Well, I’ve managed to start writing a second blog for this year (this is it!), so things are looking up!! I feel compelled to write it, due to my 10th solo album coming out next month (Oct. 13th 2022), & thought it was a good way of letting you know, whoever you are, what was on it.
‘ORDER CHAOS‘ is a very diverse album of (14) tracks, because in amongst it, it contains a couple of songs I wrote back in the late 1970’s, which are very ‘Pop-orientated’, & a tune written in 2008 (a bit more frantic). The other eleven tracks were conceived/put together between last year & this – one of them is an anthemic Pop song. The label, ‘Alternative’, has been used to describe ORDER CHAOS, since the underlying feel is much more energetic, with short spikey numbers (shortest song is 1′ 43″). Anyway, let’s not get bogged down with details…
When uploading all the info to my Bandcamp page for the digital version (https://grahambeck.bandcamp.com/album/order-chaos), I was struggling a bit to describe it as a whole. Certainly not a concept album (!). More a diverse collection of musical styles. In the end I wrote: ‘…songs that straddle Alternative & Post Punk Post New Wave Post Pandemic Posturing…& a Jazzy-Electronic Doodle’. That seemed to sum it up, even though I had no idea what it meant. I suppose what links them all is me = a voice & a piano (plus all the other keyboards, gadgets, guitar, bass guitar & drum machines), & a sense of humour, thankfully intact after the past couple of lockdown years.
As you can see, the lengths of the songs are much more the traditional 45rpm single length (apart from Princess Of The Sea, Arthur Brown & House Of Wax – where they’re telling stories – & don’t work when edited down). The track, Repeat, is the ‘Electronic Jazzy Doodle’.
Why ORDER CHAOS, I hear you ask? Well, looking at the front cover gives you a clue. It was very much a tongue-in-cheek moment, as some people get very agitated with mix-&-match cups & saucers (I blame the ‘shabby chic’ crowd for this). We all want some order in our lives, but chaos can come along to shake it up a bit. It’s all very healthy. Anyway, I’m quite proud of this effort of an album. I hummed & hawed over the finished mixes for several weeks, but I like to think I got there, although there’s always a case in point where a futher mix would ‘improve’ them even more. But, where do you stop?…
THOUGHTS ON WRITING A BOOK
Yes, I know it’s a bit of a shock, but the idea of putting a book together has been on my mind for quite some time. You’re probably thinking that if I only manage two, maybe three, blogs a year, there isn’t much hope for it ever seeint the light of day. Well surprisingly, I’ve been making notes on it for years. Having always kept a diary has helped. There are short stories, poems, song lyrics of course, numerous thoughts on bits of paper, drawings, paintings & old photos. It’ll be based around my (very up-&-down) ‘musical career’, the teaching years & having been brought up in a seaside town in the 1950’s – oh, I do miss the beach & sea! There is one question though…Who on earth would want to read it? I’m hardly well-known, if at all, but it’s something I want to do, so I might as well go for it.
Back in 2002, I was interviewed by the late great Philip Wincolmlee Barnes for his independent magazine, ‘ILLEGAL MEDIA‘. He asked for a title of his quite extensive piece about me, & I came up with, ‘The Meanderings Of A Would Be Pop Star‘, which he really liked & used. The original title for my book was going to be, ‘A Book About Something, Everything & Nothing‘. That will become the sub-title, as it promises everything, something & nothing (but not necessarily in that order), & I wasn’t sure if the ‘everything’ bit would live up to it – being everything, that is. Therefore, be prepared for ‘The Meanderings…‘ in the not-too-distant future. I think it will end up like my new album, very varied, showing the different sides of me, & being held together by a rather tenuous thread. I hope that’s not going to be the review of it…