I'm not dead yet

It's been a month of insanity and beyond everything else I've got going on I've been working on some new music for some new friends.


Details to follow.

Until then, have a fantastic Xmas everyone.  And thank you for your support.

-J

Imminent Quench (4th Interchange)

Imminent Quench fuses an 8-bit synth with more modern electronic sounds.  This song features the most automation I've ever put into a single track.  Automation allows me to manipulate any setting and dial on my DAW as much or as little as needed to fit the moment bringing a more dynamic feel to the overall song.  The most basic kinds of automations are used for panning sounds and fading volume in and out.  Here I also applied them to knobs in the mixer to adjust FX levels on the fly, not to mention going a little nuts with the pitch and tempo.

   Imminent quench (4th interchange) by Remedial M-Theory

After listening to the last few tracks I've posted here, I get the feeling I'm in a bit of a creative rut.  The music is all starting to sound the same and bleed together.  I guess that means it's time to try something new.

Hold on to your butts.

New Track - The Electro Monster

This track is brought you by Insomnia.

It's been sitting on a back burner since I first started it many, many months ago.  Every once in a while I'd listen to it I remember why I'd put it away.  When I couldn't sleep yesterday, last night, and then again today I didn't immediately consider working on music I just sort of ran out of other things I had the energy to do and was surprised when things on this one started to come together.  If this song  goes off the rails a few times feel free to attribute that to madness that comes with being exhausted and a complete inability to catch any z's.

   The Electro Monster by Remedial M-Theory

Only cause I have to

Pretty done with remix competitions.  Why the hell do I want to spend a shit ton of time on music that in the end I basically forfeit all my rights to and ultimately no one on earth will really care about?  In this case I figured if I'm Mr. Remedial M-Theory I almost have to remix a song called Dust in the Universe even though there is nothing science-y about it.

Then again, that might be flawed logic since M-Theory is all about explaining the universe and the universe encompasses everything we know therefore I should be remixing everything in the universe but that just makes me tired thinking about it.

But then again everything makes me tired.  I'm almost out of breath just typing this post.

Back to where it all started...

This is my Dust in the Universe (Have you seen my cat? mix) a remix of a track by a band called Army of the Universe.

Ballad of the Product Demo

Brand new track from R M-T today, it doesn't feel new to me cause I've been grinding away at it for 8 months.

Still...

   Ballad of the Product Demo by Remedial M-Theory

from the vault - two hjc

Created back in 2009, this is one of those tracks I keep waiting to unleash but then I listen to it and decide it needs some work.  So I start working on it only to discover it's fine just the way it is.  Then as I'm about to post it I'll lose confidence in it again.

In a temporary break in the cycle (and or lapse in judgement) I've posted this version that has been updated in the last year but mostly on the technical side of things.  A few shifts in the percussion are the only real musical changes I've made since I first completed it.

It could be said that a large amount of my music is loop based, created by compiling a group of repeating patterns and so forth.  This song is a whole bunch of loops that I made from scratch in FL Studio and one royalty-free loop but I'll leave you to guess the whereabouts of that particular beast.

   two hjc by Remedial M-Theory

6% more R M-T on the web!

The good news is that I am proving once again I am eight months behind the cutting edge by embracing technology and starting my official tumblr.

The bad news is the first post is me still bitching about that douche Moby. 

At some point I am going to get over this, I promise.

Grey Goo

Grey Goo is a doomsday scenario related to self-replicating machines consuming everything on earth that has become a metaphor du jour being used to illustrate such things as the availability of technology causing pervasive mediocrity in culture and the arts.  It should be known that in most cases this analogy is used by a massive tooly douchehole.

My take on it?  If there is going to be a cultural and artistic apocalypse I don't want a front row seat.  I want to be one of the four horsemen so I've kicked it into high gear creating the grey-iest, goo-iest music with the resources I have and in the greatest quantities I could.

And by that I mean I made two tracks this week.  After all I do have a part-time job and I am a stay at home dad and I have a few other commitments that cut into my busy schedule of bringing the music world to it's knees.

But I digress.

This is a little self-replicating noise I made using Sony Acid 7 and FL 10.  This track also includes a severe overuse of the Hardcore plugin.  That would be the goo so to speak as I ran just about everything through it at some point.  In some cases I ran sounds through it twice.

   Grey Goo by Remedial M-Theory

Site Updates and Such

Just a note to let anyone who might stop by know I have been doing some work here and there to make my site a little better, or less worse as the case may be.  Primarily I have started linking songs on the Discography page to places where you can actually hear those tracks online.

Be warned, that discography is a representation of my learning curve and growth to this point and shouldn't be misconstrued as a whole ton of awesome stuff you have to hear or else your life will be meaningless.  Not all of it is available online at at the moment and yes, most of them CANNOT be downloaded, but at least there is more to listen to.

Any questions comments or complaints as always should be directed to the address on the contact page.

until later,
JKS (Remedial M-Theory)

More Noise For Your Toys

I thought I had already posted this here but clearly forgot.  I swear I remember typing the story and everything but it's not in my draft file or anywhere else... not as if I could more lose my mind.

Right?

But to wrap up my not so long story, here's the new ringtone and yes I am working on a full version of this if I can figure out how to make a four minute version of this track not suck.

   RT-00A2 by Remedial M-Theory

Theme for Dorotka

A little mood music for you for what is left of the Monday.  I think that maybe I've been listening to a little too much John Murphy... that's the only way I can explain this one.

Edit (Sep 14, 2011- realizing I left out a few things) - This track maxed the living crap out of my CPU and that is the first time I've had an issue with that.  I had four versions of a guitar sim on separate channels and apparently the sim I was using is a massive resource hog.  Initially I was going to only do guitars on this one, but when I added that fifth guitar channel my computer gave me the finger and nearly choked to death laughing.  That's what I get for buying such a smart ass of a computer.  Never again.  Needless to say, I was quite surprised when I found a sound that complimented what I had created so far yet stood out so perfectly as the "one of these things is not like the other" portion of the material.


   Theme For Darotka by Remedial M-Theory

two posts in one day?!

I haven't put anything new up for the masses in a while so here is a brand spanking new ringtone.

   RT-00A1 by Remedial M-Theory

Now you got Overkill Overkill.

Check out my new TESD: OVERKILL intro that kicks off the two most recent episodes.  It's still not quite done in the sense that it will be tweaked one final time before the next show.  Musically it's done, just adding some voice work that I'll be recording later today.

Overkill for Overkill

I have a tendency to overdo it when I'm working on a project and the intro I made for TESD:Overkill was no exception. For what was originally expected to be a twenty to thirty second intro clip I ended up creating over 20 minutes worth of music in various stages of production. A fair amount would consist of unrealized thoughts and ideas but nearly all of it is something I'll end up using eventually. Here is a sample from that 20 minutes of a near-completed intro that was created as a contingency just in case. File this away under the heading of "could have been."

Unused Overkill Sample Intro by Remedial M-Theory

Overkill Baby

Been quiet for a while but I've been real busy. You can check out my latest intro music on TESD:OVERKILL. The Tell 'Em Steve-Dave boys tackle the dark side X-files style... not so much in episode one, but that first ep is still mighty entertaining.

Thursday Morning

A little something new I'm working on, still trying to nail down all the sounds, but I imagine it won't deviate too far from the instruments you hear in this version (two pianos and a cello) but this one has at least a little more in it before it's done. I'm thinking it will double or triple in length before all is said and done... not everything I do is under a minute. Apologies for the weak-ass stinger on the end, I found that it was slightly better then having nothing in it's place, but that particular bit is indeed temporary.

Thursday Morning by Remedial M-Theory

Wow... more rain.

Rainy Sunday is a new ringtone-length track I put together this morning because I needed pick me up from all the gray outside. Thought I was going to get a lot of music done this week but here it is Sunday and I have nothing new. Except for this, that is... don't know if this counts or not.

Happy Fathers Day

RT - Rainy Sunday by Remedial M-Theory

Take THAT Snowball & Napoleon

Sat down at the computer tonight after getting the kids to bed with every intention of working up some new content for the site and I just looked up and realized it was past my bedtime and I hadn't done much more than Angry Birds... I hate those pigs. I like to play that game after reading Animal Farm, I get extra motivated... "Four legs good," my ass.

But in the interest of posting something new I offer a ringtone I made a couple of months ago. When I do ringtones I try to tailor them specifically to the person I make it for but this one wasn't because I didn't really make it for any one person in particular. Just something I did to fill time perhaps, I can't quite remember.

RT - m01 (ringtone) by Remedial M-Theory

Brought an Oboe to a Gun Fight

None of the music I write for myself has a deadline and I'm not one of those people who can fool themselves into thinking they have a deadline when they really don't. Whats the point? For the most part I'm under no pressure to get anything done at all. To counter this from time to time I enter a music competition just to put some heat on.

Every now and again I do get the pseudo-composer version of writers block and have found that if I enter a remix contest, the deadline gets me motivated. I get something done which comes with the obligatory sense of accomplishing something but as a byproduct, most of the time I get several ideas for projects of my own.

Sometimes I enter a contest because I have nothing else to do. Case in point, the Bleed Electric contest at Acid Planet. They offered the song Birds as High as Planes for remixing. The original was described as "An interesting track; think Electroclash meets Public Enemy via Kanye..." You get the idea. Bottom line, I didn't care for it. This was back in spring 2009 and I was way past auto tuned vocals besides all the other things I didn't really like about the track.

I wasn't going to enter but I started to listening to the other mixes and heard 20 different offerings that included sounds of breaking glass and sirens. The song is about a hold up gone bad, the cops are coming, they don't want to go to jail, blah blah blah. I got a little worked up because all those other mixes pissed me off.

I brought out my big guns for this wannabe gangsta sorta rap - xylophone, cello, orchestral strings, and of course... an oboe. O hell yes. Just to be as different from everyone else as I could. And I did it all because at the time I literally had nothing better to do.

Not that it matters. In the end, no one really cares but me. Of course I didn't win but I do like how it all turned out, and it gave me a ton of ideas. And for the record, no I don't like how everything I do turns out.

With nothing else to blah about this one, here's my Birds as High as Planes (Caged Mix) from June 2009.

The Blur

It might have been that I was sleep deprived or that I'd skipped breakfast. Maybe it was that the gas was cranked up too high or an odd combination of any or all of those things but yesterday at the dentist I was flat out blazed on the nitrous.

I remember thinking that the ceiling was boring. This was disappointing. Later I could vividly make out little imperfections and discolorations in the ceiling tiles. Then it was fascinating. Later still I decided that of all the rooms at this dentist office where I have stared at the ceiling this was my least favorite and I should ask not to be put in this room again.

I had a vision of myself as a rocking horse. I remember thinking that there was a lot of gray in the arm hairs of the dentist. There were also a few moments where I could empathize with those big cats on nature shows that have been anesthetized and have those big glassy eyes, mouth hanging open, drooling while the vets poke and prod...

The rest of the time was split between complete blur and what I can only describe as hyper clarity. I did have one thought that was music related... my dentist needs entrance music. I started crafting in my brain on the drive, went right to work when I got home. I might make a few changes in the next day or two as I tend to do.

Beat DT-005 ver 5 by Remedial M-Theory

More Remixing

Just posted an early draft of a remix of a song called Yellow by Sarah Fimm. Switched out all the instrumentals, sped it up a little, added some reverb and other mild effects to the vocals... It's a departure from what I normally do, I tend to avoid the down tempo electronic sound but there is something about this song that wouldn't let me ignore the possibilities of going even more sparse and minimal than the original.

Gone Kaput

Today I have another short subject that first saw the light of day as a full length track back in September of 2009. Yes, more old crap. That's how it is. I really am working on some new music and I'll try to get some of it up as soon as it isn't completely offensive to the eardrums. It will also help if it ever stops raining. I can't even believe there's any rain left... It's as if it's all part of some sort of continuous cycle...

Gone Kaput by Remedial M-Theory

This was originally from a remix I did for a contest a while back, a mix I was ultimately very unsatisfied with. I was fighting with all sorts of issues with distortion... some that I was purposely adding to vocals and guitars vs some compression, EQ, and software issues that made the whole thing sound much shittier than I would have liked.

I've cleaned this up a little bit, slowed it down some, switched out the guitar cabs and adjusted all of the levels. The reason I don't post the full track is that without the lyrics (which I don't really care for) it gets a little repetitive... yeah sorry, it doesn't get any better than this.

One thing I tried to do when I made this originally was fuse my rock influences with some of the musical styles and techniques I've been introduced to in the last few years. On that level I'm happy with how this one turned out.

I'd like to say thanks to all the folks who've checked out my site thanks to Tell Em Steve Dave. I appreciate you taking the time to look and listen. Feel free to stop by and give me shit any time.

Yellowed

Unreleased 2009

No story today, no insight, and almost no blah at all. Just this piece of something or other from a year and a half ago that I'm still trying to decide whether or not it needs something more.

Yellowed by Remedial M-Theory

"You'd Like it if you had robot ears!"

Game for Koko
2007 WormFood Collection

There are two ways I make music. The first is one comes slowly, taking months or even years until I arrive at a point where I let anyone hear it. Less than half of the songs I have available on my various web pages are of this variety but I probably have more than a hundred such tracks still waiting to be finished, collecting dust on one of my numerous back-up drives.

The other kind is where the idea appears in my head from out of the ether and I sit at my computer until it is done. They arrive as a flash of blue lightning in my skull, often inspired by an emotional event, a dream, or even a messed up conversation. On occasion one of these songs is inspired by listening to another track and wondering to myself if I could do an homage or at least something a little better.

That being said. Most of the music I make isn't really about anything. Clearly, some are inspired by events in my life or overwhelming emotional breakdowns or even crappy winter days. Sometimes the name of the track gives it a sense of being related to something but most of those names are just weird things that pop into my head at the moment I am saving the project and it requires a title.

But there are always a few exceptions to the rule. Case in point, Game for Koko, a track I wrote specifically in response to a conversation I had with a complete stranger.

This person was ragging on all the types of music that he hated. Started off with Country. Then he said he hated Rap with a "purple passion," whatever that means. Then he said "but nothing's worse than electronic. Any monkey with a computer can make that shit."

I walked away from the conversation not hurt or discouraged but with this vivid image of Koko the Gorilla sitting at a computer with her kitten in one hand while left clicking away on a computer utilizing the same digital audio workstation I use at home.

When I got home I sat down at the computer and created this entire track. I don't know how long it would have taken a room full of Gorillas clicking away on FL Studio to come up with something that sounded like this. I'm pretty sure there are gorillas out there who could make better music than me but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I'm not in this to be the best, the king of the world, or even better than Koko the gorilla.

Game for Koko by Remedial M-Theory

A minor postscript - A number of the older songs I've posted have been tweaked and remastered as until fairly recently I cared little about audio production and levels and EQ and all that BS. I know you may have to adjust the living hell out of your EQ for you to listen to this on your sound system but I wanted to post it warts and all. This is Garage Band Electronica. That's how I rolled for a long time and I'm not ashamed of my roots. Hell no.

A not so minor postscript - I honestly never saw this video until today but it is pretty damn close to what I envisioned... sure there is no computer or kitty but geez...

End of the Line (C ResMix)

Indaba Music is running a remix "opportunity" with Daft Punk tracks from Tron Legacy. Remixing opens that door to rework a track in your own image. It can be a blast or it can be soul crushing. Since the track I chose to remix already felt stark and minimal, I had a hard time feeling good about anything that added too much weight if that makes any sense.

What I did was attempt to fashion a track that could exist in the same world as the original, only with a small piece of me in it. The result is my Contextual Resolution Mix of Daft Punk's End of the Line.



This one almost didn't happen. I got confused on what day it was so I thought I had run out of time. When it finally dawned on me that I did have time to finish a mix and submit I immediately threw out everything I had put together so far, which was actually for a completely different selection from the score, and started on something different. Then I went to work, pacing around all night with the synth bass from EOL stuck in my head grinding away before coming back home and deciding all my ideas were crap and I wasn't going to waste my time.

Two hours of sleep later it was clear I was going to take another crack at this bad boy. I have days when my brain won't rest until I exercise the demons of lingering music. Despite being completely exhausted I basically had no choice but spend the next several hours working through this mix,and that is exactly what I did. I dig it. Maybe not what anyone else wants to hear but at least I can finally get some sleep.

Tre Don't Ya (Featuring Dr S)

A while back, I posted a work in progress promising an update in the near future. Tre Don't Ya represents the first and certainly not the last collaboration between me and my dad.

The difference between me and my pop is that he is a real composer who has had music performed all over the world. The best part about working with him is he's more than a mentor, more than a teacher... he's a fan.

Without further blah blah... here you go. Tre Don't Ya - Full Version featuring my Dad, Dr. S

Tre Don't Ya (Featuring Dr S) by Remedial M-Theory

Winter Theme

Short subject music has been on my mind enough that I thought I should post my very first short subject track. This one goes back about a year and half, I was going through one of my many cello phases and was trying to put together something really low key.

Winter Theme by Remedial M-Theory

MMA Grocery Bagger

Over the course of last year more and more of the music I've been working on seems to be of the short subject variety, rounding out in about a minute if that. Part of this is due to the formats I've been working in. Also, I've recently started making personalized ringtones for friends and family and a minute is too long for ring tone so now I'm already starting to make even shorter subject music... if this trend continues in less than a year I could be making silence...

The benefit of short tracks is that I only have to be on my game for about a minute. I can dispense with intros and bridges and outros and whatever else feels like blah filler in so much of what I write. I've found I can go through most of my material no matter how long it is and get at least one solid minute out of it.

The other good thing about it is that if it does suck, the suffering will be over before you know it. And that makes us all winners.

MMA Grocery Bagger is a song I had been meaning to put together for a long time, inspired by a shopping experience many years ago where the cashier called in a guy to bag my groceries that looked like he spent most of his free time tearing people in half. It occurred to me that even when he's bagging this guy needs entrance music with smoke, lights and pyros. He was clearly that big of a bad ass.

It has since occurred to me that everyone needs their own entrance music. How could life not be better if every time you entered a any room for any reason you could hear your music blasting as the announcer calls your name and the crowd roars... even showing up for your remedial physics class would kick ass.

MMA Grocery Bagger by Remedial M-Theory

Gray Theme no.1

I remember the day I wrote this. I had just arrived home after a 5 mile white knuckle drive down an ice sheet during the morning commute. The hill on State was particularly terrifying but that's winter. I hate it. I hate the gray. I hate the snow. I really hate the ice... All of this was running through my head when I sat down at my computer and discovered the annual Electronoel Contest at Acid Planet was closing and I hadn't submitted an entry.

Electronoel is a December institution at Acid Planet. Every year right before Christmas you get 8,000 yahoos uploading their remix of Carol of the Bells (the Christmas carol equivalent of Barbers Adagio) for fabulous prizes. Of course there are a few people who come up with original Christmas themed music that can be surprisingly good, I remember a couple years ago there was a bit with a Tuba that impressed me...

The rules actually state that the song should be winter-themed. At least this year they did. Nothing about Xmas or the Holidays, most likely political correctness but I took the suggestion literally anyway.

I wasn't planning to enter this contest but since winter is dumb and so are techno mixes of overplayed Christmas crap I sat down and composed a little piece that was as contrary to everything that would be entered in the contest as I could imagine and still manage to contain some of how winter makes me feel.

This was my original composition, not electronic, not Christmas, and certainly not something even I expected. Despite the motivations, I am more proud of this little ditty than anything else I've written.

Also, anyone who knows my Pa will hear his influence all over it. Probably why this is one of the things I've done that he likes the most.

From the Vault vol. 2

Secundum Iam
2007 Unreleased

A soundtrack to a lucid dream, the sort that leaves you feeling more uneasy the longer it rattles around in your brain. Not about anything specific beyond the tone and mood I was shooting for. I think it would make a groovy closing credits track.

Many of my songs have names that are derived from pop culture references and or inside jokes combined with German and or Polish words resulting in things that might sound like they mean something but probably don't. I did go through a brief Latin phase and then I went through another brief phase of giving songs names that sounded like they could or even might be actual Latin but probably weren't... The title for Secundum Iam happened somewhere in that time frame. I honestly don't remember which.

I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to unravel the mystery with language tools on the internet and such, but that sounds like a lot of work to me.

Secundum Iam by Remedial M-Theory

From The Vault vol.1

Death Before Ack!
2007 WormFood Collection

DBA! is a track I wrote as the first part of "The Dark Triptych" back in the mid-aughts in the days when I didn't know how much I didn't know about electronic music.

Despite the inevitability of death, the moment it actually comes is generally a complete surprise. This song is supposed to embody the cruelty of that moment, how few are even granted those cinematic last words. Most of us probably won't even manage an "Ack!" so to speak. This song is full of unspoken dreams and barely formed whispers, ideas fading before they get a chance to stretch their legs... all haunted by the ghost of melody that goes mostly unrealized... Hey, I'm not saying I executed it all that well only that those were the thoughts in my head as I worked it all out with a heavy electronic bass and thumping kick.

Even as I write this, I consider that if I made a track today about all those things it would bare no resemblance to what you hear in this classic track from the RM-T vault. But that goes without saying.

-J

Death before Ack! by Remedial M-Theory

Tre Don't Ya

Tre Don't Ya will eventually be a collaboration with my Dad. He's written some killer material that goes over this bass part that ratchets everything up a notch. I've got everything ready to go I just have to figure out some levels and sound production details, hopefully this week I'll get everything worked out and the full version posted.

Tre Don't ya by Remedial M-Theory