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New album - Incubi and Succubi
12 years ago
If anyone's interested, I have just released my ninth album of progressive rock, recorded in 2012 and early 2013 - Incubi and Succubi.
The album itself can be had here:
http://www.dougtheeagle.com/ias.htm
EDIT: And on Jamendo here:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/120210
I never really had plans for this album, in fact I had about given up hope and began recording an album of remixes and rerecordings from my first four albums. But then,
missmab's comic, DMFA, which has been often been an unlikely source of inspiration, suddenly took a turn for the dramatic causing my muse to go into overdrive. This album is the result, and for this reason many of the tracks are written around the brutal and oppressive aspects of the DMFA universe which we've suddenly had a window into.
Musically, it is an interesting experiment in that I suddenly broke down and bought an electric bass about 4 months prior to the deadline for the album. Perhaps this haste was a mistake, but I think that it does lend some honesty to an album almost entirely produced using sequencer software.
'The New War' is the opening track, the opening line is dubbed directly from the master tapes of 'Niall's Song' and slowed down to match the key. I believe this was the first song to be written for the album. The bridge near the end came from a dream in which a Genesis album was playing in the room below mine. On waking I remembered enough of it to be able to put it into the sequencer, adding a vaguely Firth-of-Fifth feel to the song.
'Gathered Together By Spring' as an instrumental inspired by a bolero I had been working on the previous year but abandoned. The name was a random phrase from somewhere. It was the last song to be written for the album, and I think the only track which hasn't already been posted on FA in demo form.
'A Fae Story' is an interesting one, it started out as a take on fairy tales, but got sucked into the DMFA universe. The chorus was the first part to be written, and I had most of the music down pat, inspired partly by music from a 1980s computer game that shall remain nameless. However I was never really happy with the story after the first two verses. I think I rewrote it about a dozen times before coming up with something that didn't completely suck.
'Born With Wings'. This is a rather sad song, inspired by Amber Williams' webcomic, when it became apparent how badly magical creatures could be treated by the more numerous, non-magical population. It was the second song to be written for the album, and the third to be recorded. The ending is slightly more upbeat than the desperation of the first few verses, and this was a deliberate decision because I wanted something poignant, not miserable enough to prevent people wanting to listen to it or have the listeners attempting suicide afterwards. I think I got the balance about right.
'The Age of Daryil'. This was actually started in mid-2011but came to a crashing halt. I was able to revive it after 'The New War' was completed and it became the second song to be recorded for the album. The harpsichord waltz sprung fully-formed into my head during a game of Doom, just like the one in 'Demonhunter' a few years back. The choir at the end is made from tape loops recorded on a Studer A807, varispeeded and overdubbed onto the master tape. You can hear the tape snatch slightly as they start, something I decided to keep in the recording for my own amusement.
'The Murder Game'. The opening lines of this song also came into existence during a game of Doom (20 years old and still full of inspiration. That's value for money!). The 'circle of violence' line came about on the way into work the following morning, and at that point it snowballed into the song it is today. This was also the first song I began composing the bassline for on the guitar rather than in the sequencer and I think it's fair to say that getting to grips with the instrument pushed the composition into new and interesting ways that wouldn't have happened otherwise.
All tracks recorded on 1" 24-track tape.
Recorded using the Old Ways at The Lab, Cwmbran 2012-2013. Mixed 14-16 Feb. 2013. Mastering by Alex Balzama at Swift Solutions, London, March 2013. Greetings go out to
sunblink,
siegfriednox, 
wuffnpuff and 
chaosmagex for their help and support in making this album, and also to missmab whose writing spurred such an amazing frenzy of musical creativity.
This album should not be considered canon with DMFA, though most of 'The New War' is drawn directly from her comic.
Apologies are due to Fred Grey and David Gemmell for parts of 'A Fae Story'. Thanks go out to the Rosegarden team, to all at RMGI, MRL and HomeRecording for keeping the analogue dream alive. Cover by Amber Williams; logo by Luke Turner.
Recorded on RMGI SM911, mixed on SM900.
A PDF booklet with full lyrics and liner notes can be found here:
http://dougtheeagle.com/ias/incubi.pdf
The album itself can be had here:
http://www.dougtheeagle.com/ias.htm
EDIT: And on Jamendo here:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/120210
I never really had plans for this album, in fact I had about given up hope and began recording an album of remixes and rerecordings from my first four albums. But then,
missmab's comic, DMFA, which has been often been an unlikely source of inspiration, suddenly took a turn for the dramatic causing my muse to go into overdrive. This album is the result, and for this reason many of the tracks are written around the brutal and oppressive aspects of the DMFA universe which we've suddenly had a window into.Musically, it is an interesting experiment in that I suddenly broke down and bought an electric bass about 4 months prior to the deadline for the album. Perhaps this haste was a mistake, but I think that it does lend some honesty to an album almost entirely produced using sequencer software.
'The New War' is the opening track, the opening line is dubbed directly from the master tapes of 'Niall's Song' and slowed down to match the key. I believe this was the first song to be written for the album. The bridge near the end came from a dream in which a Genesis album was playing in the room below mine. On waking I remembered enough of it to be able to put it into the sequencer, adding a vaguely Firth-of-Fifth feel to the song.
'Gathered Together By Spring' as an instrumental inspired by a bolero I had been working on the previous year but abandoned. The name was a random phrase from somewhere. It was the last song to be written for the album, and I think the only track which hasn't already been posted on FA in demo form.
'A Fae Story' is an interesting one, it started out as a take on fairy tales, but got sucked into the DMFA universe. The chorus was the first part to be written, and I had most of the music down pat, inspired partly by music from a 1980s computer game that shall remain nameless. However I was never really happy with the story after the first two verses. I think I rewrote it about a dozen times before coming up with something that didn't completely suck.
'Born With Wings'. This is a rather sad song, inspired by Amber Williams' webcomic, when it became apparent how badly magical creatures could be treated by the more numerous, non-magical population. It was the second song to be written for the album, and the third to be recorded. The ending is slightly more upbeat than the desperation of the first few verses, and this was a deliberate decision because I wanted something poignant, not miserable enough to prevent people wanting to listen to it or have the listeners attempting suicide afterwards. I think I got the balance about right.
'The Age of Daryil'. This was actually started in mid-2011but came to a crashing halt. I was able to revive it after 'The New War' was completed and it became the second song to be recorded for the album. The harpsichord waltz sprung fully-formed into my head during a game of Doom, just like the one in 'Demonhunter' a few years back. The choir at the end is made from tape loops recorded on a Studer A807, varispeeded and overdubbed onto the master tape. You can hear the tape snatch slightly as they start, something I decided to keep in the recording for my own amusement.
'The Murder Game'. The opening lines of this song also came into existence during a game of Doom (20 years old and still full of inspiration. That's value for money!). The 'circle of violence' line came about on the way into work the following morning, and at that point it snowballed into the song it is today. This was also the first song I began composing the bassline for on the guitar rather than in the sequencer and I think it's fair to say that getting to grips with the instrument pushed the composition into new and interesting ways that wouldn't have happened otherwise.
All tracks recorded on 1" 24-track tape.
Recorded using the Old Ways at The Lab, Cwmbran 2012-2013. Mixed 14-16 Feb. 2013. Mastering by Alex Balzama at Swift Solutions, London, March 2013. Greetings go out to
sunblink,
siegfriednox, 
wuffnpuff and 
chaosmagex for their help and support in making this album, and also to missmab whose writing spurred such an amazing frenzy of musical creativity.This album should not be considered canon with DMFA, though most of 'The New War' is drawn directly from her comic.
Apologies are due to Fred Grey and David Gemmell for parts of 'A Fae Story'. Thanks go out to the Rosegarden team, to all at RMGI, MRL and HomeRecording for keeping the analogue dream alive. Cover by Amber Williams; logo by Luke Turner.
Recorded on RMGI SM911, mixed on SM900.
A PDF booklet with full lyrics and liner notes can be found here:
http://dougtheeagle.com/ias/incubi.pdf
Fun fact: with 'A Fae Story', it was one of the two songs I was reasonably confident at playing live. When I visited my family over Christmas, I took my cheap starter bass with me and played that song in the front room. My first and only gig...
Just picking up the thing now I can still play most of it and should practice more. I have been meaning to do a live recording playing against the multitrack, but I'm still torn if I should do 'A Fae Story' or 'The Murder Game'...