Superheroes of Science

Protons! Neutrons! Superheroes of Science Live

2009-03-15T09:41:00.007Z

Thanks to everyone that came along to the gig at the Babbage Lecture Theatre which we did as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. You people in the audience surpassed all our expectations with your incredible singing, shouting, inflatable solar system volleyball skills, and percussive skills.

Video of the concert - Watch the concert on iTunes U

Short onstage video which I think captures the general vibe

Sir Cam photo of Alberto Santos Dumont

Go Go Geek Pop 09

2009-03-05T19:10:00.003Z

The Intercontinental Music Lab are proud to be taking part in Geek Pop 09 which starts tomorrow (from when I'm writing this) 6th March, and runs until 15th March. Geek Pop is a fantastic online festival, hence carbon friendly, and celebrates the clash of music with science. We're playing on the Tesla Tent apparently so see you after the set for some virtual hugs. Go Go Geek Pop. There will also be an amusing interview with the IML at some point during the festival. Yippee. See you all there.

Saturday 14th March, Cambridge

2009-01-13T21:51:00.003Z

I've put together a page for people that are intending on coming to the Superheroes Of Science Live gig which we're doing as part of the 2009 Cambridge Science Festival. It's going to be a good fun show to be sure. We're also going to be taking part in Geek Pop 09 which is very exciting. More about that later. I need to go to sleep. Good night.

The Pope Bigs Up Galileo

2008-12-21T22:23:00.006Z

Surely the pope's renewed charity towards Galileo must have been inspired by listening to our song about the great man. I didn't realise it was a protest song until now...

Superheroes of Science live

2008-12-18T08:16:00.001Z

Tonight is our first rehearsal for Superheroes of Science live. I've just a new tiny keyboard with lots of knobs to try and help us translate the multi instrumentalist leanings of the album. We're going to have plenty of hands on deck to deal with guitar type instruments, potentially banjos, mandolins, ukuleles, guitars, bass guitars but I can't help feeling that some synthetic squelches would really bring it all together. On top of that I've declared that:
a) we're going to try and perform a barbershop quartet version of Call Them X or;
b) we're going to find a barbershop quartet to do it for us.

Either way, I think we should attempt a tonight. I'll let you know how we get on. Meanwhile, for progress on our next album, check out superheroesofthesea.blogspot.com

un album original et super intéressant ! j'ai écouté avec grand plaisir!

2008-11-21T08:04:00.007Z

I loaded our album onto Jamendo recently. Jamendo is a website which deals exclusively in music which is licensed under Creative Commons. As well as distributing all this music to a growing number of members, members can also swap music, review it etc. In addition Jamendo get approached by corporates who want to licence music so if that happens, they contact us, and we can say yes or no.

The main reason I loaded it up however was to get the album to more ears, we've also had a review already (it's only been up there for two days).
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/34854

It's looking like quite a good site to be at, sort of a Last.FM for perhaps a more musically explorative community in Europe. Tres bien.

Superheroes of Science - The Album

2008-11-12T18:53:00.010Z

Downloads

The audio

Zip file of MP3s (Zip file containing 320kbps Stereo MP3s)
M4As from Mediafire
MP3s from Jamendo
MP3s from Last.FM

The artwork

Ready to print A4 PDF (PDF format for printing out and cutting out)

The track listing

Wondermachines (Scientist: Alberto Santos-Dumont)
Music by Greg Dean and Rob Fisher
Lyrics/Vocals by Barney Brown & Layla Vandenbergh
Call Them X (Scientist: Wilhlem Conrad Rontgen)
Music by Tim Donderevo
Lyrics/Vocals by Oli Hayhurst with Theo & Violet Hayhurst
Oh My Beautiful Problem Child (Scientist: Albert Hofmann)
Music by Dan Gresham
Lyrics by Tim Donderevo, Vocals by Kelly Hoglund
Dr Robotnik (Scientist: Dr Robotnik)
Music by Richard Yates and Nick Osbourne
Lyrics by Julian Peters, vocals by Julian Peters and Aya Saito
La Ballade de Mr Matthews (Scientist: John Matthews)
Music by Juju Peters
Lyrics/vocals by Rob & Audrey Fisher
There Is Science In This Child (Scientist: James Chadwick)
Music by Tim Donderevo
Lyrics/Vocals by Nick Osbourne, with Elliot and Sammy Brown
Sailing Back To Spain (Scientist: Antonio De Ulloa)
Music by Julian Peters
Lyrics/Vocals by Greg Dean
Researchers of the P.I.E.R.C (Scientist: Pacific Islands Research Centre P.I.E.R.C)
Music by Barney Brown
Lyrics/Vocals by Joseph Ashley-Smith
Take Me Home To Orgonon (scientist: Wilhelm Reich)
Music by Joseph Ashley-Smith
Lyrics/vocals by Rob Fisher
John Muir (Scientist: John Muir)
Music by Rob Fisher
Lyrics/vocals by Julian Peters, backing vocals Rob Fisher
Agent On The Threshold (Scientist: John C Lilly)
Music by Joseph Ashley-Smith
Lyrics/Vocals by Tim Donderevo
Know It Now (Scientist: Galileo Galilei)
Music by Oli Hayhurst
Lyrics/Vocals by Barney Brown
Saviour of Mothers (Scientist: Ignaz Semmelweis)
Music by Rob Fisher
Lyrics/Vocals by Kip Loades

The lyrics

View all the lyrics on one page or individually from the links next to the songs above.

Copyright

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Lyrics

2008-11-12T18:49:00.001Z

I've now published all the lyrics for the songs on Superheroes of Science apart from Call Them X and Saviour of Mothers (coming soon).

Know It Now

2008-11-12T18:44:00.001Z

Music by Oli Hayhurst
Lyrics and vocals by Barney Brown

My occupation watching satellites
And dropping things from heights
Creates conclusions that some things are wrong
And laws like to hide
Kinematics are in
And so are pendulums
They swing they swing, they swing, they swing they swing
And then I write down how much they swing.
And now they say they've found a way
Of looking at things far away
Closer to your eyes
Telescope
Know it now
The gulf I've seen between your dream and mine
The world, this solid world moves free
I didn't set out to fool anyone
With geocentric talk
I have preferred to use reason and sense
To lazy loose thoughts
I'm the father of science
Astronomy as well
My beliefs, the heresy that you see
Has left me locked up and so it ends
Copernicus,
He spoke for us, you shout and cuss, because
The world, this solid world moves free
Copernicus
He screams for us and still you cuss, because
The world, this solid world moves free
Copernicus
He teaches us, you preached to us, because
The world, this solid world moves free
Know it now
Instinct will show what is below us now
The world is moving round the world

Agent On The Threshold

2008-11-12T18:43:00.001Z

Music by Joseph Ashley Smith
Lyrics and vocals by Tim Donderevo

Intro (robot voice):
In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true,
within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally.
These limits are beliefs to be transcended.
In the province of connected minds, what a nework believes to be true,
either is true, or becomes true.
In a network's mind, there are no limits...

verse 1:
You are So far from St Paul now, John - and yesterday's pointless facade, oh
You should Sail to the Virgin Isles, now John - where destiny wants you to come
We're Sensitizing your mind, now John, - you're leaving your body behind,

Chorus 1:
And You're Becoming a singular point, John - in a empty dimensionless space, Oh
Interlock - with the whale from the bow and feel coincidence fall into place, oh
Chorus 2:
Fear can propel you to the edge of the dark - but its only one part of the shell, John
You must breakaway signs of your sentient mind - let the cetaceans guide you away, oh
Its almost too late

Postchorus:
Its almost too late, John. Ooo. Ahhh.

Psych out: (robot Voice)
Attention all humans, this is the covenant of E.C.C.O: If you wish to control coincidences
in your own life, on Planet Earth,
we will cooperate, and determine those coincidences for you, under the following conditions:
The senseless killing of cetaceans must cease. A Cetacean Nation, is now being initiated.

CODA: (robot voice)
Cosmic Love, is absolutely ruthless, and highly indifferent: it teaches lessons whether
you like/dislike them or not.

Take Me Home To Orgonon

2008-11-12T18:41:00.001Z

Music by Joseph Ashley Smith
Lyrics and vocals by Rob Fisher

mother, you had to tango with my teacher
i couldn't keep your secret any longer
father, beat you till you drank down the poison
i pushed the domino now he's lost, alone and broken
so down into the lonely lake he waded
and waited while the water soaked his bones
til death took hold

isolation, take me home

sister, don't you hide the love away inside you
the armour will constrict and suffocate you
brother, why do you deny the energy around you cloister me in mind and body when i can heal you
and i can stop them falling

isolation, take me home
isolation, take me home
to orgonon

Researchers of the P.I.E.R.C

2008-11-12T18:40:00.002Z

Music by Barney Brown
Lyrics and vocals by Jospeh Ashley-Smith

Dig the flow
Around the islands of our home
Where we learn
About this archipelago

We hear the birds
And out in the field each day
We dig the words
"May the life of the land be preserved"

E mau ke ea o ka 'aina

We've come so far
And we work so hard
For all

We must survey
To keep the aliens at bay
Beneath the sun
Restore these islands to the days
When they were young
When endemic species had no woes
Of extinction
Just carefree island fun

E mau ke ea o ka 'aina

We've come so far
And we work so hard for all

(But sometimes we just wanna get on our boards and go!)

Sailing Back To Spain

2008-11-12T18:38:00.002Z

Music by Julian Peters
Lyrics and vocals by Greg Dean)

Verse1
Darling,
I write this from afar,
Divided,
By oceans sleeping under stars
Longing,
This fever to subdue,
Hoping,
The words I could not say to you,
Are words youíre reading now

Chorus
You set my heart alight,
Like a galleon up in flames,
When I hear you call my name,
So Iím
Sailing back to Spain.
You know I come alive,
Achieving scientific fame,
Until I think of you again,
Then Iím sailing,
Sailing back to Spain.

Verse
A calling,
Thatís called for me too long,
Dissolving,
In echoes of my countryís songs
You alone should know,
Rationale can take a man so far

Chorus
One day my dear,
Some day, some year,
Lined up beneath those stars,
Play armadas of guitars
While our hearts keep beating like the castanets.

Captain, set the course for
home.

There Is Science In This Child

2008-11-12T18:36:00.001Z

Music by Tim Donderevo
Lyrics by Nick Osbourne
Vocals by Nick Osbourne with Elliot and Sammy Brown

So I took a punt and asked you, bloodless, out to lunch
The smiler served a fission, poured a half-life in your cup, while I
Sat decaying at the table with my wine

You call me neutral
And guarded by your loving pit bull, you made
A tigerís leap into this heart of mine

Protons! Neutrons!
Fourteen years smothering his body in paraffin wax
How were we to know?
Which way he would go?
There is science in this child

Protons! Neutrons!
Fourteen years greasing the Earthís invisible pig
Nothing draws a crowd
Like a hole in the ground
There is science in this quiet child

Wonít you let me in?
To touch your Farah Fawcett skin?
Donít you want to know whatís underneath this tent-like white coat?

That light! It is bewitching!
There is something up my sleeve
The reaction is ungodly, but the Devil knows Iíve tried to believe
Everything will blow on New Yearís Eve

The universe is made of fourteen fingers and fourteen toes
This I know from my research to be sound
The properties of the penetrating radiation emitted from beryllium
When bombarded by the a-particles of polonium
Have been examined thoroughly ... very thoroughly!

So we must proceed
With our fingers in the dark
With the flavours of the quark

Protons! Neutrons!
14 years living with the buzz of a cycolotron
The girls have all left home
Theyíve gone out to roam
With the child and his science

Protons! Neutrons!
14 years living on the bed of a black, black stream
Their eyes have all gone wide
They have filled up their minds
With the child and his science

Protons! Neutrons!
14 years living with a Chinese woman in my cupboard
The air will dye us red
As we lie asleep in bed
There is science in this violent child

I wish to express my thanks to Mr H. Nutt for his help in carrying out these experiments
And not forgetting Maxwellís Demon, who held my hand and opened so many doors along the way

La Ballade de Mr Matthews

2008-11-12T18:34:00.001Z

Music by Julian Peters
Lyrics and vocals by Audrey & Rob Fisher

moi, j'adore mon soda pop
quand je commence je bois non-stop
dans ma bouche sa picotte
Mr Matthews thank you sir!
trouvÈ par Lavoisier
l'acide carbonique fut mÈlangÈ
‡ l'eau par Preistly et mÈcanisÈ
par Bergman le suÈdois

et tu as mis les voiles vers un territoire o˘ le thÈ n'Ètait pas si dominant
et le marchÈ a permis quelque chose de bien plus pÈtillant

ensuite ‡ 55 Gold Street
t'as installÈ ton usine
et donnÈ la vie
aux bulles qui chatouillent ma langue

l'acquisition peu catholique
du marbre de St Patricks
tu l'avais eu pour un bon prix
Mr Matthews clever boy

de big Ben Austen je vais parler
la soupape de s˚retÈ
avec son pouce sur le pressure cock
le PSI Ètait rÈgulÈ

Monsieur Roussel avec son charme innÈ de la saveur a ajoutÈe
a explosÈ la scËne avec des go˚ts d'immenses possibilitÈs

tu as ralliÈ les forces
avec tes compÈtiteurs
les bons messieurs
Tuft, Lippincott et Puffer

les jeunes, ‡ la premiere gorgÈe du soda, expÈriencent des sensations,
qui comme celles de l'amour ne peuvent Ítre oubliÈes

i like soda fountain fun
pour toi, je chante cette chanson
tes bulles effleurent ma langue
oh Mr Matthews, tu es number one!

Dr Robotnik

2008-11-12T18:32:00.001Z

Music by Richard Yates and Nick Osbourne
Lyrics by Julian Peters
Vocals by Julian Peters and Aya Saito

So another day has passed you've done the same old things,
You've been bouncing off springs and collecting gold rings,
Rolling over bridges that crumble away,
But Christ Between here and level 5 someone stands in your way,

(Eggman)
Kukukachoo he's searching for you
His IQ is 300 so what the Dickens will you do,
You must get past him if you want to curl into a ball at home,
Watch out he's twice as brainy as soft porn queen Sharon Stone

(Robotnik)
AKA
(Eggman)
(Robotnik)
That's right, the Eggman

Although most people aren't quite sure what his game is,
everyone knows he's the spit of Windsor Davies
So when you see him coming boy you better run
Because this Mutha F "Aint half hot mum"

But For someone so bright to devote his life
To hunting down a hedgehog something isnt quite right,
Building mecha suits that are amour clad,
To be destroyed by a hedgehog well that's just plain sad

(Robotnik)
Idiot
(Eggman)
Slender legs like Red Rum,
(Robotnik)
A hedgehog hater,
(Eggman)
Wallybasher
(Robotnik)
Kicking hedgehogs to death
(Eggman)
(Robotnik)
Wazzark
The Eggman

Winsaa Deibisu (Windsor Davies)
Winsaa Deibisu (Windsor Davies)
Shiranai shiranai (I don't know, I don't know)
Wakanai (I don't understand)
Mo ikai (once more please?)
Wakatta (I got it!)
Einta hafu hotto mum deshou (Aint half hot mum, isn't it?)

Oh My Beautiful Problem Child

2008-11-12T18:30:00.000Z

Music by Dan Gresham
Lyrics by Tim Turton
Sung by Kelly Hoglund

(DIT DIT DIT DIT...)

Verse 1:
The alkaloids of moldy rye, were only the beginning
Of Albert Hofmann's curious and psychotropic drugs
Amino-alcholic variations to their structure
Produced Lysergic 25 - Oh Albert, what have you done?

CHORUS 1:
Hands making trails - and turning quite pale - in a mosaic of diamonds
Perceptions remain, but constantly change - connecting in elegant science
Love pervades my - omnipotent mind - in a profusion of rainbows
But its a gyp - and you are the trip - Oh my beautiful problem child

(DIT DIT DIT DIT...)

Verse 2:
Biking home on '25 - thru curving fields of vision
Stand before the monolith - the Doctor Dionysian
Albert, theres a danger here - and folks are turnin' crazy
The counter-culture psychonauts - are poisoning the Kids

CHORUS 2:
Dizzying minds - and spiralling skies - vivid arrays of distortion
Invulnerable maze, dimensional change - and things of colossal importance
External delights - magnificent sights - a dance of kaleidoscope patterns
And its thanks to you - my beautiful brew - Oh my beautiful problem child

(DIT DIT DIT DIT...)

Verse 4:
Take a trip to Mexico - and chill out with the indians
Salvia and mescalin - exploding in your minds
Gurus on the box again - expounding medications
You never should have synthesized - oh Albert, what have you done?

CHORUS 3:
Cacophonous dreams, invisible screams - a skyline of tormented faces
Demonic applause, ecstatic remorse - cognition of terrible places
The feeling is odd, no longer a god - you're suddenly nothing and nowhere
But there's always you - my beautiful brew - Oh My beautiful problem child
Theres always you - my beautiful brew - Oh my beautiful problem child
And Theres always you - and theres always you - and theres always
there's always, always, always, all...

(DIT DIT DIT DIT...)

Wondermachines

2008-11-12T18:29:00.000Z

Music by Greg Dean and Rob Fisher
Lyrics by Barney Brown and Layla Vandenbergh

Santos Dumont built and numbered 20 flying machines. This is their story, and his.
1. A giant cigar made from Japanese silk. I crash into trees then fly up to the milk.
2. Wider, gasier, a rotary fan. I crash into trees, this time I cut my knees.
3. Shorter, thicker. Lamp gas inside. Around the Eiffel tower itís lifting my pride.
4. Out of my basket I straddle a bike. Like a witch on her broom I can fly where I like.

World love through flight
In wonder machines
We control
All our dreams

5. Piano wire ropes. I crash at my friends but master the art of aerial bends.
6. Crystal Palace, Monaco, Deutsch Prize, New York. Sunken and slashed. People talk, people talk.
7. I compete at St Louis for a shining grand prize and again my balloon is hacked at with knives.
8. I return to Paris. And contemplate. Avoiding acknowledgment of the dreaded number 8.
9. I transport a child in this aerial car and hand the controls to a woman. Huzzah!
10. I build it for 10 but it flies with just 1. This is the worldís first airship for no one.

World love through flight
In wonder machines
We control
All our dreams

World love through flight
In wonder machines
We control
All our dreams

World love through flight
In wonder machines
We control
All our dreams

11. A glider. One engine. That can barely fly. It has to get better so upward I try.
12. Leonardo inspired this twin helicopter. But unlike my vision, itís ability falters.
13. A division of hydrogen and piping hot air. An airship that lacked elevation and flair.
14. My airship becomes an aerial tug which I use to pull planes like a donkey with brains.
15. A biplane at last, to the future I ride. If only I could make it fly high like a kite.
16. Is it an airship or is it a plane? Whatever it is its clearly insane.
17. A biplane again, but the design is elusive. I lack the passion to even build it.
18. A plane that can float on the beautiful Seine. Did I call it a plane? Itís a boat, message ends.
19. A precarious mess which I hope will win big. It carefully springs from the earth and then digs.
20. Demoiselle. I love you but war has begun. You fly in my dreams. Dream on everyone.

John Muir

2008-11-12T18:26:00.000Z

Music - Rob Fisher
Lyrics and vocals - Julian Peters
(Rob also did a few "shoop shoop waaa"s on the backing track so that
counts as backing vocals I reckon).

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

Worked by a father stern and harder than most of us ever now know
A child's hands blistered raw from the plough and the hoe
But in free moments running through valleys is where your life began
The child is the father of the man

Seeing the world through once blind eyes
You saw the earth as heaven in disguise
So plain folk please now rise
For John.

Oddly obsessed by the possibilities and properties found within wood
And then doing with it as many things as a young mind could
Making clocks that creaked along keeping perfect time
Machines that tipped you sleepy from your bed before the sun could shine

Shepard, farmer, theorist, writer,
Wearer of the dungaree
Naturalist, explorer, child of the forest
A climber of the trees
Like a friendly, bearded, wily Womble wandering free
You were fathered by "The Nature"
And you fathered Yosemite
For everyone

By scientists with grants your ideas were
poo pooed and feared
But you knew better and sat patiently
knowing behind your beard
That one day they would make the trek right to your cabin door
And they did
We're sorry John you were right
our science was flawed
It would seem "The Nature" taught you more

So thank you now for so very many generations to come
For your glaciation theories and for all you have done
Far and wide people now care, your influence is felt
The sierra club, Laconte, Emerson, Teddy Roosevelt

Seeing the world through once blind eyes
Music in the animal cries
So plain folk please now rise
For John.

Seeing the world through once blind eyes
You wander on through starry skies
So plain folk please now rise
For John.

Now downloaded > 1000 times

2008-11-01T21:23:00.003Z

Congratulations listeners and contributors. Superheroes of Science has now been downloaded more than 1000 times. It's great to think that there are over 2000 seperate ears listening to this album. Incredible. We've opened up a discussion on the QI forum to look for suggestions for a possible Superheroes of Science follow up album. There's some great things bubbling up. In other news, we've got a track listing for our Superheroes of Science Live gig which we'll be doing at the Cambridge Science Festival in March 2009. More on that soon.

Saviour of Mothers

2008-10-04T18:23:00.004+01:00

Shhhh, the secret track is no longer a secret. With music by Rob Fisher and lyrics and vocals by Kip Loades the elusive 13th track is now available online. The track is about Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician who amongst other things (a pretty traumatic life) introduced hand washing into hospitals. Take your hat off to the gent, sit back and prepare to be blown away by this astonishing track. You can get the track by visiting our Superheroes of Science album page.

Superheroes of Science Album Now Downloadable

2008-08-29T20:32:00.005+01:00

Yes that's right. The album has now been mastered (see Tim's post below) and can now be downloaded from the Superheroes of Science Album page. You can access a Zip file containing MP3 versions of the album or a Mediafire folder full of Apple Lossless versions. You can also download and print off cover art should you wish to create a CD (do you remember them? They live in boxes).

I will add the lyrics and related podcasts to the various tracks over the next couple of weeks, but for now, the music has been unleashed. There is one track currently absent from the album which will be making an appearance shortly. Believe me it's going to be worth the wait.

You can read the Creative Commons licence which we've attached to the music or take our word for it that you are free to distribute this music (as a collection with the artwork) providing you don't do so for any marketing purposes/money making ventures etc. If you really won't to use the Ballad of John Matthews for a Coke advert, get in touch with us.

Above all, please enjoy the album and if you want to discuss it you can do so on this blog. Good evening for now.

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

2008-08-25T19:24:00.002+01:00

The master for the Superheroes of Science album is finished, and will be available this week! It took me five and a half hours to master, at 5th Floor Recording Co. using a T.C. Electronics Finalizer and Protools. It was quite a challenge. The tracks were generally all in the right ball-park (everyone did a great job of mixing at -6db) but inevitably there were a few tracks with freak highs and some with high or low vocal mixes (notably both of my vocals!) I applied some sexy Finalizer compression to the tracks to even them out a bit and create a more unified sound, tweaking each compression band on every track rather than EQing. I think this is the kind of exacting audio processing that I witnessed when sitting in on mastering sessions for Donderevo's Good Science/Friendly Gods - before being kicked out for being too giggly and silly.

Some of the tracks needed a lot of work (including my own) and some were hard to master because the original mixes were so good I was making them sound worse by processing them. I think everyone will be pleased with the results. Unfortunately some details had to be lost for the sake of consistency, but overall, I feel every track sounds better on the master. Just like every other aspect of this IML project, mastering was a huge challenge and an experiment in collaboration; you've all had to trust me to make your songs sound good - and I hope you like the end result. For my money - every track sounds incredible.

Overall, I was surprised at how much I got into every single track - they're all so intense and interesting - not a single one that I'm sick of (after a billion playbacks studying minutia of frequencies etc.) In fact, I've had "Call Them X" - "Sailing Back To Spain" - "La Ballade De Mr Matthews" and "Know It Now" on repeat in my head for the last week, with "Dr Robotnik" never far away. Somehow, we've subconsciously co-ordinated our efforts into an electro-folk-easy-listening style - weirdly consistent from start to finish. Is this a product of our shared musical tastes and histories or just cosmic coincidence, let E.C.C.O decide.

The track order is a pretty important aspect of mastering, and I hope you all dig what I did. I tried not to think too much about the contributors when I selected the tracks - and concentrated on making an album that flowed and took the listener on a journey. Weirdly, there are many instances where one contributors music is followed by a track with their vocal - this is totally unintentional. Also unintentional, was my selection of tracks with Barney singing, starting and ending the album. "Wondermachines" and "Know it Now" are simply perfect tracks to set the standard for the album, then send it off into the cosmos.

I LOVED getting intimate with all these tracks - they are all amazing in their own right - but a billion times more powerful as a permanent record of the IML's first experiment!

Listen again to the Naked Scientists interview with us

2008-08-21T08:48:00.004+01:00

The Naked Scientists have now got their podcast online with a transcript of the interview. This makes it much easier to spot the factual innacuracies I spouted out including a reference to a "slide guitar" which was actually a "lap steel". I feel ashamed, really ashamed. My most heinous utterance was that the album was put together to make friends do something creative who weren't currently doing anything creative. What nonsense. I'm now busy trying to coerce the other IMLers into recording spoken word introductions to their creations so we can put out some more podcasts of our own. However, it's my birthday today so I'm going to go bowling. This post is a half-strike.

Intercontinental Music Lab Podcast launches

2008-08-19T23:22:00.005+01:00

You can now get podcasts from the Intercontinental Music Lab which include the tracks (in their entirety) from Superheroes of Science. We've recorded some commentaries about the writing and recording of the tracks to go with them to make them EVEN more entertaining than they already are. Enjoy. Subscribe to our podcasts. We've just been approved by iTunes so our Podcast will be showing up in the iTunes store in a few hours time.

We're on the radio over the next 45 minutes

2008-08-17T18:18:00.003+01:00

If you can pick up Radio Cambridgeshire you can listen to a sneak preview of the album over the airways. Failing that you can download a Podcast of The Naked Scientists' latest show from their website. If you're joining us after listening to their show, welcome aboard. We've got one last song to record vocals for, then the whole album to master, and then it will be available from this website to download (for free). In the meantime, we're going to start podcasting tracks with commentary over the next couple of weeks. Our podcast feed will be open from Tuesday evening. Check back then for details.

A radio interviewing we went

2008-08-14T22:18:00.003+01:00

Well that was a lot of fun. After an enjoyable preamble to a radio interview in the pub, and a chance to listen to Superheroes of Science through some nice speakers, me and Rob settled into the role of interviewed. Ben who was interviewing us was very gentle and made the whole process enjoyable, and easy. Rob did a fine job of introducing the darkest possible elements into the interview (which may end up on the cutting room floor) whilst I riffed on the concept of friends trying to be creative. Not sure how scientific we all were but it should make a nice podcast. Check out the Naked Scientists website this weekend. We took some photos of interesting signs which I may have to post up in their entirety. My favourite simply said:
"ATTENTION! THIS ALARM IS NO LONGER IN USE" - how alarming.

In other news Tim has completed the logos for the Intercontinental Music Lab which are incredible, and will endeavor to start mastering the album next week. Prepare your ears for the finished product. I think we're going to have to co-ordinate some sort of cross continent launch party.

A podcasting we go

2008-08-13T19:10:00.004+01:00

The kind and wonderful people over at The Naked Scientists have agreed to include an interview with me in one of their upcoming podcasts. Obviously the science theme of their shows is a perfect match for where we're coming from so I'm expecting probing science based questions. In a way the whole creation and distribution of the album is an experiment in its own right. The method of recording the album was one that none of us (I think) had tried before, and the results have been wonderful. What happens to it once we distribute it online etc. is going to be fascinating. Especially coming from a history of record deals and such like which so many of us in the project have.

So the Naked Scientist podcast will be going out on the 17th August. I urge you to subscribe to their programme, it's great. I think the broadcast will then go out on Radio Cambridgeshire this Sunday at 6PM.

2008-08-01T22:50:00.002+01:00

Plus - We are now the "Intercontinental Music Lab" honouring the "Superheroes of Science".

2008-08-01T22:47:00.002+01:00

This is my first design for the Album cover - I ditched it because it didn't even come close to representing the incredible music within!

Inspiration for the montage = the incredible Max Ernst, via Greg Deano!

2008-08-01T22:35:00.002+01:00

Its coming! And....
...my God, its full of stars

I should be in bed

2008-07-29T00:36:00.002+01:00

I've just finished recording vocals for Santos Dumont (with a star turn from Layla as well). What fun. Probably not suitable to crank it out of the speakers right now to check the mix. It'll have to wait for the morning. That should get the kids up. The studio madness is beginning to set in again. What have I done. Help. I want to go to sleep. Good night.

2008-07-28T18:29:00.002+01:00

I'm happy we've finally got a name! And "IML" is great. Logos etc are on their way - as are official websites and a Lab identity - this means that very soon we can manufacture lame corporate toys: frisbees, slide-puzzles, yo-yos and the like.

Coming Together

2008-07-24T23:47:00.002+01:00

Despite my best efforts at voting fraud we are a music lab as opposed to a song lab! I was hoping for more alignment with Eurovision in terms of name but oh well, its all good.
Over the last 2 weeks I've been having a tough time with lyrics, melodies and in general coming up with something that a) makes a passable attempt at doing justice to the backing track b) fits the track in style and content and c) is interesting and maybe a little bit kinky. I did reach a point of despair thinking I'm not gonna come up with anything I can hand in but fortunately it has since begun to come together, right now, over me.
I've taken two pretty different approaches to the tracks I have to wail on, not surprising given the disparity between them. For Wilhelm Reich I have taken a similar approach to wot Greg mentioned earlier, finding key moments and emotions and concentrating on them. Its come out pretty dark, must have accidentaly cooked up some deadly orgone energy. For Mr Matthews it's much more a straight history, albeit hopefully colourfully recanted, from the perspective of a third person admirer.
Mighty Austria beckons on Tuesday so its gonna be a hectic weekend penning those last lines of lyrics to fit in with the rest of the jigsaw puzzle and trying to get decent enough vocal takes and then making it sound like it's meant to be there.
That contract looks good but I don't think we'll need to worry about coke going for the matthews song, not without the vocals stripped out anyway!
It's going to be fascinating to hear all the tracks side by side, bring on the finish line and the next iteration.

We are the "Intercontinental Music Lab (IML)"

2008-07-24T19:56:00.004+01:00

After a feverish debate that lasted literally days and involved nearly ten posts on a discussion forum we have decided on becoming a collective known as the "Intercontinental Music Lab (IML)" I'm not sure how well this bodes given that I went through several typos before being able to stick that in the post. Oh well.

In other news, we've got the services of the wonderful Naked Scientists who are going to help us promote the end product through an interview on their much loved and listened to podcast. This is really great news for the IML as well as popular science lovers in general. Hooray for them.

Oddly enough for a product which is very much about being fun before anything else, this does mean we have to work out what sort of licence we're going to attach to all of this stuff. Having talked with a couple of online media savvy pals, it looks like this sort of affair will be our best option. It will mean that we can distribute all of our music, safe in the knowledge that if Coca Cola do decide to come calling to use the John Matthews theme, they'll have to negotiate a price.

So here it is, what you've all been dying to read. An introduction to the various Creative Commons licences we could sign up to:
http://creativecommons.org/about/license/

I suggest we go for:
Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd)

Good grief, that's far too much business talk for this evening. Everybody get back to singing into beans cans and the like.

Multi-disciplinary

2008-07-24T13:59:00.005+01:00

I missed the vote, but I'd go for IML out of the three.

In the world of academia, it would probably be called Pan-Continental Cross-Pollinating Inter-Species Medi-Lab Music Studies or perhaps The Philosophy of Comparative Lab Music. Once the album is finished, I shall encourage some student study groups to pick a suitable modular name and spend successive terms in sustained analysis.

I'll report back with the results.

The internet vs the book

2008-07-20T20:35:00.003+01:00

Having finished the Galileo track I'm now moving onto Alberto Santos-Dumont, the aviator with an exciting life. I don't just want to read potted biographies of him online though. I'm hankering after something a bit more fleshed out. I've found a couple of books and have ordered a biog which will be with me shortly. In the meantime though I stumbled across:
http://books.google.com/ which for any of our scientists produces some rich pickings. I urge anyone that is still scrabbling around for lyrical inspiration to tap their scientists into the search and see what pops up. The site (if you haven't used it) returns limited scans of printed books on any subject you can think of. It also highlights popular passages from any particular books you're interested in. All good for writing lyrics methinks. Too tired to research or write tonight though. I've just helped run a 2 hour long pirate party for 16 tiny pirates. I'm also covered in lizards (or they maybe geckos).

Spain in the arse

2008-07-19T21:36:00.003+01:00

Hello Boys (oops - a bit too Eva Herzagovia that) Greg here. Sorry about the flouncy name - it's a fixed display name due to my business sideline (proof that the middle classes are having to moonlight just to afford the basics such as school fees and 4x4 road taxes) - anyway, thought I'd sign in and share a few random points in this blog thing. Firstly, great work Barn in getting this thing going. It's lovely to feel involved musically again and to be doing something that could have so easily have remained at the 3 pint pubchat stage for years.

So, after doing a bog-standard Brazil Beat meets Hugo Montenegro meets Cliff and the Shadows backing track with the second oldest Universal it was a pleasure to receive Jools' Spanish track to compose lyrics over. I must have given the track 40 or 50 listens before cementing any musical or lyrical ideas - the track was full of these luscious little counter melodies that deserved vocal melodies that intertwined respectfully within them. I imagine that most of us would have felt, on hearing the quality of the instrumentals, that there was a little bit of pressure on in coming up with something that was of matching and appropriate quality and tone.

I started on the lyrics by listening to Randy Newman - check his stunning 'In Germany before the War' from the Little Criminals album as a study of character, time and culture. Anyway, this turned out to be a mistake as I realised I could never produce a biography in song that would come anyway near this ball park. The next approach was to go through Ulloa's (Jool's chosen scientist) life and look for a key moment or emotion that the song could spring from. This proved more fruitful. I wonder if others have approached it in this way? Anyway, try as I could, the romantic element ended up creeping in, partly due to the romantic, to the point of erotic it must be said, nature of Jool's passionate Spanish music. The song is now one of yearning, the scientist caught between his calling, his patriotism and his love.

Just read this back... what am I doing? it's Saturday night. Should get the old Spanish scientist out of my head and concentrate on the wife.

Oh..

she's gone....

The Art of Cover... Art

2008-07-18T16:52:00.002+01:00

Multiple-tasking all week, sneaking a few minutes here-n-there in the studio to mix vocals. Frustrated by our studio's rubbish Protools plug-in bundle (!) - can't afford the VST upgrade (!) Also wrangling with designs for Superheroes artwork - as well as a logo prototype for the organisation.

This project is proving interesting. Managed to regale someone with a concise history of Albert Hofmann t'other day - John C Lilly is much harder to describe... dolphin intelligence... flotation tanks... E.C.C.O!

The good doctor is heading to Japan

2008-07-17T22:12:00.003+01:00

I've just had the pleasure of finishing off the mix of Nick's Doctor Robotnik track which is now winging its way across to Japan for vocal flourishes. I can't wait to hear what it sounds like when it comes home again.

I managed to finish the vocal recording for Galileo last night and am now choosing from the 6 different takes which weasles and rasps to take in and which ones to consign to the recycle bin. I've also become rather fond of Garageband which despite having rubbishly under informative peak meters is a joy to use. Good grief, I hope I don't EVER get that technical about a piece of software EVER again on this blog. It really isn't supposed to be about that sort of thing.

So, a couple of weeks left to write and record lyrics (with Layla) for Greg and Rob's dancfloor opus. I can't wait.

The Loverman of Science

2008-07-12T16:02:00.003+01:00

I've been walking around Cambridge with Tim's blissful backing track (about James Chadwick, who discovered the neutron) in my (especially acquired) headphones for the last week or so. It's been an enjoyable process, dispersed with a few moments of epiphany (a few internal atoms were split, not easily cleared up).

Once I managed to stop listening to the track in and of itself (it's a grabber), and get down to the business of writing something for it, I found a vocal melody pretty quickly. However, the trickiest job was that of lyrical content. I delved into the Chadwick biography looking for answers.

It seems he was a very handsome scientist. It must have been a burden for the poor sod being so handsome and so clever (helping to create the good old atomic bomb surely must have generated its own burden, too), when the stereotype demanded that he look like an ogre with Black Death mascara. I fathomed that he kicked up somewhat of a fuss at Cambridge with his slick hair and slippery-looking lips (I bet he called all women "doll"). Rutherford, his more famous professor, looks like a plump duck with a moustache in comparison.

Thus, I decided to loosely allegorise Chadwick's scientific achievements in the very different world of the romantic chase, with Chadwick cast as his own neutron in a world contaminated by his own scientific enquiry. However, in order to mask my own inability to grasp the simple scientific concepts, I have pumped the narrative full of elusive imagery and stayed close to his personal as well as to his professional biography, at times totally bastardising both. I'm hoping the result will be a rich and ambiguous retelling rather than scientific heresy or libelous fiction.

We shall see if it works. Brownio has agreed to host my endeavour on Tuesday. Thankfully, the children will be in bed.

2008-07-11T23:09:00.002+01:00

Recording vocals tonight at the studio in Milwaukee. Intern Chris Weidman is going to engineer me - poor bastard. This is going to be a real challenge, especially with the direction I've decided to take with the John Lilly song vocals (!)

2008-07-11T22:56:00.002+01:00

Spent 2 days this week reading tons of material on Albert Hofmann and John Lilly - online biographies, websites and delved into the key written works of both scientists. The sweltering humidity and violent thunder-storms outside, combined with multiple accounts of LSD experimentation, sensory deprivation and pan-dimensional coincidence police, left me feeling like I'd just had a trip; exhausted but infinitely wiser.

God! Its so hard writing serious lyrics! Especially for the John Lilly song, for he is a silly man. My Windows Speech robot voice has gone mental - he sounds like he has a Mid-West accent - fitting, as Lily was born in St Paul Minnesota. This key is just out of my comfortable range. Having trouble not making this sound interesting (my vox - not the music.)

Talked Kelly into singing on Dan's Albert Hofmann track - originally wanted to do some Melodyne/Autotune stuff to make it jive with the (awesome) production of the backing track - but now I'm thinking it might be cooler to just let it flow, natural like.

Creating the mood

2008-07-10T22:07:00.004+01:00

Having now recorded a subtley written version of the Galileo song, in a mannered and well engineered fashion, I've now recorded a counter version, lying on my front to make it harder to sing, and by pitching to a melody that is beyond my range. This version of the song was recorded with sillier lyrics and has led to a quite frankly insane rendition, which, although perhaps amusing, destroys the beauty of the original song. I think Rob's approach to actually doing some research before leaping in may pay off.

I've now written a third version which amalgamates the two approaches I've taken so far. I've just got to decide whether to record it whilst lying on my front, or by the regular method of standing up. Decisions decisions. Oh yes, the lying on the front thing (plus turning the lights out before I recorded) were all attempts to create a different mood in the room before recording. Given that I was recording in our utility room, it wasn't a very inspiring view with the lights on.

Having written some lyrics and recorded some vocals...

2008-07-08T18:42:00.003+01:00

...are they good enough? The dangers of writing over the top of someone else's creation. If I'd recorded the music myself, OK would have been good enough, but given I'm writing over someone else's toil. I've got to just try harder! I'm happy enough with the tone of the lyrics and most of the delivery but I just feel there's something missing. I think maybe, it all needs to be a little, dare I say it, crazier? Not knowing how everyone else is going to write it's difficult to tell whether this track will be the calm bit in the middle... or not. Time will tell.

Writing lyrics over someone else's song

2008-07-06T16:11:00.003+01:00

I've got to write some lyrics about Galileo over a beautiful piece of music written by Oli Hayhurst. At first I did some research about the great man (Galileo that is, though Oli is a great man as well) and then I started listening to the track, a lot.

I'm new to this approach to song writing having normally written the melody, chords etc. at the same time as writing lyrics. So my process has been to:
- work out the tempo, time signature etc.
- work out the basic structure (verses, choruses, breakdowns etc.)
- write some suitable lyrics (subject wise - they don't scan with the track yet)
- write a melody line over the top of the track

And then to where I am now. Cutting up, condensing the lyrics/ideas so they fit with the melody I've written. The chorus melody is already there in the piece Oli wrote and great is to, a really nice timing for vocal delivery.

The key points of Galileo's life seem to boil down to experimentation, telescopes, catholicism, house arrest, death. Should be a very positive song then... He was a devote Catholic, never I think questioning his faith even when it landed him arrested for knowing the earth revolved around the sun. He denounced his Copernican theories by request of the Spanish Inquisition, a good self-preservation technique I think. Most importantly though, and is the case with many of the scientists on this album, he had a great beard.

The project so far

2008-07-06T11:19:00.000+01:00

The idea of Superheroes of Science is to record an album with like minded friends from around the world with a lot of love, and very fast. Well, quite fast. So far we have all picked some scientists and recorded instrumental songs based around them. Now we're swapping them round, and are going to write and record vocal tracks over each others tracks. So far there have been all sorts of things to consider, which songs would suit which vocal styles, which scientists would fit different lyricists life experiences (I'm joking alright, we're not taking it that seriously).

Anyway, on to stage 2. There are a couple more tracks to come in for distribution and then we've got until the end of this month to write and record the vocals. We'll have the album finished within the next couple of months and will distribute it for free here.