Atari Sound Research, vol. 1 (P·HYDRA Cometh)

More details on the P·HYDRA project page.

MISCELLANEA (2017)

GA/x+ (2016)

A collection of generative/improvisational music. For the moment, available on BandCamp.

MISCELLANEA (2016)

  1. L O L L I P O P I S M I N E — I can't really take much credit for this one, actually. This is The Chordettes' recording of "Lollipop", slowed-down, edited, and effected a little bit. This was my 2-year-old's idea. He slowed playback waaaay down one day, and I thought the track sounded great, so I glossed it up a bit. Creepy video here: pew!
  2. FAM.G5E — Pure Data improvisation using the same patch as track 6 ("FA/M") on FA/x.

FA/x (2015/16)

A short album of generative/improvisational music, exploring a few simple pattern/melody generation methods. Carried-out in Pure Data.

MISCELLANEA (2013-2015)

Mostly synthesis/programming experiments, carried-out in StudioFactory.

  1. DAA/Extraction-01 – An unusually musical session in StudioFactory. Tuned-in some good patterns on this one.
  2. DA3/Dresden – Long and loud. A twenty-minute synthsizer air-raid.
  3. D11/Machine Sounds – A concatenation of a few short clips of improvisation with StudioFactory.

VORDONÆ (2007/8)

A glob of things I recorded in 2007, then came back and worked on a bit in 2008. I had a grand idea of making an album of nicely-recorded, professional-sounding stuff, but I lost interest. Multiple times.

The album, as published on Bandcamp, was trimmed-down to something more like an EP. Here are a few extra bits that were never developed fully.

  1. Blindfold Hinges
  2. Dowl
  3. KILLBUTT
  4. Lum Da Dee – Two things: I wish I played the drums better, and I wish I'd taken notes about what I was doing with microphone placement and mixer settings, 'cause the kick drum on this track is where it's at.
  5. My Andromache – I recorded this damned song at least three separate times, and none of them came out satisfactorily. Also, I never finished writing words for it, so there's a conspicuously dull instrumental verse at the end.

THE RACKET BUREAU (2007)

I had some time on my hands; a drum kit, a cello bow, some exposed ductwork in the basement ...this happened. The name is a nod to Test Department; "Duct Work" in particular was my own response to the sound of Test Dept.'s "Compulsion".(on BandCamp)

  1. Duct Work
  2. Shri Garbage Can

THE STEREO DECIMATOR (2006)

"Imperial Probe Droid" was composed some time in 2005 as I was trying-out Propellerheads' Reason. It sat on the shelf for a little while, and then, God only knows why, I came back to Reason for one week in 2006 and recorded "Dragon Step", "Freon Rupture", and "Thistle". They all seemed to complement each other. "Neighbours" was done the following week, half in Cubase, half in Reason, and I really didn't know where to go from there. The set was done.

  1. Dragon Step
  2. Imperial Probe Droid
  3. Freon Rupture
  4. Thistle
  5. Neighbours – Life in low-income housing. A response to the lives of my neighbours bleeding into my own through thin walls. There are three parts to this one: 1. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (0:00-1:49), 2. Fucking Idiot Music (1:49-4:13), 3. Kids Rourke Out (4:13-5:39). That last section is still one of my favourite things I've done; short and sweet.

MOTE EIDETIX (2003/4)

My first attempt to put together some kind of album. There's some dodgy guitar playing, sludgy reverb-heavy mixing, and the programmed drum sounds are cringeworthy (the live drums, poorly played and poorly recorded, are much better), but there is some stuff on here that I still like. In particular, the synthesizer stuff on "Le Monade", "Can", and "Theres no room..." is still very satisfying to my ear. I'd picked-up a Yamaha DX200 that year, and had endless fun with it. Wish I still had it.

The guitar I played on most of this was a Casio PG-380 synth/MIDI guitar. Solid guitar, although not really to my taste; the built-in phase-modulation synth appears on "O3", but for the most part I just used it as a guitar.

  1. Aroate – Some kind of sludgy prog-rock thing.
  2. Cantu – This is something I used to love to do: just write a nice little accompaniment on the synthesizer and improvise on the guitar. No mind-blowing licks or anything, just ...I dunno, pleasant music. I still like this.
  3. Le Monade – Great synthesizer part. Guitar parts are okay, too, but those drums ...ugh.
  4. Aroku – Another sludgy prog-rock thing.
  5. Can – Fun fact: I created a VRML world (remember VRML?) with a sort-of tumbling fountain of words and this lovely pink horizon texture in the background, and I used this for the music. The VRML file is long lost, but I have fond memories of the experience of it.
  6. O3 – Fripp-style Soundscapey thing?
  7. Tema – One of the earliest riffs I came up with for the guitar, but didn't work it into anything for years. Again, I like this one until the sequenced drums come in at the end. Yuck. Abused the Floyd Rose on the PG-380 a lot on this one. Abused? Exploited, I mean.
  8. There's no room left in the sky for sunset – I love the Dorian mode. It's the Terminator mode; the dark future, perpetually drizzling night-time mode. The guitar part's a bit cheesy, probably, but the synth part on this is tits.

Tools

Other Peoples' Music

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