The effect of a good bass part

I find it curious how strongly a good bass part tends to uplift the other parts around it, once properly mixed in.  Subtle imperfections in other parts that might, in isolation, have become annoying, instead become details that merely give the performance character.  "Days to Midnight" is coming together nicely, now anchored by some great bass work closely based on a meticulous transcription (done solely by me) from the Escapade version.

Interestingly, despite this being one of the shorter and more straightforward rock songs in this set, the bassist commented approvingly on the prog influences detectable in the song.  In particular, the harmony vocals at the end of the chorus reminded him of Gentle Giant.

In reality, I don't think I'd heard a note of Gentle Giant when I first came up with this arrangement (it's lifted from the Escapade 2 version).  If I was thinking of anything proggy, it was probably rather Peter Gabriel's tendency to use these open 4ths/5ths to create a rustic, pleading effect in his vocal harmonies.  Think "Come Talk to Me" (from his 1992 solo album Us) for example.

There's one other small revision to the arrangement worth mentioning.  The drum part I provided included instructions for some atmospheric, improvised cymbal rolls in the coda.  The consequence of this was that the two takes of this passage that I got were significantly different from one another.  I ultimately used Take 2 for the coda, but felt that Take 1 of the passage was too good to waste.  So I put it in the intro, replacing the rather functional hi-hat part I'd written.

Which just leaves the guitar - and possibly some re-done vocals on a few lines.  I'm still undecided on that.