit under ‘way out of control’ ' Its hurting your voice to a point where it is uncomfortable to listen to in some parts. ( I assume it is your voice, which is very good)
I would remove all delay and try a small amount of reverb instead. Then add very slight delay as a separate fx track. Pan the delays away from the center.
I do agree with previous comments about the structure, the arrangement, or mixing. I do like your chord progression: I found it works great with the song, the subject and the mood.
At first, I didn’t read the title so much, then read comments and listened to lyrics and understood it would be a reggae… which is not really to me.
I expected lot more syncopated instruments playing together (like some Bob Marley’ songs for instance) and realized the organ only played chords throughout the song.
I think it’s the way you want song to be.
By the way, very coherent ambiance during the song, it really sounds as a song should be: a bunch of notes telling the same story.
Its hurting your voice to a point where it is uncomfortable to listen to in some parts. ( I assume it is your voice, which is very good)