thanks for the feedback, and great feedback at that - good ear there.
long story but these are 'concepts' or proofs for a team i will be working with in the coming year. in this run, i performed everything you hear, wrote all you read, and created all you saw. i'm a holistic type in a very capable studio. (except freestyle's music was made live with another performer while on several grams each of psilocybin =P)
you heard correctly, there is little structure to these songs, because i was focusing on building the textures, shifting to 4ths and 5ths and adding bridges is a lot easier once you have a base texture that locks up.
rythm section is everything and that's what i'm trying to lock down in these. to hear your comments on danceability is very rewarding as that hasn't yet been factored in (while always a consideration to some extent).
most of the percussion is a simple drum machine (some live stuff there too, you are correct), i'm just using very complicated rythms, and in many cases creating my own forms of rythm (in that they are combining two or more prexisting styles in ways that are new). you heard a lot of tabla voices used in western contexts, eg the constant tabla upbeat in "our thing". also trying to innovate here and breaking a lot of rules in the process. "no fear".
most of everything else you hear is performed live over the sequenced drum tracks, one track at a time over each other. it's created in a process much like impressionist painting, open ended jams with no structure at all, and all improvised.
but once the concept is out, we can go back and craft a much more competently structured song (or give a linger jam a beginning and end as needed, etc).
the guitars and organs and stuff you hear interestingly, are all done on a bass guitar using a roland v-bass (high-end fx processor). all the voices are mine, using a mic through the same bass processors.
schmee is a larger group of people however, and ultimately all of these will be redone in a way that seeks to appeal to people, rather than just to get the concept out.
the longterm goal of the whole gig, believe it or not, is free public education, engagement and sustaining an existence we can believe in. so there is a massive series of foundations underneath it all, from buddhist zen to relativity, organisational to modern politics, skiing to good reading tips.
should be more up in mid-year after we've gotten settled in our new studios in the highest town in america. or, "high on the divide" as we call it.
bah, sorry for the novel. |
