Welcome back fellows monks! The sun is shining, spring is here, and we're back with another monthly weekend session.

‍

In case you missed out, Nordi gave us "Don't Let It, Gone" at the end of March and Bored City Blog wrote an insightful review about it (in addition, The Pit London interviewed him and also made a review but this time about "Tales"). 

This past Saturday Nordi presented us with "Here & Now" – available on your preferred music hub of election 🧸

‍

Travelling during the bank holiday almost proved to be a catastrophe... Once I (Miguel) got to Euston station, the whole place was fully packed due to several delays caused by an incident at Milton Keynes station. Luckily, my train to Northampton was one of the few unaffected, departing on time. 

‍

For the first and second sessions on Friday (1st May) and Saturday (2nd May), respectively, we decided to go back to work on "Cultus". It's been such a long time since we touched on these tracks and they really needed to be pushed forward.

‍

"Hecatomb" has been restructured with the bass lines and drum beats as the driving force for the vocals (yet to be added). Furthermore, the two contrasting BPMs offer an interesting change of pace and intention to the listener.

‍

"1666" had its ideas all over the place, so the song was structured according to the modern hip-hop bouncy beat made on the MPC software. Now, it's a short, yet intentional beat ready for some energetic flows!

‍

"Mr Blagreen" had the acoustic guitar re-recorded following the sketched idea that was in the project. Stairstep added his sung verse and a drum beat to the track, whilst Nordi added his rap verses. Finally, a sample featuring an inspiring speech by Neemias Queda (Portuguese NBA basketball player) was included in the outro section.

‍

"Desabafo" had Nordi re-writing some of his lyrics and re-recording all the verses. Moreover, the main bassline was created (we were enjoying this one so much that we weren't even realising the bass was missing haha). Finally, in the same breath as "Mr Blagreen", a speech-type sample was added and edited to the project, suggesting how (some) people back home don't value our culture enough.

‍

For the last monthly weekend session on Sunday (3rd May), we developed one last track from "Cultus" called "Well" – this one was nearly created from scratch as we only had a piano as the basis of the track, and an electric guitar riff on the chorus section. Nordi created some picturesque 80's Pop keys mixed with some danceable Deep House beats, while Stairstep recorded some catchy chorus vocals and created some sample chops from 80s and 90s American TV adverts on the SP404.

‍

Lastly, we wrote the lyrics and started recording the vocals for "Punk!" for next year's compilation - LIFT.

‍

Around 8pm, Rafael dropped me off at Northampton's train station where I took the train back to London.

‍

We're taking a summer break from sessions in June, as we're taking some holidays to travel in Europe. 

Expect us to be back in July with the "aVANT gARDE" compilation.

Until then stay safe, fellow monks!

‍