Bandcamp-Release TODAY! 😎

For quite a while now, I wanted to release my new(-ish) songs on Bandcamp, too. Today, I finally managed doing that.

Here’s all of the singles from the album-in-progress, “Sounds Like Home”, that I recorded so far.

For those who aren’t familiar, the concept of the album is that I play things commonly found in households (from washbasins and bathtubs to glass jars and tin cans filled with rice or coffee beans) as instruments—alongside more conventional ones like acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic and electric bass guitars, all kinds of percussion and several of my large collection of instruments from around the globe. Also, I perform all the lead and backing vocals.

In reverse order:

“One-Gether”
https://babumenos.bandcamp.com/track/one-gether

“Your Time Has Come”
https://babumenos.bandcamp.com/track/your-time-has-come

“Babu Menos”
https://babumenos.bandcamp.com/track/babu-menos

“Sometimes”
https://babumenos.bandcamp.com/track/sometimes

“Before Long”
https://babumenos.bandcamp.com/track/before-long

“The Last Strawberry”
https://babumenos.bandcamp.com/track/the-last-strawberry

#Music #NewMusic #ReleaseDay #PopMusic #IndiePop #AltPop #AcousticPop #Acoustic #AcousticGuitar #AcousticBass #Singer #SingerSongwriter #Vocals #MultiInstrumentalist #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

Sometimes I can’t, just can’t boil everything I need to say down to 500 characters. For this reason, I had to publish the new instrument collection series post to my other account again:

https://sunny.garden/@babumenos/110391334291505614

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #Percussion #Tingsha #Manjeera #Taal #Gopichand #Ektara #Guiro #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

№ 17 of my instrument collection series has some small percussion to offer.

Let’s start in the foreground with the hand cymbals. On the left, those are Tibetan tingsha, in the middle, Indian manjeewera (or manjeera), and on the right, those are Indian taal.

Now the two instruments in the background, from right to left: Also from India comes the gopichand, or ektara (literally “one string”) that you can hear in the audio track, and the güiro is one of the essential percussion instruments in Latin American music. I added a public domain sound sample of it from Wikipedia to the audio track.

It’s a very “quick’n’dirty” rough recording, something like this wouldn’t make it into an actual song, but I hope it’ll suffice for this purpose.

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #Percussion #Tingsha #Manjeera #Taal #Gopichand #Ektara #Guiro #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ektara
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tingsha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taal_(instrument)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Güiro

@ijustmightbe

BTW, when I create series like this, I add a unique hashtag to be able to find all of them again, like #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection or #BabuMenosDidYouListen

(Before I started doing that, I was often deperately looking for my posts.)

№ 15 of my instrument collection series features the udu, that vase-like clay instrument that you’ve seen earlier, and the Indian harmonium. You will notice that the sound of the harmonium changes depending on the force and speed applied to the pumping motion.

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #Percussion #Keyboards #Udu #IndianHarmonium #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

№ 14 of my instrument collection series is a best-of-both-worlds example of modern technology meeting ancient ritual. This rainstick was made by US percussion inventor Pete Engelhart who, half a century ago, started hand-welding various noise makers from steel. Agogo bells, crashers (which he invented), steel claves, and many more — including this beauty (that is no longer made).

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #Percussion #RainStick #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

http://www.peteengelhartmetalpercussion.com

№ 13 of my instrument collection series shows two very distinct variants of a mouth harp. In the front centre is a Đàn môi from Vietnam, behind it two kubings from the Philippines. Behind those, there’s a blues harp that is not included in the sound bit (we all know what that sounds like, don’t we?) In the audio track a shaker made from a tin can filled with rice grains is added.

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #Percussion #MouthHarp #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

IndiepopBand has a character limit of 500 that didn’t suffice for my new instrument collection post, so I posted it at sunny.garden: https://sunny.garden/@babumenos/110162839922799455

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #Percussion #Cajon #Cajonito #BongoCajon #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

Quick, quick! Before everybody vanishes into Easter celebrations (“Well not entirely! One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out …”), let me continue my little instrument collection series, today with two modern variants of the traditional cajon (which I will introduce in a later post).

On the right side, that’s a cajonito, closed on all four sides with just a sound hole drilled into the back. You’ll hear three different sound examples — the cajonito is a very versatile instrument with very distinct sounds on each side.

On the left, that’s a bongo cajon. It is open at the bottom and has two different sized areas, both with a spring on the inside, and is played much like a regular bongo, as you will hear in the fourth sound example.

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #Percussion #Cajon #Cajonito #BongoCajon #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajon

Here’s № 11 of my little instrument collection series, this time: two different types of small harps from Africa.

The right one, the a’dungu from Uganda, has an overall length of roughly 80 cm (2′8″). On the left, that’s an Ethiopian krar (ክራር).

You’ll hear the krar first, followed by the a’dungu. And let me apologise: The way I played them, unprepared, unrehearsed, improvising, doesn’t do either of them any justice.

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #Africa #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

@essjaykeys

Aside: I will log off for a short while now; I want to continue my little series of #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection and have to quickly record two harps for that.

BRB!

My first non-pinned post here on indiepop.band is № 10 from the instrument collection series that started over @ sunny.garden.

This is a slideshow video of my classical guitar, equipped with steel strings and Kaki King’s Passerelle, serving as an extra bridge so that the strings can be picked on the right and left side of it simultaneously.

Please note, this is only my first, extremely unprofessional take!

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #Guitar #Passerelle #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

Photo № 9 is a video again: These two are my handpans, or rather, steel tongue drums, pretty small (each ca. 30 cm in diameter) and cheap (together roughly $180), but I much prefer their sound over the larger ones (sometimes called “hang” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_(instrument) or just “handpan” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handpan).

The sound is an excerpt of something I recorded for friends of mine, the handpands originally accompanying vocals, accordion, and guitar. Exactly the opposite as in the photo, the dark-green one can be heard on the left side.

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #MalletInstruments #Handpan #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

Today, with images № 7 and № 8, let me show you another two of my more “ordinary” instruments, if you will.

On the left, that’s a Harley Benton HB-35 Vintage semi-hollow electric guitar which resembles the classic Gibson ES-335 in both looks and sound.

On the right, again from manufacturer Harley Benton, that’s a six-string western guitar, equipped with an internal pickup.

Instruments from Harley Benton are incredibly cheap; the acoustic sells for around $70 now, the electric around $180, and yet the sound is surprisingly good. I’m not sure if I would choose more expensive ones even if I had the money. (Except for other reasons, like if child labour was involved or the company would do an other damage. I have no knowledge of any of that.)

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #StringInstruments #AcousticGuitar #ElectricGuitar #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

Today’s image № 6 is actually not just an image but a video, because only seeing this instrument, the so-called spring drum, probably wouldn’t give you a good enough idea of how it sounds.

As you can see, it’s a rather simple tube with the top end being cut diagonally and covered with a piece of drum head. A long spring coil is attached in the centre of the drum head that, when shaken or hit or even just lightly touched, gives off a resonating, sustaining sound that resembles thunder.

The tube measures roughly 26 centimetres at the longest end and has a diameter of about 9 centimetres; its bottom is open, which allows for various wah-wah-like modulations.

So, click play and enjoy.

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #NoveltyInstruments #SoundEffects #SpringDrum #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

Today’s image № 6 is actually not just an image but a video, because only seeing this instrument, the so-called spring drum, probably wouldn’t give you a good enough idea of how it sounds.

As you can see, it’s a rather simple tube with the top end being cut diagonally and covered with a piece of drum head.

A long spring coil is attached in the centre of the drum head that, when shaken or hit or even just lightly touched, gives off a resonating, sustaining sound that resembles thunder.

The tube measures roughly 26 centimetres at the longest end and has a diameter of about 9 centimetres; its bottom is open, which allows for various wah-wah-like modulations.

So, click play and enjoy.

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #NoveltyInstruments #SoundEffects #SpringDrum #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

Photos № 4 & 5: Those are my two “workhorses”, they are by far the busiest of my collection.

On the left, that’s my classical guitar of the “Ariana” series. Lately I put low-tension steel strings on it which deliver an interesting sound somewhere between Western and Spanish guitar.

On the right, that’s my electric five-string “Squier” Precision bass. Before I got myself an acoustic five-string fretless bass guitar, this was my only source for the lower notes.

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #StringInstruments #AcousticGuitar #ElectricBass #FiveStringBass #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

A series is only a series if it is being continued. So, here’s photo № 3, featuring some of my woodwind instruments. From left to right:

· a Renaissance cornamuse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornamuse),
· a contemporary tenor recorder,
· a B♭ clarinet,
· a Japanese shakuhachi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakuhachi),
· a Renaissance soprano recorder (model name “Praetorius”).

You can hear the cornamuse in my song “The Light”, doubled with a Terje-Rypdal-like electric guitar: https://babumenos.bandcamp.com/track/the-light

I played a few notes on the shakuhachi in the intro of “What Isn’t There”: https://babumenos.bandcamp.com/track/what-isn-t-there

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #WoodwindInstruments #Recorders #Cornamuse #TenorRecorder #Clarinet #Shakuhachi #SopranoRecorder #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection

It’s a rather lazy Sunday, so here comes a second photo already:

This is a bulbul tarang, a traditional instrument from Punjab¹. The seven strings are tuned in unison, sometimes in fifths, and to change the pitch there are typewriter keys mounted.

You can hear its sound in the opening bars of my song “What Isn’t There” (https://babumenos.bandcamp.com/track/what-isn-t-there) on the right side of the mix (to the left, there’s a Thai sueng, ซึง, photo coming soon).

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulbul_tarang

#Music #MusicalInstruments #Acoustic #StringInstruments #BulbulTarang #BabuMenosInstrumentCollection