lurksalot

Very much my area of expertise this! 😂

You know when you think you’ve nailed the brief , and then , you think , bring it on, and well, yeah everyone brings it on , yeah , WOW , yeah , that !

......aaand off we go

As if by magic we have arrived at the end of the last true composition challenge of the year and we now need to sort the pecking order. The entries were all based on the picture chosen by Octobers winner , @upside downer Your choices are as follows in order of presentation , please vote for 3 of them 1 @xgsjx Well this pic for some reason really struck me. I decided to write about how much my wife means to me. There's personal stuff in here that I'm not willing to go into, but I think I've said it how I want to. 2 lurksalot what with COP26 going on and still being in a T-shirt, I thought a folky appreciation of the cycles of the seasons was in order , but this happened instead 3 @Dad3353 A celestial sculpteur, modelling a new vision for the night sky, after a fashion. Giving a fresh shine on an old, friendly face; somewhat daft, maybe, but with Good Intentions... 4 @Leonard Smalls This month we have a celebration of the Full Moon, in all its forms 😁 5 @fingers211 I heard a play on the radio a few days after the picture was posted. The play told a story of a clever young woman who manipulated two men, so much so that they ended up in a very bad state. Not with her body but purely with mind games, t'was very clever. So that was the premise. 6 @NickD Based on the picture, I had the idea of a shift tasked with resetting the universe after the day is done, and from here I got the notion that there are folks that do that in a practical, non-celestial way... The truck drivers, shelf stackers, train engineers, office cleaners, etc... so this is for them. 7 @Nail Soup Initially tried to do some thing free-form and moony sounding, but scrapped it and wrote something song-based on the acoustic with moon based lyrics. But even that ended up sounding completely different when transferred to electric guitar etc. 8 @Nicko We've all been there. A night out, moon shining, date looking great, and you spoil the romance by doing exactly the wrong thing. I don't know how you'd describe the genre - maybe indie pop. Unusually for me this is a proper song, with a verse, chorus and middle eight, although it's pretty simple musically. 9 @upside downer Here's my entry for November. It's a slow, mellowish instrumental with lots of chiming guitar to try and get that twinkly, night sky, relaxing feeling while everyone else is doing the heavy lifting to put things in order. 10 @Doctor J I kept looking at the picture... van... moon... van ... moon... and then it came to me... Mooned Ants! The next level of pest control using lunar gravity to discombobulate pesky ant infestations. Call Morrisson's today! 11 @skankdelvar Levon Helm and Garth Hudson are living in my head well that's it folks, another fine selection for your listening pleasure ... But please make your choices based on your favourite 3 Voting ends at midnight 30th November Good luck all

Sounds tough that one , maybe put a post with the title in here , and someone might have a workaround ? I know I had issues but paid a small sub to avast and it cleaned up a shed load of stuff, that really has breathed new life into my recording headroom !

I keep trying to add stuff , but now decided no, no I won't what with COP26 going on and still being in a T-shirt, I thought a folky appreciation of the cycles of the seasons was in order , but this happened instead

Much as I suspected ... the thing has not turned out as intended , I’m not at all displeased , but I often start with an idea , get the guitar/piano out and start noodling with the theme in mind and it takes over and turns into something different. I suppose it’s a bit different to normal writing, in that I might think the subject suits a particular genre so try and head that way, rather than write a tune to a familiar style , then it all falls back into a comfort genre 😂 And once I’ve started on a direction , even if it’s the unintended one , I tend to follow it through 🤦‍♂️ Ah well , I have a decision on how many verses to torture you all with , and a few tweaks to do, but I’ve gone a bit minimal on this one. 🤔

I have a couple of ideas , but not sure what style/genre would suit it. having said that , whatever style/genre I start with rarely runs to the ‘finished’ article 🤦‍♂️

And when you do sing , don’t be afraid of letting us hear it, if you have taken the effort to write some words and bare your soul singing them , we may as well hear them, don’t bury them in the mix 😁 we are all getting better at that ....a bit 😉

November is go

Approaching the end of the year now and @upside downer rolls out a doosey to close out October. By way of reward he gets to choose, and bright as a button, he has proposed the following for your inspiration, with the bonus of a bit of background should you take an interest in such stuff https://www.diyphotography.net/conceptual-photographer-takes-us-behind-scenes-moons-ever-changing-cycle/ Usual rules apply. You know the drill: ✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and written/recorded this month. ❌ No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on ❌ Bagpipes. please no bagpipes, the Halloween truce now Expired. panpipes only if you have too. ❌ No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you. A line or two offering an insight to your inspiration will be good as well , it works nicely on the voting thread. Deadline wise , we will go for midnight on 'Fibonacci day ' 👍, and again you probably have till about 19.00 on the 24th, ( the clue given here is that 'Fibonacci day' is the 23rd). Have a good one

Well done @upside downer great stuff , I really enjoyed that one , if you send me a picture over I will set up November’s Challenge 👍

Wish you were here 😁

Do it quick before everyone votes for someone else 😜

Defo ‘cleaner’ but bring those vocals up , or EQ them so they cut through a bit more . that’s a general thing though , I think we are all too shy with our lyrics , let’s hear them 👍 but it’s still a doozy of a toon 😎

Bravo sir, bravo!

brilliant !

voting is up Apologies to anyone hanging till to this evening , but I've just realised that I am taking Mrs Lurks away for a couple of days. This means i wont have my computer access and I cant do this on my phone.

WOW ... The pumpkin trails are set out and with an increasing number of houses being decorated with spiders webs and skellingtons , it can only mean one thing ... we are approaching the end of October and that in turn brings the obvious conclusion that ....... its the October Composition Challenge voting thread The compositions are based on this picture , chosen by last months winner @Doctor J and they are really worth a listen over the week Choose your favourite 3 tracks The Basschat force was strong with this picture as you will hear in due course .......... 1 @Dad3353 Taking stock, reflection, inspired by the (apparently...) more simple life led by (apparently...) more serene sentient creatures. Are they telling us something..? Can sentiments be transmitted..? Yes, they can (apparently...). 2 @NickD Finally some time! Crap weather and no diesel cut me a little slack this month. 3 @Doctor J This looks like the sub-aquatic future which seemingly awaits us on our unstoppable journey into oblivion. Do electric trains run underwater? 4 @Nail Soup The pic got me thinking about swimming with dolphins and generally drifting around, which gave me the feel for the song. I was recently loaned a beautiful mid-70’s Gibson Thunderbird acoustic guitar by my aunt, which belonged to my late uncle who passed last year. She wants it to be played. So it’s included here and contributed to the feel. 5 @Leonard Smalls I fancied a bit of Dub, so here it is! Sounds best on big speakers with serious bass handling... 6 Lurksalot I saw this a journey which obviously has choices of destination and timing to a degree , you can go when and where you want to. A fairly simple thought on journeys in general. 7 @upside downer Hello, I'm Johnny Trash. The image brought to mind the rising sea levels and the consequences of climate change. However, I'm a glass half full kind of guy and that struck me as far too morose so instead I went with a country tinged toe-tapper about a train trip gone awry and the narrator more worried about his lack of Adam Peatyesque prowess and getting to his journey's end. Where was he hoping to get to, though? 8 @skankdelvar A dab behind the ears with some eau de Canvey. Well that's it , nothing too scary, but the voting will close at midnight on Halloween so choose your favourite 3 tracks good luck to all , and well done , they are a great listen .

What a fantastic set so far , well played , very well played !

Oh sweeeeeet , could not stop moving to that!

this fits brilliantly , excellent

hats off to that dude

and used very well , excellent

Thats Lovely Douglas