"Litmus Test: Songs That Suck" (2005), track 1

my experiement with acid was to see what genres could be created. with this track i was trying to do ska. i needed an intro to the songs and this was the result.

Maribeat

"Litmus Test: Songs That Suck" (2005), track 2

this was the first song i made with acid, a loop based program. when you think of such software, you think of dance songs. i wanted to push the program and create something from the opposite end of the musical spectrum, something that you would never create with loops: hard rock/metal. "want" is the result of that experiment.

Want

"Litmus Test: Songs That Suck" (2005), track 3

i think this is the second song i created with acid. i wanted to create another song that sounded like live musicians instead of loops. i also wanted textures that were playful but kept my ears perked. the resulting sound invoked images of a journey so i wrote lyrics to suit. since i can't sing, i just talked.

Passage

"Litmus Test: Songs That Suck" (2005), track 4

when i wrote the lyrics as a teenager, i had originally conceived the song to be someone screaming the lyrics over a few instruments, and driven by sparsely strummed distorted power chords. approaching the songs years later turned into a completely electronic outfit. Instead of a scream, the best voice to use turned out to be a computer, hence this is the robotic mix.

Only Death (Robotic Mix)

"Litmus Test: Songs That Suck" (2005), track 5

I had thought of this song as being a Q&A session where the vocalist asks the questions and the audience returns the answers. Instead, it turned out to be more like a conversation with your subconscious.

How to Tell...

"Litmus Test: Songs That Suck" (2005), track 6

the title's meaning is twofold. first of all, to get of your ass and dance. second of all, to stop making excuses and just get off your ass and do something. after challenging acid to make live musician and non-dancey type songs, i tried to make a dancey song but more intelligent than your typical thump thump music. i played around with the use of stereo and multi-layered tracks.

Get Off Your Ass

"Litmus Test: Songs That Suck" (2005), track 7

I wanted to combine acoustic and electronic sounds that pleased my ears but when I was chosing the loops, I wasn't thinking of how they would would work together. I laid down a basic song and then stripped down the tracks and tried to force vocals with horrid results. All that remains of human voice is a passage from a work by Phillip K. Dick.

Deception

"Litmus Test: Songs That Suck" (2005), track 8

This track was inspired by The Creatures, in particular, Budgie the drummer. I took all the drum loops that reminded me of Budgie's style, arranged them, added other instruments, and wound up with this small homage if you will to one of my favorite drummers.

Trace User

"Litmus Test: Songs That Suck" (2005), track 9


There is this dog named Mia and "bellies" is when you pet her belly. The roots of this song began when I was checking messages at work because a co-worker was out of the office. Her boyfriend left her a funny message where he sings a silly song about their pet dog. I decided to fully realize the song with instruments. I wanted it to sound a bit folky and spectacularly cheesy. Lucky for me that these two people are good friends of mine and enjoyed the end result. I still laugh everytime I play this song. Thanks to John and April for having such a good sense of humor.

Bellies

Later summer 2009, I met a beautiful girl with a dark soul. I read her poetry and thought it would be perfect for song lyrics so I grabbed my guitar, which I never seem to play anymore, and fired up my computer, which doesn't have any decent music creation software. This song is one of the better things I came up with, even though it tries too hard to be like Portishead--the rest are just too crappy to share. Though, I think making these songs helped win the girl over ;)

kalavinka