This is the sound that the LG OLED65G2 TV makes during operation.  More light on the screen means louder squealing from a coil in the TV's power supply.  It's kind of astonishing that something this horrendous didn't get halted at what must have been multiple potential inflection points in the design, development, and manufacturing process.

LG G2 TV Squeal

After having this melody kicking around in my head for years, I finally turned it into a song.  "Moist" evokes the sounds of winter in my home town: the rain, the channel horns echoing across the Bay, the long, dark, moist nights, and of course, the sound of someone hitting an air conditioning condenser or a plastic trash bin with a stick.

I mixed this one myself and gave it some tentative mastering treatment for presentation here.

Moist 3.2

My friend Jennifer challenged me to make a cover of ABBA's Lay All Your Love on Me, her favorite ABBA song and favorite InSoc cover.  Her birthday is coming up, so Challenge Accepted, Jennifer!

I interpreted the song as being sung by a gay guy to his bisexual boyfriend so that I could keep a few more of the original ABBA lyrics.  I also made a lot of same the changes that InSoc made to their cover, because, frankly, the ABBA song is too damn long of a slog, and some of the lyrics are just kinda bad.  What results is a fusion of a "cover of a cover" and a little bit more of the original.

As always, it's my own spin on the song, and an homage to the original.  In no way is this meant to be an improvement-- just something different.

I think this is probably the best thing I've put together yet.  There are still just a few rough spots here and there, but as I'm at the 90% point, I decided to go ahead and share this with my music friends.  Please don't spread this URL around, and definitely don't tell Jennifer before her birthday.  I have a feeling ABBA's music publishers and distributors won't take as kind an approach to some guy producing a cover as InSoc does.

Silly samples are Robert Mitchum from Night of the Hunter and Piper Laurie from the 1976 (and best) production of Carrie.  (Carrie is an oft-quoted film between Jennifer and me, and it kinda fits here, too.)

Lay All Your Love on Me (ABBA Cover)

Alex Jones, right-wing nutjob conspiracy theorist, figures that President Obama is going to stay in power past the end of his term, in part by Activating the Beyonces (in a conspiracy with Viacom, naturally).

Internet, you know what to do.

Full clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8TSfkWv1dU

Nutjob Alex Jones - Activating The Beyonces

If I had my own theme song, this would be it.

Spatula 1.1

The first time I watched the laughably sexist and rather silly Coronet film "Are You Popular" from the Prelinger Archive on archive.org, I immediately thought it would be great fun to mock it in music through the clear lens of Presentism.  So many wonderful quotes could be taken well out of context and arranged for humorous effect!

Up until that point, all of my musical efforts had been covers of other people's songs, and Are You Popular became my first truly original musical piece (not counting short compositions or the song I invented for a piano recital when I was 6 or 7 years old).

And so Are You Popular was born.  A few years later I decided to revisit it with my current tool set and with the benefit of a few more years of experimenting with electronic music.  I also found a color (!) version of the film on the Library of Congress web site, which lacks some of the narration, has an extra slut-shaming scene not present in the monochrome version in the Prelinger Archive, but most importantly, has the full musical introduction theme without a bad film splice.  (It also has a rather obnoxious pair of audio spurs at 4726 and 9452 Hz, but these were easily removed with a notch filter.)

Are You Popular has changed quite a bit since the first 1.0 demo release, for the better, and I hope it will amuse you as it has amused me.

Are You Popular 4.0

It's the first real World Control song with actual vocals, including a guest vocal from Kurt Larson.  This is the reference bounce, to be used by my talented mix engineer to get an idea of what I was thinking.

Full Circle 3.3

Sounds Like Sài Gòn

More sounds of Sài Gòn

JOOR Horn Teaser

The latest single from World Control: heavily 1950's doo-wop inspired, but entirely electronic.  This is the final mix.

Just Out Of Reach final

Crazy Pipe Noises at Holiday Inn Express and Suites

I've had this melody banging around in my head for years, and finally took a notion to sit down and do it justice.

Just a guy making the occasional tune under the "World Control" moniker.

Influences: Information Society, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Cause & Effect, Depeche Mode, OMD

spatula

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