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.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
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
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
Thursday, April 21, 2011
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
Winter Theme by Remedial M-Theory
Saturday, April 16, 2011
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
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
Thursday, April 14, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
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
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
Sunday, April 10, 2011
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
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
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