Day 345: Do What?

Someone who spends all their time as a shut-in playing video games isn't very likely to get a girlfriend/guyfriend. If they do, they probably won't be able to treat them like a normal person. This song is about a person who is incredibly untrusting of their girlfriend, even though it's completely unnecessary for them to be so.

Lyrics:

lyrics

I can only go as far as you'll let me,
No, I can't read your mind.
I can only go where you'll let me,
No, I can't see thru time.
No, I know you say you miss me.
And I miss you too,
No, I know you say you need me,
but I don't believe you.

Day 344: Chun Li

As an adolescent, Street Fighter II was my game of choice. I'm sure hundreds of hours were spent playing it. My favorite character was Chun Li, I was almost unbeatable with her. This is a wink and a nod to that game and its programmers.

Lyrics:

lyrics

I can't do a spinning roundhouse,
I can jump off all the walls,
I will uppercut you to Friday,
Then shoot lots of fireballs.

How do I win?
How do I win?

Let's anull the magick here.
If you'd like to try and sort it out.
I got your back now.
And you can find out what it's all about.

How do I win?
When does this game end?
If I only had a friend.
How do I win?

I can't do a spinning roundhouse,
I can jump off all the walls,
I will uppercut you to Friday,
Then shoot lots of fireballs.

credits

Day 343: Blocks

Tetris. This song is about Tetris.

lyrics

Racing against the clock,
Square meets a square,
Try to never stop,
What goes next?
Nowhere.
"l" fits in a hole.
"2" is flipped over.
Square slides in so low.
Always up and onward.

We all do our best here.
We all face a test here.
No we can not rest here.
Don't bother to confess here.
We all do our best here.
We give nothing less here.
We aim to please our guests here.
We are so obsessed here.

Hold down, don't you stop.
You're almost to the top.
Show us the game you play,
Try and take it all away.
Here the crowd go wild.
In your head or in the sky.
The music plays so loud,
but you have no doubt.

We all do our best here.
We all face a test here.
No we can not rest here.
Don't bother to confess here.
We all do our best here.
We give nothing less here.
We aim to please our guests here.
We are so obsessed here.

Day 342: Your Artificial Girlfriend

In another 25 years (at most) we'll begin to see people who have relationships with AI (Artificial Intelligence) personalities. These people will be normal people who will feel an emotional connection to a computer program that seems to "get them" more than a real person does. It will be taboo and very much frowned upon, but they won't be able to interact with the person until robotics catches up to the AI (another 10-15 years after that, at most). 

This is for those future lovers.

Let your freak flag fly.

lyrics

They say our love isn't real,
But you and I know better.
They digital can't feel.
But you know that's not true.

You know this is me and I know this is you.
We can more honest together than others can after years,
So, why is this taboo?
Why is our love taboo?

We'll never meet face-to-face.
We'll never wait in line side by side.
Our appetites can't be sated,
Cause we're never actually touching,
You're not really there.

You know this is me and I know this is you.
We can more honest together than others can after years,
So, why is our love taboo?
Why is our love taboo?

I dreamt we met at the park,
But we never got to touch,
I reached for your cheek and my hand went right thru you.

You know this is me and I know this is you.
We can more honest together than others can after years,
So, why is our love taboo?
Why is our love taboo?

Day 341: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

It's good to see you after so long,
Didn't you say you were gonna call?
Now that I think about it you said you'd see me on Saturday.

So your house burned down,
Then you moved out of town,
and your sister's in jail,
and your mother died last week.
Then your car broke down
and you lost your phone.
Then you had a fire and lost everything you own.

How 'bout we skip the lies and go straight to the shame?
How 'bout you look in my eyes and stop playing your games?
Just tell me the truth.

So you're moving to Tibet next week and becoming a monk?
Or you might join NASA?
You're the newest member of P-Funk.
Your album just dropped, so you're going on tour.
You got a line for everything I say, so won't you just tell me the truth?

How 'bout we skip the lies and go straight to the shame?
How 'bout you look in my eyes and stop playing your games?
Just tell me the truth.

credits

from 8 Bit RoundHouse, released 23 November 2013

Day 340: BitKrushed

An angry tune about self-realization, relationships, and bondage.

lyrics

I hold your life in my hands,
I promise to be true.
I don't think you can hold back from my hands.
I promise to save you.

Just listen to me.

I know that you think I don't have my own thoughts.
I'm here to tell you that's not true.
You and I, we go way back, and you that I know you too.
I'm reading your thoughts right now.
I know what you're thinking, don't try to get away,
You can't escape me.

Just listen to me.

Day 339: Mario

Just released my album, 8 Bit RoundHouse.  It's a collection of tunes inspired by old school Nintendo games.  Will be featuring a new song here every day.

As a child I played Super Mario Bros (I, II, & III) incessantly. The generic response you got from Toadstool of "I'm sorry, but our princess is in another castle."

Lyrics:

lyrics

I'm sorry that you came all this way,
I'm sorry that you have to hear me say,
I'm sorry that you came all this way,
You're not gonna be happy when you hear me say,

Our princess is in another castle,
Please continue on your quest.
I know you thought you were done now,
But continue because you're the best.

Jump on turtles and crush their skulls,
Magic mushrooms make you bigger.
Eat a flower and shoot fireballs
and later on you can fly like a raccoon.

Our princess is in another castle,
Please continue on your quest.
I know you thought you were done now,
But you continue because you're the best.

Day 338: Gently

While watching a movie on my lunchbreak I was inspired by the music I heard in it.  If you can guess the movie that inspired me you get points.  With those points you can buy... nothing.  The points are worthless.

Day 337: Everything is Thor

Every instrument, with the exception of voice, is done with a Thor module this time around.  Compared to many of the other factory instruments, Thor is considerably easy to do this with.  Its flexibility and depth is seemingly endless, so this short piece was really quite enjoyable to create.

It's also worth mentioning that most of these patches were from Tom Pritchad's Thorkit refill.  Look for it on the Nucleus Soundlab site.

Lyrics:
Don't drop the ball, leave it all on the table.  
Don't drop the ball, leave it all on the field.

Day 336: Inspiration Everywhere

While listening to pieces of someone's conversation at work today I was inspired.  They were on the phone and speaking another language, but they were obviously passionate about whatever they were talking about.  Hence, the title.

Day 335: So Simple

Lyrics:
You aren't ever gonna hold me back, don't try to ever hold me back.
Don't give it away, I'll hold you in sway
We live in a dream.  It's not what it seems.

Day 334: Re-Write

This track started as something completely different.  I had it mostly finished, then started playing around with applying a radical filter to the entire mix, which then changed the character of the song entirely.  I stuck with something radically different.

Day 333: 3 is the Magick Number

Here we are at day 334, but it says 333?  That's cause we're counting from zero.

This is a weird one.

Lyrics:
You're not a part of this world.

Day 332:Work

Knocked this one out at work. on my lunch break.

Day 331: Instrumental

Late night instrumental grooviness.

Day 330: Well...

I just realized I'm just over a month away from having done this for an entire year.   That's kind of exciting.  It's thoughts like that which allow me to keep going and slog thru the days where I'm feeling like I should just quit.

Lyrics:

When you thought you were holed up in a dream,
thinking of everyone you wish you could be,
You didn't want to hold yourself up anymore.
Didn't want to hold me up anymore.
When you thought you were lost in a maze,
Thinking of all the people you once saved.
You decided you didn't care anymore.
Didn't give a damn about anyone anymore.

Dragging you down, Try not to Frown.
We won't hold you back,
Give you a kiss,
Don't even miss what we had to say,
gonna have it our way.
You're not the boss of me and we all think you're a piece of shit

Day 329: When It's Quiet

One of the first tracks I did using the phone and recording figure straight onto the computer.

lyrics

Where it's soft, we don't go.
Where it's quiet, we don't know.
You probably think you have a right to think.

Open your mouth and talk to me, letting the words spill out.
Open your head and say to me whatever comes out.
Open your ears and listen to what you're saying.

I can hardly stand the wait.
You can hardly stand the wait.
Where are you now?

You probably think you got a right to think.
Where it's soft, we don't go.
Where it's quiet, we don't know.
You probably think you got a right to think for yourself.

Open your mouth and talk to me, letting the words spill out.
Open your head and say to me whatever comes out.
Open your ears and listen to what you are saying.

Where it's soft, we don't go.
Where it's quiet, we don't know.
You probably think you got a right to think for yourself.

Day 328: With Fingers

An early effort using Figure (by Propellerheads) as a live instrument recorded into Reason. Added some additional instrumentation to the beat in post.

Day 327: Leave Me Alone (Follow Me)

Some people are annoying on the internet. Some people are annoying in real life. Some people have the special skill of being both.

Lyrics:

lyrics

Stop following me, I'm not gonna pay you.
I don't care what you do, I don't care what you say.
There's a million other people in the world you could bother so please,
Look one of them up.

You know I don't think you're God's gift to anything,
I don't think you're so great, no matter what you say.
I can hardly stand to be next to you.

Where do you get off?
What did somebody say to make you go on about you anyway?
If we were on a cliff I'd push you off just to watch you fall down.

What are you doing next?
I'm all pins and needles waiting for your next move.
What are you doing next?
I'm dying to see what you'll do.
What are you doing next?
Your audience is waiting.
What are you doing next?
Your mediocrity is a blessing to us all.

Day 326: Ripley is Part of the Junto

the previous night was "not as romantic as it sounds." He kept razzing those suffering under Prohib-
From A Curious Man, by Neal Thompson

The last word is 'Prohibition' in case you were wondering.

This was the first Disquiet project that was something I had actually done before. In college I had what I thought was a genius "Eureka!" moment and basically created the exact same system. At that time I allowed myself a little bit more freedom and took more artistic liberty with the text, allowing for repetition of certain words and using letters in both harmony and melody simultaneously, but basically the same idea.

Since this was done electronically for me, the temptation to avoid was making it very "straight". I did NOT want all the notes to have the same length. They needed to have some kind of flow, maybe one that implies speech? I know, a novel thought (no pun intended). After achieving a flow that was satisfactory I thought, "Wait, can I put a beat or any percussion to this and it still make sense?" luckily it did.

What I had discovered using this method previously is that the pieces tended to kind of sound like they were in C# minor due to the prevalence of the letter "E". If you move the starting not up or down it changes the key, or the feel of a key anyway. To enforce the key I created a pedal tone on C# in the bass. It also helped to push it forward rhythmically.

Following this, I slapped some drums on and, much to my delight, they worked great. Finally, just as an experiment I read some of the text and then vocoded it into the work to see if it would stick out too much, or at all. It was barely even recognizable as speech, so I left it in. You can hear some sibilance in a couple of places and maybe pieces of a word if you're listening.

Oh yeah, I added a short intro, just to keep it interesting.

More on this 97th Disquiet Junto project, in which music is decoded from a phrase in a book, at:

disquiet.com/2013/11/07/disquiet0097-page99remix/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Groups – Disquiet-junto

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Madox_Ford

Day 325: Downtempo

This tune started as a commentary on success in the music business, but somehow it went off the rails and turned into a track about drug addiction. Maybe it's both. Most musicians would say that music is very much like a drug for them. It definitely is for me.

lyrics

How do you measure success?
What is a win to you?
What sins would you not confess?
When is a lie a truth?

I keep going back,
I keep going back to you.

How high is too high?
How low will you go?
When do you give up your name?
Does rock bottom just sound the same?

I keep going back,
I keep going back to you.

Day 324: i, Album now available

Soon after purchasing my first smartphone (an android) I learned that Garageband was available on the iPhone. I knew I HAD to HAVE ONE. Sadly, it wouldn't be until my contract was up that I could actually afford one. Within a few days of getting the iPhone I was working on the first tracks.

My initial thought was to do everything on the phone. Recording, mixing, mastering, etc, but I quickly realized that was not very practical, and decided I'd use the phone as the primary instrument/recording tool and do final mixing/mastering on the computer.

There are some vocals that were done via computer, as well as some instruments added here and there for color, but the bulk of it was done on an iPhone (a 4s, to be specific). On "Promise Not to Tell" almost everything was done on the phone. No additional instruments were added, only mixing and mastering done on computer, but I wanted more variety that what I was able to achieve on that song, so I moved to Plan B.

I hope you enjoy listening to these songs and it opens your eyes to the possibilities you may be carrying in your pocket right now.

Sincerely,
Chad Taylor

credits

Day 323: Classic

Harkening back to my roots... or something like that.

Day 322: More than 300

A highly chromatic, glitch electronic piece.

Day 321: Darkest of Washes

In the bleakest hours, when the hero has everything and everyone against him, he doubts his power.  Is all lost?

No.

Day 320: To Hit Record

Got an email for a last minute submission request for a piece for the "Trash" episode that's under production over at HitRecord.org.

In other news I just hit 10,000 plays on Soundcloud, so that's pretty bitchin' also.

This track has nothing to do with either of those.

Day 319: Space Invading

Insect aliens from outer space are invading the planet and it doesn't sound very musical!

The good news is they are really dumb, the bad news is that they are really hungry and not very picky.

Day 318: Short Ambience

For a long time I liked to record really long songs.  The average song would be about six minutes.  Now, compared to some artists, six minutes isn't incredibly long, but as time has gone on I've come to value brevity more and more.  Now I'm on the other side of that.  I like a nice pop song length.  3 minutes, give or take 20 seconds.

Here's a brief ambient tune.  To me, long enough to be interesting without getting annoying.  I suggest listening with headphones.

Cheers.

Day 317: Missing Lou

Started out trying to make something rhythmic using an S-hook and a metal pot (metal on metal!), but the ghost of Lou Reed took over and said "NOISE!" and thus it was born.

More on this 96th Disquiet Junto project, in which metal machine music is made in tribute to the late Lou Reed, at:

disquiet.com/2013/10/31/disquiet0096-metalmachine/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Groups – Disquiet-junto

Image found via [citizenarcane.com](www.citizenarcane.com/index.php/arch…-machine-music).

Day 316: Wha?

Still sick, still working on other things, but still making time for this.

This track ended up being somewhat unintentionally lo-fi.