Another remix challenge. This one is a contribution to Dan Weatherall’s SKatterBrain project. The main album, out today as a £1 (!) download from BandCamp is entitled The Basic Condition Of Life.
To accompany the main release, Dan has pulled in remixes from several artists including Synoiz, PetePec, dyLab, DeathBoy, Jrechs and my own contribution – a mix of his “Last Brief Seconds” track. The remix album is a free download.
Ignore the fact that the SoundCloud player says “Buy”, click the link – it’s FREE. Or use the BandCamp links below to download the whole album.
I always enjoy remixing tracks and I’m proud to have worked on tracks – remixes and collaborations – by Alka, Digitube, Little Boots, Bootslam, Fernando Fonseca and Shadi Angelina. There are others in the pipeline – I’m particularly excited about the potential of collaborations and remixes with Rory Dow and Dan Furr. Watch this space for more news!
Particular thanks on this one to Göran, Justin and several others for their excellent feedback of the work in progress. Comments really helped me to develop the arrangement of the track and tidy up the mix.
Respect, as ever, to Pure Tone for mastering.
The Complete Albums
Listen to and download the complete albums:
It is with tremendous pride that I urge you to download a copy of Public Spaces Lab’s PS020 “The Future Lab“. It’s astounding that Fernando Fonseca and his team have put together a compilation with twenty (count them!) tracks of such amazing quality and from artists as diverse as Mr Bitterness, dustmotes and (my favourite on the release) Alpen Butter, whose EP will be released by PSL too.
I first became acquainted with Fernando through Twitter – following his fascinating conversations with artists such as Ambienteer and technical discussions way beyond my comprehension with people like Boomtopper. He’s a talented individual, make no mistake. But it’s clear that the ability to pick a winner permeates the Barcelona label, since by his own admission, Fernando has been personally less involved in PS020 than some of PSL’s earlier releases. This is testimony to the brilliant people such as Jordi at the Lab, joined recently by new curators John Koch Northrup and Leonardo Rosado.
Once again, Fernando Mateus has excelled with the album artwork, capturing the spirit of the release and most importantly, the Future Lab. Download the album. Listen to it – and when you’ve listened to it for a fifth time and you’re bewildered at how much you’re still discovering, take a moment to thank everybody at the Lab. Do it publicly, do it loudly.
This is what music is all about. It’s free. It’s outstanding. And it is a fitting and beautiful tribute to the PSL’s co-head, Alejandro Mendez who passed away earlier this year.
I mentioned Fernando’s talent above. Apart from running the label, writing his own music, collaborating with other artists (we REALLY need to get back to Half-BIT F!) he’s directed and produced videos for eleven of the tracks on the album! Here’s the one he did for my own track, Organised Sound:
Since the netaudio.es festival PublicSpaces Lab has been in discussions with Spanish netlabel MIGA about several projects. One of the first ideas was to have MIGA’s artists remix some Lab’s artists and vice-versa. MIGA’s artists are putting the finishing touches on the PSL remixes and ambienteer, Dustmotes, Swaying Smoke and I have just been sent the 4 MIGA artists’ tracks to remix.
The track I’m working with is by Javier García (Animatek). It’s thrown up all sorts of possibilities – and I’m really enjoying the challenge. It’s a very welcome distraction from Clear Notice and the release of the label’s debut, Enter Calico.
FOUR, by Kieron James
A little like Alcmene, this track came together pretty quickly and, as I mentioned on Twitter, it’s the first one I’ve composed for a long time which has been built on a completely linear timeline (i.e. no use of the Cubase arranger track). This doesn’t happen very often and when it does, it feels like the track has almost written itself.
The idea kicked off with a couple of bars sequenced up using iPad App from Korg, iElectribe which I’m hugely impressed with. You’ll hear the iElectribe very clearly at around 1:57. I then exported the pattern into Cubase and started to build the rest of the piece around those four bars. Adding sub bass first and then building some of the other synth parts, drums (glitched using Automaton from Audio Damage) and finally adding Marcus Hutton’s fabulous delivery of the Edgard Varèse quote.
I’m handing over to Pure Tone for some quick analysis (to see if he can spot any howlers), stepping away for a couple of days to watch the Spain v Germany World Cup Semi Final tonight and concentrate an Bootslam’s kick drum and I’ll work on the mix at the weekend.
idea by Kieron James
The Burns We Earn
I spotted the @blocsonic remix competition on Twitter on 1st May and was intrigued at how I’d get on remixing a track which was “outside my genre comfort zone”. A couple of elements of the track – notably the bass and vocals – suggested one or two ideas and I started to play around with them.
I extracted midi from the bass line and worked with Rob Papen’s SubBoomBass to generate a couple of different sounds. I created a new (extremely simple) drum part in Battery and glitched the hats using Audio Damage’s Automaton. I created a sequence for one of the original synth parts using BigSeq2 and applied a few filters to the vocals. The guitar part was run through Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig as was an additional synth to create the siren sound.
First up is the original – 2 minute track from Friends or Whatever:
Friends or Whatever – The Burns We Earn by blocSonic
And here is my remix:
The Burns We Earn (Kieron James RMX) by kieronjames
You can download the single including six other remixes and a lovely eleven page PDF booklet from blocSonic’s website:
FOUR, by Kieron James
Last Wednesday was Elisa’s birthday, so I took the day off work and we headed out to the cinema with the kids to watch “Clash of the Titans”. The film was pretty much as we’d expected – mediocre really, but we all kind of enjoyed it. I don’t remember the soundtrack being particularly captivating, but at some point during the movie, I started to think that I’d like to have a crack at something cinematic, something EPIC.
I didn’t get much of a chance to sit down with Cubase with one thing and another, but I did manage to develop a chord sequence late in the week and last night I added some new instruments and wrote a couple of melodies for oboe, trombone and a strings.
Alcmene has come together faster than anything I’ve ever written before and though I may tweak this a little before passing it to Pure Tone for mastering, I’m very pleased with the lead melody and I think it meets my goal.
Given the inspiration, I thought it appropriate to name the piece after Heracles’ mother – “the tallest, most beautiful woman with wisdom surpassed by no person born of mortal parents. It is said that her face and dark eyes were as charming as Aphrodite’s.”
FOUR, by Kieron James
OK, this one has turned out completely off whack with the first three tracks of the album, but there’s something I really like about its quirkiness. There are lots of parts – both in terms of its many layers and the way it jumps from section to section.
I still have doubts as to whether it all works as a whole, but I’m not sure I care! Kinda happy to let it exist as a free-spirited piece and bounce wherever it likes.
Four by kieronjames
Update: 7 June 2010
Lovely to see that Matt Pacyga used this track for one of his #DAPTS videos:
Daily Achievements #DAPTS Playing Foursquare from Daily Achievements on Vimeo.
This track was composed last year as a collaboration with Shadi Angelina for her Messy Spaces CD (to be released by the Goethe Institute later this month).
I’m honoured that the collaboration inspired my very good friend, talented animator and my very first Twitter pal Digital Doyle, to produce the animation below:
Mass Of Moments from DigitalDoyle on Vimeo.
Doyle’s visual interpretation is captivating and his execution reflects the care he attaches to everything – not least his friendships. Doyle remains the top of my list of Follow Friday recommendations. Follow him now: @DigitalDoyle.
The track was wonderfully mastered (as ever) by Pure Tone.
FOUR, by Kieron James
I’ve been working on this one for a while and I’m getting happier with the mix. Need to tweak the arrangement though – not sure about the first appearance of the guitar or its sound. I think that will be removed once I have the vocals. It seems incongruous early in the piece.
You can follow the history of work in progress as Johnny developed and the story of the track’s title on this post.
One thing which Pure Tone suggested, was some “girly vocals”. This set a train of thought in motion and I was looking around some movie sites last night. The track is pretty light and bouncy so I was after something with a touch of humour for some of the quiet sections. I thought these four lines would work well and I’m delighted with the way Salwa Azar has delivered them.
Johnny, is this true? ‘Cause if it is…
Good luck Johnny
Bye bye Johnny
Say kid, what do they call you?
…never should have picked a name like that. A name like that you gotta live up to.
Any last words Johnny?
FOUR, by Kieron James
This is the second track I’ve put together for my debut album FOUR, which will be released on 1st July by Clear Notice. (This will leave six months to create the three sibling albums for Somió, Half-BIT and Blue Omen.)
Recap is a remix of Capitulation – the first piece of music I composed, at the time using the Jonathan Scary moniker. It has been mastered by Pure Tone, though we may tweak a little when I have all the other tracks for the album completed.
Recap by kieronjames
FOUR, by Kieron James
So here it is. The fruits of around three weeks work and the first track for the album FOUR. The track has been beautifully mastered by @pure_tone whose attention to detail and ability to make stuff sparkle is second to none.
My plan at this stage is to complete FOUR before moving on to the other three albums, two of which are collaborative. I’ll be posting four bars of some of the individual channels here too – to see which inspires the collaborators and me to write for Blue Omen, Half-BIT and Sómio.
“Organised Sound” is a phrase coined by the stratospheric colossus of sound, Edgard Varèse. I was switched on to Varèse’s life and work by Chris Randall’s Analog Industries blog. From time to time he produces limited run, sound-themed tee shirts. I missed his Delia Derbyshire edition (sold out), but managed to get hold of one of the fabulous Varèse shirts designed by Stefan Goodchild.
And that’s the story behind the first track for FOUR.
Organised Sound by kieronjames
There. I’ve said it. I’ve even written it down. And when I’ve finished this blog post, I’ll tweet about it to 400 people. There’s clearly only one reason for such behaviour. By telling the world, the pressure I place upon myself to deliver is increased and hopefully even more focus is brought to this ludicrous plan.
OK, by James Fahy’s standards, 48 tracks isn’t even vaguely prolific. It’d probably take ambienteer a couple of months but it will represent more than three times my total output this year. So how on earth do I expect to achieve this? Well, there is some method in my madness.
My aim is to produce four albums, each containing 12 tracks. These will be released under the following artist / project names and two of them are collaborative, so the work will be shared:
The first will be an instrumental album entitled Four and at least one element – however filtered, glitched and twisted – from each track will make its presence felt in its counterpart on each of the other three albums. Some of these tracks may share more than one sound or idea from the original. They may even extend to full-blown remixes, but because these musical projects are so different, I imagine the foundation track will bring very little to bear on its sibling.
I’ve talked in broad terms about the project with Shadi, my collaborator in Blue Omen, but I haven’t had the opportunity to discuss this with Fernando Fonseca, the other half of Half-BIT as he’s taking a well-earned rest and I really don’t want to disturb him. I’m just hoping that Fernando is as “up for this” as he has been with our other work together. If he isn’t, I’ll need to find another collaborator, because the idea is really starting to resonate with me!
I’m not going to add too much content to my own blog, since it’s being covered in detail over at Half-BIT.com, but I will take a moment just to add a brief description of what Fernando and I are working on.
It started with a tweet from @AudioPornTwitz about a Little Boots remix contest. The Earthquake stems were posted online so I DM’d Fernando to see if he was interested in having a play with them for our follow up to Separate.
Earthquake – GAP RMX by Half-BIT
Anybody remember Cosecha? And the fun we had pulling together PS011, recently released by the outstanding PublicSpaces netlabel?
Well, Mr Fonseca and I require your help again. Our newly formed collaboration, Half-BIT will be providing an art sound installation at Netaudio’s EXPANDING 09 Festival on 14 November in Barcelona.
Half-BIT is all about collaboration. It’s our raison d’être. It’s how the whole project was kicked off. And we want it to be global. Our first track started life as a wonderful IDM piece from Alka’s Dog Lost in the Woods album. It was remixed by Fernando Fonseca, then remixed again by me. None of us have actually met. Alka is based in New Jersey, Fernando kicks around Barcelona and I inhabit the far less urban-cool, though equally chic 
Cheshire, UK.
What we need from you
Just like Cosecha, Fernando has asked me to seek parameters to create a new source file for him to glitch the hell out of for a sound installation on 14 November (when I’ll be tucked up in front of Faithless at Manchester’s Warehouse Project). And we need YOU to help with those parameters.
This time, I intend to use two of my favourite VSTs: Ohm Force’s Symptohm and BigSeq2 from Audio Damage. I’ll request some parameter values to create the sound (e.g. send me a number between 1 and 5000) and you’ll tweet back with your number. Just like Cosecha, I’m not going to disclose which values are being requested, but unlike Cosecha, I anticipate far fewer requests being made of the contributors. (Promise!)
Once I’ve handed our sound over to Fernando, he’s going to work even more collaborative magic to create a very special piece for Barcelona.
Play your part by adding a comment below with your Twitter username, or tweet us up with #halfbitbarcelona in your tweet.
We’ll keep you informed of progress via our favourite collaborative social networking wonder-drug: Twitter.
The Contributors
The following people / organisations have volunteered to respond to data requests.
@_alka
@BlueEydGlambert
@dust_bunnies
@fbish
@groovecriminals
@heuristicmusic
@HipGnosis23
@leeconnolly
@LucidAcid
@madebyrobot
@publicspaceslab
@pure_tone
@retorta
@ronsens
Sound 1 – Ohm Force Symptohm Output [30/10/2009]
Thank you to all the contributors for providing numbers today. Below you’ll find a SoundCloud player which previews the three bar loop your numbers have generated. Don’t get too excited just yet. There’s a second stage to the process where we mash this up using Audio Damage’s BigSeq2.
The table below illustrates how the sound was generated from the numbers supplied:
| Parameter | Request | Received | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Note | 1-12 | 5 | @alka |
| Note | 1-12 | 5 | @BlueEydGlambert |
| Note | 1-12 | 12 | @dust_bunnies |
| Note | 1-12 | 3 | @fbish |
| Repeat (0) Reverse (1) | 0-1 | 1 | @groovecriminals |
| Tempo | 110-180 | 123 | @heuristicmusic |
| Beats | 2, 4, 8 or 16 | 8 | @HipGnosis13 |
| Loop Length | 1-4 | 3 | @leeconnolly |
| Symptohm Sample | 1-123 | 72 | @LucidAcid |
| Slide Time | 1-4000 | 1 | @madebyrobot |
| Morphing | 1-6 | 3 | @PublicSpacesLab |
| VCA | -30 – +4 | -7 | @pure_tone |
| VCF Cutoff | 60-8000 | 4358 | @retorta |
| Voice Filter Type | 1-3 | 2 | @ronsens |
None of the contributors was aware of the parameter for which they were submitting a value. The request simply read (for example), “Please send me a number between 1 and 4000 (inclusive). Thanks.”
Phase 1
Here’s how the loop was generated:
The first four contributors provided the notes for the loop. I preselected C major scale and with 12 notes in an octave we have a pattern of E, E, C, D.
Parameter 5 governs whether the pattern should then repeat or reverse (0 for repeat, 1 for reverse). So the second four notes are D, C, E, E.
Parameter 6 establishes the tempo of the loop: 123bpm. Parameter 7 sets the note length: 2 being a minim, 4 a crotchet, 8 a quaver and 16 a semiquaver. The loop length was established as 3 bars by Lee Connolly. The sample preset from Symptohm is 72 (literally counting through the sample files in the Symptohm library!) and the remaining four parameters establish the filters applied.
Loop 1 – Symptohm
Symptohm (Half-BIT #Netaudio) by Half-BIT
More to come! Stage 2 will be the mash up and sequencing in Audio Damage’s BigSeq2.
Phase 2
Here’s how the loop was generated:
Phase 2 of our Netaudio project applied a VST plugin named BigSeq2 from Audio Damage to the source file above. Once again, the values were requested without conveying to the contributors which parameters they governed. The table below illustrates how the values were applied:
| Parameter | Request | Received | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preset | 1-40 | 25 | @alka |
| VCA Step Size | 4, 8, 16 or 32 | 4 | @BlueEydGlambert |
| VCA Gate | 1-100 | 43 | @dust_bunnies |
| VCA Decay | 1-70 | 36 | @fbish |
| Filter Type | 1-6 | 5 | @groovecriminals |
| Filter Frequency | 40-2000 | 1688 | @HipGnosis13 |
| Filter Resonance | 0-100 | 76 | @HipGnosis13 |
| Delay Time | 1-8 | 8 | @leeconnolly |
| Delay Feedback | 0-100 | 37 | @LucidAcid |
| Delay Send | 1-100 | 40 | @madebyrobot |
| Bit Rate | 1-100 | 89 | @PublicSpacesLab |
| Bit Depth | 8-24 | 19 | @pure_tone |
| Distort Fuzz | 0-20 | 15 | @retorta |
| Distort Warp | 0-20 | 17 | @ronsens |
Loop 2 – Symptohm plus BigSeq2
Thank you to all the contributors. That’s my bit done. Now it’s over to you, F.
I think the single most impressive thing about Twitter has been the opportunities for musical collaboration which it has brought about. This, my third significant ‘joint venture’ is with the amazing talent, Scott Lachance, aka Digitube. I really am absolutely thrilled to have an opportunity to work with such wonderful musicians and producers from all over the world.
I’ve only just begun with this and I do have a slight problem with one of the VST instruments drifting slightly out of time (around 2’10″ which I’ll fix). I’m uploading the small amount I’ve done and I guess here will be as good a place as any for Scott and I to exchange ideas as the piece develops. The upload of work in progress has become something of a tradition and people do seem to enjoy chucking in their two pennyworth as a track evolves (which I both seek out and value hugely).
This has not been mixed at all. Levels are definitely awry.
Update: 07/11/2009
FInished track. Mastered by @pure_tone
Update: 24/10/2009
Really great to speak with Scott on the telephone this evening. Felt very inspired after our call and so I did a little more work on this track. Spent quite a bit of time on the percussion and created a kinda funky guitar out of one of the stems (actually came from the drum stem, using BigSeq2 to create the groove).
I’ll have another listen tomorrow, but in truth barring level checks and EQ tweaks, I quite like the place this has got to.
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First Upload: 23/10/2009
Just playing around with some deep percussive ideas for this first upload. No arrangement and no mixing completed so far.
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Digitube Original “Organic Build 2″
Scott published his ‘let’s kick things off’ MP3 on SoundCloud and I’m uploading it here too for reference. Clearly, it’s much more than a ‘starter for ten’!
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