igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)
I had a weird Voiceplay dream (probably due to an overdose of YouTube coupled with being too hot in bed, which always give me nightmares). Weird mainly because I don't generally dream about real people that I haven't met, and Voiceplay in particular don't normally inhabit my sleeping hours, with the exception of a one-off dream where Geoff Castellucci was manufacturing level crossing keys :-D

Read more... )
igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)


Not their latest, but I actually like it better than Geoff's backlit black leather "God Rest Ye Merry" (it's a trifle distracting hearing an ancient carol being sung with American whoa-ohs, as well).

But I have very definitely fallen down the Geoff Castellucci/Voiceplay rabbit hole in the last few months.
(As have several hundred thousand other people, looking at the shift in their subscriber numbers... :-)

[Edit: tens of thousands. Apparently I can't keep track of significant figures!]
igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)
I've been working on my lower range (inspired by Geoff Castellucci -- although not by any of the techniques he describes using, which I did play around with but produced no results, but more by various things vocal coaches suggested when listening to him!) and managed to discover an extra three or four chest notes I literally didn't know I had, which can come out quite strongly if I just manage to arrange my larynx into the proper place. Likewise the bottom two or three notes that I nominally had before, but were never very reliable: as a result, my 'practice range' has suddenly expanded by almost an octave and I can feel my ribcage vibrating! Read more... )

I have to say I was rather surprised by the degree of suggestiveness in the lyrics for Horatio Nicholls' The Darling of the Guards, which I picked up at random during these experiments: given that the contemporary Dancing on the Ceiling was censored for lines like "At night I creep in bed/But never sleep in bed" and describing the singer as being underneath the counterpane with "my love/Up above", I'm more than a little amazed that lyrics which distinctly appear to suggest that the titular 'Darling' is having it off with all and sundry every night made it into print! (Presumably the difference between what you could broadcast on the BBC and what you could publish as printed music... but I can certainly picture Mae West or Marie Lloyd having a field day with the implications in this one.)

lyrics )
igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)
You know you've been watching too much Voiceplay when you have a dream about Geoff Castellucci helping turn out spare keys for an imaginary holiday cottage using a lathe on your back lawn... (Not sure why my subconscious cast him as the handyman type -- must have been the Sixteen Tons video!) I believe they were actually level crossing keys, as it was supposed to be a converted station house :-)

(I was taken aback to discover that the average American apparently isn't acquainted with the name 'Geoff' and can't pronounce it; I didn't realise that Webster's spelling changes had gone as far as to re-render 'Geoffrey' as 'Jeffery' for the US market...)
igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)


Voiceplay meets Pirates of the Caribbean (and 'breaks the reactors', apparently -- I didn't even know 'reactors' were a thing until I saw the comments, but I suppose it makes as much sense as YouTube channels consisting of people watching other people play computer games :-p And some of those reactions are definitely entertaining...)
igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)
I recently came across singer Geoff Castellucci and was very impressed. He is not just a spectacularly low bass singer but has a lovely upper range (he calls himself a baritone who happens to have a bass range) added to a soaring falsetto which means he can basically multi-track himself into an entire barbershop quartet. And he also happens to have an expressive, humorous face and acting talent to go with it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzlT80jQ3lo

Brilliant production of the "Oogie Boogie Song" from "Nightmare Before Christmas" (a film I don't even much like...) starring Geoff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiTguw5lBHM

[Edit: and "The Headless Horseman" as well. It's not just good singing, it's good performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rrg0ksSQdw ]


Also, Freddie Mercury sings soprano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gO8rPCBo8o
I was never much impressed by his famous collaboration with Montserrat Caballé (which just makes the artificiality of opera all the more incongruous), but this is astonishing -- this must be what the great castrati sounded like, neither the ethereal tone of a counter-tenor nor the clarion ring of a tenor, but the soprano range with a full male physique behind it.

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igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)
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