Tuesday, May 26, 2009

New Songs!

Well, I haven't posted on this since July 2007, haha! But I guess its still an active site, people are still listening to the old songs posted on the side of this page. I guess I should redirect you to a new website with my latest recordings on them:

http://danficken.rpmchallenge.com/

Pat Canning was nice enough to write a decent review of it, which was really nice of him to do considering he generally does not hold back on his reviews, good or bad. I don't have the URL of his blog handy, but I will direct you to his site: http://www.patrickcanning.ca

He wrote: "A familiar face on the downtown scene; solo 12 string instrumentalist Dan Ficken took this February to record his album "From Tanks to Tractors". It is a nice meditative outing that showcases Dan's lush and nuanced playing, and it also showcases something most people familiar with Dan Fickens work wouldn't expect; that is Dan's singing. I don't think Dan is that used to it either, but his voice is soft and friendly enough that it works. I'm listening to it here at work (I'm also writing this when I should be working, but what odds) and this is an ideal relaxation and ignoring-the-disgusting-office-work-piling-up-and-
destroying-your-precious-youth-before-you-ever-really-got-to-enjoy-it disc."

Thanks Pat. Also I sent the following message to my contact list, I guess to describe the recordings I made for the RPM Challenge (where musicians and bands were challenged to record an album of unreleased material in one month:February)

"It was a rush job since I had to record this in February and I was out of town for at least half of February and my roommate wanted to watch hockey games in my recording studio all the time, but considering, it actually sounds not too bad at all (first song has a lower volume though careful)

Forewarned: there are some vocals in this set, some of them are cheezy and I haven't quite gotten the alleycat out of my voice yet, haha, but anyway it's all good, a little more practice and you won't notice ;)

I am a sound "nerd". These are medium quality MP3's, they won't let me post anything worth downloading in my opinion, but you can hear them right on the webpage in an at least listenable form. Headphones or external speakers are recommended though if you are using a laptop."

Anyway, for those of you who still find your way to this outdated site, enjoy, and thanks for visiting (I still haven't posted Black Water, like my post from 2007 said, but maybe one day ;)