My latest effort. A mix of Audulus patches played using the AU and Ableton Live instruments. The vocoder is from my UltraNova.
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Funky!
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Not sure if that is a local wild rose pictured there, but I enjoy snacking on the petals while hiking.
I really like the music you have been posting on soundcloud. I have been working on electro stuff for the last while but mostly my knowledge is in Chicago house music. The symphonic/funk vibes are spot on.
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I think it’s a poppy, but I’m not really sure. I took the pic in Texas somewhere. Thanks for the compliment! 
I don’t pay too much attention to genres these days. As someone here pointed out “It’s All About the Music!” I have to admit, I’m a sucker for a good beat, but otherwise it’s just what sounds right at the time.
The genres are important to the DJ’s and producers because some people want to make a comment or contribution to the respective canons. So Larry Heard is one of the most famous Chicago house producers. He is 58 now and still releasing tracks. Here is one from last year. I think it is a good example of developing patience and depth, without going ‘dark’. Very minimal but definitely moody.
As we get to the end of the track you can tell there is room for the DJ to go ahead and drop something next. So the DJ has a responsibility to take us somewhere but it has to be done in a way that respects the emotions that have been brought up by what might be currently playing. Not easy.
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Nice track. I see what you mean about leaving room at the end. Improv is never easy regardless of what medium you choose, but when it clicks it’s heaven.
One if the reasons there is room at the end is because the genre is built on vinyl, where you couldn’t actually loop anything. So in order to bring a new record in you needed a couple of minutes at the beginning and end to bring everything over to a new track. Back then they would just be using EQ to kill the kick drum and then maybe kill the hats and snares on the next track and slam the new kick drum into the existing track. A good producer can build a bit of suspense and then allow the next production to use that energy to keep the storyline going.
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Interesting. I was never too much into the DJ scene though I certainly respect their talent. Making music with other’s music is an art form all in itself.
I love how screamin 80s this is. Really nailed the timbres. The bridge/breakdown is great too! Can definitely tell your stuff is progressing harmonically and compositionally.
It’s funny to think simple stuff like this was so legendary back in the day of Kraftwerk - like I could see this legit being a hit from back in the day. Now that it’s so easy to create electronic music, most of the stuff I see that breaks through the mold seems very very produced. I prefer more raw simple compositions like this that really get at the essence of electronic music.
Thanks a lot! I agree with you regarding overproduction. It’s so easy to manipulate sound these days that it’s tempting to overdo things. Sometimes less is more. I can live with a mechanical beat, but I think you need a bit of human error in the mix. I did crank the compression a bit in this one to get the right feel (no side-chains though). It’s hard to know when to stop fooling with the mix and cut to the chase, but I get impatient to mess with something else. Probably a good thing in the end. I will have to admit that Ableton has made the creative process much easier. I still like Reaper and it’s a fantastic DAW for the money, but I’m really liking the Live workflow. I can’t wait for the A4 plug-in,
This has been floating around in my head for weeks (as many things do).
I really love Plato. Most of these historical giants have just become foils for graduate theses and mass market non-fiction. I think that if you pick up Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, etc., and come away thinking those figures had a bunch of things wrong, you need to reread their work. I sat through a class on Plato and watched the teacher destroy Plato’s ideas in complete lockstep with the class. I would be up all night wrestling with the texts and then I would go to class. The professor would make sweeping (quite common) claims about the shortcomings of the chapters in question, until I couldn’t take it anymore and started to challenge their line of inquiry. At the time I felt very alone and misunderstood for it. Then one day a girl paused and got my attention as we were filing out. She said, “just so you know, I think your interpretations are fantastic.” I needed to hear that. We never spoke again, no one else spoke to me, but I knew in my heart I was doing something important.
The thing is, I didn’t see those problems they saw in Plato’s work. In fact, I saw extremely subtle delicate solutions. Not only that, but Plato was a writer of plays in which he never appears as a character. Why then is it so common to attribute the theories put fourth by the people in his plays as his own ideas. We don’t think that King Lear is a direct portrayal of Shakespeare’s thought. If anything, it is the total presentation of conflicting ideas working themselves through a plot line, which gives us a sense of the author’s awareness of the limitations of a singular view.
So, if you are getting payed to teach Plato in university there is a good chance you are convincing students that he had a “theory of forms,” which were essences or perfect ideas that exist in a separate realm, of which this one is but a shadow. I don’t think he thought that.
Right. So, the essence of electronic music. I had been mulling this a couple of weeks ago (I have no choice, my mind just mulls) and I thought, perhaps, what you meant was the essence of computer music. In that case I am on board.
Why does it matter? As usual I was scrolling through synthtopia today and ended up learning about Delia Derbyshire who worked for the BBC at the Radiophonic workshop. From what I can see, this is electronic music without computers.
Now, I took your comment to mean, “hey, quit trying to steer things into the house music world.” Obviously you are aware of this scene. To be clear, I do not seek agreement but prefer understandings of difference. So, although I abhor essences, I am fine with having differences in taste.
I think Legowelt is the perfect example here. He has successfully blended computer music with house music for years, and got the absolute attention of the old Chicago producers because he took the time to learn how to comment on the genre in his own way. If we collapse or blur the distinction between computer music and electronic music, I see no way to explain why Legowelt is so extremely influential.
More on Delia…
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Don’t know if you caught this post about the early work in electronic music done at the Polish Experimental Radio Theatre. After All, Isn't it About the Music? Another example of pre-computer electronic synthesis.
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