Outtake x DAM95 - Moscow Nights

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/ways-of-the-world

I flipped this sample early March 2018, I’d just finished writing an essay for university about the Black Star track ‘Thieves In The Night’, and was just gassed in general. I’d chosen this module where I knew I’d be able to write about Hip Hop, and in my free time I was always making beats or listening to Hip Hop, so I felt completely immersed in the culture, and that feeling is definitely where this beat came from. I really felt like I’d gained a new understanding of the Black Star track which has always meant so much to me and makes me bug out every time hearing it, and I just felt like expressing that musically. The song is one of the maddest reflections on society and negative states of mind that trap people, so it was the introspective/melancholy vibe of the sample that made me know I wanted to flip it. I was also pretty set on putting this verse over it, there aren’t many Black Star verses out there, and at the time I didn’t have many 12” acapellas, and Deck’s lyrics fit perfectly with the mood.

I definitely rushed the original mix for this beat, at the time I made it the floppy drive on my MPC wasn’t working, so I couldn’t save beats and had to record a final mix out into audacity the same day I made them. The sample sounds nice but the drums aren’t layered very well and don’t really fit in the mix. Also the vocal is a bit quiet, so since I dropped it I’ve been a bit disappointed with it and wanted to rework it ( https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/life-is-hectic-2 ). It was such a nice sample that I got multiple flips out of it, I originally picked two for when I uploaded this remix, bringing the alternate flip in for the outro after Deck’s verse. For this rework I decided to try and combine them both together, using the main loop for the highs, and filtering the second loop as a bassline to layer under it, giving the track more variation without drastically changing the loop throughout Deck’s verse, which I tried when originally remixing this but it was too jarring. I think the two melodies work well together, it gives the beat an interesting vibe, and I think it works in adding subtle variation to the track. One night while I was working on this my brother was watching an episode of the Sopranos in another room, and I had soloed the beat without the C.R.E.A.M. verse to see how the bass levels sounded on speakers, and the dialogue of the scene was fitting mad well with the beat. I had to ask him what episode it was from, and ripped the audio from a clip on youtube to use as an outro at the end of the track, chopping out the dialogue which I thought was relevant to the track.

Peace and thank you to everyone who listens.

Ways Of The World (Instrumental)

a throwaway from april but it grew on me somehow

doesn't matter

Photo by: Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@weirick?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Jake Weirick</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/new-world?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>

t h e  w o r l d  w e  k n e w

wild cats in space.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/41IFWwfQmazoGRI0Uok0Fl?si=388814988411445d
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/lifetime-impression-instrumental/1585999527?i=1585999528

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/lifetime-impression

I had to go all out when I mixed this beat. The drums are all layered so thick, there’s about 4 hi hats, 6 kicks, and 6 snares which are all mixed together to give the drums weight. The way I chopped this sample left some vocals in for split seconds, which sounded like scratches because of them being right at the end of a chop and cut off, like how a fader cuts out a scratch when the DJ spins a record back. I thought this sounded cool but it only happened once in each 2 bar loop of the sample, so I decided to add some of my own scratches from a few break records I have. I used ‘Super Seal’, and recorded some scratches of snares and the famous ‘yo’ sample at the BPM of the beat. Layered with the drums this sounded crazy to me, it gave the beat a different vibe, I’ve definitely said before how much I love how scratching sounds, and it was cool to incorporate it into this beat in a more permanent, less obvious way, not just something for the hook. I also layered the sample 3 times, 2 filters, one high one low, and a standard mix, which I layered, soloed etc throughout the track. This was unbelievably long to do without quantization (which is how I flipped the sample originally), so all 3 had to perfectly match each other, which took hours to sequence. I fully kept giving up but knew the beat needed the layers on the sample to really do it justice (especially the groove that’s added by filtering the lows), so I just stuck by it, and sequenced each chop individually, so I was hitting the pad at the exact right time, which ended up with the beat sequence being 30 tracks on the MPC (they’re usually 15 or so). It was definitely necessary to do this, because the contrast of the smooth flows of the low end to the scratches and samples really gives the track variation, and gives it a lot more presence throughout, definitely was worth the time and effort.

Peace!

Lifetime Impression (Instrumental)

Unten

Crib

tahua

Hungry

Nightly

✨🍃 ⏳📻
Thanks for stopping by – Drop a follow if you enjoyed any of my tracks !

Various styles of music to vibe to 🌲
Always experimenting, always learning.
Cooking behind the scenes... stay tuned 👀
🎧🌌✨🥁

Check out my most recent track here: https://soundcloud.com/mrtreezuk/neni-desem-no-war?si=794fad718a9a4f04aa76d4c0da0414f1&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

t h e w o r l d w e k n e w

MrTreezUK