I visited my hometown of Crowborough for a couple of days last week, primarily to see my mum, but I managed to fit in a bit of exploring while I was there.
I’d seen photos of Saxonbury Tower before, but never in real life, so I thought I’d take a drive out into the country and see it for myself, along with two smaller follies, Eridge Park Towers; both of which were originally part of the Neville family country estate.
The larger tower now houses a mobile phone mast, which is hidden inside the shaft of the building and you’d never know it was there…Apart from the loudly humming cooling unit bolted to the front door!
Anyway, now you can only make out that particular eyesore in one of the longer shots, I’ve edited it rather neatly out of the rest. ;~}
Time for another burst of sonic shock and awe, one from each of my modular synth setups; starting with this beefed up remix of my Puls8 track, with added loops, beats and samples and an FX laden visual accompaniment.
And then there’s a completely new tune, a complex, glitchy electronica piece created using Hexen, mixed with a percussion track made on my sampler. The videos took me the best part of a day each and they are both definitely best enjoyed in full HD.
The time has come for me to move on up to the next level of music production, using programmable modular synthesizers.
Now, having no idea how any of these things work (as usual), I once again embarked on the experimental stage of a steep learning curve.
The first synth app I treated myself to is called HEAT; featuring a bewildering array of switches, sliders and knobs with nothing in the way of instructions…
…however, with a lot of fiddling and twiddling and many hours of making unlistenable noises, I started to get to grips with the huge number of variable sonic parameters and worked out how to control and manipulate the sounds it produces.
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If possible, the second virtual synth I bought is even more complicated and goes by the name HEXEN. It is described as a “eurorack modular synth” and allows me to build an unlimited combination of modules (sequencers, samplers, oscilloscopes, tape units, effects generators, etc) on the rack’s six shelves, using an endless supply of patch cables.
Having eventually discovered how to add modules and record the resulting output with a tape unit, I’m now learning to incorporate the infinite possibilities of Hexen into fully mixed tracks, but for now here’s a video of it running my first attempt at a programmed sequence.
And finally, here’s my first completely original production using the HEAT synth, also featuring drum patterns and samples which were added at the mixing stage; ladies and gentlemen, I give you the decidedly colourful video for Puls8.
Hi there, welcome back to the third and final part of my musical update of 2022, specifically; a series of collaborations with my Russian friend, Alexey, aka MakeUp.
Alexey is a talented photographer, filmmaker and musician from Russia, who I originally got to know as part of the global resurgence in Twin Peaks fandom a few years ago and who shares my interest in peculiar electronica soundscapes.
We were chatting on Facebook a few weeks ago and he sent me some of his back catalogue to listen to and I couldn’t resist trying a quick remix.
I wanted to create a whole new tune to combine with Alexey’s “Sexy Acid Track” and for no reason at all I chose one with a Zouk Bass kind of feel (a sub-genre of bass-heavy electronic dance music with its roots in African and Caribbean percussion) and you can sample the resulting, glitchy aural collage below.
This is the only video I’ve made so far but there is at least one more collaborative track completed, so I imagine that will also see the light of day before too long.
Hello, Happy New Year and welcome to part two of this roundup of recent audio visual output, this time focusing on music I made entirely by myself, as opposed to adding to/remixing existing material.
I created each of these compositions using dozens of samples, which I patiently assembled from the hundreds I’ve found by trawling the internet, then added extra layers of sound by mixing two or more of these initial sequences together.
The videos are made with a variety of pattern generating and editing apps, often using several different versions superimposed on top of each other, then multiple layers of effects are added (because I never did know when to stop) to achieve the sometimes retina-bothering results you see below.
I’m aware my sonic noodlings are sometimes rather long, which is a result of my preferred method of a “live jamming” recording process. I really only make the accompanying videos because YouTube links are the easiest to share, so if prolonged exposure is a bit much for you, I quite understand. ;~}
There is a whole load more music which is yet to be released into the wild, so my next project will be to compile some of that into my third Bandcamp album of original material. Watch this space for details.
Anyway, to the music.
This first one started out as a silent experiment in overlaying animations and I thought it needed a soundtrack, so I repurposed an old track of mine with some effects, just for fun.
Eklektik Headz
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After which, there’s this, the first result of the aforementioned experimentation. I started making the video one weekend and didn’t get round to finishing it, so it sat there in my editing app all week and every now and again I’d have an idea like; “Ooh, what this needs is loads of dancing robots…”
Then I’d think of another layer of effects to apply, then another, and another.
After the slightly creepy, pumpkin headed dancing men arrived, I figured it was time to stop
Oogle Plex
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Here’s a slice of psychedelic disco for you, the video is a bit like being sucked into a funky wormhole.
Malfunkshun
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Trance and techno more your sort of thing? Try this great big wall of sound production, it’s pretty damn anthemic, even if I do say so myself. (You could even check out the Extended Breakbeat Remix, should you so wish)
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And finally there’s this, well, I’m not sure what you’d call it, but it certainly builds to a very satisfactory crescendo of interesting noises.
Time for an update on my DIY musical output, so hold onto your ears and limber up your eyeballs.
I thought I’d split the more recent sonic experiments into two separate posts; original compositions (featured in the next post) and remixes of existing tracks by other artists, including a genuine collaboration with a musician friend in Russia, which gets a post all of its own.
In this collection of extended remixes, complete with their own bespoke, psychedelic videos, any additional music you hear in the mix was created by me using my virtual sampler, sequencer and mixing decks and the videos were also produced and edited by yours truly.
A very merry Christmas to you all and best wishes for the new year.
Here is the full set of pictures I took on a Christmas Eve walk around the National Trust’s Watersmeet property on Exmoor, some of which were used for this week’s edition of The Cosmic Photo Challenge .
Hi there, I hope you’re doing well and are enjoying weather as nice as it’s been here over the weekend. I thought I’d post some photos I took for The Cosmic Photo Challenge, many of which I didn’t have room for in this week’s edition, but they’re too nice not to share.
So here’s a tour of Venn Quarries Woods just outside Barnstaple, in the glorious summer sunshine of Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday morning I took a drive just out of Barnstaple, to Broomhill Art Hotel and Sculpture Gardens, which I have visited many times and I’ve taken a great many photos there, too.
The National Sculpture Prize is hosted here and a lot of the previous winners are on permanent display in their own part of the beautifully landscaped, lightly wooded river valley. But there is hardly anywhere on the sprawling, gently sloping site below the hotel and galleries, which isn’t a vantage point from which to view the huge number of artworks on display.
It is always a pleasure to wander through this surreal landscape of the imagination, seeing it grow and evolve each time I visit and I thought this time I’d really try to do it justice with a bumper photo tour. I even added an artistic experiment of my own, another peculiar panoramic selfie. ;~}
I hope you enjoy your look around a really magical place, maybe you can visit it yourselves one day…
Click on the image at the top or the link below it at the top of this post to find out more about Broomhill.
RETURN OF THE INTERNET NOBODY 