The thing about making music...

For quite a few years now I have been writing a lot of house music (house in used in the loosest term to describe electronic dance music). You can hear some of the latest creations over at MySpace where I have a band site. When I say writing, what I mean is creating beats and sounds using a sequencer on a computer (I use FL Studio but have used CuBase in the past). I have also written songs (vocals) and have usually placed lyrics to house music, as it worked at the time and seemed the right thing to do.

Now though, more and more, I am coming up with bass lines that really do not fit the house music thing - the bass lines I have in my head are being played by someone on a bass guitar, not some noise from a keyboard or sound card. I simply cannot reconcile these bass lines within house music - they just do not go.

So, what's do I do with them? Well, I have been considering writing some music for a band, since I am getting lyrics in my head as well that do not fit the house thing either. The kind of stuff going through my head now is more like stuff you'd hear from The Kooks or The Feeling. Maybe the time has come for me to really learn music properly, and truly understand how to write and create music, truly exercise this powerful tool to it's highest potential...maybe. Learning to play the guitar might not be a bad start. Watch this space!

Dina Caroll and Masquerade's "Set It Off"

One of my all time favourite tunes from the 80's is a tune called "Set It Off" by Masquerade which was released on Streetwave in 1984. I found out recently that the vocals were actually sung by Dina Caroll (originally from Cambridge). She signed for Streetwave in the 80's years before she had big hits with Jive/Zomba and AM-PM later on in the 80's and 90's.

Set It Off is a lazy early garage house tune which seems a bit boring to begin with, but soon builds into a very mature sounding groove with sax and other instruments entering the mix. It was the one in the red and white chequered cover. There were other versions of this tune about but I rate the Masquerade version as the best.