this one’s for a remix contest over at saintwoods.

it’s been a tough couple of weeks, working on this track. the reason i enter these remix contests, above all else, is because it forces me to work to a deadline. work ethic has always been a problem for me. ultimately, a completed track (on time) is itself a prize, and any other recognition that comes out of it would be a bonus. i probably tried four or five different approaches before settling on the one that eventually became the final version. i’ve been listening to a lot of barletta, hervé, and afrojack, so the result is sort of my take on those styles.

this is only my second electro track, but i’ve clearly got tendencies. my stuff tends to be very clean and blocky, so my goal was to be as unpredictable as possible. this time around i recorded most of the synth parts live as opposed to sequencing them by hand, which allows for a lot of cool, unintentional sounds. i think the end result is close to complete raw unpredictability, but it’s not entirely there yet. when i look at something like robotaki’s remix of turn it up, i can’t fathom the attention to detail, the micro-nano-editing that must have gone into creating it. but i look at this track and i am able to say that it is a quantifiable improvement over my last one. what more can you do?

Easy – Heatshock (Them Stars Remix)

Spitbubble by Them Stars

a friend of mine suggested that my compositional skills were limited by my software i skills. i actually think it’s the other way around. i’ve been producing electronic music for nearly 7 years now, i’ve taken classes on desktop production – i think my abilities and understanding of the medium are fairly sound.

if you compare this beat to born mind – a track i think of as my previous personal best – i think aside from the obvious disparities in production quality, they both suffer from the same fundamental problem: underdevelopment. this is a recurring theme, not only in the music i write, but in any of the work i’ve done in my life. a certain amount of the work comes easy, i’d say around 90%. the last 10% is where i hit a wall. i don’t know what it’s like for other people, whether or not they experience it at all, or if they’re all just much better at handling it. it becomes a kind of torture for me, the most claustrophobic, lonely feeling.

of course, this post has been the same way. all i’ve written is the basic idea, but i can’t figure out how to get past that wall. there’s so much i haven’t said and i know it, but i’m going to post it anyway. maybe i should stop doing that.

this is my entry for the Peter Gabriel remix contest over at Indaba. i wasn’t familiar with the original at first (though after 7 straight days of work i could probably recreate it myself), but the idea was immediate. the female vocal melody and the pseudo-rap delivery in the verses lent the song to electro house fairly easily. this was my first honest attempt at electro house, not to mention i am still familiarizing myself with ableton live, so there was a lot of trial and error in creating this mix. all things considered, i feel good about how it turned out.

Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers (Them Stars Remix)

if there’s one thing i’ve taken away from the experience it’s that i can’t convincingly pull off a one-man band. i think i have valid ideas – this much has remained intact – and i wouldn’t pursue music if i didn’t think so. but i don’t know if anything i create is really capable of standing up on its own. maybe more valuable as part of a whole. earlier today i told somebody, “i’ve decided that what i really want to do is to join Grizzly Bear.” i can only imagine how stupid that must have sounded. they say: you want to be in a band? be in one. you want to collaborate with people? find them. well okay i guess i will just do that then.

so the problem remains: i’m not good enough to be alone, and i’m not good enough to present myself in a way that would interest other people in working with me. but i endeavor still.

stumbling

here it is, my first completed track in ableton live. it’s about a week old now, and i was sort of back and forth between going back and making more changes…but i think i should just let it go.

it’s ambient (the “easy” genre), made with fancy synth patches i made in Sylenth (my favourite synth atm)! the main pad is something i am proud of, since i am generally terrible at pads. influences mainly drawn from Tim Hecker and Eluvium. the title is from a Cannibal Ox song.

i hope you find this sufficient.

Light Decreasing

so, long story short, i’ve decided to expand my horizons a little. i’ve been taking a course in production that deals with Logic, and i’ve decided to give Ableton Live a shot. currently, it’s a puzzle. i’m happy if i can click a button and not destroy a whole damn section of the song. this track i’ve made is not particularly interesting in any way, and it ends almost as soon as it starts. but i’m optimistic. maybe it’s important that i fumble around for a bit.

12barbloops

i wrote you a song (finally)

blue sunrise

so this is awesome. Nikolai, an independent emcee out of Australia, has just dropped his debut album on Alcatrax Records. i just got the cd in the mail. i did the beat for the album’s third single, ‘This Haze’. i was going for a sort of Dr. Dre vibe with the string stabs and a light piano melody. Nikolai tears it up. there’s a link to download the entire album below for FREE and i encourage everybody to take a listen.

Nikolai – This Haze

DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM

I don’t know if I made it clear in my last post about Mr. J. Medeiros, but I really like Of Gods and Girls. This is a remix I made of ‘Her Wings’. It isn’t a huge departure from the original, aside from the chorus which definitely gives the song a different energy.

Sample is from Jamie Cullum’s cover of Teardrop by Massive Attack (YouTube is great for lo-fi samples like this).

Mr. J. Medeiros – Her Wings (Them Stars Remix)

I had a goal this year which was basically to make one song every week and stick to it for the whole year. I ended up doing it for a couple months until I realized nobody was really listening so I stopped. Now that I have this website and I know there are at least a few people checking in once in awhile I think I’m gonna pick up where I left off. So (hopefully) there’ll be a new song up here every Monday to listen to if you are so inclined.

This first one is another in my never ending series of Boards of Canada ripoffs, with maybe a little DJ Shadow influence thrown in as well. Just a dark, minimal, downtempo hip hop beat. The title is taken from a Cannibal Ox song that was running through my head the whole time I was making this. Hope you enjoy it, and as always any feedback is appreciated.

Born Mind