Slow Thing

Written and Recorded in 1986

A short instrumental piece of music I wrote for the Band of Umasans, which I formed and played the guitar from late 1986 to early 1987. I don’t remember how and why I wrote this tune except for a couple of following things; I wanted to try out my knowledge on the usage of tensioned chords I had accumulated by then, and I wanted to play something to pay my tribute to the Oldies music of the 1950s including a recent reminder like Sea of Love by The Honeydrippers. The audio track of this video captured the earliest existing recording of this tune, performed live in front of the audience during the Umasans’ very first live act in December 1986.

Slow Thing remained as one of the repertoires for the Umasans, which later renamed to Flowers, until 1988. Occasionally, we played it at a faster tempo and called it Slow Thing Jam. After the break-up of the band, I first made a demo recording of this tune by myself and enriched the accompaniment with adding the piano and backing guitar tracks. These later versions are yet not bad, for making this video I chose the earliest one that captured the very essence of the tune, which should be played as a ‘slow’ thing.