Keyscape

Don’t Fight the Funk

I wrote fairly extensively about “Other Ray” in I’m Back (And I’m Backin’ It Up!) – the last time he showed up. I can’t say specifically what prompted this track, but I can tell you that I was procrastinating so hard. I really didn’t want to write any music. I wrote a blog post, I surfed the web, I looked at my archival process… With midnight fast approaching, I finally knuckled down and tried to find something interesting to do. I had a basic drum loop going and was futzing around with some synth patch when I correctly (and accidentally) … Continue reading

Those Who Crossed the Line

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. This is my third attempt at completing 29 tracks during a leap year. The two previous leap years were interrupted by travel, but I was able to carve out the entire month this year. It ended up not being as much of a hurdle as I thought, though I’m quite certain it would have been more intimidating in 2016 or 2020 because I hadn’t yet hit my “I can do this” stride. After the production excess of Red Hill Danger … Continue reading

Heat Before Serving

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. Either it’s getting close to the end of the month, I’m running out of ideas, or I’m just in a groove making Lo-Fi. Well, it’s actually probably a little of all three columns. For the last several years, I’ve had an unwritten “never do the same genre two days in a row” rule for Song-A-Day. Actually, it’s not really a rule, but more of a guiding principle. The underlying questions I have for myself is why do I have that … Continue reading

Sea Pap (Derek Greenberg Cover)

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. Another Song-A-Day, another cover. I’ve written about my love/hate relationship with cover day before, so let’s just assume I rehashed it all. Most years, I struggle to pick something and then deal with all sorts of self-inflicted angst about covering a song that I know the original artist will hear. 2024 did give me a lot of possibilities, though. When I looked back at my notes, I had nine different songs written down as cover options. Surprisingly, Sea Pap wasn’t … Continue reading

Narcissus Rising

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. Where to begin? This is one of those oddball pieces that became more or less what I was sort of trying to do in a roundabout way. It’s not quite a “pants” track – I had a plan – but that plan was nebulous at best. It’s as much an exploration of texture and rhythm as anything. It veers strongly into Systems Music territory but is just as firmly in Eno-esque … Continue reading