Theme for an Aborted Podcast

Post title says it all. Image created in Processing for current Google+ profile cover image [google+].

Merca Derca

While waiting for one of the recent American presidential election debates to start, I decided to make some poop music to pass the time. There are two "march" inspired pieces, of varying styles, making use of tuba and Hammond organ, and are as shit as the candidates themselves!

Merca (working title: Sallo March #2)

[ Merca.mp3 ]

Derca (working title: The Optic Patch)

[ Derca.mp3 ]

Sketches Of The Past

Sketches Of The Past by Gammagoblin

Survival Of The Fittest

I rescued this one from the recycle bin. I wanted music for the image I created, and I came across something that I was working on last year, as an auditory experiment. I never fully recovered the compression problems which plagued the original, but I kept at it until it evolved it into something listenable. Oh and... The Shamen - Boss Drum? Wut? ;-)
[ download mp3 ] [ original image credits ]

Blackmoon

Not sure if this is more a post about the image or the music, but thanks to NASA for the moon image, myself for the image of Blackpool (Cork) and Beethoven for the chord progressions in the music. Image inspired by recurring dreams. Last 90 seconds or so of music is all I was originally going to keep, but the few minutes leading up provide a good exposition.

  Blackmoon by Gammagoblin

Monday Morning's Monster Mayan Morphine Mash

My longest youtube video ever! Which can mean only one thing: it's guaranteed never to be watched in it's entirety by anyone. Available in 720p, to the mad few who will watch it. It took me hours to render in HD so you might as well watch it in HD. Or if you'd rather just listen to the music, you can do so below:

[ download ]

Having recently decided to give Native Instruments Traktor a go, this is a recording of me, "giving it a go". No PFL or magic midi controller, I had to guess my way around songs with a mouse, and just go with the flow as I faded bits in and tried out effects. Think of this like baking. This me testing out ingredients and baking heats as opposed to an actual finished cake.

I'm quite happy with a couple of sections, and at other points you can hear where I was getting bored. The audio mix is untouched and as is as recorded(warts and all!), except for the voice over at the start, which I added later. I've heard a lot of trance songs with voice overs about, Hashish, Salvia, Mushrooms, DMT etc. but I haven't heard too many with a reference to Heroin. As yes, go for the jugular, and my next song will be about cooking PCP with Meth. You can hear our old friend, Prof. David Nutt, doing the speaking.

Most of this is made up from 4-8 bar loops, but there is an extended piece of Tanta Pena used. You can hear the difference in quantising of the kick drum at parts and it going slightly out of phase, but that's nothing to worry about really.

Audio Credits:
"Brain Waves: Beta-Endorphins" : BBC Radio
"Tech House Loop" : Stock NI Traktor loop
"Tanta Pena" : Juno Reactor
"Electroplasm" : Shpongle
"Oul Tani Kda" : Nancy Ajram
"n00b Ending" : Tim Exile

The video was an after-thought and has no purpose other than to be random. Trying to decipher hidden meanings will lead you into melting your brain. Leave that kind of stuff to professional conspiracy theorists. Actually, I tell a lie. The video does have and ending.

The bulk of the video is made up of footage of Mayan ruins, and I can only feel sorry for the poor Mayans. What have they done to deserve to have their temples desecrated in such a fashion, but Maya is the overall vibe I got while mixing, even if nothing there was necessarily Mesoamerican (have you not heard of the Arabic Mayan tribes? Oh yes, they were very popular in the 700ADs, just after the Islamic invasion. Have you not heard about this in history class?) Oh well, bless me Quetzacotal.

Wet-suits! Not only that, but wet-suits in space! Why not.

The inclusion of the Aerobicise clips is a direct throw-back to an old video I made using a similar Aerobicise video and a mix of music by Hallucinogen (half of Shpongle). It worked together quite well in that one, as the repetitive movements added to the trance vibe. I think at times in this one they look like a cross between psychedelic dancing mushrooms and geometric hopping frogs.

There's already been an ad. slapped onto the Youtube video by the "Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society" for found copyrighted material, and pretty much everything in this video has full copyright on it, so don't be surprised if the whole thing disappears at some point.

Video Credits:
[ archive.org ][ youtube.com ][ youtube.com ][ youtube.com ][ youtube.com ][ youtube.com ][ youtube.com ][ youtube.com ][ youtube.com ][hubble.nasa.gov][2006.elevate.at]

[ download ]
Some music I created last night. Probably not finished; probably never will be.

Steve Davis: Zeuhl Kommandöh

"In the early 70's I discovered Magma, my true obsession." Steve Davis, March 2004

Back in 2003, when I first started listening to a certain French Prog Rock/Canterbury/Zeuhl band named "Magma", I had no idea just how far this band was listened to and loved. The magic of P2P filesharing and a half whispered mention of the group's name brought forward a single track, "Ork Alarm". Ironically, this track is actually quite different from rest of their [Christian Vander's] music, but it piqued my interest nonetheless. Back then, I thought Magma were the most obscure abstract novelty that had ever existed. Like discovering 5000 year old hieroglyphics of flying saucers, I thought I had happened across something unwitnessed by man in a very long time. Imagine my surprise then when I later discovered that snooker legend, Steve Davis, was not only a fan of the group, but had at one stage organised, promoted and paid for the group to come and play a gig in the UK back in the 1980's! Steve Davis, a far-field hero of mine, was obsessed with a group that I wasn't sure had ever even been heard of before. Amazing stuff, to me anyway.

After watching Davis return to serious competitive snooker at the Crucible last year I was inspired to create something to commemorate his interest in Magma and all things Zeuhl. Utilising Hubble's Ultra Deep Field once again as a backdrop, I layered a Magma logo that I had painted earlier, over the top. After a bit of searching I found a suitably atmospheric image of Davis on Flickr, that I could use. It was mean't as nothing more than a bit of fun but I still feel it came out looking quite well.

I'm also going to include a demo/extract of something musical I worked on last year. While not directly connected to the story of Magma and Steve Davis, I feel all this talk of Zeuhl makes it suitable place to drop it in. Arguments will continue as to what exactly makes a piece Zeuhl or not, but reflections of Üdü Ẁüdü and Köhntarkösz were a definite influence on me when developing this piece.

Locrian Mode by Gammagoblin

Like A Baby, 2011 Will Emerge, Bloody & Screaming

One night at the end of 2010, 2011 was created, and the song was created along with it (the artwork, after Christmas dinner). What will 2011 have in store for us. Good things I hope.

2011 by Gammagoblin

Joe Duffy Has Pubic Lice*

Earlier this year, I received a snippet of autotuned vocal freestyling by BMD. So taken with it that I immediately started working on putting it to music. I literally raced through it, without rhyme nor reason. The only thought I put into it was creating a sort of Late Late Show theme tune intro. BMD enjoyed the end result and immediately published it on their blog. I held back, unsure as to it's merrit. I can now finally feel happy publishing it here.

Joe Duffy Has Pubic Lice

[download]

Here's what the BMD had to say about it:

Joe Duffy was a great sport about the whole thing, and gave us a few hours of his time for free. We filmed the video last week in Copper Face Jacks on Harcourt Street. Big shout out to the management there. Everything went well on the night, apart from a minor hiccup when one of the make-up artists on the shoot was attacked in the ladies toilets by a farmer. If anyone was in Coppers on the 8th of April between 21:00 and 22:45 could they please drop me an email or get in touch with Harcourt Street Garda Station?

This is going to be huge all across Europe.

Joe Duffy dance created by JibJab

*Title of song only and probably not a factual statement.

Happenstance Part 2

Started messing around with a little Arabic percussion loop, I then recorded a few bars of live drumming over the top. When all that was loops together I started playing a bass guitar patch over the top and before I knew it I ended up in Spain* [by pure happenstance]. Piano track added afterwards. There's an extended version in existence also but that's just extra material tacked on.

Happenstance Part 2 by Gammagoblin

Part one is just made up of some extra bass parts I had lying around, so I tacked them together and put some basic piano over the top. I deemed the bass to be of importance in this part so that's up more than the piano in the mix. You can hear both parts together in the Flash player below.

Happenstance - Part 1 & Part 2

[download]

*"Spain" the musical composition by Chick Corea, as opposed to the country.

Electro Fiesta

Something I did a little while back. Obviously inspired by Chick Corea. The basic chronology of this track runs like this: 1) basic drum track with kick and ride 2) arpeggiated Subtractor synth, sustained so it runs along throughout the whole track 3) piano part recorded while simultaneously editing the Subtractors parameters 4) drum track recorded 5) some minor editing 6) recorded a subtle bass track to bind it together.

Electro Fiesta [EDIT] by Gammagoblin

A better view of the recording process can be heard in the full version, which can be listened to by using the Flash player below.

Electro Fiesta - Full version

shit songs with pretentious titles

So many shit songs with pretentious titles... but then again, so many shit songs with pretentious messages :)

shit songs with pretentious titles by Gammagoblin

This was just an eight bar "drilling" exercise I did one day recently. I felt my "Airfix Twins" skills were under developed so I lashed into re-sequencing a Dr Rex loop in Reason. The actual 8 bars of music composed are only heard at the end, repeated twice where everything is in tutti. It sorta evolves from the beginning up to that point so it starts off sounding a bit gangly.

The title is something I recently thought would make a good album title. I often come up with a clever name for a song but have no song to put it with, and vice versa, when I struggle to put a name to tune.

I had to post the song if just for the artwork alone [I nearly called the song "shit songs with pretentious art work" :-P] It came out way more sinister than I had envisioned. Discussing how I created it will be saved for another post. It involves an interesting little 3D app I came across.

Motif De Mute

Inspired by Sparks and their copious use of Yamaha Motif sounds in their last few albums, this is a rather simple little tune, built from a basic 8 bar loop of phrases I played using nothing but Motif samples (the samples are as is bar a little bit of reverb. Plus the percussion instruments are Reason stock sounds). I then built the tune up from selective muting and unmuting these loops as I saw fit, live. A little bit of tweaking (particularly in the percussion track) came later and that's it. Needs a few key changes, chord progression and stuff... but it really was just a little mess around with Motif samples rather than an actual song.

Motif De Mute by Gammagoblin

Testing Something With Jack-L

Back in 2008, when I started experimenting with breaks and dnb and shit, I came out with this thing, which is an example of said experimentation. It's only claim to fame is that most of it was composed "live" on the fly. Let me explain: Yes, it has been tidied up afterwards (the start and ending in particular, as well as the "Jack L" vocals) but most of the rest is all live manipulation of 1) bass line loop, which was composed just before I started, 2) Dr.Rex drum loop, which is some bog standard Reason loop I think, 3) some basic piano bass stabs on keyboard, and finally 4) the muting and unmuting of track elements (bass, drum loop etc.).

What I really liked about this track is the "whip lash" effect I got with the drum loop. It's a technique I've used in other pieces. Basically, I dialed the "Env Amount" back a good bit on the Dr:Rex unit and used the Sustain part of the Filter Envelope to alter how much of that effect was sounded. By timing it right, I created that nice whipping effect. The rest of the manipulation of the drum loop was created altering parts of both Filter and Amplitude envelopes. The beat repeating was done simply by muting between the drum track and a delay insert affect on the main mixer module.

The repetitive bass does get a tad boring but it was just an experiment (with Jack L, no less!) rather than a final tune.

Testing Something by Gammagoblin

Tubular Heart

Originally this started out as an experiment in FM synthesis, but after I noticed a familiar chord progression at the start, it became a homage to Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells. There are many influences in here (the likes of Jean Michele Jarre, Jan Hammer etc.).

I usually make quick cheesy music to be laughed at, and I'm not saying this is an honest representation of my musical merit, but I did spend some time on it so it's probably one you should listen to if you think you might like my music... or something.

Tubular Heart  by  Gamma Goblin

Merry Christmas!

As promised, a little late perhaps (blame soundcloud for failing!) but here none the less. This Christmas tune is sure to be as big a hit as "Do They Know It's HIV". It has all you'd expect at Christmas! cheese! crap! Countdown inspired intro and outro! Native American shamanic chanting...

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all suck my balls! Young lad, here's a shilling, get me the finest piece of ass from the nearest brothel" <-- original banned ending of Dickens's "Ass Christmas Carol".

Christmas 2008 by GammagOblin

[DOWNLOAD HERE if soundcloud is still failing]

[image via]

Christmas Eve 2009

A photo and a little tune. I literally bounced this down into a wav file to my mobile phones memory card, and then I was out the door for Christmas. So what you're getting here is pure speed composing! ^_^ As always, the disclaimer goes: I may tidy it up later if I'm bored. It came out a bit dark but I guess that's the recession for you. I will post a super duper happy cheesy tune tomorrow, that I put together on Christmas day last year. Includes Native American Shamanic chanting... cos you know, I'm traditional like that :)

Happy Christmas Eve to those crazy people in Sweden, and a safe and happy night to all!

Christmas 2009 by GammagOblin