Valhalla Delay

Infiltration

This piece started off largely as an attempt to come up with a dance, techno, or drum-and-bass type of track, which it still sort of is, but clearly pivoted mid-journey to become another visually-inpired bit of underscore. Instead of the juxtaposition of a slow, forboding piece of music against images of destruction I had in yesterday’s track, Infiltration is pretty on-the-nose, at least when you take the title as a literal description. I started this one with drums. I used a factory preset in XO, but started playing around with replacing the default sounds. In particular, I replaced a jazzy … Continue reading

Unseen Bagel

A slightly more successful Lo-Fi attempt compared to yesterday, but clearly I was in “it doesn’t have to be good, it only has to be done mode.” I shouldn’t be so down on myself for these types of tracks – there are entire genre stations on the major streaming services dedicated to exactly what you’re hearing in this track, and I’ve listened to more than a few hours of them over the last couple of years. Putting on my snarky Gen-X hat, we used to derisively call this stuff “Muzak” or “elevator music” back in the day because it was … Continue reading

Predator

Yesterday’s track ultimately became a reminder of one of the most effective cards I’ve ever gotten from Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies cards: Don’t avoid what’s easy. And in that spirit, we arrive at today’s track. Because … Continue reading

Wintry Mix

The first real winter storm of the season has arrived. In an effort to get one more exercise session in prior to the snow and ice showing up, Olive and I went to the dog park right after breakfast, and it started snowing while we were there. I wasn’t expecting anything to stick, much less stay frozen for long, but the buildup was surprisingly fast and by the time we got back home, I was already having a few traction issues driving the truck.2Later in the day, I would experiment with 4×4 mode on … Continue reading

Me and Hank

After finishing The Gathering, I was directionless. No idea what to do. Also, the week has been getting long and while the dog has been pretty well-behaved and accommodating of my musical endeavors, I’ve been getting tired early. I came up with the basic hook of the song and then decided that that was good enough. It’s time for bed. I was asleep before 11pm, which is a rarity. Even better, Olive let me sleep through the night. Olive is a Berger Picard,2behr-ZHAY … Continue reading