Open Source Music
Except as noted, works on carlaz.com linked from this page are licensed under a Creative Commons License. See my Licensing Information page for details.

Words to the Wind - MP3 - FLAC - Lyrics (RTF) - Drums (.dbsong)
This was always my favorite Ossian's Ride song; though credited democratically to the whole band, it was basically my music and Darcy's words. I love the main riff (if I do say so myself), and even trotted it out to be played instrumentally in Das Ludicroix's set at the Strange Daze 1999 festival. So I'm pretty pleased to at last be getting a new version of the song put together. Admittedly, it's a work in progress. The guitar solos were tossed off hastily between mouthfuls of cereal at breakfast, while the (not very good) vocals were quickly slapped down at lunch (while the neighbours were far, far away ;) The current version uses the sample spaceship.aif (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=8114 by fonogeno (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=5190); at the time of writing, this sample is available under a Creative Commons License. It's all pretty rough so far, but I like the vibe.

Afterburner - MP3 - FLAC - lyrics (TXT)
Straight-up space-rockin' and shamelessly derivative in a Hawkwind-meets-Kyuss-and-Monster-Magnet kind of way. (And so, quite good fun :) This version is completely unmixed; just the guitar, bass, drum machine, and vocal mic straight into my VS-1680 (and, uh, back out through the monitor jacks to the laptop to make the MP3!). The (very rudimentary) drum track was slapped together in Doggiebox (in about 3 minutes!), but Mark Wooding used the "drums only" MP3 to record his own version; he's made his tab availble (he uses a dropped-D tuning, whereas I just tuned everything down :) A live version played by the The Hibachi Dealers is linked from my Hibachi Dealers page. Sorry about the metronomic clicks at the beginning and in the middle! I'll take them out some day ....

Hassan I Sabha - MP3 - FLAC
Knocked up in 24 hours over New Years 2005-2006, this is a cover of the classic Hawkwind track. I did it all in GarageBand, doing the guitars/basses/vox myself and using free Apple or 3rd-party loops for everything else, except for a few audio samples that I shamelessly slurped off the Internet. So, this may violate all kinds of copyright regulations, and if anyone official asks me to take it down, I will. But it was done for fun, isn't for sale, and seems strangely appropriate in the current socio-political climate (much as it did in the '70s, I suppose!). Natch, if you like this one, you should go buy all the various official Hawkwind versions. There: I can't say fairer than that about a cover!

On the Hill - MP3 - FLAC
I think of this as "Black Öyster Tull" but, to be brutally honest, it's more sub-Spinal-Tap :) This version was recorded in GarageBand, with doubled guitar tracks, very cheezy Hammondesque organ (yeah, MIDI, of course!), and extremely dodgy vocals :) There's also an older version recorded on my VS-1680 power-trio style: just guitar/bass (tuned down to D), drums, and even more extremely dodgy (if possible!) vocals. On both versions, drums were programmed in Doggiebox, the old version with ns_kit7 (free) but the new version with ns_kit7 (full). I've also played this song live with The Hibachi Dealers.

The Colour Out of Space - MP3 - FLAC - lyrics (RTF)
I wrote this song (based on the H.P. Lovecraft story of the same name) originally for Ossian's Ride, but we never really rehearsed it, and I didn't even manage to record during in the Scylding sessions. Now, at long last, the awful truth can (begin to) be told! :) I've done bits of recording for this using both the VS-1680 and GarageBand; the version here is from the latter. So far, I'm pretty happy with the opening verses: the sloppy placeholder guitar solo has an OK vibe and the vocals are, well, as good as I could manage off-hand! But then things kind of drift to a stop, so I need to sort out what happens there in the middle (where the piece currently "ends"), after which there'll be a return to the riff/verse/chorus thing to wrap things up .... But at least there's a start now!

Over the Wine-Dark Sea - MP3
My wife Paola and I have been contemplating an Eastern Mediterranean cruise this summer, so we've been filling our heads with history and archaeology in anticipation of seeing lots of cool ancient stuff. ("A time when much of the world looked like the cover of the Led Zeppelin album Houses of the Holy .... Many steps and columns .... Most tranquil!" as Bill & Ted have so cogently observed.) Anyway, because of this (and, perhaps, anticipation of the Heaven & Hell Live tour), I came up with this riff to form the core a bombastic "epic metal" song. Right now, it's just double-tracked guitars over a drum-loop and some synth wash, all done in GarageBand. There's not even any bass yet, nor any lyrics. Perhaps I'll come up with some after sailing επι οινοπα ποντον ....

Jumpgate - MP3 - FLAC
I've run into a lot of space-rock-influenced musicians on the web recently, though many seem to being going down the path of electronica than of good ol' blanga. So I decided to sit down with some drum loops from BetaMonkey Drum Werks VII and GarageBand and see how fast I could kick out some no-frills space-rock. A few hours later, I had this :) It could use some more arrangement and some vocals, but there's the nub of a song in there! Fun to play, too :)

Anvil of Ice - MP3
Having access to a MIDI keyboard is very dangerous -- it brings out my (not very deeply hidden) penchant for the pompous and wildly overblown :) This is another GarageBand experiment, mostly a synthy intro that just about gets some riffs going before it tumbles to a halt. Just need to find the time to stack up more riffs and pretentious noises in a kind of "Amorphis meets The Gathering" way. ;) Pre-emptive apologies to the excellent Mike Scott Rohan for having nicked his cool title. (You should go read his book, since it's much better than my music :)

Come Away - MP3 FLAC
I started humming this while walking home, and after a few short sessions with GarageBand scattered over a weekend, I've got the makings of a song. Its all loops, really -- some stock Apple or free 3rd party, and some played in myself with basic GarageBand presets. Plus, it has a synthetic church bell -- what's not to like!? :) All I've got to do now is write some words and record the vox sometime! No idea why I named it "Come Away", though ....

Coco Loco - AAC/M4A - MP3 - (zipped GarageBand project)
I wanted to make some kind of "gringolatino" jammin' party music. Having (obviously) no experience at this :) it was GarageBand to the rescue! This track is made wholly with stock Apple loops, excepting for some twiddles to the settings of some software bass to change it from acoustic to electric and a couple of percussion hits. I left space on it for eventual vocals and guitar stabs, widdles, and solos (the cheezy sax parts are sort of guitar stab placeholders). When I played it for my (Colombian) wife, she exclaimed "¡Es como la música de CHiPs!". And she kinda has a point :)

Bad Man - MP3
This came out of a jam on the main riff from ye olde Grand Funk Railroad classic "Sin's a Good Man's Brother", but then changed into something else along the way. So I've appropriated it as my own and dubbed it "Bad Man". This somewhat embryonic version was recorded in GarageBand with a stock Apple piano loop as the intro, then power-trio style guitar and bass with drums from Doggiebox. From its current ending, point I plan for it to launch into a rockin' groovin' jam before ultimately returning to the big main riff.

Thunderbird - MP3 - .dbsong
This demo is just one guitar and one bass (both very rough sounding) a Doggiebox drum part. I like the riffs (which I came up with back in the Ossian's Ride days) but need to tweak the arrangement a bit ... and write some words!

A Touch of Doom - MP3 (demo)
This is a brief clip I made for the Bare Knuckle Pickups "Players" forum as a demo of the Crawler humbuckers I put in my Gibson LP Standard in early 2006. I had been listening to Tony Iommi riffs all day, so I tuned down to C# and hammered this out. It's just double tracked guitars over drum loops (no bass), and I've no idea whether I've actually ripped off an existing Iommi riff or whether it's just an amalgamation "in the style of", but it was fun to play! I oughta do something with it some time ....

Energy - MP3
This is a kind of initial musical sketch for a hippyfied, uptempo rocker. The semi-jangly intro is two guitars here, though it could become guitar/piano .... I'm not totally sure if it will not mutate some more, yet. The verse is gonna kinda pedal on D and C (at the moment, this is indicated by a continuing loop of one of the intro riffs). The pre-chorus climb and 5-4-1-ish chorus were kind of hastily slammed out and tacked on, but they give the idea. In my mind (though not in the sketch) there will be a kind of "modal descarga" in the song's middle that will lead back to the intro riff before a final verse/chorus. So there's some way to go yet :)

SuperCat - MP3
These are just some riffs I recorded quick'n'dirty straight onto my laptop via the onboard microphone. Still needs drums, lyrics .... to be turned into a song, basically :) And having recorded it a couple of years ago, I now have no idea why I named it "SuperCat"!

Sugar'n'Spice - MP3
No, I have no idea how this got its name either. Still needs drums, lyrics, etc.

Music Gear
Everything on this page was recorded with my little collection of music gear -- minimalist, perhaps, but it does the job :) All I need to do now is learn how to use it!

Many of the percussion parts in songs on this page were programmed in the excellent Doggiebox using samples from either ns_kit7 (free) or (more recently) ns_kit7 (full). I constructed a Doggiebox dbkit for ns_kit7 (free) which (after the .zip file is decompressed) you can link to the freely downloadable ns_kit7free WAVs. If that's too much like work, you can probably get a long way with the ready-made 70sLudwigKit_vII.dbkit. If you actually have ns_kit7 (full) (and have downsampled the appropriate files to 44.1, which is all the current version of Doggibox can handle), you can use Doggiebox dbkit for ns_kit7 (full).

I've stuck a few of my tracks onto a MySpace page as well.