Barking Spiders

Weren't keyboards used to play the bass lines on the Seinfeld theme and Thomas Dolby's Hyperactive?

Being more than partial to Afrobeat, Makossa and playing the djembe this has led me to recently finding out about lots of top players from various genres who come from West Africa e.g. Richard Bona, Armand Sabal Lecco, Noel Ekwabi, Etienne M'bappe. Cameroon is where its' at. Check out some Makossa stuff.

I really liked Police stuff up to Synchronicity but, as with so many UK bands who start to crack the US, they morphed into stadium-rock. Out when the reggae touches an the spare production and then it all got a bit over produced. I don't get the anti-Sting stuff at all. So he's pro-environment. When's that ever been a crime, other than in Trumpworld?

Is Julian Crampton on the bass?

Also have to add the trio of tracks off Sulk by The Associates with Michael Dempsey on top of his game -Club Country Party Fears 2, Skipping. And from the great No Rest For The Wicked by New Model Army - Stuart Morrow's playing is similarly upfront and busy. Honestly any bass player worth his salt needs to hear this album esp the tracks Frightened, Ambition, My Country and No Rest. Pick style doesn't get any better

..and you were blessed with one specific musical talent , knowing what you know now would you have playing the bass as your thing? Mebbe you'd have rather been a great songwriter or melodica virtuoso. I wish I'd been given superb set of pipes with a 6 octave range plus the frontman charisma of a Freddie Mercury or Dave Lee Roth.

A coupla tracks by Shriekback - All Lined Up and My Spine Is The Bassline - when the elastic crunching bass lines first come in.
I Get High On You by Sly Stone -the dominant bassline that drives the whole tune
The Rats Rally segment from Down In The Sewer by The Stranglers, the galloping bass

I've had GAS for a long time but I tend to go for long periods without it raising it's ugly head and then blam! I just have to remind myself I'm not making a living from playing music and the GAS passes over...till the next time

On balance it seems there's not much love for BGM on BC. Have to admit I don't bother with the stuff at the front with bassists from prog metal bands I've never hear of nor the tutorials at the back. Just the main interviews and kit reviews. They sure do need to bring back the section on classic bass albums but expand it to cover less heralded albums with great bass. Maybe also a series on Unsung Heroes.

I only ever liked gigging with dance oriented bands at outdoor festivals, preferably daytime/evening slots. Hated the whole dingy pub/club thing. Likewise I now only ever go to see bands at festivals, particularly after a couple of trips to the dive that is the 02 in Oxford.

I get the bass porn angle but it gets frustrating as I know I'm not likely to own anything costing £1.5k plus. It's not the money per se, as I could go out and buy a Stingray today, but I cant justify it to myself I'm a hobbyist and there are too many other things competing for my hard earned.

I pretty much get lost in the zone when I get close to sussing a fave bassline that I lose track of time. Mind you I feel the same when drumming or playing my acoustic guitar. Total therapy for when I'm a bit stressed.

I agree with ead about the bass reviews. These are largely geared towards kit costing £1,500 plus. If BGM is meant to be targeted at the ordinary bloke/ette in the street it'd be more useful to have more reviews of sub £500 basses. I buy it for a read on the train/plane and on balance it's a decent mag IMO, except when there's any mention of Gene Simmons.

I usually buy BGM depending who's on the cover. If I see e.g. Mark King, Bernard Edwards, Andy Rourke - as in recent issues - I'll shell out the four quid plus without even a quick thumb through. If it's Gene Simmons or Nikki Sixx I might get a copy of Razzle or Simply Knitting instead. I've only been getting BGM over the last coupla years and there a few players I think deserve a main feature. Top noms for me - Rocco Prestia, Louis Johnson and Nate Watts fr'instance, unless they've been in earlier issues. I know LJ's no longer with us but then again 'Nard's been on the cover this year.

S'ok, I've survived nearly 30 years of bass life without ever even touching a P-bass and I'm still intact

I'm not a huge rock fan but I dunno why the Later producers seem to go out of their way to avoid having metal and hard rock bands on. In recent series Mastodon and Royal Blood managed to sneak in. Mind you they don't seem much to keen on electronica either. with one act every few series. As for Glasvegas, well they're gash anyway

One of the reasons I lost interest in playing in bands was that with compromise everything got watered down and no one ended up playing much of what they really liked. As I recall I don't think I ever lasted more than dozen gigs in any band before I quit. That's why I went down the samba band route instead. With a good size pool of players if you don't feel like gigging for a bit there's always someone else to take your place.

No Skybone, you're not alone. I don't know how JH can get so excited about the endless roster of identikit, dull as ditchwater indie bands and earnest singer-songwriterly types. About 20 series ago Later was interesting when it was more about bands like Tinariwen. There hasn't been owt like that for yonks.

You say that TimR, Blue but if you don't like or are indifferent about the music you're playing how can you infuse it with that most important of elements, feel!. I've been in this situation enough times and never stayed long. I'd rather be gigless than play stuff I don't like.

I agree that there are certain aspects of theory we should all know e.g. chord structures & inversions, scales and keys. With just those plus a good ear, solid technique and an innate sense of rhythm and good taste you can do just fine.

This bloke's old band were part of the first wave of the New Beige genre which includes brain numbing gash like Snow Patrol, Coldplay etc with current luminaries including Ed Sheeran and umpteen other dull, acoustic toting singer-songwriters. I don't remember mainstream / chart music being ever as tepid and vanilla as it has been over the last half dozen years.

Traditional Synthesizer Music -Venetian Snares
No Hassle - Tosca
Momentum - Monolake

Other than the odd bit of dep work in a function band I haven't played bass in a proper gigging band for about 10 years though I really used to enjoy it. My main outlet for performing is playing caixa and repinique in samba groups. Main problem is these days I only enjoy listening to drum n bass, trip hop, world fusion, glitch, downtempo, progressive house etc and I can't find anyone who wants to play this sorta stuff.

I only play stuff I like and so in terms of progression I'm limited by this and get a bit frustrated. I know I've a chance of improving if I listened to and studied jazz/fusion players like Wootten, Bailey, Berlin, Patitucci etc - which would involve more advanced theory - but just don't like this type of music. If I learnt their styles of chops and tried to fit them in with what I like to play it'd sound well out of place.

After skimming through a thread on creating basslines I'm left wondering about how much theory you really bother with if you're not playing jazz. As with guitar I know all the notes on the fretboard, can run through scales and can play most chords but there my knowledge about theory stops. When covering tunes I just listen, copy and sometimes adapt. End of. I'm not interested in improv when playing live largely cos it seems to bore the tits off most punters. Anyone else keen on learning theory or are you just happy knowing how to play setlists?