Day 147: Glitcher's Delight

A little goofing around with Beatchop, Buffre, and post-rock.  Lyric's inspired by Rapper's Delight.

Lyrics:
Don't push our heads,
cause we're close to the edge.
Don't push us back,
cause we're trying to carry on.

Day 125: Aspersions

When I started this I thought the hardest thing about keeping it going was going to be finding the time and not running out of ideas.  Turns out it's the feeling that I'm annoying people.  Part of me wants to say "Don't listen!" then the other part wants to shut it down right now.

I'll see if I can't keep it going for a little while longer.

Day 101: Just Like a Dream

Today we continue the theme of serial killers and synthesizers. 

This one's about a "superfan" who is obsessed with someone famous. A fatal attraction, if you will.  Partially inspired by the "crazy ex-girlfriend" meme that's been floating around for awhile.  She's at the top if you've never seen her.

Loops provided by Nine Volt Audio

Lyrics:
You have your finger on the pulse of our lives,
While we're standing next to you in line.
You like to think that we have arrived,
but we have much, much, much more time.
The only way that you'll let us move on thru our day,
Is the only way that we can get out alive.

I'm not just a fan,
I'm the other half of you.
I'm not just a fan,
I complete you, you know that it's true.

Watch you walk down the road,
Follow you to your house,
I think you'll be waiting inside,
I think I'll be waiting inside.

Just like a dream,
This is just like a dream.
Don't you agree now?
You follow my lead now.
I'll let you eat now,
But don't try to breathe now.

I'm not just a fan,
I'm the other half of you.
I'm not just a fan,
I complete you, you know that it's true.

Day 81: A Chance to Breathe

Today is a rare day.  A "free" day, we'll call it.  No kids, no work, no vehicle and nothing that really has to be done.  As a result I was able to do something I rarely do now... play guitar.  There are only a couple of guitar tracks on today's work, but it was refreshing to be able to put live instruments on something and not be interrupted.

This track started as an experiment trying to use only loops, but went off the rails (as many of my experiments do - FOCUS!).  The driving force behind it is definitely a few core loops, appropriately mangled.



Lyrics:

Steel yourself 'cause here it comes.

You don't have a way to live.
You don't have a cent to give.
You don't have any way to survive, but yet you thrive.

You walked thru the open door, not a single thought to where you were.
You challenged everyone before they even said a word.
You held us all in open court, your opinion was the judge.
You told us where we could all go and quickly walked away.

You told a lie, you told the truth, you tried to parse your words.
You split us up, you shut us up, you overcame each verb.
You thought you had the upperhand, but you only had a lie, but yet you thrive.

If At First You Don't Succeed....

Well, after much work and deliberation it would seem that this track, 303, has gone as far as it's going to go. I believe I'm going to have to let it lie and move on to something new. Now, for anyone out there who reads this and wants to add to it, or try and complete it--I'm all in. I love collaboration, so whether you are across the street or across the world, come one, come all and try your hand at making it into something new and beautiful.

Here's a link to the final wav file. It's a little bit bigger (52 MB), but I didn't want to skimp on quality this time. There is some nice riffy guitarness at the end, thrown in along with real bass guitar and "real" (sampled) drums for a little more authenticity. The final mix has Record's mixing board compressor applied and the "Hard Rock" mastering preset in Record just to finish it out a little more.

Thanks for following along on this first project. We'll try something COMPLETELY different for the next one.

Send me suggestions and requests!

Keep Running Until You Hit a Wall

303 is still a work in progress. At this point it is starting to feel like I should leave it alone. That maybe it's not going to go anywhere better than where it is right now.

I started recording guitars and was going for a multi-layered counterpoint type vibe, but instead am getting more of a hot-mess. I did stumble on and save a pretty sweet preset that makes a clean guitar turn into a horn-like sound. Think overdriven french horn. If you play in the lower register on the guitar it's like a baritone. Here's a link to that combinator patch. Enjoy.

Sometimes when I get stuck I will go for my homemade deck of Oblique Strategies cards. The card I pulled was "Is there something missing?" What I try to do after pulling the card is look at the answer/question from every angle. The first for me is someone asking you "Did you forget something? Is there a glaringly obvious omission here?" Well, yes, there is (so it seems). I felt like a vocal track might be the way to go. That crashed and burned. The next way to see it (for me) goes "Is there something missing? Do you really need anything else?" And maybe the answer is no and yes. The psychological need for a lead instrument/voice might be the wrong instinct. Maybe it just needs another section - a C section, or maybe A' (that's pronounced 'A prime' in case you're wondering). I'll keep working at it and will update once there's real progress.

Side Note: those of you with sharp ears you might notice that drums have had EQ applied and there has been an attempt to add space via the use of panning, a room reverb bus, and some level automation. Hopefully this makes it more listenable. Comments are always appreciated.

Here's a link to what I have so far.