In celebration of Among Authors (https://soundcloud.com/amongauthors) return from a national tour and subsequent show at The Crocodile back in Seattle, I spent a few hours creating a remix / flip of one of my favorite songs of the singer's (Ian Ketterer) live performances at open mics where it's just his voice and piano. I augment with some beats, synths, and samples. Enjoy! Looking forward to the show tonight!

Among Authors - Radio Signals (Tomatron Remix)

Pulled the audio from another video of @tigerrider drummer Patrick Ahern's Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ZgYyMlIVw/), then added bass and synths. Took about 3.5 hours total to create and roughly mix. Been playing with new synths and basses in Ableton Live Creative Extensions and was messing with a lot of MIDI arpeggiators and automation. As well as with an 'unresolving' chord progression. Aspects of this are likely going to turn into the 'Iterator' Design Pattern.

Check out Tiger Rider and Patrick!

Patrick Drum Jam #2 (WIP #1)

I recently activated a trial version of Melodyne for doing subtle autotune adjustments on some tracks and realized I could get pretty dramatic with the autotune effect. Having recently heard a few @boniver tracks off 22, A Million, in particular 10dEAThbREasT (https://soundcloud.com/boniver/10-d-e-a-t-h-b-r-e-a-s-t-1), I spent a couple hours re-creating my 'Goddamn the Rain' track in a similar style. Original here: https://soundcloud.com/tomatron/goddamn-the-rain

Trying to make 1 beat a day for October. Total time for this one : 2:50.

October Beat #3 - Goddamn the Rain, Bon Iver style

I recently found a new simple yet fun (and free!) synth plug-in from a recommendation on YouTube and spent a few hours playing around with it. Just a quick little loop, nothing special. The plugin is called the SQ8ROM, and apparently it's based on the Ensoniq SQ-80 synth. I enjoy the retro sound and sound-design aspects of it, lots of fun. Link to the plugin here: https://www.samplescience.ca/2019/09/sq8rom.html

SQ8ROM Plugin Jam

You Are In The Sky

I Don't Wanna Die

Torture

Being stuck inside during the coronavirus has caused me to start playing more electric guitar, and also being more diligent about practice. Slowly getting some chops back. So here's some quick little guitar parts. 2 of the 3 parts of this song are old riffs I wrote years ago and haven't done anything with yet. Also, no real mixing done at all on this.

Quarantine Guitar  #1

Single take of a live-looped lo-fi synth track, video here : https://youtu.be/VPAeJduktZo

Beat by Lil Miss Beats / LilBeatShop. Synths from the SQ8ROM plugin, tapped on the Artiphon. Using Ableton Live session view and an iRig Blueboard foot controller for triggering clip recording.

Riff-of-9ths - Lo-fi Synth Live-Loop

I came up with a guitar riff recently that took me a bit to wrap my head around rhythmically. It has become a little exercise in triplets and mixing 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures. I've come to think of it as 16/8, split up into 3-3-3-3-4 so it fits fairly neatly within a 4/4 grid. I think this makes it a 'compound meter'? Maybe my more academically trained musical friends can chime in on that one. All recorded in Ableton Live, synth sounds from stock Ableton plugins and the SQ8ROM plugin for the bassy Moog. Synths tapped out on my Artiphon.

Video here: https://youtu.be/AfYtQgLi1E0

16/8 Compound Meter Guitar + Synth beat

1992:  4 brothers joined to share in sonic chemistry.  Jam sessions in midtown NYC spaces, teeming with spirit and vigor.  In a time of fading hair metal and grunge power, this band was forging something different.  Skirting the edges of punk, dream pop and rock this band proposed a wholly new approach.  The name “xBoy” was chosen for some reason and aided with modest cassette recordings of their sessions, the band cultivated songs out of hooks and bits and nibs.  Five songs emerged as their 1st recording session neared.  Recorded in the summer of 1992 at NYU recording studios on Washington Sq after a barter agreement to edit a NYU senior thesis film was hammered out.  The session lasted 12 hours -xBoy left that day with a muddy mix on a cassette tape.  The band jammed some more into 1992; commitments to marriage, cross country moves and professional lives rendered x-Boy good and done. 

2013:  an email from the engineer of the NYU session arrived on spring day.  Something to the effect of “…hey not sure if you remember me…I’m moving apartments in Brooklyn and cleaned out a closet and found xBoy’s master reel…do you want it?”  Stunned that it still existed, his question was met with an immediate and profound affirmation.  A 1/2” 8 track reel collected dust for 7 years and attempts to find a finishing house that would digitize the master reel proved fruitless, then in Dec of 2019 a place in Red Bank, NJ was found to properly bake and transfer the tape.  

2020:  digital files in hand, a producer/mixer/masterer in Seattle (Dave Locke - JPmasters.com) emerges to lend a hand to craft the album that never was into something worth listening to.  Scrubbed, brightened and pixie dusted - xBoy’s 1992 release “Freudian DNA” is a romp of a therapy session highlighted by lead singer Drazen’s thrusts and ramblings on a wracked sexual potency and primacy.  Ramos keeps the backbone alive with alternating bass lines from GA and the Q.  The guitars move between anger & sweet surrender with slashing urgency and a pensive plucking.  These 5 songs are a reminder of what once was and points toward what may become - the first flight of a young and talented group not aware of their potential - truly, “x-boy’s” searching for the meaning of manhood.  And, 30 years on, a fond remembrance and embrace of something unique, uncluttered and real…

xBoy is:

Drazen - vocals & bongos
Ramos - drums
GA - guitars & bass
the Q - guitars & bass