Archive for the ‘My Music’ Category

More Music this week. The sad, and thusly well-received

Big Sky (Abandoned Mix) ft Neurowaxx & DJ Chronos

Finding yet another beautiful guitar piece in the rich archives of ccmixter’s sample pool, this one from Neurowaxx, a piece I found very evocative, lonely, and that had that sort of dusty, old Wetsern movie type of feel.

 

 

And also the discovery of a new musician (Paul, aka ambtax1)employing the lyrics for Pscionic Daydream in a cool new way. This guy is a ‘tracker’, a term that is new to me, but not to the world. He is using older, coder technology to produce his tracks, instead of wave patterns he works with numeric chains, sequencers and his tracks are laid in monophonic channels. All in all, it is a much more technological type of music interfacing than Ableton, but we all end up with musical pieces in the end. Just the approach that is different.

Ambtax1 Beautiful (ft Kaer Trouz)

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Here is an interesting documentary, employing the track I made a few weeks ago with Loveshadow’s beautiful guitar sample. It’s an interesting vid- not sure what small town in France Thegibolin is filming, but certainly provides a uniquely global perspective, I too mourn the disappearance of the natural world.

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Well, Spinmeister’s Melodyne manipulated version of ‘Unforgiven’ also received an editorial pick at CCmixter. And now, virtually I will be doing an acoustic jazz combo with him and Shimoda, who I met during the RPM Challenge. Let’s see how real I can be, and can I keep up with Melodyne or will it keep up with me? I will keep you posted……

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Artistically, I disagree with computerized pitch and timing correction. Really, if you are going to make a craft of singing, why would one want the easy way out? I have recently become aware of a product called Melodyne which is a plug-in you can buy to do just this- and more. Certainly this is nothing new to the technically proficient and ultra-geared-out Djs and remixers out there in the world but I have to say I approve of the following:

Spinmeister Unforgiven (ft The Joe & Kaer Trouz)

 

This is a Melodyne shift pitched version of Love Kaer Shadow Trouz Jericho vs Unforgiven.
which Spinmeister artfully manipulated in order to make some of the more minor resolutions in the orgininal work within the tonal framework of his new, jazzier composition. There is only one tiny place where it doesn’t sound like I would, but I am not telling where- can you guess?

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photo credit: Steven Fernandez

Almost, yes I guess it has. This is the strange time of year for me, the struggle between outside and inside, the first rays of true warm sun upon the face blah blah blah.

I am no longer afraid to fly
photo credit: gloom

so I left this country for most of April, looking at various things in the world and letting my ears lull in the rhythm of incomprehensible languages, their ebbs and flows, clicks and rolls, the music that comes when the brain is not busy firing up semantic synapses.

At times I felt like an alien drifting though worlds, with familiar landscapes (grass, buildings cups, bread) but I wondered if I were really there, with the inability to communicate, people’s alarm at my dark and cluttered accent upon my feeble attempts to capture their language.

Before I left I put this up, a collaboration with the amazing Mr. Lincoln, aka fireproof babies. He too is an unusually sensitive artist, we share some of the same pathology, I wish he lived closer so we could hang out and also so I could find him a girlfriend. He would make an amazing boyfriend.

Falls Through Walls (694 Miles Apart Mix ft fireproof babies & Kaer Trouz, uauaua & jaspertine)

 

 

Then, in a moment of quiet simplicity, I put together a two-track duet with the enviably talented Loveshadow, whose acoustic guitar sample here really made me swoon. It got an an editor’s pick- I was completely shocked. These are quite hard to come by and now I have received two!

Love Kaer Shadow Trouz Jericho Vs. Unforgiven (ft Loveshadow & Kaer Trouz)

 

 

Lastly I was contacted by a duo called Woodman and Theo , who have employed a very popular a capella of mine, My Apocalypse Now (you can use it too!) to make

Woodman’s Mix- Rabbit on Your 6 (ft Kaer Trouz)

 

 

 

 

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Creating Kenavo in 17 days has left me bludgeoned and a bit demured. I want to do more things, but I seemed to have scraped the bottom of my creativity barrel. Plus I still struggle with EQ enough to sound as if I am a 1970s am radio producer. Those of you unsure of a sidebar download, here it is again, free for the taking. There are two swear words and some material may not be appropriate for younger children.

 

Kenavo Get the Record Here. Free.

So tonight I am just posting some remixes, some nice ones, others have done with the a capellas I have loaded onto CCmixter.

Tino (if you just hold on remix)

Liquid Eyes (the clouds are godless mix)

scmixer My Apocalypse Now (dark clouds mix)

Vo1k1 (Rain Lament Pretty Mix ft. Jaspertine)

 

Lastly, a cool video from jaspertine, I believe the footage, or at least some of it, comes from his work trip to Quebec.

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I have babies too. Just like Kristin, from Throwing Muses, some scattered in the heavens, one boy here on earth, and he has something in common with her, a struggle that shall remain unnamed, you can hear it in her words, her voice, which has deepened and become more grave over the years. In him, you can feel it, eyes darken, a puncturing of the soul, deflated hearts abound.

I try to keep this blog limited to music, I feel, yes if you listen closely, you can glean all the personal information you want from the music. But I will not spoon feed it to you.

Kristin (and if you are unfamiliar with the Throwing Muses, you are either too young or too dumb (sorry so sorry) and her band were a staple of mine in the early years (1985-1991), she and her tiny step-sister Tanya Donelly (later of Belly) throwing down difficult, disharmonic, hard and complicated rock in times when the likes of of Eddy Vedder and Chris Cornell were bleating out macho, well-contrived, less difficult stuff.

I threw my singing ego away to create this– it is mainly Kristin and I backed her up a bit (the beauty of remixing- you can if you dare). She probably never wanted hip hop drums behind her but I heard a horse galloping there and wanted that percussion Here ’tis—

Morning Birds (Nearly Mute Trouz Mix ft Kristin Hersh & Jovica)

 

 

On another note, I was able to lay down two vocals for yet another RPM Challenge Project, the one created at Ccmixter, a hodge podge of weirdo musicians. I got an email on February 20th, that read like this:

Hello there. I represent a group of musicians, producers, vocalists and
other troubadour-types from CCMixter who have decided to enter into
the 2008 RPM Challenge. You know the principle behind said challenge, I
assume.

We are currently (urgently) seeking a vocalist/lyricist, and I was told
by forces from on high that you were a skilled singer and a fast
writer. Both of which we need.

If you could spare the time from working on your own project for the
challenge, I would be very grateful if you would do us the honor of
lending us your voice.

 

I said of course. The two tracks that emerged were pretty cool, one in a 6/8 time signature that shifted into 5/8 and another that was sort of trance and chill. I loved the remix of Blind Date, by DJ Rkod, but I preferred my own remix of When I Close My Eyes. You can find all the collaboration/attribution files here .

When I Close My Eyes (Kaer Trouz Mix- Not The Final Mix)

Blind Date

 

Lastly, a photo of me and my earth boy, 12.5 years ago, in a tender moment.

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photo credit: charlesdyer

I made a record in 18 days. I am calling it Kenavo, which means goodbye in Breton. (If you would like to download it, the zip file, with artwork etc., is available now in the side bar.

It’s strange to not be under gun of finishing, but I want to make music- more. So I have two collaboration projects in the works, my third with dittoditto, also a new one born inside ccmixter, with fireproof babies .

I am also now putting the link for all my creative commons work in the sidebar, and from now on only posting originals here.

I am also struggling with the idea of opening a virtual music store, to try and sell some a capellas, and songs, and maybe other musicians’ works I appreciate, but I am not ready to make this a business, yet anyway. Someday soon, maybe. But not today.

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Can you, or rather would you write an album in one month? Why? It is a proven and stated fact that albums no longer have any weight, nor matter, and the only thing that counts is one golden nugget of three minutes, a ninety-nine cent single, shuffled into an ipod, individual songs that cause train riders, fast walkers, aimless wanderers to create the ’soundtracks of their lives’. You can shuffle through moods, work-out, get fitter, feel happier, arrange your break-up songs. You no longer need be bothered with the one, out-of-place, dissonant track that somehow ruined an entire album, but in days gone by you had to get off your stoned ass and actually physically MOVE THE RECORD NEEDLE, often causing scratching and high-end sonic irritation, to avoid this disruption of bliss. Now a single thumb will dial, dial, dial, until the right mood hits and brightness is yours again.

RBM offers a yearly challenge to mentally ill musicians ( I mean really who would commit themselves to this???—it’s like the special olympics of home production!!) Make an album in 29 days. There is a little, count-down clock on the site, and much weird youtubeness, the likes of which I am not prepared to share. Check it yourself-my profile here, notice I have nothing up. In order not to clog up their bandwidth I am going to post/blog talk about it here-which makes way more sense.

(Update: This post was originally intended for publishing on Fenruary 8th, when I joined. I now have 35 minutes of music- 8 songs, 1.5 of which is not recorded, 2 of which are not tracked, 5 of which are not mixed, 8 of which have no vocals, and 5 of which do not have lyrics written. All of which are not mastered. Christ.)

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Stranded On Marmolada/ Jaspertine & Kaer Trouz (ft. milo & push to break, from freesound.org)

 

What does one do with an insanely talented Candian living in New Brunswick, close to Novia Scotia? Let him take your voice into reverb universes yet unexplored and be glad. That’s what.

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