Key 13's winning(!!!) entry "Misaligned Aardvarks" for the 2024 Fedivision Song Contest, representing The Island of Nothing.

Misaligned Aardvarks

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Unthemed entry for /r/songaweek #34

This is me trying to stretch out and leave the ideas space to breathe, rather than packing as much as I can into one track - it's the longest track I've ever done, even though I wrote most of it in one day on Monday!

It's a rough late night headphone mix to meet the songaweek deadline - I'll revisit that later when I've got more time.

Little Flowers of Perpetual Annoyance

The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) is a strong ocean current that flows through the islands of Indonesia. In the local language this is "Arus Lintas Indonesia". In some places, the current funnels as much water as is contained in all Earth's rivers through narrow channels between islands, creating powerful eddies and whirlpools. I came across this on a recent David Attenborough wildlife documentary!

Music wise this track is all over the place - it's probably rooted in the 80s but with some more modern industrial-type sounds in there, and some elements of House and SynthWave. Definitely more EDM/dancey then my usual fare.

Apart from the drum machine all sounds come from Rigid Audio Kontakt plugin presets, acquired during their closing down sale.

Written and produced in two days (!) for /r/songaweek Week 48: theme is The Sea.

Arus Lintas

The fabulous community radio station Radio Free Fedi has just closed down, and it will be sorely missed. This was one of the ident/jingles I made for it some time ago, based on my track Solarpunk Grazers.

Radio Free Fedi - Solarpunk Jingle

Entry for /r/songaweek Week #1 of 2025 - theme is "Passage of Time"

I tried to get a real early-eighties feel for this one, using Cherryaudio emulations of the Jupiter-4 and Polymoog synths, as well as their reverb and echo emulations. I also used different mixing/mastering plugins - sticking to vintage/tube emulations and a tape saturation module.

The lyrics I nicked then adapted from various different English translations of Rabindranath Tagore's poem "Taj Mahal". The Shah Jahan created the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his late wife, and even though the passage of time has removed all other traces of his empire, this one thing still remains...

Lyrics:
-----

Life and youth
Wealth and glory
Swept away
Down the river of time

Imperial thunder
Fading like the
Sunset’s splendour
In the grieving sky

An empire vanished
The throne lies shattered
Minstrels sing no more

Yet one thing
A solitary
teardrop hangs
on the cheek of time

A teardrop on the cheek of time
A teardrop on the cheek of time
A teardrop on the cheek of time
Forever

A teardrop on the cheek of time
A teardrop on the cheek of time
A teardrop on the cheek of time
Forever

Teardrop on the Cheek of Time

I wasn't intending to write a track this week, but I had an annoying day on Monday, so wrote this to clear my head. Someone at work made a throwaway comment "Tomorrow's always another day" which stuck in my head - so that's the refrain. I made the cover art a week ago, from a photograph I took back in 2020 - and had previously thought it looked a bit like Synthwave track art - or at least a bit 80s. 

And this week's /r/songaweek theme is Lydian, so here it is, a vaguely synthwave-y track in the Lydian mode.

Always Another Day

The first completed track made entirely on my new OP-XY, although it's actually the third one I started. I've only had it a week, so I'm very much still learning.

I recorded it into Logic Pro and mastered in Ozone 11, other than that everything was done on the machine itself, including the mix.

Written in a few hours for /r/songaweek Week 44 - theme was "The 60 Minute Song" which I didn't quite manage as I'm still very much learning the device.

Still, the theme was inspiring, and the goal to start and finish a track in a short space of time was achieved. It's the first track I've finished in months, so that's a pretty big deal!

It was also written on the 31st of October, so there's a slightly spooky feel.

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spirituation

The second completed track made entirely on my new OP-XY - still learning how to use it.

I recorded it into Logic Pro and mastered in Ozone 11, other than that everything was done on the machine itself, including the mix, which I'm finding quite hard with the limited tools available. Apologies if the bass/drums blow your speakers out!

Written for /r/songaweek Week 46 - theme was "Aurora".

common sun restructioning

Created entirely on my Teenage Engineering OP-XY, apart from mastering in Ozone.  This one plays with the sound design capabilities a little bit, using randomised ("scrambled") sounds. Also playing subtly with the timing and bar structure.

I'm a lot less happy with this than the others I've done so far - feels a bit weak and far too long. The cover art is the best thing here.

free download

you will be coal

Another track created entirely on my Teenage Engineering OP-XY, apart from mastering in Ozone and the reverb tail in the fadeout.  This one plays with the on-board phaser FX. It's probably too long, but I have edited it down a bit.

This track is not available anymore.

Other tracks from Key 13