Dunes few complete demo recordings
Recorded at Milto Cave and Crosswinds


I got no cigarettes to die for.
Empty constellations bleed me dry.
Shovel rotting thoughts into my skull.
They haunt and taunt me.

I.

I'm broke and bled.
My life slipping through the cracks.

???
Warped and tainted vision.
Curse your eye.
Black and empty thoughts.
They rot my head.
They haunt and taunt me.

I.

Oh, through the cracks.

I.

I'm broke and bled.
My life slipping through the cracks.

I.


James Balthes 2009

Dunes - Tooth

Dunes few complete demo recordings
Recorded at Milto Cave and Crosswinds

Live performance of 'Untitled#4' at Judith Wright Centre 2012 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpPFQmjljjc


Sonic youth so dissatisfied.
They're mining for gold yeah,
In an elevator shaft.
In a telephone bath.

Hey,
Sandcastle trends,
Til the burning red tide,
And the elite obsolete,
With their ineffectual goals.

Clouds come and go,
Yet we always know,
Those Sonic Youth.
So dissatisfied.

Coming up for air,
Looking down to stare.
I see you there,
And I'm calling your bluff.
NO!
Streets lined like termite mounds,
And Queen-Bee Losing-Streaks.
I see you sitting right there.
Feels so clinical now.

Oh...

Dissatisfied.
Dissatisfied.
So Dissatisfied.

All those sonic youth running.
All those sonic youth coming for a ride.


Joel Smith 2009

Dunes - Sonic Youth

Some scary noise I made for a uni assessment in 2010.

Joel Smith - Despair In The Dark With A Flickering Lightbulb Swinging Above Labelled 'reality'

Live rehearsal demo at Crosswinds 2009

It’s a matter of confidence.
I’m a man of a thousand words.
Are you ready to work this out?
Don’t try to get out of this one.
(If I can get off the floor)

You’ve got your back to the wall.
You’ve got your back to the wall.
(But you’re still standing tall)

Say the word.
It’s,
Say the word,
“It’s an ailing world
Being turned around.”
Yes you’ve heard around,
That I’m feeling down,
When you’re not around.
I don’t make a sound.

You always did what you were told.
It’s not a situation for defence.
Just say the word.

Joel Smith 2008

Wipedoubt - Say The Word (Live Rehearsal Demo 2009)

Unfinished recording of 'Rats' with noises provided by the inimitable Jame Miller.

Rats.
Coming up from the deep,
And flowing out on the street.

Stories and metaphors.
Feats and tales.
Come 3am, 
They’ll be, dogs chasing tails.

Rats.
I share.

I can’t see how it’s, come to be out there.
The sphere of activity,
And. All. Of. Those. That. Stare.

Joel Smith, 2009


Wipedoubt - Rats (Studio demo unfininished 2010)

Dunes three-member Mega Jam while waiting for final member, Mr VJ to arrive for rehearsal, one steamy Brisbane afternoon in 2011.

Phone Recording for personal use.

As the group never officially released any material, it serves as a 'behind-the-scenes' of a blank picture frame, a B-Side to a blank A-Side, a bootleg of a ghost...

* Track/s edited to remove pit stops.

Dunes - Pre-Rehearsal Trio Mega Jam

Live cover recorded at Grow, Hackney in July, 2018 at the Monthly Acoustic, Folk and Poetry night.

Mojo Robert - Berlin Chair (You Am I Cover - Live At GROW)

I decided to call upon the influences of Musique concrète to help create this track. The theme of my piece is Microwaves with an abstract reference to its apparently carcinogenic qualities.
As my understanding goes with Musique concrete; pieces are constructed from non-musical sources and then manipulated, collaged and patterned together to form a piece. Another common technique in Musique concrète is to loop, replay, delay, modulate and splice sounds to create ‘art’, which although more representative of the technological constraints of the time in the early to mid 20th century, is still a worthwhile technique to follow loosely. As Musique concrete often takes advantage of abstract representations of themes, concepts and sounds, my aim was to record various everyday objects around the home and see what I could come up with. Noises recorded included: microwave, Hills Hoist clothes line, trampoline bouncing, water from a tap, computer, printer, an old Organ’s operating noise and a CD-Rom.
After some observations and cutting up of interesting or potentially usable sounds I took to creating a collage of sound with no clear goal. Once the noises began to congregate around the microwave operating a theme came to mind: Cancer bouncing around like a party inside a microwave.
Some sounds were not suitable for the piece and were either omitted wholly, cut up to create repeated loops, or altered through chorus, reverb, delay, TCE or pitch-shifting plug-ins. Such was the case with the Hills Hoist clothesline being heavily turned around: It sounded useless on its own, but once particular segments of it were spliced up and looped it sounded interesting. There was a similar case with the trampoline bouncing. I originally recorded trampoline because I hadn’t jumped on it in years and thought maybe a type of ‘reminiscent’ theme could work, but the whooshing bass sound reminded me of bass thumping in a Club, so I looped suitable parts to create a party atmosphere inside the microwave with the aid of MaxxBass and L1 plug-ins.
The beginning sees the trampoline trying to establish a beat like a dance track, with the microwave starting up and a sample of the microwave door and a CD-Rom opening starting things off, while a double-tracked printer turning on, chorused running tap-water and various computer operating noises try to get started. Clothes-line samples pitch shifted and collaged together move on an offbeat rhythm before being stretched to a halt with TCE.
The second attempt with the microwave sees the Cancer party starting up again through the trampoline fading in after some solitary microwave button noises are affected by reverb. But the Cancer party goes on with more vigour and overhangs after the microwave finishes. The noise of the printer switch is then introduced with a reverse-reverb into a loop at the end with three duplicates playing out three different delay times while a stretched out final microwave noise takes place. In hindsight the bouncing of the panning of the pitch-shifted, looped clothesline noise was unintentional. It was simply how it was recorded with the Zoom H4n recorder.
The track is intended to be busy, if a little sloppy in terms of structure and aim. The general goal is to create a manic, stop-start, pumping mess of familiar mechanic noises and drones. It can also be interpreted as the thoughts that bounce around while waiting for a microwave to finish operating. Stand close to a microwave operating in future and see what you think. Enjoy.


Joel Smith - Microwave Cancer stereo

I make a variety of noises, and listen to many more.
There are also many old demos, collaborations and various recordings available, mostly for family and friends.

Joelrsmith

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