Lightspeed by gingerjamesfair
‘Lightspeed’ is more of a compilation of various recordings than a dedicated recording session. The songs are in varied states of completion, including unfinished and unmixed, sometimes creatively abandoned. I’ve tried to create some kind of cohesiveness in this collection, but it was never originally conceived as a whole project. The recordings span many years. The earliest would be 2005 (‘Fools’ and ‘Pray To Myself’), and the latest in 2009 (‘Let Sleeping Dogs Lie’). Sometimes the songs didn’t fit the tone of the album they were prepared for, such as the bonus track ‘Let’s Be Together At The End’, which was intended for ‘Sagittarius’. On other occasions there are the demo recordings. I believe the value of ‘Lightspeed’ lies in the creative ideas rather than the finished execution.
After the recording of ‘My Piranha’ and ‘Sagittarius’ I still had fifteen tracks that were unused, of which four appear on here. The remainder were recorded during a very rapid period of song writing in 2009, where I wrote seventeen tracks and posted them online in the form of three E.P.s, called ‘Small Things’, ‘Sober Songs’ and ‘Lightspeed’. I favoured imperfect immediacy in my recordings instead of the polished delivery of ‘Sagittarius’, and produced some of my favourite songs, most noticeably ‘Small Things’ and ‘Treptower Park’ (where you can hear someone logging into Skype in the background). Some of the earlier tracks include Larry Smith’s influence and contribution, especially his drumming upon ‘No-one Likes Liars’ and ‘Pray To Myself’.
Compiling these tracks into one playlist has been cathartic and brings closure to these recordings from my twenties. The intention was never to get famous or rich from these songs, but simply to express myself and be creative. I learnt a lot from the process of writing, recording, and on rare occasions, performing live (I have never been keen on performing live because of my own insecurity about my musical ability).
In the autumn of 2009 I decided to stop playing music for a few years so that I could focus on filmmaking and other ambitions.
James
Tracklist
| 1. | four fifths your friend, one fifth your enemy | 2:04 |
| 2. | Treptower Park | 1:44 |
| 3. | Best Intentions Gone Wrong | 2:53 |
| 4. | Can We Share Out The Blame? | 3:14 |
| 5. | Newark To New York | 2:10 |
| 6. | eBay Addiction | 1:53 |
| 7. | Small Things | 3:10 |
| 8. | Let Sleeping Dogs Lie | 2:27 |
| 9. | Up Yours Sincerely | 2:58 |
| 10. | Pray To Myself | 2:05 |
| 11. | Fools | 2:08 |
Credits
Recorded between 2005-2009 in various locations. All songs written by James Fair. Performed and recorded by James Fair and Larry Smith.
