Living Room Music

I've been working on a series of episodes which are driven from the Master settings in my Yamaha MOXF8. These have a set of programmed soundscapes which I can improvise as I go. Just to give the project a bit of direction, I had some randomly generated chord changes for each sound scape to explore. Plug for my Double Album "Chromatic Depression: Volume One & Two "https://recordu.lnk.to/cdv1https://recordu.lnk.to/cdv2 Support the show

I used a random chord progression generator to create 16 different chord progressions. Sort of like rolling musical dice. Then I assembled sixteen different sound palettes to play through them. Then, for 33 minutes, I pushed buttons to change from palette to palette using this chord changes to improvise. Well it wasn't necessarily 33 minutes because I defined the amount of time, that's just how long it took me to go through these changes. I like this as a segment for development of future songs. I will refine some of the palettes and some of the beats. There will be more melodic stuff which happens over time as my right shoulder recovers from surgery. Also. Today my double album is live.Chromatic Depression: Volume One https://recordu.lnk.to/cdv1Chromatic Depression: Volume Two https://recordu.lnk.to/cdv2You can find it in these locations. Support the show

Playing around with different software and workflows.Support the show

I had originally been planning to just drop another half an hour of the live performance from July 7th in here. I listened to the whole 3 hour cut from that night, and decided against dropping that raw material on my podcast. So I cut the second half hour of the night and pasted it into a new file. Then I duplicated it. So two new identical tracks. Then I dropped a couple of effects on each track, both different and both set up to do very different things. I also sidechained the compression on each track to my gear. Next step. I have a sequence of patches programmed in Main Stage 3 which are controlled from my Yamaha MOXF8. This combination allows me to provide rhythm and movement by switching sounds, colors and textures as I play along. By steadily changing the patches and rhythms, I can keep things a bit more interesting while controlling the entire electronic orchestra.Finally, I let loose and just talked/sang things that were on my mind as I played. Naturally, my ongoing, life-long battle with accepting the sound of my own voice lead to a decision to alter the sound of it through effects and processing. I am happy to live in the computer age where I can manage all this in real-time as I record. The final result is a quasi live, quasi improvised, quasi preplanned and programmed recording. As always, I hope you enjoy. Support the show

This week is a presentation of some genuinely weird music. Some of which I really don't know how to explain. Mostly because it is the very beginning of s a new recipe. There are contributions by Niki Wolf, L10, and Fiverr Stereo but I couldn't tell you what are where they contributed. This was an all live, just go with what we got effort and it turned out some interesting parts. Support the show

Continuing my experiments with single take musical composition, this week, I doubled back and added my Radio Announcer Personality voice. Support the show

Working towards an idea where all my synth apps are controlled and synchronized from a DJ station has been the theme of this week's experiments. The glory of MIDI is that all sorts of different effects can be manipulated, and getting these to be more fluid in a live situation is something I am making progress towards. So please enjoy the results.Support the show

As I have been experimenting in my laboratory, fiddling with settings, set ups and wirings, I continually play some cover songs. Just to test out the equipment and whatnot. Thus this week's episode contains a pair of cover songs, "When Doves Cry" by Prince and "Creep" by Radiohead. These were recorded in single takes, where all the sounds were performed sequentially as if I were actually a competent musician and all that. Then just to plump out the duration of the episode, a Trance song I wrote yesterday called "4 U Babe" was slipped in between them. I hope y'all enjoy my weirdness!Support the show

Contining my efforts to experiment with features within my available hardware, I present this week's episode. A study in A minor. There are three instruments on this track: a keyboard Synthesizer, Bass Guitar, and Electric Guitar. All three have multiple sound layers which I manipulate through physical motions as well as electronic manipulations to produce the sounds you hear. I hope you enjoy. Support the show

So, last week, I had this big two hour long show I was preparing for, however there was a serious technical issue. Less than a week before the show, my laptop battery died. It spent five days in the shop getting replaced. This meant that I was unable to work on my setlist or the podcast. I got the laptop out of the shop with 24 hours to go before the show at Justice Pub. In that time, I recorded and bounced down this episode AND finished throwing new patch changes into my setlist. (I did not have time to test out the patches soooooo the show we really super loud and required some on the fly editing.) In all the hustle and bustle of that time period and the holiday weekend and the whole rest of everything including a surprise pop up show last night - I totally blanked out on uploading the episode.Oops. Well, here it is. A half hour of improvised electronica.Support the show

This week is a really fun result in my laboratory. I've been diving into instruction manuals to learn as much as I can about all the gear that has been collecting in my studio. So I put some of that to practice to dash off a nice little improvised bit. There are no names and no tracks to delineate but its an epsiode when I was listening to check the mastering levels, I ran it six times in a row. So its likely my favorite one yet.Support the show

Today I am dipping into a bank of previous experiments. This is a groove track I made a couple months ago out of loops, beats and sounds. It's sort of a snapshot of my skillset from about four months ago. Next week, the episode will feature a brand new composition that is a highlight of the current state of technical wizardry. Support the show

Yesterday morning, I had a follow up medical appointment for an injury sustained at work a month ago. The MRI results show that there are several torn tissues in my right shoulder. I have been referred to a surgeon. This means my job of lifting heavy things and hanging them high in the air is on a stand still. I spent the afternoon wallowing in some emotions on the couch and went to bed early. I woke up this morning and remembered that I did not publish a podcast episode this week. So without further delay here are the songs of emotions for this week:* Grief* Serenity* Surprise* Annoyance* Admiration* DisgustSupport the show

Progressing forward through the Wheel of Emotions gives us the following sounds:* Ecstasy* Surprise* Interest* Terror* Boredom* AcceptanceAs Always, Enjoy!Support the show

So this week's episode is a continuation of my journey through the Wheel of Emotions. The tracks are: * Pensiveness * Vigilance * Amazement * Anger * Admiration * SadnessEnjoy this reflection.Support the show

As I previously discussed, I have had an idea of superimposing the Circle of Fifths onto the Wheel of Emotions and writing music that navigates both simultaneously. Currently, this is filed under the name 527 Project.On 27 May 02022, from ten o'clock to midnight, I will be performing this two hour song cycle at Justice Pub, in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. This week's episode is a sneak peak at the first half hour. This includes six songs. * Joy * Distraction * Anticipation * Fear * Loathing * TrustEach song is 4:48 long and has plenty of space for improvisation during the live set yet I also believe that they can stand alone as they are. Enjoy!Support the show

In an effort to improve my skills through practice and bring new sounds out, this week's episode was played straight through four times on four different instruments. I was going to write more about this but I think it just stands on its own as its own thing. Support the show

This week, I want you to come on a journey with me. It is a journey through memory. We are going back to a time and place and reliving an experience. This experience is not a singular instance. This experience is a cumulative one. There are some neighborhoods of Brooklyn which are only serviced by the G train. This subway line runs roughly north to south from Queens to Brooklyn. There are numerous other subway lines which connect to it that can take you into the other boroughs of NYC. Typically, late at night there are fewer passengers who require the usage of the G train, so there will be a limited number of trains operating on the line at once. If you have missed the most recent train, you can wait for up to an hour for the next one to arrive. Before the MTA installed LED signs in stations informing their passengers how long a wait was before them, this time could seem like an eternity.Like a Jackson Pollack painting, this piece is sprawling in dimension. It also employs musical elements in a repetitive manner that resemble the painter's drips and sprays. The basis for the piece comes from drums which have been overloaded with electronic signals to cue sequences of MIDI tones. Then once this was perfected, two separate takes of trumpet blowing are laid into the the landscape, converted into MIDI, split into multiple channels which then are overloaded with sequences of their own. Finally, the mix employs multiple levels of interconnected signals sidechained together to create and enhance the vibe of this mystical experience. Support the show

DEADLINE: Saturday 19 MARCH 02022 2200GMT-4LOCATION: Main Stage, The Justice Pub, Jacksonville, Florida, USAIn the spirit of The Interwobble's openness, this week I present half an hour of my live set. There were some minor technical difficulties which I encountered during the show however for the most part, I rocked it out. Here is the set list for that date:* You are my one and lonely* People of the Earth* B major Fugue* Take Me* Chill on the Grill* Didge in D (a DNB vibe)Support the show

Sometimes in the Living Room, these episodes start out in one direction and then midway through, I get struck with an idea that is really intriguing and absolutely must be attempted. That is exactly what has happened here. The idea involves my old friend and mathematical concept, fractals. Using a visual reference to lay out thirteen different sound patterns in such a way that there is some reputation of patterns but also there is progressive advancement into new flow. Additionally, I have employed multiple threads of sidechaining these channels together so that there is a controlled chaos to the whole endeavor. Finally, I have repeated large patterns, whilst making detailed changes within them to provide a really broad strokes experience of transcended dub designed to trip the mind.Support the show

I've been preparing for a Live Show that is quickly approaching. I am scared, nervous and anxious about being able to perform my material solo. And yet, I still want to rise to my personal challenge of writing new music every week for this podcast. It is really thrilling to live this life. So while I had an idea to make a nice little jazz based episode, but the computers took over. There's a trip through Future Bass, Chillwave and Bass House before I regain control over the episode and bring the jazz back. The finale for this week is a song called "Futurismo Cowboys" written by myself and L10 yesterday. Support the show

Sometimes, creativity grows best in a bit of chaos. This week's episode is an exercise in controlled chaos. As this podcast is serving as a bit of a laboratory it seems fitting to throw out some conventions and go with really different ideas about music. This essential concept with is being explored here is the electronic synergy between multiple channels and instruments. The conduit through with much of this is passing is called Sidechains. This is where the electronic signal from one channel is triggered and filtered by the electronic signal in another channel. There are multiple ways in which this can be set up. I have an couple of instances where one channel feeds another which feeds another which feeds another. There are also some places where I employ converging branches of side chains which finally result in a single trunk of sound.The first nine minutes of this week's episode was created by myself and Mr. Cott. I played guitar and Mitch was on the bass and then the drums and later I added in some synth lines. The remainder of the time was the result of three different jam sessions in an afternoon between myself on drums and L10 on guitar that was MIDI loaded with synth sounds.Ultimately, to really characterize the episode, I read half an hour's worth of poetry that came from the book I published several years back. And this is the new leaf which is beginning to sprout, particularly as there are great metaphors about trees which sprout up all over the poetic syllables. Support the show

Twenty-five or thirty years ago, in Jacksonville, there was a punk rock band called The Beefpimps. The lineup included L10 on bass, Keller on drums, Swine as the lead vocalist and I was honored to be the guitar player. This is a tale of the 90s so it is full of all the old references to all the old things we were into back then. Everyone has moved on, grown up or older and gotten on with their lives but it was a brilliantly fun moment in time. I occasionally revisit some of those songs, in part or parcel. However this past week, L10 came over and suggested we put down one of his songs from that band. The lead me to dig around in my brain to set down more charts.So in line with L10's idea, we recorded "Everybody Hates Me." Then I began doing the new things and playing with the mix and made a segment I call "Too Cool for Punk Rock." I dusted off the "Lonely" song and then pulled its carcass into the electronica machine to make "Moonbeams and Starlight" as well as another spin off called "Once Upon a Time." Finally we get to the band's theme song, "Beefpimps." As I was/am a huge fan of the work of Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys, I composed a rant song called "C.R.A.P. & Shit." Then to close out the half hour, I pulled out a song called "She loves to give..."As always, I hope you enjoy listening half as much as I enjoy making this.Support the show

All along, I have been fearful of being repetitive. All musicians have their favorite expressions, favorite finger movements, and favorite keys. There are songs which have been knocking around in my head for years, and perhaps because I have never recorded and released them before they have just taken up space. Perhaps, I need not be afraid of repetition, instead I should embrace the purge of old ideas and look forward to the flow of new expressions.I start this week's episode off with some familiar to me chordal progressions but at the halfway point I really get into the process of evolving and progressing ideas. I do not fully believe that my musicality is completely lit at the moment but I can see the spark in the dark where it is about to really bloom. Tracks list: * These Things (with vocals) 0:00 * I want to say 3:44 * No Need for Fighting 9:09 * Protest the Protests 14:11 * Journey to the End of Continuum 17:31Support the show

So, here in the Living Room, I have all the musical gear I could possibly desire. Wait. Who am I kidding? I always want more gear! But anyways. I have microphones which I have put to good use so far for trumpet and didgeridoo segments. This episode I am concentrating on vocals. I also have a lovely little plugin which lets me write vocals for robot voices to sing for me. So I did some experimenting with this as well.Support the show

This week's episode is about flow. There is s gradual development of ideas that shift from segment to segment. Sometimes a thread is taken from the previous segment and twisted in a new direction, other times the idea gets cut down to a fragment of its previous self and grown into a new direction. Support the show

We are calling this the first episode because last week's episode just evolved and this week was the first time it was intentionally created as a podcast. The opening track is called Zombie Robots don't Surf and it features L10 on the punk rock guitar. My old friend's very capable stylistics leads the cyberpunk aggression into snide commentary about corporate digital culture and its impact upon human level existence. At the six minute mark, a new track called Wounded Knee is build on the beat crafted by Phunkmonk. The LoFi Beats and Jazzy feel allows for my highly processed trumpet solo to occupy a really chill space. Twelve minutes into the episode, I pick up a personal challenge; composing Techno House music for the instruments of the symphony. This segment is titled Orchestral Movement in G minor. Eighteen minutes into this study in contrasts, I have crafted a study in loops, overlapping variously timed segments to continue some of the energetic drive of the symphonic piece yet yielding the tonality to electronics and heavy effects. Tears Falling serves as the title as the deep effects are generated through the reading of a poem about crying. and Finally, is another collaborative effort. the fabulous Mr. Cott crafts a fairly funky baseline to hang the rest of the song around, including space for me to improvise a melody on the guitar. Support the show

Originally, this was starting out as a set list of beats to improvise a performance. However, I got deeper into the creative process it took on a life of its own. Now, a new plan has emerged. I will be live-streaming the creative process, including friends who come along for the ride, then editing YouTube videos as brief documentation of the process, and finally the end result will be a podcast setlist of Electronic Music. Naturally, from the podcast, I will break out individual tracks and upload them to a Bandcamp page. Track List     * People of the Earth     * Soul Vampire     * Strangely Attractive     * These Things     * Creep by Radiohead     * Last Chance to be a Rockstar     * Extra TimeWith the exception of of Creep, all Tracks written, produced and performed by N8K99. eIsQ9IHaYz5DSsX1Zss6Support the show