For all disenchanted SMiLE fanatics

[Stephen Newcombe]

Hi, this is Stephen Newcombe

Some of you may have heard my album, The Wrong Button. It was released a few years back, and I was very honoured when Darian Sahanaja said it was one of the best things he'd ever heard. (sorry Darian, but I'll be living off that one for a while yet!)

I am a SMiLE fanatic. Like many of you I spent a lot of my time trying to work out the SMiLE puzzle. Then came BWPS. As much as I love the 2004 release, I know the 1967 album would have been a far different animal. 

I miss the magic, so I am creating my own musical jigsaw puzzle

I am doing this for all the disenchanted SMiLE fanatics out there.

It will be in the form of a trilogy. Three albums will contain all the parts needed to form three other albums, plus a spoken interview, which will contain some clues.
The first album is called A Normal Album With Twelve Songs On It, and is being released one track at a time. The first track, "1", is available, the second nears completion.

When the puzzle is solved, you will have three very differnt albums

• a conventional twelve track album
• a funny album  in three movements
• a psychedelic album with no gaps or fades, like The Wrong Button

Songs will be chopped up, choruses lifted out and put into other songs. Each track will be full of surprises. My aim  is to make the mixed up albums very listenable. They will work musically, and the albums can be enjoyed as presented. I am basically having to write six albums at once. The puzzle albums, and the correct order albums. The term logistical nightmare was I think coined for this project. It is a huge undertaking.

My main concern early on was how to make the puzzle solvable. Obviously a waveform editor is a nessecity, a good free one can be obtained here 
http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/index.html

Track "1" for example contains parts from three different albums, but it works musically.

Like a conventional jigsaw, you will recognise pieces that belong together. Some will be very straightforward, but some will not. Fades and silences are also important. Basically, everything needed to solve the puzzle will be in the music itself. And I of course will be on hand, on this forum, to help out with littel clue-ettes when necessary. But this needs to go viral first.

I am really hoping this does go viral, any help or suggestions on this front will be gratefully recieved and remembered. I am a creative peson, not a marketing person, and I know this is a very marketable endevour.

I want to create truly 21st century music, and structure is, as always, the way forward.

To get straight to the page where my new album resides, please click here

http://www.stephennewcombe.com/Music/Music%20-%20A%20Normal%20Album%20With%20Twelve%20Songs%20On%20It.php

But please also explore the rest of my site. My first three albums, the First Trilogy, are available free on my site. My home page is
http://stephennewcombe.com/index.htm


There is a small charge for my new material, but bear in mind this is a concept which is completely new. I  may even offer a cash prize to the first person who can work out the entire puzzle

All my regards,

Stephen

[OGoldin]

I learned about your work through Warnakey, and have very much enjoyed it over the past several years.  I am glad that you are keeping up with the Smile aesthetic, and are not regressing to fun in the sun numbers!

I'm not sure that I have the time to reconstruct the puzzle, but I look forward to hearing the new completed whole.

[pancakerecords]

Glad to see you're getting new stuff out, Stephen - I really love your first three.  In fact, I stole mercilessly from your cover of "Surf's Up" when putting together my "AlternateBrianWilson Presents SMiLE" fanmix.

I'm sure I will be spending some time with this puzzle of yours once my current studio project is over.