AM//PM

Part of an experimental project I've been working on. The concept is to write, record and perform tracks in a a single sitting.

The first four tracks were all recorded early in the morning before the rest of the house got up. It's too dark and cold in the mornings for that now, so the second batch of tracks will be done in the afternoon!

Each track takes a couple of hours. The workflow is to write and record some samples (using electric and acoustic guitars, piano and occasionally synths), then build a track by looping them, adding beats and effects.

I'm using Bandlab, Loopy Pro, Other Desert Cities, Dubstation 2, Bleass filters and Replicator.

In terms of genre, SubmitHub tells me this track is:

Experimental Electronic (41%)
Gothic / Dark Wave (40%)
Witch House (27%)
Shoegaze (25%)
Ambient (23%)

So something for everyone then :)

btw wtf is Witch House?

Hope you enjoy, please let me know what you think.

This has been a really fun project. Sometimes working with restrictions is a great way of sparking creativity.

PM.001

This is the second track in my experimental PM series. These tracks are written, recorded, sampled and performed in a single two hour sitting. 

The idea is that the artificial time limit focuses the mind and sparks creativity - I also find it really good fun.

I'm really please with how this one turned out; there are a few little mistakes in it but I'm leaving them in because that's all part of the process. It's funny, I go back later and try to perform these tracks again and I find I can never quite recapture the feel from the first attempt!

The process here was to record around 10 short snippets in Bandlab, mostly on electric guitar but some synths as well. I then imported everything into Loopy Pro, and applied lots of effects (making heavy use of Other Desert Cities from Audio Damage which is essentially an instrument in it's own right). Then I constructed a beat and looped everything, and recorded a performance live. Not much time for thinking when you try to do all of that in two hours...

SubmitHub tells me the genre is:

IDM / Glitch (39%)
Experimental Electronic (36%)
Ambient (34%)
Downtempo (20%)
Shoegaze (18%)

Those percentages seem very specific to me! Personally I'd put the Shoegaze percentage a bit higher as there are quite a few heavily reverbed/delayed guitars going on here.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it, please let me know what you think in the comments!

Tom x

PM.005

This is the third track in my experimental PM series.  These tracks are written, recorded, sampled and performed in a single two hour sitting.

This does mean there are one or two mistakes, but that's kind of the point. It's as close as I can get to improvisation.

This track was based around some samples of electric guitar which are very heavily processed using Other Desert Cities. I pitched one of the samples up by an octave  and layered it over the top. Something  about the pace of the track suggested drum and bass to me which led me to the bassline (again played on an electric guitar but this time pitch-shifted down an octave) and the beat. Full disclosure, I did cheat a little bit here by pulling in a drum'n'bass beat sample from Bandlab but in my defence I don't reckon I could have constructed a beat like that in 2 hours, even if I had the skill to do so!

I really like this track, I think it hits really hard when the beat drops, especially the second time. I also really like the slightly menacing rolling drums in the background in the first section. It is all pretty intense though so maybe not for everyone!

As usual, I ran it through SubmitHub to see what genres it thinks the track is. And as usual, the results were surprising! 

Breakbeat, Ghettotech (45%)
UK / Happy Hardcore (41%)
Jungle (33%)
Drum n Bass (29%)
Experimental Electronic (21%)

I have never heard of Ghettotech, and I'm not convinced this qualifies as Happy Hardcore, other than it's pretty fast at 160 odd bpm. But that's what SubmitHub says so who am I to argue :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think in the comments!

Tom xx



PM.003

This is the fourth and final track in my PM project. These tracks are written, sampled, arranged and performed in a single two hour sitting.

This track was put together around a sample of a shoegazey guitar riff. It didn't really make sense until I dropped the big kick drum and then it went off in a techno direction, and I I added the burbling arpeggiated synths.

There are loads of effects on here as usual - the one that sticks out to me is the tonalizer applied to the beat (from Turnado). It adds some movement into the track which I find really propels the whole thing along. Turnado is really very cool although I only have the vaguest grasp of what I'm doing with it! Sometimes though I think a lack of mastery can be an advantage!

I ran this track through SubmitHub to find the genre, it tells me:

Electronica (48%)
Techno (46%)
Melodic Techno (24%)
Ambient (19%)
Electro (17%)

That's probably about right this time!

I've had brilliant fun with this project, all four tracks have come out well but very differently which I'm pleased about. Next step in the project is to put these together into a set which I can perform live.

I've also done an AM series of tracks, which is quite a different vibe. I'll be releasing them soon (January probably). 

I hope you've enjoyed these, please let me know what you think in the comments!

Cheers

Tom x


PM.002

Shoegaze, indie, post rock and electronica from Manchester, UK
tomleonard_uk@protonmail.com

AM//PM

Tom Leonard