2003 BC - A New CD from Jon and Steve

Prepare for a bit of a surprise is all I can say! 2003BC is an adventure into the collective minds of Jon and Steve. Available at future gigs for purchase 2003 BC weighs in with five songs totalling just under twenty minutes of rather unique music. I'll let Jon reveal more about the CD, how it was made and what the tracks are all about.

The Shadowy, Surreal World of Jon & Steve

"2003bc is essentially a Prog/ Dance album. That might sound like a strange combination but I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised as was I.
It all started when Steve came round my house in August 2002 with a view to writing some stuff for 'Aquaplanage'. I played some stuff to Steve that I had done on the computer over the last two years just for a hobby on the side, I never planned to do anything with it. Steve started singing to some of it and it took on a life of it's own. I then had a couple more months to develop the ideas and introduce a keyboard to be played via midi (info for those techy people).

Steve then came over again in January 2003 and recorded the vocals. What came out has been described as 'like nothing I have ever heard before' and 'sounds very strange but not unlistenable'. I wrote the music and Steve wrote the words with the exception of the only instrumental on the album (a bass solo written by Steve!). There are some strong song ideas with a Peter Gabriel/ Genesis feel to many of the vocals.

The CDs, which are 20 minutes long, cost £5 and at this stage will be available in CDR format and will be sold at gigs only. If it becomes more popular, this situation may change. Come along to our gigs and hear the entire album over the PA system.

There are five tracks on the album and are named as follows:

Soul of Man

*The music for this has been on my hard drive since early 2001 when I was first experimenting with computer music. There is a very strong slowish rhythm sort of like 'Mama' by Genesis. Later on, I added some machine-like noises with lots of stereo effects.

Steve's vocal on this is very strong and earthy. Just for the record, I had to do the low vocal harmony on the chant section - amazingly my vocal recording debut!

Bass Odyssey

*Steve sang this bass solo to me, I matched it on accoustic guitar, recorded it onto cassette and hey presto, you have a track with 12 bass guitar lines on it. Well why not? Chris Squire did it with the Fish!

For you anorak types, the timing of the track is 11/8 for the first section and 5/4 for the second.

Shrine

*This song was almost an after-thought. Again, I have had this around for some time and Steve added some icing on the cake. Has Steve singing in a made-up language (I asked him to ad lib along to the track, I later chopped it up and pasted it around to interesting effect. Steve was completely surprised when he first heard the finished version). The sampled backward voice at the beginning of the track is an absolute secret.

Bag of Sweet Surprise

*This track sounds a bit like a cross between 'Watcher of the Sky', 'Supper's Ready' and 'Fat Boy Slim'. The song started with the intro sample and went on from there. The chord sequence is a complete mistery to me as I don't play keyboards, it just sounded nice. Steve's vocals are very theatrical and features him as a South London market stall holder (apparently a lifetime ambition - to record the voice, not be an actual stall holder). There is also a talky-bit which I have always considered to the the height of musical bad taste, but Steve delivers this with inimitable style. It was so good, I copied into the track twice!

Watching

*This is the most recent track. I bought a computer music magazine which had some free samples on the attached CD. Two of those samples reminded me of a Sci-Fi programme theme tune. Steve came along and I asked him to talk on it through an 'alien' effect on a Midiverb 4. The result is very sinister and TOTALLY off the cuff, there was nothing written down and what you get is Steve's subconcious thoughts on record. Take my advice and never never NEVER find yourself along with this man in a dark alley!

My verdict? Never let a bassplayer loose with recording equipment".

Back to news page

For older news stories see the News Archive.