Our recording process continues at Raskob. As before, these songs were written and performed by the kids with only a very little direction from me. It is tremendously satisfying to sit back and watch them direct themselves: “No no no, I think the shakers should come in first!” “Are you crazy? Let’s start off with the congas and then the shakers and everything else come in.” It’s lovely.

I guess today’s songs require a bit of explanation. The first track here is by Platypus Squad (remember all the names are self-chosen as well), and is remarkable because they wrote it outside, on the basketball court, with the help of a giant metal oil-drum trashcan. We can’t record outside because of poor acoustics, so when it came time to lay down this track, we did the only thing possible - brought the oil drum inside. We all loved it! Incidentally, Platypus Squad is a power trio comprised of Nick, Ducson, and Greg.
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And this one, by Shrug, is my first chance in four years of teaching music with these kids to play around with an honest-to-goodness group. On top of our regular percussion Shrug has a guitar and bass, which makes things much more challenging. It’s also, of course, more fun. Next step with these kids is to create a song with distinct verse and chorus. Shrug is Cinque, Carlo, Val, Simon, Aaron, and Kimberly.
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Click on the thumbs to see a bigger pic, and check back soon - more kids exploring new frontiers of music soon…