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Cursed (Scaramanga Six Album)
''Cursed'' is the sixth album by English rock band The Scaramanga Six. Background The songs for ''Cursed'' were originally intended for what would have been the fifth Scaramanga Six album, ''A Pound of Flesh''. This album was scheduled for recording in 2006 with producer Tim Smith, who'd produced the band's third and fourth albums. Versions of tracks were recorded and a single, "Walking Through Houses", released before Smith was felled by a disastrous combined heart attack and stroke, leaving him unable to continue. Having become close friends with Smith, the band felt unable to replace him and complete the album sessions, later admitting "we simply couldn't go back to these recordings without him and recoiled to contemplate what to do next."“The hideous transf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Scaramanga Six
The Scaramanga Six are an English rock band. Originally formed in 1995 and based in Huddersfield, the band currently consists of multi-instrumentalist founder members Paul Morricone (vocals, guitar, etc.) and Steven Morricone (vocals, bass guitar, keyboards etc.), plus Julia Arnez (guitar, vocals) and Gareth Champion (drums). The Scaramanga Six are noted for their aggressive live act and their flamboyant and theatrical songs, which have made them a significant band on the Leeds rock scene. Entirely self-managed and self-releasing (via their own Wrath Records label), their independent business practices and active promotion of other artists has seen them hailed as "the closest we'll see to a British answer to Fugazi" and described as "working entirely outside the indie scene, let alone the actual industry.""The Sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Truax
Thomas Truax ( ) is an American songwriter, performer, animator, and inventor of experimental musical instruments. Biography Truax first came to prominence as a solo performer in the 1990s in New York City as one of a group of musicians and songwriters (including Lach, Jeffrey Lewis, Curtis Eller, The Burning Hell, Dibs, Boo Hoo and Beck) who made up the antifolk movement based around the Sidewalk Cafe on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Truax's emergence as a solo act came after years of fronting bands (most notably Like Wow). The move was in part to remove the need to rely on other people to perform and to embark in a new direction that would distinguish his act from the hundreds of bands and singer-songwriters active in New York. This new direction involved the construction and playing of unique instruments, as well as more traditional singer-songwriter style songs. The "inventor" side of his musical act drew on his work as an animator on MTV's Celebrity Death Match and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crow
A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifically to any certain trait, but is rather a general grouping for larger ''Corvus spp.'' Species * ''Corvus albus'' – pied crow (Central African coasts to southern Africa) * ''Corvus bennetti'' – little crow (Australia) * ''Corvus brachyrhynchos'' – American crow (United States, southern Canada, northern Mexico) * ''Corvus capensis'' – Cape crow or Cape rook (Eastern and southern Africa) * ''Corvus cornix'' – hooded crow (Northern and Eastern Europe and Northern Africa and Middle East) * ''Corvus corone'' – carrion crow (Europe and eastern Asia) *''Corvus culminatus'' – Indian jungle crow (South Asia) * ''Corvus edithae'' – Somali crow or dwarf raven (eastern Africa) * ''Corvus enca'' – slender-billed crow (Malaysia, Born ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flexatone
The flexatone or fleximetal is a modern percussion instrument (an indirectly struck idiophone) consisting of a small flexible metal sheet suspended in a wire frame ending in a handle. Used in classic cartoons for its glissando effect, its sound is comparable to the musical saw. History, construction and technique An invention for a flexatone occurs in the British Patent Records of 1922 and 1923. In 1924 the 'Flex-a-tone' was patented in the USA by the Playatone Company of New York. "An instrument called the 'Flex-a-tone' was patented in the U.S.A. in 1924 by the Playertone Company of New York. It was introduced as a new instrument, making 'jazz jazzier' and announced as combining the tone effect of musical saw, orchestra bells, and song whistle." "Small sheet of spring steel in a frame with wooden strikers mounted on either side. The player shakes the beater while bending the steel in order to change the pitch." The instrument was first used in 1920s jazz bands as an effect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use. The term ''xylophone'' may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron. However, in the orchestra, the term ''xylophone'' refers specifically to a chromatic instrument of somewhat higher pitch range and drier timbre than the marimba, and these two instruments should not be confused. A person who plays the xylophone is known as a ''xylophonist'' or simply a ''xylophone player''. The term is also popularly used to refer to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hammered Dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more traditional styles may sit cross-legged on the floor, or in a more modern style may stand or sit at a wooden support with legs. The player holds a small spoon-shaped mallet hammer in each hand to strike the strings. The Graeco-Roman ''dulcimer'' ("sweet song") derives from the Latin ''dulcis'' (sweet) and the Greek ''melos'' (song). The dulcimer, in which the strings are beaten with small hammers, originated from the psaltery, in which the strings are plucked. Hammered dulcimers and other similar instruments are traditionally played in Iraq, India, Iran, Southwest Asia, China, Korea, and parts of Southeast Asia, Central Europe (Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland (particularly Appenzell), Austria and Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor Saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while the alto is pitched in the key of E), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F key have a range from A2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists". The tenor saxophone uses a larger mouthpiece, reed and ligature than the alto and soprano saxophones. Visually, it is easily distinguished by the curve in its neck, or its crook, near the mouthpiece. The alto saxophone lacks this and its neck goes straight to the mouthpiece. The tenor saxophone is most recognized for it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harpsichord
A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism that plucks one or more strings with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic. The strings are under tension on a soundboard, which is mounted in a wooden case; the soundboard amplifies the vibrations from the strings so that the listeners can hear it. Like a pipe organ, a harpsichord may have more than one keyboard manual, and even a pedal board. Harpsichords may also have stop buttons which add or remove additional octaves. Some harpsichords may have a buff stop, which brings a strip of buff leather or other material in contact with the strings, muting their sound to simulate the sound of a plucked lute. The term denotes the whole family of similar plucked-keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals, muselar, and spinet. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Piano
An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations which are converted into electrical signals by magnetic pickups, which are then connected to an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to make a sound loud enough for the performer and audience to hear. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument. Instead, it is an electro-mechanical instrument. Some early electric pianos used lengths of wire to produce the tone, like a traditional piano. Smaller electric pianos used short slivers of steel to produce the tone (a lamellophone with a keyboard & pickups). The earliest electric pianos were invented in the late 1920s; the 1929 ''Neo- Bechstein'' electric grand piano was among the first. Probably the earliest stringless model was Lloyd Loar's Vivi-Tone Clavier. A few ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glockenspiel
The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glockenspiel is played by striking the bars with mallets, often made of a hard material such as metal or plastic. Its clear, high-pitched tone is often heard in orchestras, wind ensembles, marching bands, and in popular music. Terminology In German, a carillon is also called a , and in French, the glockenspiel is sometimes called a . It may also be called a () in French, although this term may sometimes be specifically reserved for the keyboard glockenspiel. In Italian, the term () is used. The glockenspiel is sometimes erroneously referred to as a xylophone. The Pixiphone, a type of toy glockenspiel, was one such instrument sold as a xylophone. Range The glockenspiel is limited to the upper register and usually covers about to 3 octa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wasp Synthesizer
Electronic Dream Plant (EDP) was a small British synthesizer manufacturer, active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the time their products were not particularly successful commercially. In later years products like the "WASP" became prized by collectors for their unique sound, and later synthesizer companies have successfully copied some of their design elements. Background The company was formed in 1977 by musician Adrian Wagner and electronics designer Chris Huggett. The pair wanted to design an inexpensive instrument that would trade off cosmetic appeal and user interface against cost and sound quality. They realised that transistor-transistor logic (TTL) could provide a stable sound source, and managed to persuade Argent's Keyboards, a London music shop, to finance £10,000 for putting the synth into production. Products Wasp Launched in 1978, the "Wasp" was EDP's best-received product. It was named after its black-and-yellow colour scheme. For cost reasons, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omnichord
The Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument introduced in 1981 by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate known as "Sonic Strings", preset rhythms, auto-bass line functionality, and buttons for major, minor, and 7th chords. The most basic method of playing the instrument is to press the chord buttons and swipe the Sonic Strings with a finger in imitation of strumming a stringed instrument. The Sonic Strings may also be touched in one place to create a single note. Originally designed as an electronic Autoharp, the Omnichord has become popular, due to its unique, chiming, harplike timbre and its value as a kitsch object. History Suzuki introduced the Omnichord along with the Tronichord, renamed the Portachord on some units, in 1981. The latter never reached full production, but both instrument share many technical and functional similarities. Omnichords feature preset rhythm patterns with tempo and volume control, as well as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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