Category Archives: Blog

Thoughts etc

Made In Japan Retrospective- Intro

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It’s been almost a year since I finished all of the compositional work on Made In Japan. Followed by several months mixing and Mastering with Mark Chadwick. Over that time I put so much focus on how the record sounds that the how I composed the record became quite cloudy in my memory, a memory I continued to loose after the albums release.

I felt burned out by the music I had spent nearly 3 years of my life on. The idea of going back and thinking analytically about how I made it was just not on the cards 6 months ago.

However with some time away from the work I thought it would be great to go back to it, remember how I made it and what I learned from the experience for future work.

As I’m putting the whole album on Youtube over the next two months I thought now would be the perfect time to go back and offer a retrospective on the album. What I remember about the technical processes of making it and the thoughts and influences I had whilst composing particular tracks.

I’m doing this for anyone who is interested but also as a collection of diary entries for my future self. As I get further away from its creation and my memories get foggier it’s starting to feel like it was made by someone else altogether! Hopefully by writing this I will leave myself a record of what I was thinking and how I made it for future analysis.

Hopefully you will enjoy my thoughts on each track and maybe even learn something about my process that you could apply to your own creative endeavors. If anyone does please let me know as I’d love to know this work has been useful for more than just myself.

So, from tomorrow, each Tuesday and Friday I will be releasing a track from the album in order and writing a post about it on the blog. I will write down what I remember about the process, including thought processes and influences I had whilst composing particular tracks. 

Tomorrow will start with the opening and title track “Made In Japan”. 

TOTW: Nujabes_ Light on the land

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For the past four years I’ve posted a Nujabes track on the week of the artists untimely death. Partly to remember his work but also because it still resonates with me to this day. Jazz Infused Hip hop wasn’t unique when he was making this music over a decade ago and its a style that has continued to be popular and yet for me his work still reigns supreme.

His particular ability to mix samples that create strong emotions in the listener has enabled the work to remain relevant and still continue to grow a fan base of both listeners and musicians alike. Many have been influenced by his work and some have tried to imitate it to varying levels of success and yet none have been able to match the original work for feeling and repeatability.

Its a mark to the mans talent that his work is so hard to replicate when its sample based. Clearly Jun Seba had a unique ear for finding and working these elements together. Although we were only blessed with a small collection of albums and EP from his shot but productive career they continue to be some of the most listed to records in my collection many years after I first heard them. I can’t recommend them highly enough.

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TOTW: Ben Folds Five_Army

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This week has been really busy for me. Moving Into a new house has left me with a lot of chores to do. Although I’ve been off work for the past couple of weeks I’ve spent most of that time on the house.

I’ve also not been listening to much music during this period instead choosing podcasts as I find them easier to drop in and out of than listening to new music with the attention it deserves.

However I have been going back to some of my favorite records and songs. Tracks I know so well I don’t have to focus on them in the same way I would a piece of music that is new to me. One of those records has been “The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner” by “Ben Folds Five” an album I have loved since my teens.

The First Track I heard from the album was when this track “Army” was used underneath a rugby promo on the BBC. As a trombone player at the time I was instantly attracted to the Brass segment that was used on the track. These were pre-shazam days where finding tracks from small sections was hard to do, even with the internet. With some perseverance and the help from a message board I managed to find out the origins of the track and bought this album to hear what the rest of it was like.

Over the years It has grown into one of my favorite records and one I return to and is well worth delving into for anyone who hasn’t. “Army” was my first introduction to his music and a great place to start:

Youtube:

TOTW- Playlist:

TOTW: Protomartyr_ Processed By The Boys

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I’ve come back to this track many times since hearing it on a “Spotify” missed list of 2020.

The composition really subverted my expectations. Its lyrics deal with an oppressive force taking control and at first the instrumentation seems to follow this style with building melodic darkness and aggression, and on first listen it was where I thought the track would continue to go. However, as “Processed By The Boys” gets to the chorus the chords become far more uplifting, almost subverting the lyrical context.

The track furthers this development as it comes to its conclusion. “Next time it will be different, So cool so nice,” Joe Casy delivers with a mix of apathy and acceptance, which is opposed by the crescendo of instrumentation escalating until is soars.

After this point things come crashing down and the track finishes with a whimper. The protagonist doesn’t go out with a blaze of glory and instead accepts defeat.

When I first heard the track I thought it would go in one direction but it turns down several other forks in the road and finishes somewhere else entirely. This both surprised and excited me as a listener. Those feelings haven’t died away as I have become more accustomed to the track, which is rare indeed.

“Processed By The Boys” by Protomartyr is well worth a listen:

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: Axel Boman_ Eyes Of My Mind

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I loved the album “Talaboman” from a few years ago. A collaboration between John Talabot and Axel Boman a few years ago, which introduced me to Axel Boman.

“Eyes Of My Mind” is a great example of this stripped down House sound that Axel Boman does so well. Focused on a small repeating vocal, he manages to make a track with a strong driving force that also has a refined subtlety to it.

Its a difficult skill to create a track with drive and without aggression but “Eyes Of My Mind” does it perfectly. A track that’s right up my street and comes highly recommended:

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW:Actress- Actress_Leaves Against The Sky

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Actress has managed to create a uniquely identifiable sound in electronic music. It’s dark and and amorphous sound seems to contradict the locked loops of the instruments themselves.

On listening to their complete albums, these techniques create works that have a strong mood. I have found it captivating when in the right mindset. It has kept me returning to them over the years as their subtleties worm their way with time into my subconscious.

I can see that being the case with the most recent Actress album, “Karma & Desire.” Fragments of the record already loop around in my head from time to time; one of them being the piano line on “Leaves Against The Sky.”  It follows the same off kilter production that his work is known for, but with an unusually up tempo driving kick drum in sections.

Listen to “Leaves Against The Sky” and let it sit with you for a few days. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to return to its distinctive opaqueness to try and grasp onto what makes the track so compelling:

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: Bicep_Atlas

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The next couple of weeks are going to be short ones. A lot is going on in my life with a big move to a new house. Which will also provide me with a space to finally build a studio.

With it comes a lot of packing and arranging along with a potential lack of internet for a few days whilst we get it up and running. So with my time and attention on that I will have less time for these blog posts over the next few weeks.

However I will still try to keep the Track Of The Week segment going if not keeping it brief.

Whilst packing I have been listening mostly to audio books with a scattering of music in between. Atlas by Bicep was one of the tracks that really grabbed my attention. A electronic track with interesting synth design and well produced will never go amiss and Bicep has them in spades.

“Atlas” is the closing track (and my personal favorite) from their “Sundial” EP, Give it a listen below:

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: Lomelda- stranger sat by me

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I found the track “stranger sat by me” by “Lomelda” when listening through a long playlist of music from last year, and found it instantly enchanting. Its got a naivety to it, with the vocals being so low in the mix, but then mixed with an odd assortment of instruments and strange synth and guitar sounds.

“stranger sat by me” is the perfect name for this introverted little track and I recommend you give it a listen.

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TOTW Playlist:

TOTW: Future Islands- Born In A War

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Future Islands manage to filter pop music through an odd prism of the past. Modern synthesizers carry the aesthetics of classic mo-town records, and that’s backed up with Samuel T. Herring’s vocals that sound absolutely nothing like, and yet encapsulate, the feel of a soul singer.

Born In A War is a perfect example. If you break down elements of the track, they don’t quite make sense out of context; especially the vocals, which in isolation sound like they come from a completely different genre. But when you put them together the result is a well crafted pop track with plenty of soul.

An easy recommendation for my Track Of The Week.

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TOTW: Grandaddy- Hewiett’s Daughter (Piano Version)

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After a weeks break for my albums of the year, I continue my Track Of the Week section with a focus on an album that is essentially a stripped down version of another work, reimagined and converted into purely piano pieces. This makes for a different but amazing sound.

I Love The Sophtware Slump by Grandaddy. It’s probably one of my favorite albums overall and at some point deserves me to talk about it in more detail. So when they announced this remastering of The Sophtware Slump with a bonus piano-only version of the album I was excited.

Its great overall and transitions well to piano (and the ocasional synth), but its Jason Lytle’s vocals that still steal the show. The wounded loneliness in his vocal delivery are just as soul destroying as ever, and even in the more playful moments you always feel it.

If you have never heard “The Sophtware Slump,” start with the original album. It really is classic.

If you have heard that record and are open to a different take on it that still holds many of its qualities, then this definitely justifies your time.

Hewett’s “Daughter” is probably my favorite track on both the records and so had to be the Track Of The Week.

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