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https://soundcloud.com/michael-zaneski/planet-of-the-angels/s-IQRzo

I used to have a recurring nightmare as a kid. I'd get swooped up by a demon and flown around to a bunch of awful places.

I'd always read you're supposed to ask, in your dreams, what they want..but I never could wake up in my nightmares to do that.

So I did the next best thing which was to make a song out of it. Parts of it in the Seventies, but most of it about 15 years ago when I was making a lot of collage style music, and listening to a lot of Beck, Soul Coughing, Cornelius, and Momus. I grew up musically with samplers amd love "sampling culture" and those old 12 bit Ensoniq Mirages and Akai S612s..

This is a very recent attempt at a mix that I can finally be happy with. And I still need to de-ess the vocal a bit more.

That weird horn in the right channel? That's a crumhorn. For that really arcane, medieval sound, the crumhorn always works.

Recently my sister informed me that I had seen a live production of "A Christmas Carol" at a very young age, with her and mom, and that parts of it had terrified me. Go figure. But at least I now had a plausible narrative and cause for those nightmares. Just after images of a bad theater experience.

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Planet of the Angels


I met the devil yesterday
He swooped down like a bird of prey
Grabbed my arm said come with me
There's something I want you to see

He walked me through a corridor
below an army surplus store
It smelled the stench of rats and piss
I don't think I can stomach this

He said blood, blood and children screaming
Streets thick with sick ol' men blaspheming
The sky looks like a holocaust
A paradise completely lost

Planet of the angels
Planet of the angels

He took me up the other side
To a portal to observe his bride
He said my world, it's my world now
And saying that, he took a bow

He grabbed my arm said let's go down
This world is my kind of town.
Nukes, porn, perverted crime
This worlds ahead of its time

Planet of the angels
Planet of the angels

He said smog, waste, and global warming
That ozone hole's my legions swarming
He laughed it's too late to undo
Anyone care for barbecue

Planet of the angels
Planet of the angels

Put this gas mask on he said.
These shades too to dull the red
I wondered what kept people here
he said HE did and it was clear

Planet of the angels
Planet of the angels

He said fear, hate, and people killing
Religious war's especially thrilling
But ah, this world's become a bore
Folks don't need me anymore

Planet of the angels
planet of the angels

Well, I've always been a sucker for the crumhorn. Great song and production, fun but thoughtful lyric. Visuals that kept me hooked. For me, this was a great introduction to "Triphop," which I didn't know existed.

I wouldn't have heard any need for further de-essing if you hadn't mentioned it. I can see how with a line like "It smelled the stench of rats and piss," de-essing is important I've always found it really hard to do this effectively without it sounding like I have a lisp.

Hey Mike why don't you do the first "Planet of the Angels" left & then pan the second one to the right on the first Chorus?

Like that string breakdown at the end, that is tight

Hi Mike,


Good work, tight groove.


Calvin


http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/calvinstewart

Gavin, Steve, Calvin,

Thanks, guys!

Steve..didn't think of it, but since I'm having so much fun, sonically, with the arrangment, it makes sense to have tried what you suggest..thanks on the string breakdown, I do a lot of Library placement stuff, or did, and that's my forte..

Mike

Just brilliant, Mike and so creative. I love it!

Ricki

This mix is really nice Mike. Is that you singing? Now I know what a Triphop beat is and it's pretty cool.

I love it when you pull out your creative vocabulary, Mike. You have such a huge repertoire! Very, very cool work.

Thanks, Ricki, that's very nice of you to say.


Hi Jane, Me singing and also speaking in a kinda Tom Waits-y way. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was rapping, lol. Those vocals are ancient, now, at least a decade old. "Trip hop" aficionados might say it's heavy on the "trip" and light on the "hop" as the hip-hop elements are practically non-existent in this piece. Trip-hop is a marriage of hip-hop and most anything electronica/psychedelic/experimental.

I often have problems finding a good categorical fit for my stuff, cuz I usually let my work evolve organically with no worries about making it fit squarely in a one category or other. But it's a better fit than "acid jazz" cuz the only jazz element is the bass line. The piece is closest in spirit to the group "Soul Coughing" that plays what they themselves call "slacker jazz" --over which their lead man Mike Doughty would "rap" in a really beatnik way.


Hey Magne, thanks a lot, ol' friend, your comments made me smile.

Curdled my coffee, Mike and I broke my Crumhorn attempting to provide harmony in the background. LOL!

Fortunately, as a kid (nor as an adult) I was never taken to see live professional performances during Christmas. I believe the Nutcracker would have driven me to attempt writing something like this... but I lack the inventive creativity and many-faceted musical "chops" you possess.

Thanks for sharing and scaring! ----Dave

well if Dr. John and Zappa had a baby,i think this would be it.Diggin' the groove.Mike

Way to get it down Mike. Entertaining to say the least.

Douglas

Hi Dave,

Haha! The Nutcracker would have some scary moments for a young kid, I bet! So my demon was really the ghost of Christmas past, present, and/or future..I wish that demon in my nightmares woulda said something, LOL..thanks for the positive review and the nice comments that made me smile.

Mike

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Hi Mike,

I love Dr. John! Who doesn't love "Walk on Gilded Splinters" and of course his big hit "Right Place Wrong Time" --his sound was always the hippest--and having lived in Nawleans and working for a record chain there in the late Eighties, I came to appreciate all the local music, so got into Dr. John's deeper catalog as well. I love his appearances in the HBO series Treme as well. He's approaching Eighty now..I hope he's in good health..

Zappa was an encyclopedia. I have still to wrap my brain around some of his more far out stuff, and think he's one of the greatest guitarists ever lived.

Thanks for those great comments!

Mike

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Hi Douglas,

Very happy to entertain. Thank you!

Mike

Well Michael,Dr. John passed about a month ago,you missed a killer second line but so did i.

Well that's downright depressing to find out. Now he's in heaven in what's gotta be the best band, sitting out now and then so Professor Longhair can have a go.

Mike

So Mike,

I see Calvin stopped by and spent some time with you..........? Unique song to carefully place somewhere in an album.

Well done, and very cool ending!

steady-eddie

LOL...

Calvin has indeed been an influence on my writing for as long as I've known him.

Thanks, Eddie.

Holy Demonspawn, Batman, this is incredible! Absolutely delightful to me, and totally in that Beck-Soul Coughing mode. I didn't know I needed this song in my life until I heard it!

Jumping right into it is perfect...what a TV theme song it would make. Zero issues with the mix, and your crumhorn is as satisfyingly crumhorny as they come. Of course I've had it in the right ear before.

Seriously, what a cool track. It really comes to life, and doesn't sound as dated as its inspirations.

Haha thanks, Mark.

I saw Soul Coughing when living in Nashville. though I went to the club to see the guy who was opening for them. Jeff Buckley. I'd go on to be a big fan of him as well, and it was weird, but I took a cross-country bus, back to Sacramento and the bus went through Memphis the day Buckley drowned in late May '97..

Thanks again, Mark. I'm thrilled you enjoyed it!

Mike

Wow, what a way to reconnect with you...what a creative and scary write, the production is great and has the right tension. I really like the music at the very end that gives you a bit of relief. Way to make use of a nightmare!!

Mike,

Terrific write accompanied by your usual stellar production. Very funky, very original . . . and a little strange (but in a really good way). Well, well done!

My best to you,

Deej

I actually love this one very very much..every thing is just perfect...
Tks
glyn

There's a lot of sharp writing in this song. The phrasing, the music, the overall vibe ... it's all good. And somehow entirely relevant to the strange world we presently inhabit. Nice work.

Oh my gawd......stan ridgway, mark ledford, tom waites, kevin gilbert......hah!....this is friggin' awesome!

Hey Mike,

That's one inventive and original piece of work. Great layering and arrangement.

cheers, niteshift

Hi Mike,
It's always great to something different up and you did a great job with thissun. I actually started to write a rock opera at one time, only need 3 songs to finish it but haven't felt the need. I like writing on the dark side and mine are almost always to social conscience. Good luck with it.