Rumours by Fleetwood Mac is one of the few albums I would categorise as perfect. From beginning to end every track is fantastically written and performed and the production is second to none.
Dreams is currently my alarm wakeup call so quite literally is the first thing I hear every morning. It never gets old no matter how many times I hear it:
Ennio Morricone is one of my Favourite film composers. He manages to blend both classical with areas of the avant garde to create wonderful music that has had a massive impact on cinema and our lives Culturally.
This is a Live rendition of Gabriel’s Oboe from the film The Mission:
This week i created a track that starts dark and oppressive befor folding out into an uplifitng dance track from the halfway mark.
Enjoy:
Last week I made a jaunty little track which was based heavily on the chord structures surrounding the piece.
The original idea was to come up with the basics of the piece on piano at first and then expand those ideas to multiple instruments. My thought process behind this was to come up with a track that was orientated towards a more complex structure than my usual works outside of my solo piano pieces.
Future Islands create a working mans synthpop which seems developed from a strong gigging ethic.
What puts them above the crowd is Samual T. Herring whose voice has a range of tonality somewhere between soul and death metal. His enthusiasm and honesty are conveyed perfectly in live performance.
He may dance like a loon but it’s a loon who is totally wrapped up in the music and this live performance on Letterman is a perfect example of what they achieve when firing on all cylinders:
As part of my spring collection of tracks I have been using a string instrument on every piece.
The aim of this track was to mix things up and make the synths sound like guitars and guitar recordings sound like synths. Can you tell which is which?
Bellowhead are an amazing Live band. They manage to create a real party atmosphere with their folk based jigs that make you want to dance. Their clever arrangements of traditional folk tunes with a lyrical history that adds a weight and gravitas is complimented perfectly by the music. This video doesn’t do them justice but it does introduce their music to you.
Both these tracks are from their first album Burlesque which is great from beginning to end. Listen to them below:
This track is a little out there. The aim was to make someting using randomized textures from my Portable synth and started with the FM synth On the OP1.
I ran it through an LFO so its operators would randomly change frequencies and their signal path four times in a bar. From that basis I then added layers of different textures on the OP1 all of which were randomised by the LFO to create sounds I hadn’t heard before.
All Textures are from the OP1 although a few guitar samples were used and processed through the OP1:
I’ve been a bit lax posting up my weekly beats tracks on here, So I’ll amend that over the following few weeks.
On Week 17 I decided to go back to basics and just play a piano, After several sessions of improvisation I worked out the piece, recorded it several times and then picked the best take which is what you can hear by clicking the link below.
Occasionally it’s good to get away from the electronics and to the raw development of a track. There is nothing better than just putting your thoughts and ideas down in their elemental form and sitting in front of a piano does that for me:
If you haven’t heard this song I don’t really know what you’ve been doing with your life. Soul music is pretty damn awesome and this is one of the finest examples of the genre.
For me its a perfect record and the build from the intro to the first chorus is simply sublime. Time to refresh your memory: