[i]I hide in warm clothes
You hide in your briefcase
I guess we can call off
Our little battle of truth (game set match!)
We sit here and hope
That the birds don’t come down, down
And pick apart our stale bread offerings
We of the infantile narratives
Slay people with lasers of truth
Yet cower in the soft warm glow of TV.
Worry about the garden -
Don’t worry about the lasers!
I’m snug and warm
And you’re financially sound
Don’t push it.[/i]
ok, as you know i find it hard to write something constructive, so i keep it short…
the intro… i understand why it is as it is, but i feel it could be a bit shorter or perhaps use some of the elements that come later…
overall… i keep discovering new stuff on the replays… i love that.
Your vocals seem to be improving over time. Either that, or i’m getting used to them. Almost a thurston more thing going on… maybe.
If you keep going for this style it would be awesome to throw some screeching guitar feedback and loops into the mix. I would like to hear this kind of stuff combined with more dirty elements.
Right now it’s, very clinical. Which may be what you are going for (precision scalpel style) - but yeah, if you were to do something else…
Clinical precision is certainly something I’m after with this sort of music - there’s so much going on in there and I want every single little detail to be accessible and shine through. It’s a little bit of an impossible ask to aim for that sort of precision with digital production, and then trying to make up for that with a little analog mastering (which I’ve done) - stuff just gets lost along the way. I think I could get away with a lot more ‘noise’ or ‘tense texture’ if my entire medium was high quality analog - but even then arbitrary usage of such ideas seem out of place with what I want to achieve. For me, there’s a narrative going on in the music, both lyrically and sonically. To do anything other would just distract from the narrative, a bit like having a murder scene with a big pink fluffy duck playing checkers in the background. That incongruity has a certain silly instant appeal, but it has no lasting integrity.
I really like that Sonic Youth song, was interesting in a lot of ways. Bands like that are the true adventurers in modern music. Culture needs people like that, the innovators and explorers. I think my purposes at the moment aren’t concerned with innovation. I know that isn’t as noble as purpose as possible, but I’m after something else, something more personal. Now, on the other hand, I can understand your reaction while you listen to the song. You’re thinking ‘gee this is something, but man it just needs a little more of THIS’. I think the same nearly all the time when I’m hearing other people’s music - I just want to change stuff around, ‘improve’ it to suit what I want from it. That’s perfectly fine - an imaginative mind needs decent exercise But sometimes I have to remind myself that artists are doing the best they can at any given at the time and producing what they want to produce. If it didn’t have a pink fluffy duck in it, then that’s exactly what they wanted. I can take it or leave it, and I eventually just enjoy it for what it is. I hope I’m not coming across defensive, I think the phenomenon is interesting.
Like, for the last hour or so R has been listening to Fiona Apple, and I haven’t stopped thinking “ah man all the songs sound the same - I wish she would just throw some hard beats in there and add dub echo everywhere!”. But Fiona does what she does!
Part of me wants to join in on the sonic adventures of modern music. Perhaps I could do something to do with live improv, odd eerie sounds and minimal emotional language. But for now I really really really need to get these songs done. They are haunting me, urging me to get them to completion. I’m in a subtle state of agitation until I reach this goal.
I love it when renoise users do vocals, make me so jealous that they can sing! Gonna have start trying it myself… got some alt punk electro up my sleeve… ummmm digression, love the tune, and the abrupt ending made me feel a bit insatisfied after the HUoaeiGE climax… atleast it made me want to listen to it again though! I hope i did not insult your 4 years of work, after all, i know not what i do. Ive only been producing for thepast 2 months…
The song fits a context with the other songs that are going to go with it, so it’s shortness is quite deliberate. In fact, I wrote the words first, and then built the song backwards out from those words. I didn’t want to dilute the experience of those words with unnecessary repetitions of full sections, or on the other hand writing more lyrics that risked bloating the drama. And besides, short ‘n’ sweet keeps you coming back for more right?
Hang in there with that vocal idea mate! I find vocals to be the hardest thing ever, but also the most enjoyable. That connection people have with the voice and stories is very deep and has a lot of impact with people who like music outside of the club music scenes. It doesn’t have to be pop.
Really nice track, love the metal inspired double kick drumrolls and how the song progresses continually into the climax. At 0:57 is some sort of click, which is highly annoying on headphones. Better fix that one. Also your vocals tend to surprise me more and more and you’ll really getting somewhere, the training seems to pay off now.
The XRNS uses a lot 3rd party effects for PC. It’s dense and complex. Also, the mastering is done externally to Renoise, so the XRNS wouldn’t have a lot of the appropriate sonic enhancements.
I could render out all the tracks digitally, but after conversion, organization and upload this would be a long time-consuming process. I don’t quite have the time for it right at the moment.
If you’re utterly serious about a remix please PM me with your ideas.
Oh for a minute there you had me worried! I checked the file and at 0:57 there is indeed a rather sharp little sound. In fact, it’s a particularly sharp attack on the “b” of the word “battle” which I deliberately didn’t edit out or ‘clean up’. I really wanted the aggressive element to come through on that word, so that the “battle of truth” was indeed a real battle, but one spat about and one to feel bitter about.
There are other ‘ugly’ elements in there I could have cleaned up with tools like Melodyne but I really don’t like how artificial and detached that correcting can sound. So there is no ‘corrections at all here’, save for a little attenuating on the sibilant sounds. The music is clinical enough without polishing what little fallible life out of it is left. Anyway, I’m rambling…
Glad you hear that alex! The political is just one thing I’d like to challenge though. At the same time I like to challenge the ‘emotional’ as well - question why do people dig themselves into the these ruts? On one hand you have the recalcitrant passive aggressive who is full of pathetic self-pity and snappiness, and on the other hand you have the career conformist who is quick to judge, dismiss, and project negativity in the name of sharing their unreasonable burden of marriage to a doomed system. Now as a listener you can empathise with either one of these characters, or none of them - but more importantly you can connect with the ‘cultural incident’ of the narrative. Why do we collectively allow this moment of alienation to exist? That is the heart of the real challenge.
Money and power are the fascist glues that holds all this unnecessary drama together. It prevents many systematic problems from being unlocked. In order to participate in society an individual has to shed any hope of finding a life task that best suits their calling, their life direction, and their soul and heart. In place of that hope, they have to choose any number of demeaning functionalist roles that serve the machinery of greed and power. Some people get caught up believing in the rhetoric they are fed by the machine, but others resist it. In resistance, there is certain emotional trouble: and if you are ill-equipped emotionally to deal with such a challenge there is little or no formal support to help you evolve your emotional integrity to a state of being above the system. Such resilience is learned ‘on the job’ and haphazardly. It’s mostly an inconsistent mess. I think this explains a lot of drama in life with people - some people are unable to face that emotional challenge that money puts us in, and therefore let fester any number of repugnant behaviours towards themselves and others. Generally, this gets in the way of unlocking these emotional and cultural problems. We’re too busy being negative to each other to be collectively battling our hidden masters.
Just what we all can do about this fuzzy tyranny is a tricky nut to crack. These issues inspire me to write. I’m inspired to expose this hidden tension as a song, as a mini-electro-opera to reflect upon. Once the matter enters consciousness we have a chance to actively think on it, to find a way to fight back. And who knows, with time and confidence there may come a day where the handshake of corprotised doom offers itself up to you - and you may just find a way to assertively refuse.
I feel you man, thats why I a) welcomed so warmly your vocals in our mmd_as project and b) never even attempted to get you to rethink them (only ever to perfect their delivery!)
wouldn’t expect anything less from you professor your voice is really good on this recording! the buildup is amazing, gives me goosebumps (seriously). awesome all around.
Pretty much awesome in all departments. I liked your Blood Is Black song too, but this is much better to me. I see from the song description you’re making an album of this stuff. My cash is in hand, ready to buy.
