Laralette Lane sang first and she sings so sweetly but maybe you wonder if she is singing cover songs then why is she singing at the Circus. That she sings covers is not it but rather it's the way she sings them. She brings her Dutch way about things and you know immediately it's Lara as soon as the mike goes live. It couldn't be anyone else. She sings in multiple languages but one in particular stood out last night and it was called "Under the Milky Way."
Phoenix J has tremendous experience touring around Europe with her band and doing a great many things. She's very skilled on guitar and keyboard and she's not shy about using electronics. Most of all she's not shy about trying new things and that will make you Circus material every time.
Almost a signature in Phoenix' singing is a lilt as she sings. If you think of two notes in a melody then a little added rise and fall between those two notes might be a lilt. It really didn't have to be there but it adds a touch of sweetness. For a singer this is something like a wah-wah pedal for a guitarist as using it too much will annoy people but just right makes for a beautiful touch for just the right song.
Phoenix also does a song called "Under the Milky Way" and here I'm a bit puzzled as I'm not sure if this is a cover or a Phoenix original that just happens to have the same name as another song. Either way, she does a beautiful job of it and it gets me to thinking of the Milky Way from Australia every time. (It really is very different.)
And then came this Silas guy again.
There was a comment some days back about who would listen to someone playing guitar solos for an hour. Well, practically everyone who comes to the Circus ... but maybe that wasn't the answer they wanted to hear.
But I didn't start with any guitar solo as I have been intrigued by arpeggiation. Think of it as one note makes many things happen, usually a whole lot more notes and hence the name. If you play some other note then the arpeggiation starts from that root and using this cleverly can make very cool things ... or not. Maestro Michi Renoir is the Arpeggiator King of All Time. The man can probably make a synthesizer bark at the Moon and then fly you there. He's damn good.
But ... still I had to screw with it because it really is so damn cool what you can do. Last night was the first time to try it live and I really had no idea what it was going to be, I was just determined to arpeggiate. I was getting a little wobbly before starting as it's hard to think your set before you start while you're listening to others perform. But, wobbly schmobbly, let's try it.
It was, um, interesting. On playback I didn't hear anything that would drive the fire ants from Texas but it did sound cool enough to try it again sometime. I really have missed synth as they can do such insane things and the sounds are so incredibly grand.
What I see of arpeggiators in synth is that it could be very cool to play out, say, twelve bars or whatever using your mad arpeggiation and capture that as the foundation for your loop. Depending on how you have set up the arpeggiator, it may have drums, bass, triangles and tubas, whatever you like. With that foundation, you can play a counterpoint against it using whatever magic you prefer and this is where Maestro Michi goes to the Outer Stars. The trick is getting back as for any loop you build you have to have a way to come back to a smooth landing and Michi is masterful at it.
Cat hears she is in every note but how does she know if that's just crap you say on a swing on the porch in the Summer time but it's true. I'll play some notes, particularly in "Ice Cream Blues," where they are very deliberate and I know very well she is hearing how much separation, clarity, etc comes from each one and they go directly to her. This is very much a conscious thought as I'm playing it and this isn't so much neurosis as fulfillment.
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