Probably Just My Music Now TBH

[ayxh]

We made an album (in a month) again yay! Pls have a listen :3

[trisshawkeye]

🚨 New Softwire album klaxon! 🚨

You know the drill - new delightfully eclectic music from our favourite We’re-A-Software-Company-We’re-Not-Supposed-To-Have-Fans band! All proceeds go towards Youth Music!

Tune in to enjoy: 

Grow Grow: extremely peppy plant cheer-leading in 12-bar blues.

¡Jorge!: compelling epic tale about a glassmaker in creation of the perfect mirror at the behest of a king.

Easy Ways To Survive The Apocalypse: another unhinged rock opera with a persuasive argument for joining an eldritch cult in the event of the world ending. Nothing to worry about.

Bye Bye, University: an ode to failing a maths exam (RIP).

And nine other fun tracks - give them a listen!

[scoobyben]

I was gonna post about this album but I’ve been beaten to it, thanks for the shout out!  Just wanted to cover that not only do all proceeds go to Youth Music, but that our company will be matching said proceeds for the first month or so of sales, so there’s no better time to purchase a copy but now! Youth Music do great work helping young people from less privileged backgrounds gain the opportunity to make, learn, and earn from music, so feels like the perfect place to funnel anything we might make from our own musical efforts :) 

[scoobyben]

I don't know if this tumblr is still in use but could you perhaps talk more about love shines strong from half-sin half-virtue? it always made me feel a certain way and I'd like to know more about it!

I don’t have much to say about it, but it’s one of the few songs of mine that’s entirely based on real experiences of my life rather than assuming a character for the protagonist of the song. 

It’s about my grandma, who died in 2013. I think the only part of it that’s a bend of the truth is ‘As I strum this old banjo you left me’ - I wasn’t actually directly left a banjo, but I did buy my banjo with money I inherited from her, so it’s only very mild creative license.

[scoobyben]

helloo sorry if this is annoying but I just wanted to ask if you have any bass tabs available for any of the songs on half sin half virtue? your songs have such cool basslines & I’d love to be able to learn some of them :D!! i hope you’re having a great day too & i really love your work!!

Sorry but I don’t have any tabs for anything :(  I very rarely write anything (other than lyrics) down, and when I do it will be chords or structure rather than specific parts. This comes with the downside of having to re-learn all my own songs if I ever want to pick them up again after I’ve released them :P But I pick things up fairly well by ear, and have the advantage of having written them in the first place so having some memory of playing the original parts 

[scoobyben]

Any chance for the Song a Week stuff to make it's way on Spotify et al? 👀

I don’t plan to I’m afraid: I’d like to keep my Spotify presence a little more consistent in terms of quality, master volume, and coherency, which are all things that the song a week collections lack consistency in What I might consider is one day collating a ‘best-of’ of songaweeks that fit together into a vaguely coherent album structure, and re-recording them with a bit more care and attention than they got in the rushed week-long period the started as. Don’t hold me to this, as it’s something that requires a lot of free time, of which I have little - but if I was to do it one day it would be cool to know which of the song-a-weeks other people think are deserving of spots on the best-of; whether that’s through Tumblr, or reviews on Bandcamp (which include a ‘favorite song’) feature :) 

[scoobyben]

I made another album, for February Album Writing Month 2023!

https://www.benbelow.bandcamp.com/album/land-of-dreams

[scoobyben]

Now added lyrics to the Bandcamp page, and kicked off the process for getting it on Spotify et al, so should be available there shortly 🥳

[scoobyben]

I made another album, for February Album Writing Month 2023!

https://www.benbelow.bandcamp.com/album/land-of-dreams

[scoobyben]

weird question maybe , but ive had Expiration Date on loop recently. the genius lyrics website says the lyric is "walk to the expiration date", but i swear it says "work to the expiration date". please oh please settle this debate between me and popular lyric analysis website genius.com

I think it varies between “work to the expiration date” and “work to my expiration date”, but it’s definitely “work” in both instances!

[scoobyben]

Would you want to have an ask sent that’s just like,, my favorite of your songs and my general thoughts on them or would that be annoying?

Absolutely! I always like to hear which of my songs people think have worked well, especially as it doesn’t always tend to line up with the ones I think of as better 👀

[dying-signals]

Friendly reminder that it’s bandcamp Friday on March 5th, so it’s the perfect time to buy Softwire’s new albums Wavelength & Frequency, where all of the sales go to Youth Music!

[scoobyben]

Hi there Mr. Below! Sorry if this is an annoying question, I was just wondering: which of your songs/albums (either your personal stuff or Softwire) would you say are stylistically similar to Half Sin Half Virtue? I've been looping the album for about 3 days straight at this point and I want to get into your other stuff but my adhd is very picky with what is going to give enough Dopamine™ for me to be able to listen to the whole thing (otherwise I get through maybe a minute before I'm antsy and have to start a new one)

Again, apologies if I'm being annoying. Have a great day!!

Interesting question, I’ll have a scan over! I don’t *particularly* know how to categorise HSHV - I think the leading genre is probably on the rockier side (the first few songs especially), and more of a trend is that the songs are a bit more polished than the average song a week. As such as a general recommendation, the later song-a-week albums are likely to be closer

Going through the song a week albums that might scratch the same itch:

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/my-favourite-colour - not particularly the same vibe, but a fun song

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/spaceman - on the rock side, not as polished as the later stuff but not awful

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/space-is-an-ocean - quite spacey, might be similar to the opener of HSHV

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/tell-me-honestly

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/wait-for-me

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/race-the-rivers

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/warp-speed - again similar to Birth of  a Nebula, more so I think this time

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/agitation - this is probably one of the closest tracks to the rock style of HSHV!

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/my-lot-in-life

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/sorry-im-reckless-2 - another decent rock track

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/a-drop-of-bravado - written about the same time, a week or two before the FAWM challenge

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/when-traditions-gone

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/truthteller- folkier one, maybe a bit like Wayfarer

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/the-ocean-thirsts

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/river-of-time

https://benbelow.bandcamp.com/track/self-spurned-lover

Hope there’s something useful in that link spam!

[ayxh]

jk we released two this month

[ayxh]

Hey so we released an album

[scoobyben]

There’s been a few notes recently on some of my old songaweek auto-posts from Soundcloud, but I’ve been cleaning out a lot of old tracks from Soundcloud to free up space - everything songaweek has made it across to my bandcamp though!

[jackalopearts]

Ulysses Dies at Dawn

[jackalopearts]

Fuck you, and fuck your train!

[the-mechanisms]

The Mechanisms - Other Projects

The Mechanisms are dead, long live The Mechanisms! Curious about our solo projects?

Jonny “D’Ville” Sims writes the unsettling and award winning horror fiction anthology podcast “The Magnus Archives”, and also plays the narrator “Jonathan Sims” (sounds familiar…) You can find it here if you need more of more of his terrifying imagination and storytelling. Follow him on twitter @jonnywaistcoat for all his exploits.

The Toy Soldier as Jessica Law has an impressive discography which can be found here on bandcamp and all your favourite streaming services. Follow her on twitter, facebook, or sign up to her mailing list to keep up to date with her latest madcap schemes. Her newest project is musical storytelling concept album based on the bizarre Italian epic poem Orlando Furioso - get a taste here. 

Kofi Young still has stories to tell, beginning with a final farewell to Marius. Keep an eye out for Kofi’s upcoming album, working title “The Death of Byron von Raum.” It’s a potentially dangerous blend of Folk rock and Mecha anime. Until then, check out his song “Shrove Tuesday” on Bandcamp

“Gunpowder” Tim Ledsam makes music with the most musical software company Softwire along with our very own Drumbot - find them on Spotify or Bandcamp. The duo also have an album in the pipeline tentatively titled “Wizards, Wizards, Wizards”, and have an as-yet unnamed band in the works with some non-crew members.

The ever prolific Drumbot Ben Below has written a song a week without without missing a beat since 2016. Listen to them on Bandcamp and you might hear some other Mechanisms pop up too. And not limiting himself to just one timespan, he also wrote an album in a month as part of a similar, but entirely different, songwriting challenge - which can be found on streaming services. And if you were ever curious about the Drumbot’s infamous morality switch then more will be revealed in his upcoming album, working title “The Wanderings of Drumbot Brian”

Raphaella La Cognizi and the Drumbot have teamed up to release an album in the genre of “sad robot” which can be found on their bandcamp. R L Cognizi/Hughes also has more sci-fi concept music to share with her album “Lolina: Origins” with all your favourite Mechanisms collaborators. If you follow her facebook some news is rumoured to arrive shortly of a new album that is shockingly not set in space. And if you’re interested in her day job supporting the next generation of LGBTIQA+ young musicians in Oxford, the birthplace of The Mechanisms, find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/mynormaloxford/ and throw some money to the noble cause if you like here: http://www.ark-t.org/welcome-to-the-ark-t-centre/support-us/supporting-the-ark-t/