The most notable thing about this track may be that it was my third attempt for the night. I’ve done that several nights this month, but sometimes nothing’s hitting. Or it hits but fizzles almost immediately because there’s nowhere to go.
- Leviathan Ray Toler 3:13
But on this project, that initial sound you hear grabbed me by the neck and shook me around until I agreed that this would be the track. I mean that sound. It’s just… nasty.
Ok. So we’re currently at “nasty.” What’s next. Drums, of course. Now this might have gone in an industrial direction, but I heard more of a late 90s hip-hop / breakbeat thing in my head. Think The Matrix or other gun-heavy kung-fu action flick. The crew assembly montage leading up to the big heist.
There’s really not a ton to say about the production process. It mostly consists of mapping out 8- or 16-bar sections and finding sounds to add or remove until you’ve got the length of track you need. That doesn’t mean it’s bad or that it doesn’t take any skill – this is one that sits more in the “it’s only easy because I’ve practiced doing it a lot” space. I might think of it as a throwaway, but I know that it’s probably better than I give it credit for being; I’ve forgotten how much work it took to get here, so I no longer value it in the same way.
If anything, the real trick with these is knowing when enough is enough, when less is more, when more is more, and when to say “when.” I don’t dislike this song, and I enjoy it when it comes on.
Colophon
Instruments & Samples
XO, Kult, Oblivion
Effects, Mixing, & Mastering.
Fabfilter, Gullfoss, Valhalla VintageVerb, Panman
Image Credit: themefinland (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)