New chunes
Creativity is a thing of peaks and valleys; inspiration and motivation, fleeting. Fact is, I've been experiencing quite the dry streak of late; months of occasional half-hearted musical fiddling, manifesting itself mostly as going over older, half-started stuff in hopes of finding that spark. Manifest excuses always seem to include "too busy", "too tired", and the eternal favorite "just don't feel like it".
However...
My plan last weekend was to go to Atlanta to surprise my mother for her birthday. I have not seen her since she move down there months ago. However, Mother Nature (or "Mother Fucker" as I call her in this case) saw fit to drop a load of snow on the fair denizens of New York City, causing untold panic (and subsequent cancellations) amongst the airlines. Suffice to say this resulted in two cancelled flights and no Atlanta pour moi.
(BTW, I've rescheduled the trip for this coming weekend, but Mom reads my blog every now and again, so let's hope she won't see this one until after I've surprised her on Saturday.)
Anyway, as I found myself essentially housebound over the weekend, I thought I'd take a crack at finishing the mastering for my latest Abstract Audio Systems release, "Poems For Innogen"...
And I'll be damned if inspiration didn't strike.
I essentially spent two solid days working on a bunch of different tasks related to this new CD. Firstly, I re-mastered the tracks, tweaking the EQ here, adding some gain there, etc. Secondly, I determined the song sequence and created the packaging. Thirdly, during the course of setting the sequence, I discovered that one of the tunes just did not fit the overall feel and flow of the album, so I chose not to include it. This track will no doubt show up on some subsequent EP or some such, but either way it left me with a gap; a gap I filled... with an entirely NEW TUNE. Yup. I'd been toying with a few bits and pieces in the preceding weeks, but I guess the creative juices were flowing the right way that day, resulting in a completed song. Lightning struck and luckily I was holding the kite string when it did.
Having completed all this, I burned a bunch of copies and shipped them off to CDBaby, so the album should be available through them at some point. Factor in shipping time, setup time on their end, etc. and we're talking a couple of weeks. However, if you'd like to take a listen now (and maybe BUY A COPY), you can hear samples on the official Machine Tribe Recordings website. You can also check out all of our other releases.
Pretty neat, huh?
So I'm feeling quite pleased, really. Hopefully this creative streak will continue and I'll be composing steadily. I know hardly anybody listens to my stuff (although hopefully we will come to a tipping point eventually), but I still love putting it together and perhaps those who do get to listen enjoy it just as much.
Slammin' jammin' to this crunked up junk:
Various - Quatermix
(15 downlow track from those fine folks at Quatermass)
Various - Global Cuts
(vintage 90s techno, R&S style)
Godflesh - Godflesh
(like lava: slow, implacable, and utterly destructive)
Various - Interiors
(heavy duty dark experimental shiznit)
Averauschen - Symbiote
(oh, the noise, noise, noise, noise)
However...
My plan last weekend was to go to Atlanta to surprise my mother for her birthday. I have not seen her since she move down there months ago. However, Mother Nature (or "Mother Fucker" as I call her in this case) saw fit to drop a load of snow on the fair denizens of New York City, causing untold panic (and subsequent cancellations) amongst the airlines. Suffice to say this resulted in two cancelled flights and no Atlanta pour moi.
(BTW, I've rescheduled the trip for this coming weekend, but Mom reads my blog every now and again, so let's hope she won't see this one until after I've surprised her on Saturday.)
Anyway, as I found myself essentially housebound over the weekend, I thought I'd take a crack at finishing the mastering for my latest Abstract Audio Systems release, "Poems For Innogen"...
And I'll be damned if inspiration didn't strike.
I essentially spent two solid days working on a bunch of different tasks related to this new CD. Firstly, I re-mastered the tracks, tweaking the EQ here, adding some gain there, etc. Secondly, I determined the song sequence and created the packaging. Thirdly, during the course of setting the sequence, I discovered that one of the tunes just did not fit the overall feel and flow of the album, so I chose not to include it. This track will no doubt show up on some subsequent EP or some such, but either way it left me with a gap; a gap I filled... with an entirely NEW TUNE. Yup. I'd been toying with a few bits and pieces in the preceding weeks, but I guess the creative juices were flowing the right way that day, resulting in a completed song. Lightning struck and luckily I was holding the kite string when it did.
Having completed all this, I burned a bunch of copies and shipped them off to CDBaby, so the album should be available through them at some point. Factor in shipping time, setup time on their end, etc. and we're talking a couple of weeks. However, if you'd like to take a listen now (and maybe BUY A COPY), you can hear samples on the official Machine Tribe Recordings website. You can also check out all of our other releases.
Pretty neat, huh?
So I'm feeling quite pleased, really. Hopefully this creative streak will continue and I'll be composing steadily. I know hardly anybody listens to my stuff (although hopefully we will come to a tipping point eventually), but I still love putting it together and perhaps those who do get to listen enjoy it just as much.
Slammin' jammin' to this crunked up junk:
Various - Quatermix
(15 downlow track from those fine folks at Quatermass)
Various - Global Cuts
(vintage 90s techno, R&S style)
Godflesh - Godflesh
(like lava: slow, implacable, and utterly destructive)
Various - Interiors
(heavy duty dark experimental shiznit)
Averauschen - Symbiote
(oh, the noise, noise, noise, noise)
posted by Ben at 8:30 AM
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