Something brand new this week – some deep house.
I love the production quality of my tracks on site variously. I hope they all reach a certain standard. More importantly, I really hope that this standard is increasing over time. (Lots of people provide great feedback about sound I’m getting, and I’m ever so grateful for that.)
Still: some are stronger than others – tighter, more crisp, and more imparting of an emotion.
I really like this week’s one.
This week the circle completes. Having done two quite different mixes of the same track, I wanted to dust off the original version. I first made this around 10 years ago. I’ve done my best this week to improve the overall sound and bring out the best in the music. I’m not perfect, but to my ears the new version sounds much better than the previous one.
I’d love to know whether you agree! Do get in touch.
Here’s the untouched version from a decade ago.
If you’re in the mood but don’t quite know what you’re listening for, consider:
Mostly, does one sound nicer?
This follows on from last week, and presents an uplifting version of I Want to be Free.
This is much closer in spirit to the original that I made so long ago, with the full melody and ear candy.
The original track holds special memories for me. I created it back in 2006, on a laptop, whilst staying in an empty (and particularly cold) house that belonged to a friend of a friend. . In between writing music, I found some wonderful places to explore. The Lake District has some amazing walks and mountains, and my favourite of these is Helvellyn. You can approach the peak in a few different ways – some easier than others. The hardest and easily the most magical is across the Striding Edge, which you’re looking back out over in the photograph.
It was crisp and cold and beautiful, and as I traversed along the icy ridge, I was haunted by little snippets of the melody in this track.
Most of the tracks on this site are either:
This track is one a few that stem from a track I already completed. In this case I wrote I want to be Free well over 10 years ago. The production isn’t great, but I did love the idea and always wanted to make it shine a little more.
For this week I have taken some of its ideas and created a new, progressive, stripped back version.
In a future week I’d also like to produce a more uplifting version, with all the original arpeggios and melody.
Re-shaping old ground
I’m also tempted to have another go at mixing the original version but keeping all the same elements. It would be interesting to see whether I can improve it.
I’ve actually tried something like this before on a different track, and confess that it was a profound disappointment. I approached in an arrogant and overly confident fashion: of course I’m a stronger producer now; I’ll lick this into shape in no time. I was unimpressed by both the finish result, which managed to sound worse than the original, and my attitude. If I do it again it will be with love, care and humility.
Psytrance. If you’re not familiar with all the ins and outs of different dance music genres, you may wonder what psytrance is, and whether it is distinctive enough to earn its own sub-genre.
I actually don’t think it’s a sub-genre at all: it’s sound, heritage, ethos and followers don’t tend to overlap massively with trance. It is unique in these ways:
Varkala is a small place on the Southern coast of India. It is not populated and attracts few mainstream Western visitors. It has long been a stopping point for travellers though. Despite being nearly 1000kms away from Goa, it shares a similar vibe, and is a wonderful place to visit.
I didn’t attend any beach parties when I went, so this picture isn’t mine.
It was a lovely place.
And – being India – one morning we found ourselves amongst the guests of honour at a wedding that we simply happened upon whilst visiting a temple. The array of food spread on a banana leaf below is the finest form of dining I can imagine.
Still in the mood for some darker business. Don’t worry – there may soon be light!
What good is music
if it does not help to heal
the pain you feel?
Inspired by last week’s Cosmic Baby track, I’ve created something new, along the same lines.
The other inspiration comes from the Apollo 11 journey to the moon. There’s a specific manoeuvre called a slingshot, which accelerates the shuttle by circling round the earth, using its orbit to build up the speed needed to travel to the moon. It was first used in Apollo 8 a mission that circled the moon but did not land on it.
You can find out more in this video.
The audio dialog I used in the track are real recordings from the Apollo 11 mission; all 17000 hours of the missions audio is preserved by NASA here.
I found myself comparing the track to last week’s from time to time – it was the inspiration. Whenever I did, I was struck by the simplicity of its production. I had more elements this week and this definitely made it harder to mix. It’s a good lesson to remember as much as possible.
I have been wanting to make this track for the last 20 years.
Ever since I heard the original it has captivated me on every listen. Simply imagining the melody – even when I’m not listening to it – does something not far short. To me, and I think many others, it has the unrivalled ability to transport me back in time; the pin-pricks of the arpeggio pierce the mind with a blissful feeling, and it’s delicate traces of reverb and delay leave a feeling of Ecstasy.
The original was created by Cosmic Baby in 1992. He was a German producer, and it you have a look at some of his writing, you won’t fail to spot the philosophical underpinnings his creativity.
Germany, like Britain, is renowned for its affinity to Electronic music, and has unblemished claim to the origins of several of its genres.
In Cosmic Baby’s work you can hear the intersection of science and programming with art and delight. This is may in part be due to this geographical provinence, but it is also a consequence of the sheer newness – and purity – of using computer hardware to make music. (These days we try and put a little of the analog sound back in.
For my part, Space Track, my favourite of all his work, was fascinating to make for so many reasons.
*The lead arpeggio is built on a single sine wave: the simplest, purist sound possible.
*On the other hand, I found the bass sound extremely difficult to re-create at first. After trying countless oscillator combinations, and emulations of early hardware, I ultimately had to ask for help from one of the world experts in early synth sounds (who also happens to be a friend). His overnight advice gave me the clue I needed, and a couple of hours later I had some of the essence.
*Mostly though, after listening to that lead line well over 100 times more than I had a week ago, and examining its components in quite some detail, its effect remains as strong – if not stronger – than ever.
Sonically, I hope my re-creation sounds at least as good, and pays tribute to such a pioneering piece of music. (I skipped panning the bass to the left speaker; this isn’t The Beatles.)
Here’s the original:
Next week I’ll do a follow up to this: similar vibe but something brand new.
P.S. Cosmic Baby, aka Harald Blüchel, is alive and well. Here he is playing an hour-long recital on solo grand piano in 2018.
His blog is also fascinating.
If you have a few seconds, study the picture. Which element sticks out? How much of the insect’s beauty has been lost?
When I was about 15, and already falling for dance music, my family went round for Christmas drinks with another family we knew nearby. I recall them having 4 kids. At least 2 of the 3 boys were prodigious: one could climb up nearly flat walls and went on to set extraordinarily difficult climbing routes at the indoor wall in Gloucester; the other was precocious and played the cello. (The other was into sports too.)
Although I had anticipated a nice conversation about the shared love of music with the latter, that’s not how it turned out. He had a dim view of electronically made music, and imagined that its production was about as creative as completing a jigsaw. Sure, he thought, there were skills to learn, but once a basic knowledge was acquired, you just line up a few different parts and you’re done.
This week’s track is my testament to him, a couple of decades later. I do not view it as complete, and although I like the hooks and arpeggios, there are little things I’m not happy with.
It’s true that sometimes parts seem to work together right away, things feel effortless. Mostly, though, they don’t. I shall not list all the particulars that I wish were different, but I count over 20. That’s well over a dozen elements that deserve more polish, more time, and a gentle caress. I’ll leave you to find them!
Each of these stick out a little to me. And while the track is feels more rough around the edges to me – each of them decisively rule in favour of my childhood friend’s ignorance.
Having said all this, although aiming for perfection is foolish, and although 95% is fantastic, 85% can still move the heart.
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