OK, here it is, an early cut of the Koshowko track, 'Time Now', that I'm helping to produce. It is a fairly radical reworking of one of K's earliest tracks. Feedback to me or Koshowko welcome. Check out Koshowko's other excellent tunes at their myspace site.
Ok, so I'm not the most regular poster on this blog. It's been a busy few months lately (including a holiday in Vietnam - see the whitebait blog) but the music has not been forgotten. Picked up a nice bit of new kit in the form of a MOTU Ultralite interface. It runs like a dream but unfortunately it doesn't get on as well as it might with my Dell laptop - have been getting a few worrying blue screens of death. Obviously want to rectify this before the laptop heads out on the road. Otherwise, the carsinthesky live set is starting to evolve.
Several new carsinthesky tracks are close to a web release. Just need to find a few weeks to make that happen. Me and FrauleinDrDr are heading away on a 'band camp' this weekend to write some new material so hang in there, it will be coming your way soon.
Just as exciting for me, I've been recruited to do some co-production work by my good friend Martin from Koshowko. We're working (along with Ceri, and also Bo from Winduptoys) on tracks for an upcoming EP. Am finding this collaborative work a lot of fun (except when I get nipped by the overly excited Bronte (yes, a dog)) at Martin's house.
I played some tunes again outdoors on the roof last Thursday night. A smaller group this time (maybe 20 - but hell I'm happy playing to the cockroaches at home). My technique still needs, erm, 'improving' but I don't want to get too worried about this - the main thing is that people have fun. There were some rain interruptions but in some ways this didn't matter. The whole gig confirmed several suspicions - that having someone deliberately playing music at outdoor events helps make it a bit of an event (and is preferable to indoors), and that being the one playing is also a privilege and a buzz.
I tried to mix it up what I played in terms of genres (electronic, breaks, progressive, psy) and think this worked well.
The best received tracks on the night looked to be:
1. Paid in Full/ Eric B and Rakim / Coldcut remix
- a nice classic to start off with
2. Who's Afraid of Detroit? / Claude von Stroke / Stanton Warriors remix
-bleepy breaks goodness
3. In the Dirt / Ticon / Original Mix
-saw a dude in the corner (not one of my postgrads) totally loving this in a dancey way as you should
4. The Next / Neelix
-anyone in academia can appreciate a sampled voice repeatedly saying 'from the weird to the insane'
5. The Cure vs ACDC vs Wham! vs Bobby McFerrin vs Katrina and the Waves vs
David Bowie vs Cold Chisel vs Corey Hart vs Prince vs Paul McCartney / Close to Me (Close to Me (Don't Stand So)) / Arty Fufkin mashup
-fun for the whole family!
After a couple of dj-ing excursions I'm starting to get myself mentally organised to start playing some of my tunes live (through Ableton live). While this is a little way off it is certainly stimulating some serious techlust in the here and now.
Chief among the desirable toys appearing on my radar at the moment include the Kaoss Pad KP-3 and the Zero-8 live control console, both from Korg. I've read good reviews of the former but the latter isn't expected out for a few more months (and will cost a significant amount). yeah, dreaming I know but what the hell ... they look rather good.
Had a fun time recently playing a three hour set as part of a rooftop party for postgrads and staff at my work. My first straight dj gig. Mostly played a dub and hip-hop mix for the first part, then into some electrohouse andwound down with some tasty electronica. Was particularly pleased that my whole setup was totally stable - Dell lappy, Traktor, M-Audio firewire interface, Evolution uc-33e controller and external hard drive. Will work up to including some more genuinely 'live' elements if I can find time and opportunities to play out more.
Tezza caught some images on his mobile.
This is an exciting departure for psybait - his first official remix!
Victor Xray (aka Scot) is a Brisbane-based electronic musician (also part of the Clan Analogue collective). A big thanks to him for providing me the materials to work with.
Check his website, 'The Horse He Sick', as well as myspace, for loads of excellent musical downloads and to hear the original version of this track. What kind of tracks you ask? Well more recently, as his bio notes, he has been 'exploring the sounds of UK-garage-derived genres such as breakbeat, dubstep, etc'. And he does an excellent live show as Whitebait can attest from seeing him perform in Northcote earlier this year. As well as making mp3s of his tracks available for download, Scot is doing a series of vinyl releases (7" and 12") over the year - cool! (Watch this space as psybait's remix may yet make it on to one of these).
Whitebait's remix doesn't feature a kick drum--shock horror, no doof, doof!--so don't be afraid to listen to it if the other psybait tracks weren't your cuppa! I was inspired here by the great title and ominous mood of the original (helped out by Scott's tastefully selected John Barry sample). For some reason I decided that in the remix the gangsters were being gassed in a dumpster - hence the banging that opens and closes the track. A very strange and unlikely take, I guess, but it just grew from there.
[To just play the track use the button below - if you want to download a copy then go to the sidebar on the right of this page]
This download is a significantly reworked version of a track produced and originally posted online at the whitebait site quite a while back. I decided to change the original bass line, which had more of a house feel, to something a bit more trancey (regular offbeat). A few more changes happened as I also had switched to Live from Cubase by the time of this version. I like the mood established here and would like to make some more tracks in this vein.
The artwork for this release, as with the previous "drifter" release, is a photo I took whilst driving in the snow around Tokyo on the elevated expressway (actually, my friend was doing the driving though he somehow took some great photos at the same time!).
[To just play the track use the button below - if you want to download a copy then go to the sidebar on the right of this page]
This track had a long gestation. Bits and pieces of it accumulated over a year or so. My partner Tania (aka FrauleinDrDr) from carsinthesky kindly played the flute that provides an early (quite effected) theme. The vocal samples you hear is from a favourite film, Night of the Hunter (thanks Bob!).
The artwork for this release, as well as the upcoming 'quiverclean', are photos taken whilst driving in the snow around Tokyo on the elevated expressway. A surreal way to see parts of the city!
[To just play the track use the button below - if you want to download a copy then go to the sidebar on the right of this page]
I'm just getting this site up and running and will undoubtedly tinker with the design for a while. The main thing is that there are some tracks available for free download on the right hand side. Enjoy. Comments welcome.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
[just click to play but if you want to download the mp3 then right-click and 'save link as ...']
