The Disquiet Junto project this week is to "Record the sound of an advanced alien civilization."
The year is 2126, and your spaceship is on a routine science expedition of the outer reaches of previously unexplored parts of the universe. Your crew has encountered, for the first known time in human history, a planet that is home to sentient life that has developed an advanced civilization not unlike our own. After settling into geosynchronous orbit, you send down a stealth drone to explore. The drone captures audio and video. Please share the audio of your drone’s reconnaissance mission.
The Junto project this week was to record music as Dense Fog Advisory.
I started recording parts and wrote my own lyrics:
Forget forget about the weather it’s clear you’re not ready to go you think I’m being clever but the forecast is not known the outlook is for cloud touching to the ground forget about the weather your work can’t wait
Time is here for passing we’ll do whatever you want we’re going to take it easy going take as long as all the time we need suddenly has become free forget about the weather your work can’t wait
So rather than thinking about a third lunch I am here to be shocked by your electric touch elated and amazed inhaling in your gaze your work can’t wait
While the man can make dollars I am making sense your imagination don’t need a fence I’ll keep you employed your inner work can’t wait
don’t lose life striving a housewife your kind was never kindness I’m going to hand you a knife cut the cake it’s your birthday take all that you want be here be now your inner work can’t wait
Don’t be blind the paradigm was always half-baked the main mistake is feeling you’re faked honest intention in honourable mention your work can’t wait
Not a competition on a mission of regret you were here to be clear and don’t you forget standing here centred there your work can’t wait
Dense fog advised get a life it’s a beautiful day for staying inside and feeling ripe be on your way Yeah, I’ma love you like a fool your work can’t wait
The haiku shared by Naviar Records offered an image that proved to be a rich metaphor.
I had a chord progression from playing on my ukulele and had recently tuned my tenor guitar to suit similar intervals, although it's ADF#B rather than CGEA.
Lyrics were generated with ChatGPT, but required editing to arrive at the result that were recorded:
A silence so heavy felt it would break today weight of words angrily told left scattered, sharp and cold
Now a memory that can’t be shut each shard a lesson, every cut your apology won’t revoke the ringing echo of what we broke
When you dropped the glass and time slowed down shattered dreams in pieces scattered on the ground
The cracks are just the space we need a chance to heal the cuts we bleed glass debris after the fall singing on the kitchen floor
You said you didn’t mean it But the words had already flown now we're left here waiting with truth openly known
Now the floor is all swept we’re still lost in the past and that sound of breaking glass is the only thing that lasts
The ring it leaves behind a circle, tight and blind the sound of what we lost a chord that pays the cost
The cracks are just the space we need a chance to heal the cuts we bleed we made a window with glass melted down from outside your knocks are a softer sound
The cracks are just the space we need a chance to heal the cuts we bleed like glass debris after the fall singing on the kitchen floor
The funny thing about change is how often it makes old ideas new again
Since
I spend so much time lately thinking about guitar pedals, it has been
interesting to ponder the revival of the four-track gain stage.
I
am old enough that access to a four-track recorder was one of the most
exciting aspects of starting at Lake Tuggeranong College when it opened
in 1990.
By that point I'd already been
sequencing songs on my Amiga computer but didn't have enough musical
experience to record much more than simple songs on the Tascam
four-tracks.
Those four-tracks allowed both
sides of an audio tape to be used, so the stereo channels added up, and
were still being used to record music when I was making demo tapes with
bands in 1994 and '96.
Recently the interest in
four-tracks has returned for their distinctive gain staging, which
allowed some shaping of the instruments being recorded.
Although
these sounds have had a lo-fi charm for many "indie" style bands and
added character, the current revival has followed from the distinctive
sound of a guitarist called Mk.gee.
Another
element in his tone is the Rainger FX reverb pedal, which includes a
gate to adjust that allows the effect to be added when the dynamics of
the playing go beyond the threshold.
(One of
the details less acknowledged is Mk.gee's use of flatwound strings,
which make his baritone guitar remind me of bassists like Jaco
Pastorius.)
In a recent video to promote the JHS pedal which emulates a four-track gain stage, the guitarist John
Mayer notes “There is a revolution taking place right now in guitar
playing, and it has to do with dynamics.”
“For most of guitar playing history, guitars were plugged into
amplifiers, and the way that a tube amp responds has kind of defined the
way people played guitar.
“But now people have been plugging into things that aren't tube amplifiers," Mayer continues and those things respond differently.
Alternatives
to tube amplifiers have been around for decades, but the real
revolution isn't the return of four-track gain stages.
The shift to digital and the ability to emulate analogue circuits has been gaining pace, with many abandoning those big old boxes for smaller rigs.
Elsewhere
on the internet in recent weeks is an interview with pedal builder Brian
Wampler, who identifies that digital emulations of technology like tube
amplifiers and other effects are threatening his business model.
He
describes digital modeling as a Napster moment for traditional pedal
makers, saying "for those who remember that, that's where everybody who
had music that you just uploaded to Napster, and now no one needs to buy
any more music.”
I think Wampler's observation is what gives Mayer's sales pitch for the JHS pedal an interesting context.
During
the '90s, in particular, guitar dynamics were smashed in popular music
as loudness was pursued through the use of heavy compression effects.
Maybe that's what comes to mind when I think about the music on Napster, but I hope that the sound of individual players and their dynamics is something being celebrated.
We're
witnessing a variety of revolutions in music technology and, just like
the older guitar designs coming back into fashion, there are older
sounds that are also being revisited.
In some ways it's depressing
to see the "relic" models of guitars being sold so that a consumer can
pretend to be their idol, rather than the excitement I find in hearing
someone like Mk.gee showing the potential for new tones.
I recently went
down a metaphorical rabbit hole to revisit the sounds of Tom
Morello and don't think it requires his signature model guitar to achieve them.
For me a
real revolution is seeing new ideas incorporated into the portable
format that pedals offer and the rise of digital modelling means it's
offering distinctive combinations of effects that become a way to grab
consumer's attention, aside from the heavy reliance on celebrities and
brand names.
From this perspective I am impressed with David
Rainger's inventive products, such as the implementation of gating in
the reverb popularised by Mk.gee but also the wonder-filled Minibar
distortion pedal.
There aren't many products that my family show
an interest in playing and the Minibar was the first since Korg's
Kaossilator and the Wavedrum before that.
(And, thinking of Korg, I'm getting excited to see that Phase8 is nearing release.)
I
am hoping there are many more revolutions occurring in the guitar pedal
format, but that enthusiasm needs to be qualified with a sense of
innovation rather than mining the past for nostalgia.
Sad to learn of the passing of Tom 'DJ Wasabi' Jones
We worked
together on a project to record Narrandera's Big Guitar and it was a
pleasure to also jam with him on that unwieldy instrument.
I met Wasabi through the Burning Seed event in Matong, the town where generations of the Jones family farmed.
His
father Brian Jones died a few years ago and it was his funeral and a
smaller event later on for his Burner family where I think I last saw
Wasabi.
Reading now about his various careers in Combat Wombat,
youth mentoring and live sound, it's clear that Australia has lost an
innovative and important contributor.
I really appreciate how easy going and funny he was, with a work ethic that kept pushing for the best results.
It was also nice to spend time with his extended family and my thoughts go to his young children.
The Junto assignment this week is to "Record exercise music for an imaginary broadcast."
Nearly
30 years ago, when I went to the gym, there was an instructor who liked
to play a tape with guitar arpeggios during the cool down part of the
Saturday morning session.
So, thinking of this music when the Junto arrived, I grabbed my guitar and asked ChatGPT to generate a calisthenics routine.
As
I played and read aloud the exercises, I started to sing, so I asked
ChatGPT to make the routine into lyrics with sensual language.
That was on Friday night and I wasn't sure it was the right interpretation for the Junto.
Then today, Sunday, I decided that I wasn't going to have a better idea and recorded three takes.
I liked my guitar solo best in the first, sang better in the second but didn't like the chorus.
So the third take has a chorus that I made up, which ended up as the outro for the song.
The Junto project this week came from a post I saw online, where barcodes were being interpreted as riffs.
I shared the idea with Marc and he indicated it was an idea worth exploring.
So I began looking at products in the kitchen cupboards and found most were atonal, which suited metal and I began riffing to settle on the stripes I'd use.
This label from a local supermarket took my interest as it had a more musical key and I think the Junto projects are an opportunity to share something specific to my location, as it's often interesting to see glimpses of participants' lives from around the world.
Then Marc shifted the idea to be a rhythm, which made sense as the Junto is not just guitarists.
The barcode I'd chosen was interpreted with the longer lines as accents for the narrow lines, which I decided were kick drums as I'm so used to putting them on the "one".
You can see there's a cymbal for the wider line and I settled on a snare for another width.
I took this rhythm and found a chord progression from my folder of Live sketches, then began arranging the parts.
In the process I halved the speed of the drum part at the beginning and in a middle section, as well as reversing the chords in other parts to add harmonic interest.
Finally, I like to add delay, so I took the grainy quality of the barcord to suggest a granular or glitchy effect.
The strange variations being produced by Fender have been on my mind ever since I bought a Meteora
While browsing Facebook Marketplace I saw this "super sonic" model and am surprised it hasn't been on the lists of weird designs from the company that refined the electric guitar.
It's not as bold as the reversed body, but there have been subtle variations in different iterations and in particular I draw your attention to the single angled pick-up of these more recent Japanese-built models which also lack the sparkly pickguard.
Given I have more guitars than I need, it's difficult to justify purchasing one; but the warmth of my Meteora's split humbuckers and wide neck has made it a favourite.
My feeling is that it's too long, possibly too repetitive (although it is aiming for a pop sensibility), and I've wondered if it's offensive -- so I was thinking to replace the word "bitch" with "glitch" and then adding more of that kinda effect.
This image speaks of my recent obsession with building pedal boards
Yesterday I thought I'd built the ultimate board, then last night I saw it could connect to an earlier one.
So it turned out to be the penultimate board and this weekend it'll feed on the disconnected cables, pedals and power supply to become a greater board.
I feel like a fan for wanting to write about it but Chase Bliss' new pedal has missed the mark for me.
Before they announced Lost & Found I had pondered whether a multi-effect would be an option for their new pedal.
Usually Chase Bliss will dive really deep on features, almost exhausting possibilities and then adding a digital brain that allows for recalling multiple presets and other MIDI options.
That, as much as being their first multi-effect, is a significant difference with this pedal and I can't help but think that it might be what's lost.
This focus on possibilities with switches and dipswitches has been an aspect of the company tagline "Digital Brain, Analog Heart" but interestingly it's an area that's been scrutinised by other fanboys.
So the announcement of the Brothers AM pedal earlier this year struck me as being a statement affirming their brand values, as much as another of those clever collaborations that have made Chase Bliss such an inspiring company for musicians.
I was really impressed with the original Brothers pedal and am looking forward to trying the new version, but it's still a long way away (like probably a five-hour drive).
This new pedal, Lost & Found, seems very much a digitally-brained and also "hearted" effect in combining a dozen or so interesting sounds and maximising the potential to cross-pollinate them together.
The video detailing the feature set includes Tom Majeski, who contributed to so much Bliss with the Onward pedal and Cooper collaboration Generation Loss that has been a part of that shift in the product line.
When I was daydreaming about what a new Chase Bliss pedal might include, I thought the idea of having a synth-style pedal could be good with the filters that provide character.
The pitch-tracking of pedals in recent years that allow polyphonic results has been a development that means I'm less likely to grab one of the MIDI guitars for jamming, but I guess I've been using Ableton Live's transcriptions for recordings for years anyway.
The idea of an instrument-like effect was one of those things that surprised me when it then appeared in the Lost & Found announcement, which brings together a "museum" of Bliss.
As a curator I really like the wunderkammer idea of the cabinet of curiosities from this company. but I guess the converse side of that was feeling underwhelmed.
These options seem to be kinda shallow compared to the deep dive other pedals take into failing media (like Lossy or Generation Loss).
From a value-proposition perspective I can see the brand needs to balance providing an inspiring palette for musicians within a pedal, while trying to include enough of the character that has distinguished Chase Bliss but not so much that people decide another pedal provides a depth to really make these sounds one's own.
I'm still weighing up whether I'm such a Bliss fan that I "need" this pedal, but my initial response is that my existing pedals provide most of these sounds.
With a few Zoia pedals I could probably get rid of most of my pedal collection, but I think their interfaces and design serve so many roles for a musicians.
It's this character that underscores the "lost" in the model's name.
It is this blend of sentimentality and a nostalgia for things lost as the world moves forward that seems to embody a Japanese concept like wabi-sabi.
In fact, grief is such a theme in the Chase Bliss brand that I think it provides a sense of emotional depth and resonances that reach beyond being a pedal company.
If they were to start emulating Teenage Engineering, then I would be fascinated to be a fly on the wall in the meetings that Joel Korte would chair to canvas possibilities.
I would love to smell a range of candles or taste a sample box of chocolates for the experiences that I expect Chase Bliss would provoke, but at present I feel like Lost & Found is still looking for a place in my guitar effect pedal collection.
The Junto project has one step, "Choose a recent piece of your own music and rework it by making some portions of it significantly louder and busier than they were initially."
I've taken a piece of a guitar recording and cut it in half, then layered those together.
I recorded myself with an old iPhone saying the line shown to the top-right of my blog, hear below.
When I imported the video into Ableton Live I noticed there was a considerable click at the end, which saved me from having to manipulate a transient to produce a kick sound.
Then I picked a couple of ess-y bits for other percussive sounds, looping them and adding Live's Beatrepeat to gate them.
I also looped the word "sample," pitching it down and adding a filtered EQ, as well as the word "looping," which was pitched up and also EQ'd.
I looked for a few extended vowel sounds, to pitch up and create harmonic progression.
These weren't grabbing me, so I added Live's resonator and a Sinevibes' effect that is a great shortcut for this sorta thing.
The Junto prompt this week is to "compose 8-bit music" and I was kinda stumped.
I looked at using some of the Nintendo-sounding presets on the Kaossilators that my son has been using recently for an assignment, then decided to try the Bitquest pedal that arrived this week.
It's being run through the Chase Bliss Habit pedal for delay/looping, while I cycle through a few settings.
