PistonFunkMachine - FASTER! HARDER! LONGER!

[danboid]

FASTER! HARDER! LONGER!

Is the aptly titled debut album of PistonFunkMachine! Its apt as the bulk of it was recorded over the last three days of 2012 barely weeks after the bands inception and before having played live together properly. Please give it a listen at http://pistonfunkmachine.bandcamp.com/

Ricky, chief PFM! song meister and I have played and recorded with various bands over the last 15 years and in Ricky's case this is the 22nd album he has recorded but it is the first album any of us have recorded entirely in a professional studio. We funded this ourselves so we're hoping we can sell a few copies and at least break even but we're selling it so cheap we're almost giving it away.

I have been heavily involved with the Linux, and especially the Linux audio community for a number of years now so its with regret I have to confess we didn't make much use of Linux or free software in the recording of this album, although it still played a part. The studio we used was based around REAPER so to save myself any potential import/export headaches with the two tracks (most of 'Hard so hard' and all of 'When you're around') for which I had pre-programmed drums I created them using REAPER running under wine. REAPER is officially supported and runs very well under Linux/wine but I'm more interested in seeing the real, native Linux port get finished. Until then I'll continue to keenly follow MusE, qtractor and Ardour - projects which will surely get used in the recording of future PFM! tracks.

The other, bigger Linux connection for this album is the artwork which originates from Hiroshi Seo's fantastic Ubunchu! manga that I modified and coloured using good ol' GIMP. We are very grateful to Seotch and Ubuntu Magazine Japan for letting us adapt and use his wonderful artwork.

We hope you enjoy listening to FASTER! HARDER! LONGER! and we are especially grateful to those who support us or provide feedback!

Dan

http://pistonfunkmachine.com/

[danboid]

I've still yet to try recording a full track in MusE so for my next solo music project I'm going to be recording a song that was demo'd but didn't make the cut for FHL but on my own and entirely with GPL / FLOSS software, mainly MusE this time.

Beware! I'm even gonna sing!

No comments on our debut then?

[GMaq]

Hi there danboid,

Sorry for the lateness of my post, I don't get down to these subforums very much so I missed this post..

Sincere Congrats on pistonfunkmachine and your debut! I had a good listen to most of the tracks and here's some 'brutally honest' impressions FWIW

- Great production and sound
- Really like the songs and lyrics and the vocalist has a great 'alty' voice and delivery
- Really like the crunchy guitar sounds
- LOVE your logo!
- I realize your schtick is funky/reggae but I found the keys and tempos of some songs (not all) a bit too similar in some cases, IMO it makes the songs a bit less distinctive when listened to as a complete album.
- I had a bit of difficulty with some of the grooves, I am aware of playing 'on the beat' and 'behind the beat' etc. because I'm also a drummer, but I found some of the more ska based songs to be too far behind the beat to the point I felt it was giving the impression of slowing down the songs and dragging the tempo. I'll admit to being a hardass about this kind of thing but it's my personal feeling that especially with ska and reggae influenced stuff - timing is absolutely sacred, you can get 'alty' with the instrumental production and dirty up a lot of stuff (for example like Sublime or the Dirty Heads) but the kick/snare/bass/guitar upstrokes have to be tight. It almost sounds to me like your drum tracks have some latency offset in them that hasn't been addressed.

PLEASE don't think I'm trying to be overly critical (lord knows I have a lot to learn musically). I REALLY like your stuff and if I didn't like it I wouldn't feel it worth mentioning some of these critiques. I think this is a really good album and I believe tightening up the rhythm section a bit would make it a really great album....IMHO

Keep 'em coming!!

[danboid]

Thanks so much for that feedback GMaq! I'm totally delighted by your comments, even the bad bits as this is, to my knowledge, the first online review of FHL and its just fantastic to get some feedback with extra bonus points as you're a musician too!

I'm glad you highlighted Rickys singing as one of the best bits as I think he's very good too and I have took all your comments on my drumming on board. I wholeheartedly agree that my drums are a seething sloppy mess and in no way competent or passably solid and I'm CERTAINLY not a reggae drummer! I had maybe played to a couple of reggae tracks once before we recorded this album. I could maybe name 2 or 3 reggae artists at a push! If I did pull off a reggae beat on the album it was a fluke and thats the only one I can feign!

The bulk of this album was recorded in 3 x 8 hour days and 4 of the songs we'd never played together before went entered the studio although I had heard demos of 'em. We had another day for overdubs and it took 2 days to mix and master. NONE of the tracks were recorded to a click and I'm no metronome so thats why its all so loose.

The only bit of your review that I really didn't like was that you are under the impression we're some kinda reggae/funk band. Euurggh! Absolutely not, although I agree a number of the tracks on this album feature similar riffs and the rushed nature of the albums recording doesn't help. I'll be playing REAL drums to a click for the next album and if I'm still in the band then the next album won't sound anything like this one - I've sworn.

Thanks v. much GMaq!

EDIT

Sorry, none of the tracks where I played a MIDI kit were recorded to a click I mean. Hard, so hard and When You're Around have programmed drums and the difference is notable to say the least.

[danboid]

Goodbye PFM - I barely knew ye!

I quit the band yesterday after barely 5 months. It was a most unusual musical ride as thats about the shortest time I've spent with a band yet thats the only band I completed an album with and the only one I never did a proper gig with. What a weird combo of outcomes!

I didn't put much effort into promoting the album and nor did the other band members so as a result, GMaq's mini-review above remains about the most that has been written publicly about the album and I totally agreed with his comments about the drums. I was unhappy about the use of MIDI drums from before we started recording so I was appeased by being told that we would record real drums for most, if not all, the tracks on our next release. We had recently got to the point where we'd gathered enough demo songs for another album so I was going to start recording drum tracks after work next week only to be told yesterday that the rest of the band didn't have the patience for recording real drums to a click even though I was going to be doing it by myself in my own time and at no cost to them. Bad news!

Shortly after I had joined the band I had warned them about my obsession with free/libre software and they seemed cool with that - they didn't seem to have any preference or opinion on recording methods just as long as we recorded and indeed the first few demos we recorded were on a 16-track using a real mic'd up kit. I still prefer using FLOSS where poss but I was willing and I did use non-free software like REAPER etc to record the album and I was OK about continuing to do so but since recording the album with MIDI drums they seem unwilling to even consider going back to recording real drums. Not good!

If I, as the drummer in the band, have no say over at least how the drums get recorded and what gets recorded drum-wise then I effectively have no musical input. That may be OK if you're a paid session musician but if you're doing it for the art and the love of recording real drums it is not acceptable to me. They like autotune, I do not. They want shiny mass-market pop in a hurry, I want musical honesty and integrity that you have to work for.

Its a shame but I had fun and I'm a little wiser now. I had recorded some vocals and guitar for the song I mentioned I was recording earlier in this thread but I don't know if I'll be motivated to finish it now as releasing it could be awkward.