Rents backhoes, not hammers
Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. This is actually my second time writing this post. The first ended up being a 2,000 word rant examination of the problems I had with the massive legal overreach exhibited by XLN when they released “Life” – the plugin that I used for the main rhythmic pattern in this track. XLN also makes … Continue reading
Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. I’m not sure what this style / genre would have been called back in the 80s, but these days it’s called Synthwave. This is as “stereotypical” a synthwave track as I can think of, yet it’s absolutely true to an actual 80s track by Jan Hammer or Giorgio Moroder. The arrangement is simple, as is the instrumentation: drums, bass, guitar, electric piano, and two synths. The guitar is a real one (as opposed to a sampled or modeled one). I’m … Continue reading
Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. This entry to the Mare series brings back some direct, rather than implied, rythmic elements. I didn’t want to be an outright beat, but rather a soft accompaniment. It’s not compositionally complex, but I think the length of each chord keeps things moving without taking away the languid pace and space to absorb. The backing pads, noise washes, and granular effects provide ongoing variety, becoming much more involved than the primary pluck sounds. I didn’t use many of my ambient … Continue reading
Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. I almost started this post with, “Well, here we go back to Lo-Fi Land” except that I realized this track was actually my first intentional flirtation with the genre. I say “intentional” because I’ve been writing these types of tracks for years and years, but I always called them beats, demos, or sketches. They certainly weren’t complete works, but something to be fleshed out later. Then I discovered the Lo-Fi station on Apple Music (there are similar ones on any … Continue reading
Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. As with the last couple of years, I came into 2024 with no real ideas, no backlog of things to talk about or things I wanted to try. The only challenge thrown to me by friends was a nebulous “do a dubstep track.” In past years, being completely blank in the first week would have sent me into a panic. At this point, though, it’s kind of normal. The first three tracks this year ended up being electronic and using … Continue reading