Average Jho's garage.

Compo 3!

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:21:00 +0000

Wow it has been some time...
I wasn't off the guitar really, but I just went through a phase in which I just couldn't be asked to turn on the recorder and actually build anything. Just jamming to myself.

This is an attempt to jump back on the saddle.
I just took the 1st riff that came through my mind and built around it and I wanted to finish it quick. So maybe even less polish than previously.
It's far from perfect as usual, feels pieced together because it has been, but I think I've done worse.
After my final take for the solo, I realised my 1st and 2nd strings were quite badly out of tune (that was my 1st take for that session...), but I thought it was actually one of my best takes, so I just couldn't find the energy to redo it. Considering, it turned out OK... (^_^;

Compo 3

La rose, la bouteille & la poignee de main (temp)

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:31:00 +0000

I released this sometime ago as a temp track (it still is one actually) but I've been "off the record" for a while, so I thought I'd just tidy this up, until I finally gather the courage to finish it.

So it's a cover of a song by Georges Brassens, not one of his most famous, but it had something I thought I could change. The opening lick does sound like a riff so I tried to capitalise on that and try to apply this kind of RATM feel I have taken as a main influence.

As usual, it's not perfect and it's obviously missing a lead guitar track. But as it's stand, raw, I thought it still holds its ground as one of my best attempts. It's without a doubt the farthest I've gone in terms of changing the original song. It was easy though as in this case the original is entirely accoustic...
Anyway what's left to do is to find a cool leading part (I would aim at something quite light as the rythm part is very ...) and a cool solo at the end.

In the meantime, here it is:

La rose, la bouteille et la poignee de main

Compo 2 reloaded.

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:06:00 +0000

I gave some much needed TLC to my 2nd composition.
I owed it at least that...

Still far from perfect but at least the solo is fairly clean...

Compo 02a.

Compo 02

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:51:00 +0000

My 2nd "full length" composition...
I wanted to release it before Christmas, so I had to rush it a bit in the end. As a result and even by my standards, I feel it's not as polished as it should.

I guess the main problem is that the main riff is slides only and I have old strings. I might change them in the new year and see how it goes...

Anyway I wanted to do something a bit smoother than my previous one, a bit more flowing. And at some point I thought it would be good to do a solo on a sort of bridge, something completely different from the main verse/chorus. So I came up with the sort of reggae middle bit. I'm not quite sure how it fits with the rest but I liked it, so I thought I might as well try.

So there you go.

Compo 02.

Concept 13.

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:52:00 +0000

I'm still around...
As usual when autumn comes, I get a bit lazy. A sort of "why do I bother?" thing. It always passes. Also I'm trying to work on personnal stuff now, so I get to practice a bit more without recording.

And then when I tried to get back to work my bass inflicted a nasty blister on my index finger... Poor me... ;)

Anyway that made me listen to old shit I had recorded and surprisingly 1 thing I recorded around november caught my ear. Well nothing special really, just a bloated piece of solo looking for that 5s moment of grace that never really comes...

But I'm quite happy with the base riff and I tried to be a bit faster that before and the atmosphere is not too bad... All that for an impro... :)

Concept 13

La Maison.

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:52:00 +0000

Another song by Miossec.

This one is quite special for me because as far as love songs are involved (as in "songs about love"), this one is pretty muh the "ultimate" one. It says it all.
Love is a battle.

On a technical side, it got me to use more tracks than usual. Not really complicated (I managed to finish it in a week), but it's a nice combination of simple things.
I especially like the bass line. Simple yet great.

La Maison (Miossec)

No no no.

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:26:00 +0000

Just a quickie before the summer holidays...

Another from Noir Desir, I especially like their live version on their album Dies Irae. I wanted to try and reproduce this sort of raw rock (and it gives me an excuse for not polishing it). I had fun. And I got a blister on my middle finger now... (^_^;

No no no (Noir Desir)

1st original "song"!!!

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:48:00 +0000

This happened completely by chance...

I was actually trying to put together another cover, but I thought I could try to adapt it a bit more than usual. So I started searching for some riffs, found a few that seemed to chain well, worked a bit more, then took a step back and thought "this doesn;t fit with the song at all!!". But I was still quite pleased with it so I took it all the way...

No lyrics, I would need an Average Zack I guesss... Anyone? :)

Compo 01!!!

My Lovely Man.

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:37:00 +0000

I've worked on this for longer than I've ever done on any other song...
But I had a ball...
It's still a bit of work in progress, it would deserve a bit of polish but I was so excited to get to something close to average, I couldn't resist...

My Lovely Man (the Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Concept 12

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:34:00 +0000

I tend to have troubles when it comes to recording ideas, because I will jam along some stuff and do those things I find quite cool, definitely worth recording, but as soon I hit the record button, it's all gone. I think I'm not alone in that case though.

Here I got that idea and I managed not to let it rot, that is I hit the button straightaway. And I'm quite happy of how it turned out, it's the first time I come up with something that I think could be refined to give something a bit more elaborate than my usual...
Worth recording!

Concept 12

Sad Sad Kiddie (bis)

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:46:00 +0000

I don't know what happened to me today I actually sang the song, so there you go...

Sad sad kiddy

Sad Sad Kiddie

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:24:00 +0000

It has been hard to get round to do something constructive lately...

But I finally managed to find the courage to build a drum part again!
I'm carrying on covering the Pillows because they got great rocking songs.
Once more I did my thing and realised when it was time to sing that I couldn't... So karaoke version it is then...
If anyone is kind enough to do it for me...

Sad sad kiddie (karaoke)

Concept 11

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 22:22:00 +0000

I promise that one day I will try to make chords progressions based on more than 4 chords... (^_^;
Anyway this one felt a bit different than the others. Now I listen to it again, it reminds me of something from Noir Desir, but I can't really put my finger on it. Weird.
Anyway.
I tried to do a more elaborate ending this time. By that I mean that I took over from my usual loop to do something different.
Taking into account that I did whatever came to mind at the time, I didn't do too bad...

Concept 11

Actual music...

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:20:00 +0000

From Andy McKee again...

Concept 10

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:21:00 +0000

Another riff I wanted to keep track of...

I started jamming along this one and I was actually doing things I was quite happy with, so I thought "let's record this, it would be a shame not to keep it". So I hit the record button and found myself incapable of reproducing what I had done. Often happens. I might have written it before. Anyway it took me a while before finally letting go and recording something I was a bit happy with.

A bit of the same old, but it keeps the finger working...

Concept 10

Concept 9

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:59:00 +0000

It had been some time since I came up with something that I wanted to develop...
So there it is, the result of an hour of trying this & that.
There's a gaping midsection where I obviously wasn't sure of what to play but also a few things I want to remember for later...
Worth a post, then.

Concept 9

Not from me...

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:30:00 +0000

The theremin is a very interesting instrument...

Some more fooling around...

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:11:00 +0000

2 other examples of a riff looped and whatever comes to mind on the moment.
Live takes.

It's strange because I listened to them yesterday while I had recorded them last week or so, I therefore couldn't remember what I had done and was expecting a lot of rubbish but I was therefore surprised that it's "listenable".

Far from perfect but overall not too bad.

I wasn't very inspired in terms of solo for the 1st one, but it's energetic.
Concept 7

The 2nd one is heavier. Full of noises.
Concept 8

Just goofing around...

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:08:00 +0000

I made this:
Example.

Quite easy to do really.
Get a sampler, have it to run and then pinch harmonics as you see fit, adding one each time.
It gives a strange random music.
No rocket science, certainly vain, but I like it... :)

Harmonics 1

Harmonics 2

I guess I could sell this as some healing new age shit...
I can just guaranty there are no secret messages hidden in there! ;)

Gilles.

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:20:00 +0000

Here's a quickie.

I just wanted to record something else fast.
This is my 3rd cover from Miossec, a song I've been playing for years.

I liked the fact that it's a build up.
It kind of works.
I didn't polish the voice at all, it even saturates at the beginning, but I couldn't be asked to do it again... ;)

Gilles (Miossec)

L'Imposture.

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:33:00 +0000

Wow nearly 4 months since I last recorded something!
I was just happy practising unplugged to be honest.

Anyway I listened to a records I hadn't put in my player for ages. That was a Louise Attaque record. It's a French rock/folk group that has very energetic songs and that gave me ideas to record again.
Also, it was a challenge because their lead instrument is a violin, so I had to replace/emulate it with my guitar.

Overall, I think that's one of my better songs...
I'm quite happy with the sounds I made, I managed to put in a broad range of stuff (tremolo, delay, wah) and to put the icing on the cake, each take I made is a live one!
I didn't correct anything afterwards, this is the raw stuff, so a few mistakes here and there but nothing too major...

L'Imposture (Louise Attaque)

Concept 06

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:44:00 +0000

Last of this series, I tried to incorporate some spacy effects here...

Concept 6

Concept 05

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:44:00 +0000

I got busy this week end!

A classic blues here, with the usual pentatonics...
I tried some Whammy effects at the end, I'm quite pleased with the effect.

Concept 5

Concept 04

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:42:00 +0000

Same drill.

Concept 4

Concept 03

noreply@blogger.com (JhOjo) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:51:00 +0000

Same drill as before.
1 live take.

Concept 3