Harvest musical notes

Harvest starts out with chanting, drums, bells and calls from a danjiri festival, though not acually the Katsuyama 'quarrelling' shrines that inspired the tune. It took a while but I found chanting that matched the tempo of the tune, which I wanted to pulse along in the rhythm created by the crowd - hence a strong hi-hat on the quarter beats rather than my more typical eighth notes in a tune that's reasonably slow (87 bpm to be precise).

Similarly, the chanting lyrics when my vocals come in are meant to be crowd-like, then the call-and-answer style of the verses matching the danjiri festivals, where certain individuals lead the calls of their group. I had this group ethic in mind with the repeated phrases echoing each other in the outro too, which were pretty much just improvised as the recording kept going and then edited into some semblance of cohesion.

I had originally thought this tune might be all-acoustic, including all the percussion being shakers, tambourines and such. Then I jammed the bass line, which is fairly stomping if I say so myself, and couldn't go back. Kickin' drum sounds just had to go with it. The solo guitar parts, though, are a nod to this original idea, with the Mermaid Guitar itself brought into the action. It's not the easiest guitar to solo on, at least in the bluesy style of this song, having a high action to the fret-board. Worked out pretty well. The rhythm guitar parts are my Takamine and the Mermaid, each part panned hard to one side of the stereo image.

After several takes my voice was pretty shredded but I kept a lot of those later takes as the final version, a la John Lennon on Twist and Shout - nice inappropriate comparison there. Perhaps the episode of Friends where Phoebe has a cold is a better one.

The quarelling shrines

The insane custom that is the Katsuyama 'quarrelling' danjiri festival (勝山喧嘩だんじり) was one of the outstanding cultural experiences of my life in Japan. Danjiri - portable shrines dressed up to look like carts-cum-boats with branches attached - are pulled by liquored-up townsfolk in a sort of destruction derby crossed with tug of war. Just watch a bit of the video.

No surprise that one of the locals we knew told us that her husband had lost a finger, the chances of which seem pretty high even without the amount of sake and beer that is consumed in the hours proceeding the evening of the actual festivities.

The video doesn't really do the atmosphere justice. Banks of spectators crammed on either side of the street in a beautifully preserved historical precinct; chanting participants (Oii-saaa! Oii-saaa!); constant clanging of the 'shrine' bells inside the danjiri and beating of drums. Then the two danjiri are propelled by each team in a mad rush and - smack! Typically for this kind of thing, no-one really seems to care who wins. 

This was the inspiration for the November track for my album Sestu (though I know the actual event, as in the video title above, is held in October. More on the tune itself in the next post.