New Synth Rock tune: "Shill" [Dr. Apostrophe X]

[DrApostropheX]

It's new music! It's inspired by current events! It's longer than 2 minutes!

It's also done using one 8-part instance of Sonik Synth 2 and Jamstix with most of the effects being handled by one of my new toys: Oligarc.

http://www.victorlams.com/audio/Victor_Lams_-_Shill.mp3

Not sure what I think about the mix. I've been working on this for the past two days though and I'm getting pretty sick of it.

Lyric:

You say that you are hopeful because the winds of chains are blowing,
And you think is a good thing 'cause you don't like how things are going.
But change taken by itself is both a blessing and a curse,
Sometimes it makes things better, but more often makes them worse.

It's appealing, so seductive, easy to get caught up in it,
But before you do something stupid maybe you should wait a minute.
Take a moment, take a breather, and when you do, think through it:
Change doesn't happen by itself it takes some one to do it.

Someone has to write the speeches,
Then the politician preaches,
To those whom make sure (that) it reaches,
Seems like common sense it teaches:

"Are we for change? Yes we can!
Just don't ask us about our plan.
It's all to nothing apropos,
Just gotta upset that status quo!"

Now there's no easy way to say this, it appears that you've been smitten,
There are phone calls to be made and many emails to be written,
Your family might not trust us and your friends, they are all haters,
But don't worry because one day we'll be proud to call them traitors.

Now deep inside your mind you might hear a tiny voice,
This is only normal: your conscience is a choice.
But your morals must be sacrificed so we can get elected,
Media prophecies fulfilled, and history corrected.

And if people are unwilling,
To our Audacious Hope fulfilling,
You'll find that some blood needs spilling,
Truth be told we'll make a killing!

Before you know it you've bought the line,
Seems so obvious it must be a sign:
Change we can believe in, still,
Too bad you've just become our...

Shill!
You're our puppet now, you're our,
Shill!
Please shut-up it now, you're our,
Shill!
And we have to pity it, you're our,
Shill!
Just our useful idiot.

Thank you for your help, as we said you've been quite useful,
Now it's our turn to confess that we maybe haven't been quite truthful,
There's no way we could provide all that stuff that you've been promised,
Better luck, live and learn: you can't cheat someone who's honest.

We're the ones we've been waiting for to,
Bring about our new world order,
Looks pretty much the same now though,
Except it's us stealing the show.

Turns out I wasn't the Messiah,
Not Apollo, Zeus, or Gaia,
Only one thing really was true,
We all really needed you to...

Shill! for us
You're our puppet now, you're our,
Shill!
Please shut-up it now, you're our,
Shill!
And we have to pity it, you're our,
Shill!
Just our useful idiot.

Shill!
You're our puppet now, you're our,
Shill!
Please shut-up it now, you're our,
Shill!
And we have to pity it, you're our,
Shill!
Just our useful idiot.

[Geoff242]

Not really my thing, but it kept me entertained.

The vocal melody really brings to mind "Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner". Heard that song?

[DrApostropheX]

Cool! More than anything, I never want my music to get boring (whether or not people like it or not ). I don't think I was consciously channeling "Tom's Diner", but that was definitely the song back in the day.

I'm mostly curious as to if it sounds too bass-heavy to anyone. It's definitely got a strong bottom-end, but I'm wondering if it's too much for this genre of music or not.

[Casar1973]

I thought this was a fun listen, I like the lyrical approach...clever!
However, your voice was so similar to someone I've heard before and I just can't place it. Don't think it was the moody blues or strawbs but somebody from that era....although the hook phrazing is similar to Vega's, that wasn't unique to her, that's a bard type of thing.

[DrApostropheX]

I thought this was a fun listen, I like the lyrical approach...clever!
However, your voice was so similar to someone I've heard before and I just can't place it. Don't think it was the moody blues or strawbs but somebody from that era....although the hook phrazing is similar to Vega's, that wasn't unique to her, that's a bard type of thing.

I've been compared (unfavorably) to "Weird" Al Yankovic in the past.. perhaps that's who I reminded you of? Listening to this now, though, it sounds to me like a cross between Bob Dorough and Frank Zappa (a very unholy union).

Thanks for listening! I'm glad you had fun!

[manytone]

Hi DrApostropheX
I enjoyed this, although not my usual forte.

Mix sounds alright here....Bass sounds fine on the one system I listened with.

I would say there is a bit of Frank Zappa in there too.

Nice Track!

EDIT: Love the Organ "like" line that follows and counters with the vocals in parts.
Paul

[DrApostropheX]

Woohoo! Thanks, Paul! I went back and tamed the bass a little... it sounded okay on the .wav mix but got a bit murky when rendered to MP3, but a little shelving seemed to do the trick.

That organ-like sound is buried in the Synth Lead folder of Sonik Synth 2 somewhere. This is the first rock-like tune I've done in years where I didn't use ManyGuitar, actually (as I was playing the "limit myself to one instance of one ROMpler" game), which probably explains why there's no guitars up and present in the mix -- I still don't know why after all these years no one has been able to make guitar sounds that are as convincing (as guitar sounds) as those in ManyGuitar... definitely one purchase I've never regretted.

[rockstar_not]

This has a 'They Might Be Giants' vibe - that's what I'm hearing.

-Scott

[DocAtlas]

This has a 'They Might Be Giants' vibe - that's what I'm hearing.

-Scott

Yeah, I can hear that, too. Nice tune. It doesn't sound bass-heavy on this system, and my wife has the bass on this machine cranked up a bit.

[DrApostropheX]

Yeah... I just can't seem to shake John Linnell's influence on my Flat-Affect delivery..