Songs created for Weekly Beats 2024. My fifth round of Weekly Beats fun. Check them out here too: https://weeklybeats.com/miraclemiles

Weekly Beats 2024

Started this one out as a little "therapy jam." This is what I'm calling making music when not feeling so great, with the hopes of feeling better. Most of the time a nice music session can turn that frown upside down, and it worked for me this week.  I'm grateful for the therapy jam. 
F minor handpan and cajon are the base of this. Handpan improvising first, then playing cajon along with that. Then did what I could to add more sounds, arrange a little to make it fun.
I've been really into quarter not triplets lately, some 3 over 2 vibes, more songs to come with those riddims.

I asked my wife to help with title. She listened and said she thought about running through the woods, and then finding whatever it is we sought. Looking forward to hearing WB music this week, and I hope you all can find whatever it is you may need to find.
Shared for Weekly Beats 2024 - https://weeklybeats.com/miraclemiles/music/finding-it

Finding It [wb.24]

As we go, we go. To places we need to be.

Created for Weekly Beats 2024. This is song 29

An edit of a session with Creatures Once bandmate Monstrosus who played a little Casio keyboard through a bass pod effects unit. Turned his parts into few tracks here, good stuff as always. We did a good hour or so. This was the most uptempo section. I started it with the tongue drum and percussion loop.

Weekly Beats link: https://weeklybeats.com/miraclemiles/music/as-we-go

Some comments from Weekly Beats participants:

"when the beat comes back in @ 2:45.... i wanna live in that moment
wow, this is such a wonderful groove. going back in for my 4th listen" - jwh

"This track feels like a journey to a desert landscape, somehow. A bit mysterious and adventurous. Cool!" - Minnamari

As We Go (Creatures Once jam edit with Monstrosus) - [Weekly Beats 2024 - Song 29]

Created for Weekly Beats 2024. My song for week 33. Here's what I wrote:
Hope for today, hope for the future. I try at least. I stayed in the same space as last week since that was feeling right still. I'm feeling like this a good space for me. Took another previous recording of the tongue drum and built around that. I like to keep adding and adding, which makes mixing hard. Scaled back a little, getting closer to finding it. Now my ears are a little fried. We'll see what I think in day or two going back to listen. Enjoyed this though, and that's what I needed.

Comment from Weekly Beats community:

"Wow when the track opens at 0:40, it's like stepping out into a full samba in Brazil. The groove is strong. The revert clash is a super interesting element. That tongue drum is such a perfect instrument to mix rhythm and melody. It was great listening to that track on a Friday afternoon, welcoming the week-end!" - Kedbreak136

Distant Hopes [Weekly Beats 2024 Song 33]

I went to a couple Thursday night blues jams in a bar attached to a Chinese restaurant. Fun to get up and play some drums (on a decent house kit) with various people. Do some shufflin, some rocking, hold down those 12 bars. Blues and bluesy rock are not something I listen to often, but a good genre as a jumping off point for open jams in bars. I made a living for about year as drummer in blues band in my early 20's actually, but that's a story for another day. So down at the jam, we get some blues dancers moving around on the tiny dance floor, a good little friendly scene I'll probably go back to get a little live playing fix.

So that little tidbit relates to this week's song in a way. This week's song samples the public domain song St. Louis Blues by TED LEWIS and HIS BAND (https://archive.org/details/78_st-louis-blues_ted-lewis-and-his-band-handy_gbia0268157b?utm_source=DisquietJunto&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=disquiet-junto-project-0660-louis-blues-st). I started playing with this for the Disquiet Junto (https://disquiet.com/0659/?utm_source=DisquietJunto&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=disquiet-junto-project-0660-louis-blues-st) project last week, which I didn't finish. The prompt was to: "Break a public domain song into parts and reorganize them." After hearing so much blues lately I had been thinking about doing something like that. After some false starts trying to execute on my first plans, I finally decided I needed to get up a boogie, so I followed the muse and this is what came out. Took a break from making this to do some chores and words popped in my head so said them into the phone. Played with Ableton 12.1's new Auto Shift auto tune device to edit that voice recording, I'm liking it. I wonder what the Thursday night blues dancer's  would think about this track?
Song 35 for Weekly Beats 2024. Posted here: https://weeklybeats.com/miraclemiles/music/back-in-the-day-public-blues

Back in the Day (Public Blues) - [Weekly Beats 2024, Song 35]

Shared for Weekly Beats 2024. Song 37. Link below. Here's what I wrote with that submission: 

Yeah, my hard drive is spinning right now. Swimming with music. I saw about 15 musical artists this weekend at the a local music festival that returned this year after its multi-year pandemic-induced hiatus. 80 bands total, two nights, 9 venues. A lot to choose from. Bicycles helped. 

Sadly I saw a lot of sparsely attended shows, but also got the rush of somewhat larger audiences moving together, lost in the music (I danced the most the band Down North from Seattle). And while its disappointing to see smaller crowds, it was kind of fun to quickly walk into a venue, get a great place to watch, and have no lines for anything.

So this song is mainly me playing drums and handpan today. Took a handpan noodle and layered pieces together, panned sides and center. Still deciding if I like that, some parts yes, some less. After seeing artists play live this weekend, I felt like doing the same. I also saw a local Afrobeat band  Evergreen Afrodub Orchestra that got me moving and inspired this groove. So I started playing some drums in that feel, but then pivoted a little to different groove. Other sounds in this are from the recent live jam with band buddy Monstrosus. Then it starts and ends with the sound of a hard disk drive spinning up and chattering with data. I started playing with that sound in response to this weeks Disquiet Junto project: Record a piece of music that complements the hum and whir of a hard drive.

I feel inundated with data in any give week, but after the music festival and having many conversations and meeting new people, my data storage is even more filled that usual. My brain is a digital drive spinning up some rhythms from the depths. I just wish it could shut down with the click of a switch instead of chattering away all night long. Time to go search for that switch and get ready for a new week, and new data, and the best part - a new song.

Weekly Beats link: https://weeklybeats.com/miraclemiles/music/data-life

Data Life [Weekly Beats 2024 - Song 37]

Made for Disquiet Junto Project 0665: Clicks + Cuts Music Factory
The Assignment: Record a track in honor of the late Achim Szepanski.

Background: Achim Szepanski (1957-2024), founder of the Mille Plateaux record label, among numerous other accomplishments, died this week. This project is in his honor. You needn’t know much if anything to begin this project; just follow the instructions. As always, discussion of the topic at hand in the project’s llllllll.co message thread is encouraged.

Step 1: Listen back to the first Clicks + Cuts compilation album (originally released in 2020). It is streaming on YouTube (the first hour or so of that playlist).

Step 2: Consider the common elements in various tracks: the glitch effects, the sense of space, the attention to tiny details, the industrial minimalism, the emphasis on sampling, the tempo, the groove. What else do you hear?

Step 3: Record a track in the spirit of that first Clicks + Cuts album.
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My notes:
I had not heard of the label, but was familiar with some of the artists on that compilation. I enjoyed the music and it was fun to try and make something inspired it. I used various samples including my handpan, camera, bathtub and water sounds from a Mr. Bill sample pack. The only non-sample part was is the bass track, which is from Ableton Drift synth. Processed the handpan samples with the excellent PitchLoop89 device in Ableton.
I imagined attempts at taking photos of, under and around water as this evolved.
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More on the 665th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Clicks + Cuts Music Factory — The Assignment: Record a track in honor of the late Achim Szepanski — at https://disquiet.com/0665/

The image associated with this project was created by Lubomir Panak in 2011. Originally posted on Flickr, it is used thanks to a CC BY-NC 2.0 license. This is a detail of the original image, and it has been tilted at an angle, with the project information superimposed.

Drizzled Mementos [Disquiet0665] [Weekly Beats 2024 Song 39]

Creating eclectic music and enjoying the journey. 
I participate in Weekly Beats (as miraclemiles) and the Disquiet Junto. 
This account has my solo and Creatures Once band music.

Back in the Day (Public Blues) - [Weekly Beats 2024, Song 35]

August Miles and Creatures Once