Name: Weird Worlds: The Single by Digital Eel
Duration: 2 min 48 s
Description: A short medley of otherworldly sound and music from Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space. (infinitespacegames.com)

love this game, its unique style, and its music so much

Tomorrow Never Knows

Music and Words by Lennon & McCartney
Arranged and Performed by Richard Arnold

This was always one of my favorite Beatles songs. However, I always felt that the fast and busy arrangement by the Beatles (and many others who covered the song, including Monsoon) took something away from the lyrics (paraphrased by Lennon from the Tibetan Book of the Dead). In developing this arrangement, I slowed down the tempo in an attempt to create a more meditative vibe. I spent a great time creating and modifying multiple loops - many reversed - selecting the best among them to include in the arrangement. Beatles fans may recognize some of these loops as partial quotes from other Beatles songs; this was intentional, though unlike my previous recording ("The Walrus Was Rita") I created all loops from scratch, and none were taken from actual Beatles recordings. [Disclaimer: three sounds on this recording were taken from various free sound effects websites: they are the crowd noise and two sounds of wind chimes that begin and end the song. Two repeated beats loops came from the Apple Loops collection in Logic Pro, and two others were programmed from a Korg M3 workstation.]

Not much more to say about this recording. You probably already know the song, so make yourself a cup of tea, sit in your favorite chair, relax, and float downstream. Hope you enjoy it.

September 2, 2013

"Tomorrow Never Knows" Copyright Sony ATV
Image Copyright: http://www.care2.com

Tomorrow Never Knows

Wendy Carlos on Larry King Live, October 5 1992. I was a board op at WNCT-AM 1070 in the 90's and was lucky enough to get this recording. It sounds like AM radio to be sure lol. Show intro and commercials have been edited as the disk this was stored on was damaged and I had to piece it back together. The interview is intact. 

Wendy Carlos On Larry King Live 1992 - October - 5

This song was built around sound samples from the 1970 Sci-Fi movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project," about a NORAD computer that becomes self-aware and takes over the world. The voice of Colossus was performed by the great voice actor Paul Frees, and the vocal distortion was the work of the filmmakers, not me. The movie beat other high-profile "computer wages war against humankind" SF movies by many years ("The Terminator" was released in 1984, and "The Matrix" in 1999.) If you haven't seen it, I recommend renting it if you're in to those kinds of SF stories - it does the cycle well, and as you can hear from the samples I included in my song, the "voice" of Colossus is genuinely creepy. I saw this movie on TV as a kid, and remembered it when thinking about song projects.

I wanted to experiment with some "found art," whereas sound clips from non-music sources are sliced and diced, and form the basis for music themes and chord progression. I specifically aimed for a "future retro" mood here: some instruments in the mix ape the modern electronica style, while others harken back to 80s technopop, with a few "bleeps and blorps" reminiscent of 60s/70s computer movie/TV tropes. I leave it up to you to decide how successful I was in fusing all of these elements.

I named it "Colossus I" because I not sure I'm finished with this chord progression yet. In casting about for different arrangements, I found that the chords I wrote were very adaptable to a lot of styles. At some point in the future, I may use that chord progression again for a vastly different type of song; maybe Mr. Frees' voice will make an appearance in that later work... maybe not.

This is a slightly different version than what I posted in April. I learned a few more tricks in Logic Pro that improved the sound files, such as sending copies of it to the extreme edges of each channel to give it a more unearthly feel.

Anyway, enjoy the song. I enjoyed assembling this "computer."


Colossus I (Remixed)

Secret Journey

This is an accapella version that Sam Brown, Aitch McRobbie and myself amused ourselves with one afternoon -  just for fun. (Also, I guess, to prove that backing singers can do a bit more than wiggle their bums). Come the apocalypse, we can all still ROCK!

Bohemian Rhapsody

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 95: Radio And The Classroom (1939 - 1965)

_________________________

In the summer of 1955, CBS executives were looking for a way to increase weeknight listenership in a cost-effective manner. They decided to revive a once popular programming format: the fifteen-minute weeknight serial. 

The show they picked to relaunch was Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. 

Radio veteran Jack Johnstone, most recently at the helm of Jimmy Stewart’s The Six Shooter, was brought in to direct. The new format allowed for significant character development time. 

Because the show was unsponsored and CBS cost-sustained, many of Hollywood radio’s affordable best were involved. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar re-debuted over CBS airwaves at 8:15PM on October 3rd, 1955.

When Johnny Dollar Took on An Entire Town to Solve a School Arson

A short medley of otherworldly sound and music from Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space. (infinitespacegames.com)

Weird Worlds: The Single

Coming soon to all podcast platforms. 

Written by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris. Performed by Nicholas Courtney and Terry Molloy.

Weird Worlds: The Single

Digital Eel

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