THE PERCOLATOR

The Percolator by Flicker.
Album: At Least 1000 Words

Fun Facts:
* The Percolator was initally composed by Dave and modified into a Flicker tune by George.
* Dave took George’s Stratocaster home to give it some TLC, and when he brought it back, this crazy tune had sprung forth from it into his hands.
* It seems to be about the vague imaginings one might have that manifest into more coherent thought after musing has occured.
* This may be nonsense though – Dave composed it initially and maybe it was just some tune.
* The time signature is very variable, so Flicker set the metronome to record in 1/8 at 150 BPM.
* This meant it had an insane amount of bars on the sequencer.
* This resulted in comments like “Let’s go back to bar 2340 and try from there” – quite impressive for the shortest piece on the album!
* In can be thought of as being in a slow eleven time, with the odd bar of six after the Em9.
* It’s easiest to count ||: 1-2-1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3- :||
* Emma’s flute towards the end represents the steam when boiling takes place.
* The brutality of the djembe doing the bass drum is important.
* George said that the melody seemed quite obvious once he’d understood the chords properly.
* George composed and scored the flute part for Emma after his guitar melody materialised.
* Scoring the part for Emma using pencil and paper was the first time George had had to use music score in a real-life situation for years.
* This piece is in D minor, although the C minor adds a cunning twist.
* One of the keys to unlocking the rhythm of the piece is to follow the cowbell.
* It plays on every other beat, so sometimes it is on the beat and sometimes off.
* More cowbell!