dude.
listen to the stuff i just posted.
i was doing wacky sample pop art in the fucking 90s. 1000 gecs is actually right up my alley. i'd rather listen to that than 98% of what you see in the clubs out there nowadays.
well, almost, anyways - i'd like a little less pop and a little more noise.
but, i make this shit.
Thursday, December 26, 2019
i'm going to give this some moral support for, in some way, being a step in the right direction.
but, yeah. it's pretty stupid.
see, i may be the only person that responds to it by arguing that it's not chaotic or weird enough. there's too many down points, too many cliches. if they could take this and really fuck it up to the next level, they might catch up to the experimental music that was being made in the early 80s.
but, like i say, it's the direction i want to hear, even if it's not enough - and it is probably more like what the future sounds like than a lot of people are going to want to grapple with.
we've been here before, though. remember born gold? that was, what, 2012? it evaporated in favour of bad 80s retro. can we not make that mistake again?
but, yeah. it's pretty stupid.
see, i may be the only person that responds to it by arguing that it's not chaotic or weird enough. there's too many down points, too many cliches. if they could take this and really fuck it up to the next level, they might catch up to the experimental music that was being made in the early 80s.
but, like i say, it's the direction i want to hear, even if it's not enough - and it is probably more like what the future sounds like than a lot of people are going to want to grapple with.
we've been here before, though. remember born gold? that was, what, 2012? it evaporated in favour of bad 80s retro. can we not make that mistake again?
first liner note release for inri029
this was
my grade 12 final project in electronic music design. the assignment was
something along the lines of creating a piece of music with a social
message.
the message is part dystopian, but focuses more on the idea of identifying certain threats that would become a problem in the upcoming century. remember that this was the middle of 1999. how close was i?
1) intro
2) war
3) noise pollution, or pollution in general
4) conformity (or the collapse of individualism)*
5) chemical warfare
6) global warming
7) outro
* i was thinking in terms of personality/uniqueness, rather than something political. and i think the extreme conformity underlying gen y social attitudes have played this out frighteningly well, actually. it's a reaction to the radical mindset of anti-conformity that dominated gen x, but it's still a very real thing that will have very real ramifications in the upcoming decades. if you thought the 50s were creepy, wait until you see what these kids grow up into!
i should have included something about inequality. i also removed a vegan track, partly due to time restraints. besides that, i think i got all of the broad ideas right.
the piece is made to be played in an indefinitely repeated loop.
most of the tracks are slightly remixed/resequenced versions of tracks from inri or inriched. track 5 is brand new, and recorded on the school's synthesizer (part of the project requirements).
recorded over 1997-1999. constructed in this form in june, 1999. published on november 30, 2013. re-released (with new hidden track) and finalized as symph003 on sept 13, 2017. first liner note release added on dec 26, 2019. this is my third symphony; as always, please use headphones.
this release also includes a printable jewel case insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries from all phases of production (1999, 2013-2019). as of dec 26, 2019, the release includes a 15 page booklet in doc, pdf & html, with an html5 audio frontend, that includes journal entries from the remastering process over nov, 2013.
the message is part dystopian, but focuses more on the idea of identifying certain threats that would become a problem in the upcoming century. remember that this was the middle of 1999. how close was i?
1) intro
2) war
3) noise pollution, or pollution in general
4) conformity (or the collapse of individualism)*
5) chemical warfare
6) global warming
7) outro
* i was thinking in terms of personality/uniqueness, rather than something political. and i think the extreme conformity underlying gen y social attitudes have played this out frighteningly well, actually. it's a reaction to the radical mindset of anti-conformity that dominated gen x, but it's still a very real thing that will have very real ramifications in the upcoming decades. if you thought the 50s were creepy, wait until you see what these kids grow up into!
i should have included something about inequality. i also removed a vegan track, partly due to time restraints. besides that, i think i got all of the broad ideas right.
the piece is made to be played in an indefinitely repeated loop.
most of the tracks are slightly remixed/resequenced versions of tracks from inri or inriched. track 5 is brand new, and recorded on the school's synthesizer (part of the project requirements).
recorded over 1997-1999. constructed in this form in june, 1999. published on november 30, 2013. re-released (with new hidden track) and finalized as symph003 on sept 13, 2017. first liner note release added on dec 26, 2019. this is my third symphony; as always, please use headphones.
this release also includes a printable jewel case insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries from all phases of production (1999, 2013-2019). as of dec 26, 2019, the release includes a 15 page booklet in doc, pdf & html, with an html5 audio frontend, that includes journal entries from the remastering process over nov, 2013.
credits
released June 20, 1999
j - synthesizers, sequencers, effects, guitar, bass, piano, drum programming, noise generators, metronome, a broken tape deck, sampling, loops, cool edit synthesis, windows 95 sound recorder, sound design, digital wave editing, production
j - synthesizers, sequencers, effects, guitar, bass, piano, drum programming, noise generators, metronome, a broken tape deck, sampling, loops, cool edit synthesis, windows 95 sound recorder, sound design, digital wave editing, production
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/warning
yeah.
it's probably a dissenting opinion, but i'm not afraid of dissenting. and, what i'd actually like to hear is less autotuned millennial whomp pop like "frontier" and more renaissance vocal music like "crawling".
i don't want to come off as a luddite; i'm not suggesting she drop the technology entirely. but, i think she's better when she's operating in roughly the same realm as a julia holter than when she's basically writing action film movie scores.
it's probably a dissenting opinion, but i'm not afraid of dissenting. and, what i'd actually like to hear is less autotuned millennial whomp pop like "frontier" and more renaissance vocal music like "crawling".
i don't want to come off as a luddite; i'm not suggesting she drop the technology entirely. but, i think she's better when she's operating in roughly the same realm as a julia holter than when she's basically writing action film movie scores.
it is a rare scenario where i'm going to judge a record by the tools made to use it, so i wanted to actually listen to this holly herndon record (which you can stream on youtube, despite the link to the paywall on bandcamp) before i posted an analysis of it, but i guess the basic reality you have to come up against before you can really analyze it is that this is fundamentally a record built around two components:
(1) autotuned vocals
(2) cinematic heavyocity drum samples (which were built for use in film scores rather than music)
now, you can go off on a spiel about the ai bit if you want, but i'm ultimately going to listen to this and if you write me a thousand line program that, in the end, sounds like an autotuned pop song, i'm just going to kind of shrug it off and tell you it sounds like an autotuned pop song. i'm not going to concern myself with how you designed your autotuned pop song so much as i'm going to interpret it as what it is.
this isn't quite as boring as the bulk of contemporary pop, but the fact is that it isn't that different from it, either. where it differs from it is primarily in the vocal harmonization, which is certainly more developed, but that's not always to it's benefits; at some point, you also have to ask yourself why, exactly, you're listening to a gregorian chant, or, worse, a white woman appropriate black church music by getting a computer to perform the parts.
my primary takeaway from the record is actually that she'd be more interesting if she pulled away from the technology a little. this is essentially being marketed as a gimmick, but i'd actually argue that the pure musicality of it is more interesting than all of the gadgets being used are, and it may actually come across better as purely choiral music.
it's dynamic, though. and, i'm going to spend a bit longer listening to it. as was the case with the floating points disc, i'm willing to give her a passing grade on listenability, even if i'm actually not that impressed by the academic component.
https://hollyherndon.bandcamp.com/album/proto
(1) autotuned vocals
(2) cinematic heavyocity drum samples (which were built for use in film scores rather than music)
now, you can go off on a spiel about the ai bit if you want, but i'm ultimately going to listen to this and if you write me a thousand line program that, in the end, sounds like an autotuned pop song, i'm just going to kind of shrug it off and tell you it sounds like an autotuned pop song. i'm not going to concern myself with how you designed your autotuned pop song so much as i'm going to interpret it as what it is.
this isn't quite as boring as the bulk of contemporary pop, but the fact is that it isn't that different from it, either. where it differs from it is primarily in the vocal harmonization, which is certainly more developed, but that's not always to it's benefits; at some point, you also have to ask yourself why, exactly, you're listening to a gregorian chant, or, worse, a white woman appropriate black church music by getting a computer to perform the parts.
my primary takeaway from the record is actually that she'd be more interesting if she pulled away from the technology a little. this is essentially being marketed as a gimmick, but i'd actually argue that the pure musicality of it is more interesting than all of the gadgets being used are, and it may actually come across better as purely choiral music.
it's dynamic, though. and, i'm going to spend a bit longer listening to it. as was the case with the floating points disc, i'm willing to give her a passing grade on listenability, even if i'm actually not that impressed by the academic component.
https://hollyherndon.bandcamp.com/album/proto
i have one more of these things left, but i had to stop to sleep when i realized i forgot to add the track-by-track to inri029.
i have two requests to make.
1) i am getting some hits to this blog, recently, as well as the other three. the music release & concert review posts seem to get the most hits. there also appears to be two people that are keeping a close eye on the site. i'd like to know who you are. reach out.
2) i get the impression sometimes that there are discussions about me that are happening without my knowledge, which means i cannot correct any misinformation or generally defend myself. i think it should be clear that i don't go to any specific fora, at this point. if you have any information about this sort of thing, please direct me to it so that i may have the opportunity to defend myself and correct any false information that may be floating around about me.
i'm not sure exactly what i'm doing with inri029, yet. i need to add something, but i want to find the closest representation to what actually existed in 2013. i'm going to get something to eat after that, and decide if i want to go on to december right away or stop for some legal stuff.
i have two requests to make.
1) i am getting some hits to this blog, recently, as well as the other three. the music release & concert review posts seem to get the most hits. there also appears to be two people that are keeping a close eye on the site. i'd like to know who you are. reach out.
2) i get the impression sometimes that there are discussions about me that are happening without my knowledge, which means i cannot correct any misinformation or generally defend myself. i think it should be clear that i don't go to any specific fora, at this point. if you have any information about this sort of thing, please direct me to it so that i may have the opportunity to defend myself and correct any false information that may be floating around about me.
i'm not sure exactly what i'm doing with inri029, yet. i need to add something, but i want to find the closest representation to what actually existed in 2013. i'm going to get something to eat after that, and decide if i want to go on to december right away or stop for some legal stuff.
first liner note release for inri028
i can't
date this exactly. i know it was the first half of the second semester
of grade 12, which was spring of 1999. further, i'm taking it forward to
about midway because the first part of the course was about
voice-leading and i spent it orchestrating the beatles' something. i
don't have any files.
i was lucky: i went to a high school with a big music department. not an arts school, mind you. just a school that had enough funding to run a wide array of course options that are outside the basic core topics. there were three main assignments in the course, and while i don't remember the exact assignment questions, i do have two pieces to show for it.
this, here, is a conceptual piece about pop music. all of the sounds are created from pop cans. yes, puns are fun. the samples run from pouring water out of pop cans into the sink, to crushing and smashing pop cans, to opening them, to exploding them, etc.
i used the tab of a pop can as a pick as i played the ambient guitar parts. it's all thrown together, processed, warped and perfected in a wave editor.
constructed over a few days in april, 1999. ripped back to wav format from cd-r in late 2013. released as a one track single on nov 21, 2013. release finalized on sept 12, 2017. first liner note release added on dec 26, 2019. as always, please use headphones.
this track appears unmodified on my third record, inridiculous (inri033): jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inridiculous
this release also includes a printable jewel case insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries from all phases of production (1999, 2013-2019). as of dec 26, 2019, the release includes a 5 page booklet in doc, pdf & html, with an html5 audio frontend, that includes journal entries from the remastering process over nov, 2013.
i was lucky: i went to a high school with a big music department. not an arts school, mind you. just a school that had enough funding to run a wide array of course options that are outside the basic core topics. there were three main assignments in the course, and while i don't remember the exact assignment questions, i do have two pieces to show for it.
this, here, is a conceptual piece about pop music. all of the sounds are created from pop cans. yes, puns are fun. the samples run from pouring water out of pop cans into the sink, to crushing and smashing pop cans, to opening them, to exploding them, etc.
i used the tab of a pop can as a pick as i played the ambient guitar parts. it's all thrown together, processed, warped and perfected in a wave editor.
constructed over a few days in april, 1999. ripped back to wav format from cd-r in late 2013. released as a one track single on nov 21, 2013. release finalized on sept 12, 2017. first liner note release added on dec 26, 2019. as always, please use headphones.
this track appears unmodified on my third record, inridiculous (inri033): jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inridiculous
this release also includes a printable jewel case insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries from all phases of production (1999, 2013-2019). as of dec 26, 2019, the release includes a 5 page booklet in doc, pdf & html, with an html5 audio frontend, that includes journal entries from the remastering process over nov, 2013.
credits
released April 15, 1999
j - guitars, effects, samples, loops, digital wave editing
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/pop-music-a-tribute-to-carbon-dioxide
j - guitars, effects, samples, loops, digital wave editing
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/pop-music-a-tribute-to-carbon-dioxide
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