Stuff in the Pipeline

There’s always a lot of half finished (or hardly started) stuff lying around at Planet Zyz, sometimes for years, that haven’t quite found a home, or aren’t really quite settled enough to be released to General Public just yet, but there’s no reason why you can’t have a sneak preview, is there? And anyway, if you listen to the stuff in its early state you might have some ideas yourself you’d like to suggest! The Links here take you to various places, but in particular to the Planet Zyz Soundcloud site.

Each track or video has an Associated Image, and an Artist Icon. Just click the Image to hear the track, and the Artist Icon to find out more about the artist, and they will open in Soundcloud, Bandcamp, YouTube, Amazon, Artists sites, or whatever......

Asoka-Paul Baichoo and Steven McDaniel

I stayed with Paul for a few days in June 26. I woke up on the first morning to a heartbreaking poem he had written and sent to me. I immediately went to the piano and started to play music to express the emotion it evoked in me. He came in later and on listening to what I was doing he immediately started to sing over it. We recorded several takes and then started to piece together the whole song bit by bit, and continued the next day. When we got to the end we played it right through and realised we were both sobbing. It's a beautiful thing! (Music Creation as therapy - it's a Planet Zyz thing.)

Fatigue-Steven McDaniel

Throughout March 22, when covid infections in the UK reached their all-time peak at that point, Ukraine was under appalling attack, and nuclear annihilation seemed imminent, I was suffering deep fatigue. All I could do was hide away and create music. I started exploring some dark Spitfire Audio Originals and this track evolved that embodied the ubiquitous sense of unease. I've got this project gradually taking shape that I’m calling Funk, which experiments with groove and bass, and melodic and moody jazziness, and this sits right there.

Swan Song-3Men (with friends), featuring Paul Baichoo

At the end of January 2026 Phoenix and I stayed with his brother Paul Baichoo in Waterloo. We started mucking with a song Paul had been working on with the band he's in called '3Men'. Later they came round, we bunged a few microphones up and recorded this version, 'Warts & All'. Later Paul and I worked on his leading vocal and I mixed it to try to preserve the vibe of that evening. I think the song expresses how we are feeling about getting old.

Meet the Demons: Prologue - Paul Baichoo, music by Steven McDaniel

Paul Baichoo and I began our creative journey by seeing what an audiobook version of his published book

Meet the Demons might sound like. Hopefully, this will whet your appetite for the whole book, which is hilarious and profound at the same time. Click on Paul's image so see all his published books.

Grace Dub-3Men

The day after we completed Asoka, Paul's band mates Paul and Dave came round, for a recording session. I produced, and they created a brand new song in front of me! After a couple of hours they were ready to record 'properly', one instrument/vocal at a time. By the end of the evening we had this lovely song finished and recorded. 3Men make proper modern Urban Folk music, simple, no frills, down to earth, and singing about their own lives surviving and thriving in London. (They forced me to play electric piano and bass on this!)

Hot Chocolate-Silent Monkey

Nitemynks was working with Andrew Florides, and wrote some descriptions of his astonishing artwork as only Nitemynks can. MkInyel made a backing track for this one that he reckons sounds like the image looks.

Iced Chocolate-Silent Monkey

Nitemynks liked the backing-track but was feeling laid back. “Slow it down, so it’s 3 times as long”, he said. So MkInyel did.

Lady of Spain - Silent Monkey

Leo Nitemynks phoned up Stone MkInyel and read his new work about Delores Ibarruri, that left wing-firebrand of the Spanish Civil War. Always prepared, MkInyel had his tape machine wired up and pressed 'record' then wove music around Nitemynks rendition "so it sounds like a bunch of Spanish communists entertaining the locals in that Bistro where you got the darkest coffee back between the wars".

Pretty Spicey Jam - Clan McDan and the Man

Me and my Sons get together with Phoenix (you know, the photographer) when we can, and just make shit up. That's Ken on Guitar, Tom on Bass, Mr P on Cajon Drum Kit, and myself on keys. This one happened right when we started on this particular occasion (15/3/19); there's no prep, we just set up the gear, make sure the 'tape recorder' is working then just start playing whatever comes into our heads. These tracks are warts an' all, they've just been mixed nicely, not carefully edited. Sometimes you can hear the cogs in our heads working.......

Plenty Spicey Jam - Clan McDan and the Man

Sometimes we just keep going and stuff keeps developing. This one's 10 minutes long. (26/4/19)

Copy of Clan McDan and the Man Square_edited_edited.jpg

Eleven Eleven - Silent Monkey

Leo Nitemynks reads through his first piece of 2020 - we were able to make this video just before lockdown. With music from Stone MkInyel and Sleenky Itomn.

Anchor 1

The Norwich Suite - Steven McDaniel

The final album was released in April 2026 (see Projects) but here is an earlier version, created while work was in progress, before I started using Spitfire Audio virtual instruments:

Tree Cathedral, earlier version, created in 2014.

Jubiláte, earlier version, created in 2016.