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| This song made it to number #1 in the UK Jazz Fusion chart in January 2002. Listener comment (extract from GodsOfMusic review) "... a departure from the rock side is the cool breeze jazz of Taxi Dance Revisited. With its George Benson / Larry Carlton influences shining through loud, proud and strong, Jack shows us that he really has sat and learned how to play his music, with articulation and skill ..." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a brand new song, written from scratch and recorded around the same time as "Stella Blues". This piece started out as a few chords, but in particular, the bass line. This evolved into the addition of a few more chords and then the addition of the e-bow stuff.
(If you think about it, I must have done the bass line first and that's one of the things that was so cool about this track - the way it all came together from nothing.)
The lead guitar is kind of jamming, but in a highly structured way and it took me a LOT of takes for me to get comfortable with this one. Hope you like it!! |
MP3.com CD: What about submarines -  buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #1 in the UK Ambient charts in January 2002. Listener comment: "just listening to 'Au Revoir' again and again. It's a good track, a real grower. (It's stopping me writing my own stuff - which may be no bad thing!) Good luck with it. I can see it as the end song on a tv/film as much as anything. Where did you get the singer? - most excellent!" Listener comment: "I was surfing around on mp3.com, looking for a bit of cool music, and I found your stuff - rather nice stuff! :-) Hey, nice work on 'Au Revoir'! I like the sounds. You get better from track to track." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This song was the last track I'd recorded before putting together the "What about submarines" CD, and therefore the "latest".
As is usual for yours truly, I started with the rhythm track and then ... after about three weeks ... I accidently stumbled on the brilliant female vocal sample you hear - which just seemed to "fit" - as if by magic. I've sadly no idea who she is - I call her "Ethel Soundfont", but whoever she is, she's absolutely excellent! Hope you like it!!
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #2 in the UK Electric Blues chart in January 2002. Sophisticated and introspective, gentle and melodic, bluesy and jazzy electric guitar.
Listener Comment for Hyanis Rain: "Definitely a bluesy, dock-of-the-bay sort of mellow jazz cut that works as well over cocktails as it does the Sunday
papers, and evokes a very easy mood that just melts the day into evening." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was out in Hyannis Port (Cape Cod, USA) - a few years ago and caught the tail-end of Hurricane Andrew. They call Manchester "the rainy city" (like Seattle) but I'd never seen rain fall sideways before! Awesome!
I'd made a demo of this song on my old 4 track recorder and it was "fine" - apart from the tape hiss - which was so bad, it sounded like rain! So that's where the title came from and why it starts with a rainfall sound FX.
Composition-wise, this evolved as just a few chords on an accoustic guitar (wish I had a quarter pounder for every time I'd heard that old chestnut) and while we were in Hyanis, I was jamming with my friends Tom Rutt and Dave Curtis.
I'd previously only done this tune as a folky, fingerstyle (picking) piece, but it did sound nice when we played it with bass and drums. But at that stage, I hadn't written the middle eight, which changes the key and hadn't worked out what to play , lead guitar wise.
This track took me a very long time - just to record, let alone write. As in the track "Findaway", I tried to get a real live guitar take - not as easy as you might imagine. There are times to play the theme, and there are times to improvise and there are times not to play at all. It took a lot to pull that off, because it's not just jammin' - believe me!! Hope you like it anyway!!
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #3 in the UK Ambient charts in January 2002. Electronic instrumemtal and rhythmic with funky clavinet ... no, not "clarinet" ... clavinet! Listener David Niven says ... "The unofficial theme song of Around The World In 80 Days." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ... hmmmm ... the clavinet - that's where this one started. I'd quite recently done a remix of Badly Drawn Boy's track "Disillution" (he lives round the corner from me) and that ended up featuring a really hot clavinet part which worked like a charm, and I wanted to do something "similar", clavinet-wise.
The clavinet on this sadly isn't a real one - nothing sounds like a Hohner D6, but I do think it creates the illusion of a real one, if you'll pardon the pun :) Oh, the other thing is the melody. Nobody has ever accused me of "too many notes"!!! Hope you like it!!
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #1 in the UK Classic Rock chart in January 2002. Listener comment: "Think Joe Walsh, Spirit, Stones. Nice driving slide guitar work by Jack Hassall on this instrumental piece." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Listener comment: (extract from GodsOfMusic review) ... Stella Blues in particular was one I found very pleasing. Jack Hassall has some really nice chops. Playing for over thirty years will do that for a guy, I suppose.
In this case, Jack draws heavily from the rock and blues roots he was into during the late, late 60's. That he is from England tends to show in his nods to the Thin Lizzy type of guitar riffs, while a touch of Electric Light Orchestra just graces the idea behind the arrangement and slide guitar work. Add in a tad of the kind of production you might hear from Lindsay Buckingham and you have got a pleasant little piece of music ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jack says .. this song was written in the early 80's and was hurled down on to my 4 track cassette portastudio. It then lived in a cardboard box until just before Christmas 2000. I'd always liked this tune and once again took the opportunity to see what it might turn out like recorded on the new 16 track. The result is what you hear.
This song also took around a month to record - just to get the crash cymbals to sound convincing probably took me a couple of days. I was going to play some blues harmonica on this and include a big-time slide guitar solo in the middle eight but I decided not to.
Because I'm a player - not a singer - I'm hoping that what I'm trying to do is to be abstract - not having these things leaves lots room for other things to happen, such as moving images or dialogue, for example. Hope you like it anyway!!
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #2 in the UK Experimental charts in January 2002. Listener comment: "I've got several mp3.com stations...with various genres of music featured.
My 'main' stations are ones that will feature music of all styles...but only
the best to my ears. Then I have other specialized stations.
I added your tune to my station devoted to Electronia, Trance, Experimental, Eurobeat music. I actually found your tune by looking for songs for my 'Elvis' station. That's why I landed on 'Blue Suede Shoes'. But after listening, I realized the the 'Elvis' station was not the place for your music. MP3.com has a nice search tool, where you can search for particular song titles, artist name, or geographical area. I use all criteria in searching for the best music to add to my stations.
I listen to hundred of tunes, but only what I think are the cream of the crop ever get listed on my stations. A tune has to immediately catch my ear, and keep me interested. Otherwise, it is just boring and run-of-the-mill." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As is usual for yours truly, the music came before the title and the title came from the results of a microphone test -hence, "experimental" - it really was!!
Instead of saying "testing, testing, 1, 2, 3" into the mic (like you do) ... for some reason the words "one for the money" came out ... "two for the show" ... and I just kept going, right up to "go cat go!".
It's all very quiet in this mix but I may even end up doing an extended remix in the future that brings these utterances right out. Anyway, that's where the title comes from!!! If you're a fan of the King (and I am) and were expecting a cover version of Elvis' song - I'm truly sorry!! I hope you like this funky tune!!! |
MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #1 in the UK Electric Blues charts in January 2002. Instrumental and boogie-woogie-ish - just a bit of serious fun! Listener comment: "Just took a pick and landed on 'boogie song'. Funny tune, and a bit catchy too. Nice work! I see you have many genres here. Playing different genres makes you a true listener (and you don`t get stuck!). Keep up the good work!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This tune started out as just a few chords on accoustic guitar (where've we heard that one before?). I hadn't recorded this idea at all - so when the opportunity arose, I did - just to see if the idea might be any good. I do tend to go about things like that and try out lots of things, and lots and lots of things get rejected - but not this one.
As with all the tracks on the "What about submarines" CD, nothing would have been easier for yours truly than to just start (guitar)soloing - all over the place - but I haven't. In my more confident moments, I like to think of this as "restraint" and "economy". Whatever ... hope you like it!!
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #2 in the UK Industrial Electronic chart in January 2002. Electronic, tribal drums, electro-bass and lots of space. Listener comment: "I've just listened to 'Fanfare'. Excellent track. I really liked the drum beat - you should work on an extended club version, it's got an excellent feel to it." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All of the tracks currently featured on my MP3.com website are from the "What about submarines" CD, and were recorded in Manchester, UK - between October 2000 and August 2001. This creative endeavour has literally been a full time job as I hope you can imagine (after a few listens perhaps).
Anyway, as this tune started to evolve (all by itself), it became apparent that the overall vibe was suggesting some sort of "announcement" - or some sort of "opening" of one sort or another.
Eventually, by continuing to follow this train of thought, the word "Fanfare" eventually came to mind. This in turn led to the addition of the brass section samples with much beloved hindsight.
This "theme" would probably be cool at something like an opening ceremony of some sort or another - it's supposed to be very drum & bass, tribal ... marching ... lots of people ... fireworks ... Fanfare is only 2:40 seconds in length (a fanfare isn't usually lengthy if you think about it) ... and it's been suggested that an extended remix would perhaps be a good idea. Whatever it is ... this is it, and I hope you like it!! Fanfare.
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #1 in the UK Blues Rock chart in January 2002. Listener comment: "a nice groove that keeps you tapping. This has a nice rainy day feel. Jack Hassall shows that he has a great ear for unique melodies." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I actually wrote this song in the late 80's (probably '86) and decided it would not be a bad thing to do a yet another new improved version, to see what it would turn out like - and this is the result.
The "backing track" i.e. everything apart from the lead guitar, took around a month to do, while the lead guitar part took around 10-15 minutes to get a good live take with no drop-ins. It made me wonder whether I'd have been better buying a karaoke machine and just jam along with that on my guitar ... I kid you not!!!, but somehow, I don't think it would be the quite same ;-)
PS: I had originally thought that the "listener comment" was saying "Hassall shows that he has Van Gough's ear for music" (tee-hee!!). The bass will wobble your room! Hope you like it!!
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #2 in the UK Jazz Fusion chart in January 2002. I'm flattered
that this tune ended up high in the UK "Jazz Fusion" chart. The standard of musicanship in this genre is absolutely awesome and I'm flattered to be included among such creative and talented people.
... here's yet another one from the so-called vaults - probably written around 1985-86 (I can't remember!) ... on one of those home keyboards - you know - you press the demo key or something and it starts playing a waltz!
I got it set up so that I had the bass auto-accompniment on the left hand and Jack's patented "three finger piano" chords did the rest. That's where this one came from!
This is actually an extremely complex piece (harmonically) - unless you're a jazzer/muso and understand these things. I've always liked the tune and had always wanted to try and do an improved version. The original demo was interesting but ...
The guitar breaks, I'm pretty pleased with, even though I say it myself. However, I don't class myself as a jazz guitar play at all. I'm originally a blues guitarist but I've been exposed to absolutely loads of jazz - which of course, I love - but I'm not a jazz guitar player like the absolutely brilliant Martin Taylor, for example. Anyway, this is the tune, hope you like it!!! God bless Tal Farlow.
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #1 in the UK Leftfield chart in January 2002. Definately "leftfield" in my humble opinion! Moody, spooky and etherial too. Probably a candidate for Halloween!
Listener comment: "I was surfing the charts at mp3.com and your song MOOD SWING kept me locked in for its full duration. Now I'm at your site and I'll check out some more. Keep up the good work and good luck."
This song was written/recorded before I got the PC - so it's very analogue - but that's probably a good thing. I had originally wanted to do a track which had some funky "sitting on the dock of the bay" style guitar parts and I also wanted to try some things on my bass guitar. I kept putting more and more tracks down on this one - dozens of them - trying this and trying that - and so on.
The great thing about banging your head against the wall is stopping and funilly enough, this track seems to have become very popular despite all the angst on my part! Thank you very much indeed if you like it! It just ended up like this.
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song is made it to number #1 in the UK Indie chart in January 2002. Yet another song without words or melody!
... this song was originally written around the same time as "Sweet, sweet love". I think I recorded them one after the other on the 16 track, although I'm not such which came first.
Anyway - everybody has always seemed to like this tune, groove, rhythm track, sound track, film music or whatever it is and this is the 16 track version - I hope you like it!!!
... this song was originally written around the same time as "Sweet, sweet love". I think I recorded them one after the other on the 16 track, although I'm not such which came first.
Anyway - everybody has always seemed to like this tune, groove, rhythm track, sound track, film music or whatever it is and this is the 16 track version - I hope you like it!!!
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #1 in the UK Love Song chart in January 2002. Medium paced, easy-listening love song without words or melody. Is that abstract enough? Hope you like it!
Another song from the vaults of Chorlton, re-recorded - prior to my getting the PC - on the new 16 track.
Anyway .. many, many, many moons ago, there was a certain UK "super-model" who became very famous for exposing some of her (ahem!) finer qualities in the pages of the UK tabloid press.
She also had a considerable number of UK #1 hit records - which were absolutely crap. I'm not kidding. You're talking the cube-root of the "Spice Girls" here folks. Anyway, believe it or not, one day I got a call from a major record company, asking me to write and submit a song for consideration as her next single. What would you have done?
So I wrote this tune as fast I as I could.
A girl did sing on it once, but she was basically ... well ...
What would be really cool would be to have the golden larynx of Ethel Soundfont on here - the girl singing on "Au Revoir" - hmmmm.
Oh yeah, I sent the song in and never heard another word, apart from the fact that they'd called everybody else in the world as well as me and asked them to write a song too!! That's showbusiness folks!!! |
MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This song made it to number #2 in the UK Experimental chart in January 2002. Listener comment: "This definitely would not be hardcore dance (WAY too melow for that) nor even experimental (too structured). It is a cross between Pop and (more so) Dance with an R&B touch due to the vocals. Regrettably it ends all too soon, but even so, it a Dance track that rocks as it is!"
Higher Baby is (for me), yet another experiment (e.g. like Blue Suede Shoes) and this is how it all turned out. Just like the track "Au Revoir", I stumbled across these vocal samples in one of my Soundfont libraries after I'd started the rhythm track and again, everything just "matched" - the tempo the key signature - everything.
I did go a little nuts on this one and just did a live take (by pressing play on the computer) and muting and unmuting tracks in real time. This went down on to just two tracks and that's what's here. Fantastic vocals, presumeably from Ethel Soundfont and friends. Hope you like it!!!
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MP3.com CD: What about submarines - buy it!
CD: What about submarines
Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This "song" is intended to be moody and themeatic and is the first of (possibly) three variations. I've lived with this track for quite a few months now, and I thought it was quite nice as it is. However, there are obviously lots of things that could be added onto the basic rhythm track here. So, before I do this on the other upcoming variations, I thought it would be a cool idea to release this "plain vanilla" version.
I like the intro, which gives the listener no real clue about what is going to happen and I like the bass guitar and the place where it tacits. I also like the rhythm guitar which is a pretty unusual thing for me to say.
It's really not that hard to imagine all the sound FX that could be superimposed on this simple and unchallenging musical landscape - or even some lead guitar work or sax for that matter. But then it would transform into a piece of music and that isn't the real intention at this stage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blue Suede Shoes; Taxi Dance Revisited; Fanfare and Mood Swing are used in The Inside Reel College TV Show. Because of this, I've seen real Hollywood film content and my music together and I have to say that it was inspiring.
So this is why I've called it "Cinematique (Part I)", because as it stands, you can easily imagine dialogue and visuals coalescing together (well, I can at least).
So here it is in that context and I really do hope that you like it so please give me a ping if you do! Many thanks in advance and thanks for listening.
PS: Audio Engineering types - I hear a big difference between the 16 bit 44.1 Khz Red Book and this MP3 file, despite best efforts on my part. I suspect that the mp3 encoding process is based on pyscho-accoustic principles and that the spectrum it is encoding doesn't have any prominances in the 3-5 Khz band. If you know - please ping me!! TIA.
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CD: TBD
Label: mp3.com
Credits: Credits - Written and Produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2003 |
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| This short extract has been used in a documentary by http://www.evoray.com in a documentary called "Digital Lives" which is expected to be released in April 2003. More information coming soon!
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Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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Label: mp3.com
Credits: - Written and produced by Jack Hassall (c) 2001 |
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| This will be the description (coming soon!) |
CD: N/A
Label: MP3.com
Credits: (c) Jack Hassall 2003 |
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