Just a little something for the Naviar Haiku Project.

Day 498: Kind of Blue

Lyrics:
You lied through your teeth, you knew what the fuck you were doing.
You lied through your teeth, you knew just what to say.
You goddamn bitch, you told me everything would be ok.
You lied to my face, I had no idea.
You lied to my face, but you looked just the same,
You goddamn bitch I don't think I can trust you, not even your name.
You goddamn bitch I don't think I can trust you, nothing is the same.

Day 423: In the blood

Maybe something original.  We  don't know what our story is.

Lyrics:
You've got drive, but you spend it all the time.  
Why don't you just give up?
You've got love in your heart, 
but there's a chance you're just full of shit.
Wipe the blood off your mouth.
Clean your teeth. 
We're going out now.
And you're not who you think you are.

Day 399: 400

This is 400 days.  Maybe it should be said more like this:

THIS IS 400 DAYS.

400 days I've been making music every day, releasing music no one has ever heard, trying to keep it fresh and interesting.

Over 13,000 plays on Soundcloud, new connections, beta-testing for a developer, a couple of people have even bought an album.  I've learned a lot, I've honed my skills, I continue to learn and get excited about new songs daily.

There's a forthcoming video, if I can ever find the time to actually record it.  The script was written by friend and author Colin Fox.  He also did some voice-over for it.  It's just kind of about making an effort to do a project like this, what it can take, what comes from it and other non-sense.

Lyrics:
We're all in the basement, hiding from the light.  
We're all in the basement, hiding from sight.
We're all in the ceiling, hiding from your eyes, 
We're all hiding from you.

We've all got a secret that you can't find.
We've all got a secret that you can't find.
We've all got a secret that you can't find.  
Secret of mine.

Day 365: Well, What I meant to Say...

The intent for today was to put up something epic, but due to the fact that it's almost Christmas and I have a bunch of family coming over tomorrow, the time that was going to be spent working on that epic piece got devoted to cleaning the house and taking care of other things.  Instead you get this.

I'm guessing that there aren't too many people looking at this that are disappointed, or really is anyone even reading this thing?  There are about 100 million blogs out there, so this one might just be getting lost in the mix.  I have 3 subscribers after a year.  I guess that means that 3 people are reading it.  Sometimes.

Well, enjoy some messy glitch hop.

Day 357: Lucky Number 7

Another "Primitive" experiment today.  It occurred to me that the title could be construed as offensive to someone if they put too much thought into it, so just to make it clear, primitive is a reference to the composition and some of the instrument choices - NOT everything you hear.  In other words, I don't think that the music of other cultures, regardless of their being 1st, 2nd, or 3rd world is primitive.  That is all.

Am going to spend some of the day trying to put together a "Glitchworks" collection on the suggestion of FGL.

Day 351: Noises in Your House

Today's work is a project for the Disquiet Junto.  It's a little obtuse, but kind of interesting.

My first step was to find three things that have a distinctive "on/off" sound.  Those ended up being the dryer, microwave, and toaster.  The toaster was the most musical of the three, providing both melodic and rhythmic elements.  The microwave was the most melodic, having one long tone, and the dryer kind of just makes a low rumble.

Initially, I didn't alter the sounds at all and just tried to overlap them to create a natural rhythm.  Sadly, the natural rhythm wasn't very natural, so I started playing with making them sync more.  I didn't want to make it very plain, so the rhythm is still quite disjointed, something like if you had several of the actual devices and were trying to "play" them as a band.

Finally, to finish it out I created a short section that would be the most musical of all. Squashing samples, playing with pitches, and making it all "fit".  Hope you enjoy.

Day 347: Mixing It

Today's track is a remix for a contest on Soundcloud.  The original track is by Kenna.

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 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 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 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 297: Out down thru

A dark song about contemplating suicide at 2 am in the morning.

Day 296: Stress sucks

Stress sucks, I'm so fucking tired of it.

Day 294: Someone is a liar

It's been awhile since I've had more than just a moment or two to actually type anything as a blog entry.  For the last 10 days I've worked my day job and it's been driving me crazy.  Finally a day to relax, which really just means to clean house and do laundry.  I'm getting to spend time with the kids today, so that's great.  I've missed my boys.

Here's a new piece of music.

Lyrics:
You tricked me. 
And I don't even know how to get out.
You tricked me, played me for a fool. 
I see you , standing behind your lies.
You tricked me.  
And I'll never get out.  
You're such a liar, 
I'm just a fool.
And I'll never get out.  
A fool for you.

Day 293: Stutttttter

Sometimes a piece comes together from just a few simple elements.  This is one of those pieces.

Day 292: Sticks and Instruments

Earlier today I was listening to the band Clogs. If you aren't familiar with them you should go check them out now. They make really interesting instrumental music. In particular, the album "Stick Music". That inspired today's piece.

Thanks to Drew Miller, AKA: Assemble, for introducing me to Clogs.

Day 291: Minimal Techno

This isn't a genre I usually work in, but today it is.

Playing with Ammo a little bit.

Day 290: Another Junto

Another piece for the Disquiet Junto project on Soundcloud.  The idea was to capture the "tone" of three separate rooms and stitch them together.

My three rooms were:
Studio
Kitchen
Bathroom

I used my iPhone to record to live audio, but I don't think I was quite far enough away to get the full effect of each room.  You can hear as I started to walk away from the sound source in the kitchen.

More on this 92nd Disquiet Junto project, in which room tone is used to shape a three-part suite, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/03/disquiet0092-roomtonesuite/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Image via

http://goo.gl/K2Tnhi

Day 269: Good bye, Voyager

I was listening to the radio and they did a story about Voyager entering interstellar space (that's the space between the stars) and played two audio samples during it.  As soon as I heard the samples I knew that it would be the Disquiet Junto project for that week.  Sure enough, Thursday night, there it was.

This was my third attempt at using the samples in a musical way.  The first was very canned and uninteresting (to me at least), the second was very experimental and weird.  Finally, I thought Why don't I make it musical and make it a good-bye song?  And this is the result.  I took the two samples and made them into a playable patch, then spun those two patches into a third one for bass (only had to drop it three octaves).  Finally, made the melodic content very sparse and a little sad, but still in a major key.  Kept the form simple (ABA) and did a small amount of mixing/mastering to balance things out.  And...

Voila!

Space Music.

-Enjoy.