Fictional Backstory
Due to catastrophic flooding in India, you and some friends travel to a devastated region in the country as part of an international non-governmental aid organization to volunteer your time and skills to rebuild a clinic on higher ground. After your first 12 hour day on site you are exhausted and head back to your hotel for a well needed shower and dinner. When you meet your friends in the restaurant you notice a band is getting ready to play and their stage seems particularly crowded with various percussion instruments. They introduce their first song of the evening . . . Sitarian Spice

Factual Back Story
I was introduced to the sitar by George Harrison’s music and always liked it. And I’ve wanted to experiment with complex African syncopated rhythms. So this is a percussion-centric arrangement and I guess you could call it a fusion of Indian, African and Western music (IAW Fusion ???)

Technicals
BiaB:
CR_ERIC.STY Cr_Eric – Crossover Style, 80 BPM
5 Electric Piano
Nashville Pop Drums
28 Clean Cut Electric Guitar
52 Synth Strings 2

Me:
1. Korg P061 Melodic Toms
2. Korg GM105 Drum Pattern
3. Korg UA047 Skull Mallets (Think Xylophone)
4. Korg GM105 Sitar
5. Fender Bass

Mixed and rendered in Studio One

Thanks for listening and comments, good, bad or neutral always welcome. Percussion-wise, I think this is the most complex arrangement I’ve done. Hopefully I didn’t mess up too badly.

Bass Thumper,

Great job bringing those styles together! You've created an interesting cool sounding tune!

Thanks, Torrey

Bass Thumper,

That was a really interesting listen—not my genre, so tough to comment on this, but it kept my attention, and the mix itself sounds pretty solid. If I had one suggestion, it might be to shorten the intro and get into the heart of the instrumental a bit quicker. Good stuff!

Kindest regards,

Deej

No you didn't mess up to badly.

You did a great job on the rhythm, super cool groove.

You also are coming along very well on the bass.

I do agree with Deej 56 in that the intro is to long.

You have super groove backing tracks going on but IMHO it lacks a lead. I would take your sitar and play a lead over this. Remember this is only my opinion and others may or may not agree.

Super groove and bass.

I agree that the intro is a bit too long, but the rest is really good, I would say your experiment is a success.

The only nit I have is that the percussion instruments could use the stereo field better, there's lot of unused space and panning them would make it easier to follow the individual instruments.

Many thanks Torrey but based on input from others it still needs work.

Thanks for the constructive input Deej.
I'm going to re-mix this and take your advice

Thanks Mario, this arrangement is percussion-centric thus the bass is fairly simple ; root-5th-octave to support the percussion. By "lead" do you mean a melody? If so, that's one of my many weak points. Nonetheless, I plan to shorten the intro and shorten the outro which might leave room for a bridge and re-mix based on comments recieved.

More good criticism, thanks B.D.
So far I've been able to get away with no panning on my arrangements, but now it appears I've reached that limit. So it's off to "school" to learn about panning so that my re-mix can be made that much better.

Thanks again.

The backstory is very good.

We certainly like what you’ve done with the variety of percussion rhythms and styles and your bass performance and the sitar sound.

Very enjoyable groove!

J&B

PS Regarding the length of the intro, etc., like everything it is contextual. For example it would. in our opinion, work fine as is for backing the "right" video or a film placement, etc. All meaning repetition can be effective.

This is good but in need of a lead as others have mentioned. The sitar sounds like a banjo to me, maybe the mod wheel will give it some sitary character. Definitely worth the time to work out a melody for this. Nice work overall.

Hello BT ...

The relatively short length might be perfect for several usages, so I wouldn't worry about that. Five or six years ago I composed five songs that were between 1:30 and 2:00 in length. They were for a specific project and they worked just fine.

Also, yes a lead track would be nice. But, one is not always needed. I've been working on three songs recently that either no lead or a very sporadic lead. They are for musical beds in support of a couple of movie scenes where there will be speaking actors with the musical beds in the background. What the music director said was "Create a mood - not a memorable melody as it would distract from the actors' line."

I'm not a real big fan of the sitar but this performance was quite nice. You did an excellent job and I enjoyed it!

Alan

Your composition is intriguing to my ears. I don't know if you have changed the intro yet, but I don't have a problem with it; however, adding another percussion instrument/rhythm as the intro progresses might be helpful.

love the 'sound picture' of the intro.
very inventive. agree maybe a bit tooo long.
once again nice bass.

i think i hear a midi instrument on one side of the image. and i feel its appropo to the song.
i do the same often if it fits a song.
but you might experiment with different vsti's.

i once lived in africa , and the song kinda made me feel i was on 'safari' as a kid. brought back v nice memories
of my formative young years.

very catchy nice inventive effort.

om

Excellent intro. I love these different textures and colors you incorporate into your songs. Robert and I have been using the sitar in some of our songs as well. I too was a big fan of George Harrison. Well done..

Mickey Hart got carried away with African rhythms too. This is so cool, Steve. I love that as a bass player you don't try to steal the show and make it all about the bass. Love the syncopation in this. I've participated in a bunch of drum circles and can easily understand how we can play into a timeless trance. Very creative fictional backstory.

Interesting song. No opinions about what it should have been - enjoyed the listen for what it was.