That thing where you get so carried away adding tracks to a tune that you end up with more than enough for one tune, so you make three versions and then smash them all back together for a 20 minute epic...

Tensed came next once I realised that all of the strings tracks were just too much alongside the synths in Flexed. Swapped out the Bass808 for a double bass, added some long chords and tweaked the hell out of the main riff.

Muscles

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Tensed

That thing where you get so carried away adding tracks to a tune that you end up with more than enough for one tune, so you make three versions and then smash them all back together for a 20 minute epic...

This was the first version, built around the bassline using AudioKit's Bass808 synth app, with plenty of drums including a great loop from Goldie via xlr8r.

Flexed

That thing where you get so carried away adding tracks to a tune that you end up with more than enough for one tune, so you make three versions and then smash them all back together for a 20 minute epic...

I am fully aware that I always end up with a lot of drums in my tracks, so I made a conscious decision to try and take a lot them out here and really bring up the mellower tracks, swapped the long strings to the arpping synth and added a few more sparkly lines.

Relaxed

That thing where you get so carried away adding tracks to a tune that you end up with more than enough for one tune, so you make three versions and then smash them all back together for a 20 minute epic...

All three versions kept the same tempo so I thought I have a go at bringing them all back together, trying to avoid it sounding like just mixing between the three versions by adding/removing layers one by one, and finding great new combinations during the process.

Extended

Leonids De Renard has been gestating for quite a while. It began when a friend (Jon, jokingly known as Renard) sent over a file called "leonids for you.wav", containing some sparkly tinklings he'd made playing around with a Korg synth.  
I add added a baseline and some nice bleepy crushed percussion that came out a bit like a melody and of course, the beats. It was OK, but nothing I felt really happy with so it sat gathering virtual dust on the hard drive for a couple of years.
Then, whilst doomscrolling through Instagram, I saw a video from one of Joshu Doherty/Luke Vibert's I Love Acid parties where the DJ (sorry, can't remember who it was) was playing some truly mental 303 squelchy-ness, dropping the kick in and out making the crowd go nuts. 
I knew then what was missing, so I dug out the file, grabbed the Troublemaker iOS app and converted the baselines into some simple acid riffs - and then got into some virtual knob twiddling, recording some live takes and chopping them up into the '3 flavours of acid', before adding the obligatory 808 kicks over the top.
Leaning into this direction, it seemed like the perfect time to add in the frightfully posh voiceover from an old army LSD research film from the '40s or '50s. Back in the early '90s, I'd also recorded bits of a (landline!) phone call with Jon to my (ancient now, half decent then) Mac and somehow it also included the click of the mouse button which makes a very nice snappy snare substitute, along with some other bits that seemed appropriate too. 

So Jon, if you're out there listening, thank you and I miss you...

Musique Unique Electronique

Leonids De Renard (Three Flavours Of Acid Mix)

Loyal Carnage began with me trying (and failing miserably) to drum along to Loyle Carner's "Hate" from his amazing third album, "Hugo". I tried so many times and never even got close to it, but I did like bits of what I ended up with - at least after I'd quantised the results. 
In the process of fixing my mess, I separated out the various elements and added some effects - the noise gate on the ride was particularly pleasing - and it still kept a whiff of hip-hop.
There were way too many drum tracks in there so I flipped some of them to be bass and lead synths and went from there, editing, tweaking and layering them up to make the melodies.
The breakdown/build up seemed to be missing something, and after adding and abandoning various ideas (including even more drums!) I remembered the little "Frenchapella" from Deee-Lite's "Sampladelic Relics And Dancefloor Oddities" and Lady Miss Keir's voice seemed to fit perfectly over it, building nicely with the music without having to adjust it at all. So I went back through the track and added more little snippets from "Frenchapella" to keep it all in the same vibe.

Loyal Carnage

All hail the maestro Mr John Williams and the master Steven Spielberg...

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was one of my favourite films growing up in the '80s. I loved the sci-fi themes, the breathtaking visuals, and the (somewhat) cheesy effects, but it was the musical aspect that really got me.

The seeds of the finalé with the mothership are sown relatively early on in the film when Francois Truffant's character speaks to the tribal elders in the desert through an interpreter - already starting to break down the barriers of language. He then converts the chant into the famous "5 tones" which are the basis of the 'tonal vocabulary' used to communicate with the aliens at the end of the movie.

I always preferred the way the original chant sounded compared to the 5 tones - almost like it is offset by half a bar, looping at a different point. The choir-like feel of hundreds of voices all coming together in a "Global Communication" - I wonder if that's where Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard got the name of their most famous alias from?

I wanted to try to capture that mood and I dream of bringing it to a huge field in the middle of summer filled with festival goers, all chanting along in unison. 
I started out with the chant, dropping bits in and out, layering different sections - and then built the bass and chords around it.

The original plan was to make the drums build up bit-by-bit, bar-by-bar - kinda like an Underworld epic. However - true to form - I got so carried away sitting behind the kit, having too much fun bashing away, adding fills everywhere, and that just felt right to me in the end so I decided to tidy them up and leave it with a more live feel. Much like the frenzied conversation between the mothership and the scientists at the end of the film.

AR-DA-AR-YA-RE (RE-DE-OH)

AR-DA-AR-YA-RE

15 YEARS DE:TUNED
De:tuned guest mix on We Are Various by The Future Sound of London.
Bandcamp: https://detunedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/presents-pulse-five

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Loyal Carnage

Singer and the Instruments

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