Monday, April 27, 2015

what i'm struck by when watching this guy is how boring he is. sure, sometimes that what's you want out of this position. but i think it might be part of the reason obama's presidency has been worse than lame duck.

"we think they should pass our common sense immigration reform". then, they pan to the cameras and everybody's eyes are just glazed over. it's ultra-paradoxical. it's like the advertising people only got halfway through the material on transmarginal inhibition, and missed the most important part.

when i hear somebody like josh use the word "common sense" over and over again, it convinces me that the legislation must be insane. it's not specifically that i don't trust the government, although i don't. it's any kind of advertising. when the deodorant company tells me it smells like fresh ocean air twice every break, i'm left to conclude it must smell like anything but it. the more often you repeat something, the more convinced i am that you're lying.

so, how is the press reacting to this? twofold.

1) if you're apolitical or democrat leaning, it's code for "boring".
2) if you're to the right or left of the administration, it's code for "completely irrational and unpassable".

so, what kind of press do you get out of that? bad press, if any. and, nothing passes.

if i was this guy, i'd be playing everything up. i'd be talking about how our radical legislation is going to change washington forever. people would then assume we're playing up something boring and expect it to pass easily - pushing the impetus to the other side.

publishing untitled (inri061)

inri042 completed.

--

this is the second of two double ep singles to come out of tracks that were begun in 2002 and not completed to my liking. the mixes in this single chart this song's rather elaborate development over twelve and a half years, with the first disc consisting of new mixes and the second consisting of old mixes.

it became clear through the course of july that rabit is wolf wasn't really going anywhere and i was better off cutting my losses. we jammed a few times, but it wasn't really serious.

this track was initially written as a folk punk song, but i jumped to the scorewriter with it almost immediately. the expanded guitar demo was written in a scorewriter and then performed, rather than vice versa. it was initially less about explicitly creating a techno song and more about ordering the parts in a way that could be deconstructed more effectively. i wanted a more flexible approach to production that would allow me to take tracks in and out based on sean's input.

i may have gone over this in this space before, but my mixing process up to that point was considerably unconventional. i would record tracks in one by one using a wave editor and then paste them on top of each other. i worked this way because i just didn't have more advanced tools. while there are benefits to this approach (it's additive synthesis, which blurs the mix for soundscaping), it meant that each additional track was destructive. i could not remove tracks once they were added. this meant sean was unable to provide much input into demos i sent to him.

i also picked up a copy of cakewalk to help with this, but i quickly learned that my system couldn't really handle it. at around eight tracks, it just became unresponsive. with less than eight tracks, it didn't matter if the mix was destructive because it was easily reconstructed. so, i went back to the wave editor approach until 2007, when i upgraded to a modern pc.

the taiko drum part was initially just to keep time; it wasn't supposed to be a part of the song. but, as i built it up i began to realize how interesting it sounded as a techno tune and sort of ran with it. once i'd notated it, i had to convert the drums into a soundscape because the midi render just wasn't good enough. this was done using a mix of software drum machines, midi snippets and isolated jimmy chamberlain samples. i then performed the score i had notated, with the exception of a few synths which were sequenced back. unfortunately, the midi file for the synth build up at the beginning of the track has been lost.

the mix never came out well, partly due to ram issues with cakewalk and partly because i got a little pretentious with some of the parts. i was also extremely distracted over this period. despite this all being done to make sean's input more easily integrated into the material, he had no interest in the direction i took it and basically put his nose up at it again. i attempted a few different things over late 2002 and early 2003 to try and salvage it for my own purposes, but in the end i shelved it as unworkable.

when i first set up the bandcamp site around 2010, i realized i had a collection of tracks that fit a sort of techno-guitar description and compiled them together under the name "tetris" (jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/tetris). i uploaded an incomplete mix for that project, but it was never really done and i never really felt good about it.

it wasn't until late 2014 that i came back to the track, to authoritatively finish my discography. first, a mix was reconstructed from source to include all of the existing sound files. next, three separate sequencer mixes were sculpted out of the score - a jazz fusion mix, an overture mix and an ambient mix. pieces of these sequencer mixes were then isolated and mixed into the reconstructed original mix. finally, a series of extra lead guitar parts were recorded and mixed separately into a final mix and the orchestral mix, creating the end result and an accompanying guitar concerto. the recording process for this was very lengthy, which was ironically partly due to consistent distractions.

i've included the midi file of the original composition, if you'd like to mess with it on your own.

written over the summer of 2002 and initially recorded in the early fall of 2002. additional recording, production and mixing occurred from dec, 2014 to apr, 2015. final completion occurred on april 27, 2015. as always, please use headphones.

credits
j - guitars, effects, bass, synthesizers, drum sampling, drum programming, sequencing, sound design, soundscaping, digital wave editing

the various rendered electronic orchestras include electric bass, synth bass, distorted electric guitar, clean electric guitar, acoustic guitar, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, harp, koto, french horn, trombone, trumpet, tuba, english horn, flute, oboe, piccolo, clarinet, bassoon, synthesizers, piano, glockenspiel, music box, tubular bells, bells, agogo, melodic toms, timpani, taiko drum, orchestral drum set and choir.

released september 15, 2002

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/untitled

untitled (guitar concerto)

this takes the orchestral mix and expands it into a guitar concerto.

track completed april 27, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/untitled-guitar-concerto-mix