Woman Rendered

How about a song in a day? It's hard to tell at this hour whether it succeeds at its intent, but regardless, it's a thing that wasn't here and is here now, and a nice enough thing at that. 

She showed me all her pity
and he gave me his best frown
They drove me to the city
and she rolled the window down
as they pulled away
to say, "You'll be all right
Just try to get some restful sleep tonight
A new day brings a new perspective
Time will give a fresh direction
You're bound to find a better girl than me in time"

I guess they didn't see
the yellow lights a-flashing
I guess they didn't hear
the rumble or the klaxon

As the impact made a blast of shattered glass and twisted steel
I walked away

the twenty-ninth (Jamuary)

Rockin' with JoJo

Determined to go for a song today, imposing more deliberate structure to get there. There were many points of wanting to give up and go to bed, but stubbornness and hours paid off. With vocals recorded well after midnight hiding out in the bathroom trying to avoid waking the house, successfully crafted a shitty first draft of an anatomically correct song, 
The title comes from a finger dropped randomly on a book page.

I see you now
pussyfootin down the pavement
eyes searching out
anyone that might have eyes on you
so fresh and clean and put together
your mama must be proud
how you're steppin' out 

We should all be awed
your clean sneaks are so impressive
got a speck on 'em
get your toothbrush out
can't be caught not 
keeping spotless
cuz what would people say
what would people say

Outsiders might think 
you never worked a day
never dirtied your pretty hands
soul as unsoiled as your sneakers
so fresh and clean and put together
You're trying your best to hide
But I know what's inside 

Never get over what you did
Never get over what you did

Clean Sneaks (Jamuary day 3)

Ceci n'est pas une chanson.
This began as a study in overlapping duplicate samples somewhat shortened or lengthened to create phase and rhythmic effects over time, but ultimately developed also into movement through oscillating apparent distance or panning, plus pitch on the vocal.

La trahison des tons / The treason of tones (Jamuary Day 9)

Gilly Frills (Jamuary day 5)

The Assholes? (Jamuary day 12)

Fast-Moving Revelations (Jamuary day 14)

Funny thing about this one is it started off with a bit of a reggae feel, but it seems to have wanted something else. Other sections are still waiting in the wings.

Fashion Rules (Jamuary day 16)

A reading of the short story "A Haunted House," by Virginia Woolf, set to music

This should have been fast. Got an idea and ran with it. Then took hours to figure out how to make it work. Alas, at least we got there at last.

Virgina Woolf's A Haunted House (Jamuary day 26)

Jamuary23 - 29 Rabbit Hole Blues

Built a guitar noise drum rack. Off to a rough start.

Jamuary2024-1 - Friction (Evil Babies)

Jamuary2024-2 - Well, I Never!

Borne of an idea for a vocal piece, but needed to be made on a bus. Which tool to choose? Let’s embrace limitations! Ah, well, wrong tool. It lost its way—ran way,really—and this is what’s left.

Jamuary2024-3 - welp

Jamuary2024-5 - All Natural Fruit Flavor

Finally a chance to make believe there's no job work piled up and get lost. For the curious, the basis here is a little experiment with overlapping arpeggios of differing lengths to build a master evolving arpeggio series somewhat lost to time. It easily might've been a disaster, and it might yet be to some ears. These ears, though, are happy and attached to a head that learned a lot in the process.

The Mind on a Clear Day

Jamuary2024-9 - the mind on a clear day

Decided to give Ableton Note a spin. It seems the app is really just for starting, and there wasn't a chance of getting it moved into Live for finishing. so this is what it is. Given the time constraints, caught a certain atmosphere at least.

Jamuary2024-13 - Take note

Very little time on hand, so a touch of basic sound design and simple bit of oblique motion.

Jamuary2024 - 14 - I'd Like To Think

Jamuary2024-15 - Delicately

I'd fallen behind on Jam'uary and everything else. I didn't have any ideas or inspiration. I didn't feel creative. I wasn't 'feeling it.' It was after midnight.
I resolved to throw some kind of garbage start down so my cheat would at least be started on the right day. An hour or so later, there was this, proving I think that the Brian Funk Jamuary ministry of show-up-so-it-can-happen is on the money. That's the great lesson of this kind of thing-a-day challenge: we can always create. It won't always be stellar, but it will happen if we give it a chance to and we'll probably learn something. And it may surprise us. I never thought I'd build a techno track from scratch. 

15 to go. Onward.

Jamuary2024 - 16 - Pedal Thru

No time, but refused to not show up, so I quickly whipped a little something up before bed using the music app toy called Figure. It feels a little cheaty, but I made decisions that made a thing. It counts.

Jamuary2024

Jamuary2024-18 - barely mustard (no skips no cheats)

Again, only a short time to squeeze in, so I made some beastly human samples and quickly assembled a thing. Learned some things along the way, so all is worthy.

Jamuary2024-19 - The Human Beasties

Somehow layering guitar parts is a new territory and fascination for me. I've loved what Droid has done with guitars this month and am inspired to try my own hand with some Pally flavour.
Starting to think I should look into getting a looper.

Jamuary2024-20 - Layers

It was intended to be a 007/MI kind of thing, but it grew some hairy extra legs.

Jamuary2024-21 - Spy Club

Jamuary2024-22 - Show me, sucka!

All kinds of flourishes dancing in the head--bass lines, leads, percussive punctuation--but, alas, only so many hours in a month one can steal from slumber. A sketch is a sketch and a thing to return to, perhaps.

Jamuary2024-23 - the empty club

Jamuary2024-24 - some kinda anthem

Only time to squeeze in a simple riff for Jam’uary 25th

Jamuary2024-25 - simple riff

Precious little time and this was my last chance to get anything in for Jamuary.

Jamuary2024-26 - feeling angular

Squeezed in a little time in transit to play with using LFOs and delay to suggest chords from a single dual oscillator monosynth. Ended up with this.
(Dealing with super slow and spotty wifi posting these)

Jamuary2024 - 29 - time, exposed

A hasty little dual oscillator sound design. The patterns are pretty much random—not something to listen to really, certainly not for inspiration or enjoyment (no time for that)—just something to put the sounds in action. It’s not how I dreamed of wrapping up this Jamuary, but it’s what the circumstances allowed. 
It’s been a fun, if more stressful ride this year. I’ve learned a ton and have found great inspiration in fellow Jamuarians, as always. I can’t wait to be able to catch up and hear the many posts I haven’t gotten to yet.

Jamuary2024-31 - sound thing (the carabao in mourning?)

For my family so far away

a messy li'l recording

Raining in Darling (Bonny "Prince" Billy)

Originally from various sides of various mountain ranges near and far from the sea, Pally's got the waves and the crags and the peaks and the plains, the evergreens and the waves of grain, the salty breeze and the fireflies deep in those bonny veins. A forever tanline from the Bible belt and bad winter skin ensure that every song's a lie, and every lie's the damndest truth, and any truth a pretentiousest overstatement.

Pally

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