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.

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

Thought it was about time I posted a little on music here. Seems to have been a running focus of late. That’s largely because I’ve got my hands full with Clear Notice and Enter Calico. Anyway, I have a couple of works in progress which I can share.

Looking forward to getting stuck in again shortly and I’ve just exported a few bars from the iPad App iElectribe from Korg (first up below) which I’m going to build into the next piece.

Update: 5 July 2010

Track-7-88bars by Kieron James

iElectribe Update

Little bit more work on this track this afternoon (4 July). Added some Massive (bass) and drums (Kontakt / Audio Damage). There’s a way to go yet though – still playing with ideas.

iElectribe 20 bars by Kieron James

Track #7 24 bars by Kieron James

And this one, which is (more or less) complete:

Track #6 Arrangement #1 by Kieron James

I’ve been away from Cubase for a week or so, but picked this one up again today and put together a rough mix of something which may make it to FOUR – but I’m still unsure (so any feedback gratefully received). I quite like some bits of it – certain bass parts, the drums and brass – but I think I may have ended up with two tracks here which I’m trying to mix into one, linked by the percussion.

First full arrangement – 6th June 2010

I’ve added a couple of new sounds and put together an arrangement. Need to leave this for a couple of days, let the ears recover and work on the mix later in the week. Doesn’t seem like too much is out of place, but tired ears mean I may not be hearing everything. (Over to Pure Tone for analysis.)

Track #6 Arrangement #1 by Kieron James

With some revisions – 30 May 2010

Track #6-98-bars by kieronjames

First upload

Track #6 by kieronjames

Great fun – and a very helpful distraction from FOUR and all the work going on behind the scenes on Clear Notice debut release CNR001. Spent a few hours last week and a chunk of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning remixing the indie pop tune The Burns We Earn from Friends or Whatever.

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:

»» DOWNLOAD THE FRIENDS OR WHATEVER SINGLE AND REMIXES ««

Kicked this one off about a month ago, but kept it under wraps until I got the vocals back from BooSen. These came through last week and I spent a little time mixing them over the weekend. Not totally sure I’ve got the rap sitting exactly as I’d like in the mix, but it’s getting closer.

The track was born with one of the (several) bass lines – which, as usual, was created using my favourite bass VST/sequencer, SubBoomBass. It’s the one you hear first at around 0:30 – ba da da dada. As soon as I added that, I started think old skool house and so I wrote the piece with that in mind. It’s pretty vast in terms of instrumentation at 47 separate tracks(!)

Anyway, here you have it: Free Your Mind, with big thanks to BooSen and to @bubblesmusic for hooking us up.

Free Your Mind by kieronjames

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.”

Alcmene by kieronjames

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.

Kicked off this morning with Battery, as I tweeted a couple of hours ago. Wrote a drum part, added a little Automaton (Audio Damage) and a bass line using my “go-to” bass sequencer, Rob Papen’s SubBoomBass.

This is what I have so far. Time to walk the dog and see what ideas come to mind.

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Dog walking complete and it all seems to have turned a bit dub. (Just drums as that bass line was too reminiscent of something I think Mass of Moments?)

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And after tea, a little bit more. Playing around with a couple of sequences in Massive and SubBoomBass which work quite nicely with the break beat.

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Update 4 – After a week away

Worked on the bass line and some of the drum sounds. I think I have enough to turn this into a track now. (And I’m really pleased with how it’s shaping up.)

Four (20100305) by kieronjames

Update 5 – Fun with SBB and PSP Nitro

Whatever becomes of this track, gotta say, I’m having great fun putting it together!

Four (20100306) by kieronjames

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?

Johnny by kieronjames

Been working on some ideas for the third track for Four. This is a little different from Organised Sound and Recap, but I am really intrigued by the way it’s shaping up. I can hear a thumping, repetitive bass line working well with this and I’m eager to add a solid groove (most likely Battery).

Update 3: 21/02/2010

Here’s the first arrangement. Some of the transitions definitely need improving. I’ve been on this for a big chunk of the day, so I suspect I’m completely burned out. If levels are all over the place, apologies. I’ll sort it tomorrow night when my ears are fresh again.

It’s interesting the way that this piece has developed. The original upload – just the percussion – reminded me of Devo (not any particular track I can recall, just the “flavour” of Devo). As I’ve progressed, it’s evolved into a completely different sound and as I mentioned over at Last.fm, for me it has ended up tipping a nod to much of the stuff I was listening to at college in the late 80s.

In particular – and I’m not entirely sure why – Prefab Sprout comes to mind, so for this reason it has been named “Johnny” (main lyrical theme of their Goodbye Lucille #1).

The most recent arrangement (below – 22/02/2010) still needs a lot of work.

Update 3: 22/02/2010

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Update 2: 20/02/2010

Was a joy working on this with the new machine tonight. Gets the job done so quickly, though I must confess that I still have regular crashes with Audio Damage plugins – even after a fresh install on a brand new OS. There’s something wrong. Anyway, here’s a bit more – with a bass line which I’ll open up (VCF/envelope) somewhere in the track.

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Update 1: 18/02/2010

Seems to have taken a slightly different direction than I was expecting. Still playing around with sounds at this stage – little else:

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First Upload: 15/02/2010

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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