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.

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.

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

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.