Tamerlane

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antichef

antichef

pornk rock
OK, I've been working on my angry, subcontinent industrial/metal response to EL34's badass "Hand of Shiva" tune:



like I promised I would. Sticking with the theme of destructive forces in India, my project is called "Tamerlane" -- this a very early draft. Here's the link to EL34's song thread:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=263704&highlight=hand+of+shiva

I have a lot of things to work out -- mainly the vocals. I decided to use these excerpts from Edgar Allen Poe's "Tamerlane" poem:

Kind solace in a dying hour!
Such, father, is not (now) my theme-
I will not madly deem that power
Of Earth may shrive me of the sin

If I can hope - Oh God! I can-
Its fount is holier-more divine-
I would not call thee fool, old man,
But such is not a gift of thine.

Know thou the secret of a spirit
Bow'd from its wild pride into shame.
O yearning heart! I did inherit
Thy withering portion with the fame,
The searing glory which hath shone
Amid the jewels of my throne,
Halo of Hell! and with a pain
Not Hell shall make me fear again-

Now as I look back, the strife
Of some ill demon, with a power
Which left me in an evil hour,
All that I felt, or saw, or thought,
Crowding, confused became
(With thine unearthly beauty fraught)
Thou — and the nothing of a name.

and I guess they'd go into the spots where guitars aren't screaming at you. Any thoughts on 1) where I can learn how to sing - in this case in an edgy, industrial style, but this would probably be the only instance -- other than that I want to sound like Bing Crosby; 2) arrangement tips; 3) drum track tips; 4) general improvement tips; 5) where I can find some royalty-free a capella khyal singing tracks that I can overlay?

I'll probably add some more angry rampaging elephant guitars. Also, it's all models right now, so I'll re-amp.

For some background on Tamerlane (or "Timur the Lame"), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur_the_lame
 
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How'd you do the Indian-sounding instrument? (The mandolin-y thing? I think it's called a Rebab?)

The whole thing was pretty sludgy-sounding, but I suppose that was the goal?

Some of your lead guitars will probably have to come down when you add vocals. They're really overpowering.

Otherwise, though, you've got a pretty good song on your hands. I really like the combination of Indian and industrial music!
 
The Indian sounding instrument is actually a 1930's Martin Ukulele miced with an Oktava MC-012, dry.

There are two bass lines, one that follows the bass drum, and the other is bit crushed and put through a distorted amp model - that's where most of the sludge is coming from (and of course it's intentional) - I'll probably bring it down a little because it was soaking my car stereo just now.

Thanks!
 
Wow, that is really a cool and unique song-I love how the uke is coming across as an Indian instrument. Great mixing of musical styles, only thing I would like is that ukelele melody could stand out more when the stereo distortion comes in-it's all good tho........
 
I didn't know what to expect, so everything caught me off guard... this is really cool.

The only nit I have is the same as Tony's. The uke could come up a bit when the song kicks in.
 
thanks all! I updated the original to bring down the guitars and the sludge bass some (to leave more room for the uke), and also tweaked the arrangement slightly.
 
Off to a good start..the Eastern sounds are cool. With this type music the drums/percussion need to thunder, so bring the thunder. Guitars are nice and drenched. I'll be inetersted to hear the progress on this one.
 
One word comes to my mind when I listen to this: creative! That may sound trite, but I don't mean it be. This is very "not normal" but not like experimental noise that I wouldn't listen to. It's unexpected and musical at the same time. Great job!
 
You might have to EQ carve to give that tambla or whatwever asian drum some more space it's a nice deep sound.
The Uke as mini sitartypething works brilliantly.
I look forward to sme crushed industrial lyricism (nice Poe pick too).
 
Thanks guys -- I was in Maharashtra (west indian state) again in July, and doing some historical reading and looking for inspiration for the heavy indian-ish song I had committed to. I read about this guy and then started relating the historical accounts to my surroundings.

Far from being the Justin Timberlake of the 14th century, as I had supposed, he and his army swept down from the north and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people. I was looking around and trying to imagine what it would be like to be there at the time. It was a history-changing move (establishing the Mogul dynasty that would be in place until Edgar Allen Poe's time). I was also wondering what India would be like if he had never showed up -- wildly different, I think. Then I found the poem.

In the 1800s, there was this weird, and I think inappropriate, romanticism of Tamerlane (maybe to help justify all the colonialism that was going on), and Poe's poem was actually kind of a goofy love story where he regrets his military conquest because it keeps him away from some chick. I decided to re-interpret portions of the poem as him regretting his actions, but bumming out about the India that existed before he got there instead of some fictitious chick.
 
Wow, that is cooool!

I like it.
I like the sludgy, mean sounding theme.

We had Grunge way back when.
Can we have Sludge now?

Time to boot out all these bands that sound the same and give Sludge a place in the sun, I think.

Good job man, this is pretty cool.
 
Yup, this is really cool in a twisted sort of way.

I love the intro, the fuzzed out bass, and the guitar trickery about 2/3rds through that reminds me of that dude from rage against the machine.

I am listening on pc speakers, but when the electric first comes in it seems to overpower the tabla and mandolin...probably intentional, but I might have prefered to retain more of the sounds from the intro throughout.

I love all of the sounds you have going here, but feel like it could all be more cohesive somehow. Still, really very nice :D.
 
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