New collaboration with Shadi
I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to be working on another piece with Shadi! :-] I was thrilled with her selection of Forough Farrokhzad’s poetry for The Wind Will Take Us and even more delighted with her outstanding vocal performance.
This is VERY early in its development. Shadi hasn’t even heard it as I upload this, but I’ll drop her a DM on Twitter in a moment and keep my fingers crossed. Right now (as usual) there’s no thought been given to arrangement or mixing. This is simply a preview of some of the instruments and the overall theme of the track. Brain dumping indeed.
Update: [25/11/2009]
Took on board Fernando’s comments below and added a filter and sequence to the opening bass line to give it a little more groove. Responding to Doyle by lifting the vocals and EQ-ing some of the instruments to give them more room. Also glitched up the percussion track and generally remixed (levels / EQ / some compression on one of the other bass lines).
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Update: [24/11/2009]
Now mixed with vocals (thank you Shadi!!!). MP3 below is not mastered. Any feedback very gratefully received. Would love to hear from you so post a comment below. Do it!
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Update: [27/09/2009 Arrangement 1]
I’ve added drums, worked on a couple of extra layers and put together the first arrangement. It’s a preliminary mix and in terms of levels / EQ, I’m going to leave it pretty much as is until the raw vocals are back. I want to hand over to Shadi now for her input.
Shadi: Keep in mind that the mix / arrangement is still very fluid and can be amended in way you like.
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Update: [18/09/2009]
Not a huge amount been modified since Wednesday’s update and since I’ve been full of a cold, I suspect the mix might be very weird. Feels like my head is stuffed with cotton wool!
I was inclined to agree with Fernando’s comments about the piano, so for now, I’ve deleted it. Sounded a bit Happy Mondays to me and changed the feel quite a lot.
Still just a collection of ideas and with the Great North Run on Sunday, I don’t think I’ll be moving this one on much until next week now. (Sorry Shadi!)
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Update: [16/09/2009]
I’ve lifted the tempo by 6bpm to help this one groove, but it still isn’t gelling for me (yet). I’ve got confidence in the track and I’m sure it’ll pull together, but right now, it’s just not happening. Being full of a cold and having had a couple of very intense days at work, guess I can’t really expect to be in the most creative of moods. Probably best to leave it for now.
As per previous posts, should point out that this is still not an arrangement. Just some of the possible themes for the final piece. Zero attention has been given to the mix (levels or EQ).
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Update: [13/09/2009]
Uploading a couple of additional parts, though must stress that this is NOT an arrangement at all. The piano is unlikely to kick this track off (but who knows!) and some of the synth sounds still need lots of work (EQ too). What’s more, this is a VERY rough mix. Levels are all over the place. Drums are toppy (but expect to hear another drum part too, this is mainly percussion for texture). Definitely needs a lot more sub/bottom end and bigger drums. I can hear the SBB sequencer drifting slightly out of time too. Loads to fix!
The feel of the piece has changed quite a lot over the weekend. It feels much brighter and lighter now. I’m not sure that’s entirely the direction I had planned, but I do kind of like it. Let’s see where it takes me next!
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First Upload: [11/09/2009]
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I like the way this is shaping up, Kieron! You’re improving and growing with every piece. Really excellent to watch (and hear!) the progress.
It’s been an interesting year, so far! Keep it up!
OK, it’s game on! A thumbs up from Shadi, so I’ll continue working on this (hopefully a little more time on it later today).
Kieron,
I really like the way it is evolving but I the piano doesn’t convince me at all: maybe it is the sound of it that is so dry and, in my opinion, not helped at all by the Filter Delay on it.
Apart from that I like it, you are coining your own style and that is said with respect for it. If this upload had landed on my mailbox I would immediately say “This sounds like Kieron”.
That, in my book, is a good thing.
Keep up the amazing work!
Cheers,
F
I really like the way the new piece is coming along, Kieron! Your pieces are well-crafted.
Seems as if it might also be a bit long, but that may change once the vocals are added to the mix.
Looking forward to hearing the finished mix.
Cheers!
Hey Kieron, you can do better than this
The rhythmic section is not convincing me at this stage, to be honest. I think you need to put a bit more work in to it and make it unique like I know you can. It is only because I know what you can do that I am saying this.
Are there going to be any sang vocals? To contrast with the spoken word? It lacks something, some soul perhaps, can’t quite spot it. Your sound is there but you have evolved a lot and I would’ve liked to listen to that evolution on this one.
Look forward to see how this one evolves
Thanks Fernando. Should have pointed out that this is finished and is no longer a work in progress. We’re not planning on any structural changes or adding any sung vocals so there’ll be no significant evolution. I may lift one of the bass lines a little.
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one
Thanks ever so much for your comments. As ever, they’re greatly appreciated.
K
I’ve just listened to the finished piece and I really like Shadi’s spoken word, and the effects on those vocal parts as the piece progresses.
I like the piece, but I had to strain to hear and understand the words themselves, in most places, as the underlying music bed and repetitive riff was a bit too strong and seemed to compete and override the words (but that could also be my crappy speakers). Those words are interesting and they paint mental pictures which the dissonant theme of the underlying music colors with dark and constantly struggling emotions. At least that’s what I’m hearing/seeing when I listen to the piece.
The mental picture I get when I listen is a loop of a moody heavily stylized vector animation of a powerful dark plodding figure trudging up an endless hill with a heavy load, connected to it by a large heavy chain slung over one shoulder .
Another thing about the main riff itself is that I would like to hear in the piece is a bit more variety in the structure, breaking up the plodding constant main riff with perhaps variations on that riff to provide a bit of change throughout. Six and a half minutes is a long time and some surprises or an emotional mood change (darker? lighter?) would be welcome to my ears.
Just my honest feedback, my good friend Kieron. Hope you’re feeling better.
As ever, thanks to everyone who provided feedback via the blog and Twitter. Took a while, but I think it got there in the end.
It’s off to be mastered and as I understand from Shadi will be featured, along with The Wind, on a CD shortly. Oooh, exciting!
Kieron, After the changes implemented from listeners comments, I think you got it!
The spoken word delivered through a rhythmic carrier.
Nice touch, sorry it took so long to get to comment on it.
Hope you’re doing well.
Scott Lachance (digiTube)