Mashed the last two tracks
naviarhaiku603 – insect tremolo
Disquiet Junto 0708 Vocal Chords
The Disquiet Junto assignment is to "Do something with layers of the sound of your voice."
Aiden Arata on laziness
Procrastination is actually an ideation process…
I don’t believe in laziness anymore. I just don’t think it’s a thing. You’re tired, or you’re feeling avoidant, or you have a very good reason for not wanting to do something, or you’re just weighed down by how sad the world is…
We live in a very sick society in that way, where anything that isn’t commodifiable is not viable. It brings us back to the conversation of laziness.
naviarhaiku602 – scent of plum
I considered how one will often reach a plateau when walking up mountains, incorporating a slower section in the key change of this song.
Manipulated footage via タンタンポッピング - ミルキーウェイ乗組員 - やってみます。
Gay Frog pedal
Disquiet Junto 0707 Chain of Practice
The Disquiet Junto project this week has a few steps:
Step 1: Think about your artistic practice.
Step 2: Write down one sentence that in some manner describes your artistic practice.
Step 3: Record yourself, or someone else, reading the sentence that resulted from Step 2.
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.
naviarhaiku601 – pulling light
Since I'd been rocking out on drums over the weekend, this song was influenced by a guitar riff.
Then when I went looking for a video to pair with my track, the keyword brought up breakdancing by a Chinchin Milkyway.
So I changed the instruments to be more like something he'd be dancing with and made a few edits to suit the pacing.
Cute kit
I had to put a couple of pillows in the kick and the snare rattles a bit, since it's attached.
The cymbals were mine, but I wasn't using them and am now enjoying the '70s-sounding deeper snare and darker hats.
Love this idea!
Then there's the disorienting aspect of microphones and their influence on proximity, which can shift focus.
Disquiet Junto 0706 Tile One On
The project has one step, "record something that makes use of the acoustics of your bathroom."
I took the opportunity to make my first recording of a cute little secondhand drum kit that I bought.
It has a snare attached to the kick drum, which rattles a bit, but I'm thinking that I might leave that off for my Fire Cracker snare in future.
Wasn't sure what to add, so I grabbed my ukulele and started with the G minor chord that gets used a lot.
naviarhaiku600 – thinking of us
Their haiku reminded me there was footage I'd shot of the trees during autumn, which allowed me to go look through my files for a piece of music.
I've tried to incorporate atmosphere and a crunchiness for the leaves.
Disquiet Junto 0705 Book Start
The Junto assignment this week is to "Let the beginning of a book help you begin a new piece of music."
I've read the opening to Andrea Wulf's Magnificent Rebels, which I began this week because I enjoyed her book on Alexander Von Humboldt.
Disquiet Junto 0704 Right on Cumulus
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.
Dr No Raven
Has a cocked wah-kinda effect, but with more resonance.
Disquiet Junto 0703 That's How You Got Killed Before
The Junto assignment this week is to "Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time."
I've gone back to my track 'Wanderer' to try layering a couple of takes that I noticed were close in their tempo, despite not using a clicktrack.
Disquiet Junto 0702 Chain of Application
The Junto this week asks participants to misuse music software.
Usually I use Ableton Live by composing in MIDI, then exporting those notations as sound.
Today I thought to record a song called 'Inner Bitch' using my Suzuki Omnichord to play the MIDI parts.
naviarhaiku596 – spring dream
Disquiet Junto 0701 Gap Ear
The Disquiet Junto assignment is to "Break apart a piece of music and fill the resulting spaces."
I've gone back to my surprise hit from Easter, Innuendo.
Carefully the ukulele part has been cut away, then a moody synth added.
Pedalboards in bloom
What’s the difference between a lead guitarist and a terrorist?
You can negotiate with a terrorist!What do you do when you see a girl on the arm of a guitar player?
Say "Nice tattoo"!What’s the difference between a guitarist and a savings bond?
Eventually, a savings bond will mature and make money!
Uncle Jimmy on culture
Well culture – you can't experience culture, you can't learn it, you can't describe it. You've got to live it. You've got to live it. If you want people to like you you've got to like them. If you want people to respect you you've got to respect them. You can't force your ideas on people. It mightn't be the right way for you. You might have to travel another trail to get to the right meaning and in culture you know that, you know that way. It's more like – I suppose culture was a religion or something similar to religion. It's a way of life, yeah, it's the way you live your life.
Disquiet Junto 0700 View Frame
I couldn't resist recording this piece for the 700th Junto project.
The directions were to show people a glimpse outside my world, so here's my backyard and some of the laundry that I washed today.
As I haven't packed away my drumkit yet for winter, I decided to have a bash.
A 303-style bassline has been added because it was the easiest thing to consider at this time.
One bit of reflection is how I began recording videos for Junto projects at number 100.
Since then that playlist has grown to over 450, which means I've responded to three-quarters of the prompts in that time.
I was first introduced to the Junto community around 027, which involved music from text but I worried my response had misinterpreted the instruction and didn't share it.
Straya by Kink
For anyone reading who isn't an Australian, the character represented is the kind of lower socio-economic figure that might be considered a "redneck" -- although I wouldn't use that term with them directly.
The signifiers are the mullet haircut, "Jackie Howe" blue singlet and Southern Cross tattoo.
As for the sound of the pedal, I was pleasantly surprised.
On the right-hand side is a tubescreamer-style boost, while the left has a throaty overdrive.
It had me playing rock riffs as soon as these were engaged.
I tried it alongside my CopperSound Foxcatcher and Ly-rock King of Clone, which revealed the former to have a bassier boost and fuzzier overdrive (running at 9v, as I haven't tried the 18v option yet).
The Ly-rock pedal has an okay boost and fuzzier distortion, but has sounded way too trebly for my liking.
A friend introduced me to Kink pedals last year, when he brought a Dozer along to a jam.
While graphics on pedals have been a weakness for me, I really like the sounds that I'm getting from Straya.
Wanderer
In my backyard is a mint plant that I hoped might grow to replace my lawn.
Many butterflies land on the flowers when it blooms.
I started researching their varieties as I began photographing them and became interested in the Wanderer, which is the Australian version of the Monarch.
It has distinctive white spots on a black body and magnificent wings coloured like autumnal leaves.
This type of butterfly arrived in Australia around the time my father's great-grandparents migrated here.
It is thought it may have been blown here by a cyclone, but found the imported milkweed plant that supports Monarch caterpillars and was able to survive.
My parents were both born in North America, so I've come to adopt the Wanderer as a symbol for my identity.
I've performed the song using a ukulele, as it is an instrument from the Pacific – the ocean that unites Australia, Japan and the USA.
Green light
The second round of the 2025 Disquiet Junto trio project has been a delight.
Once again Sam Knot has added prose to my drums and I love hearing his gentle voice bringing colour to my beats.
naviarhaiku592 – slanting sunlight rays
The track was produced with Ableton Live, after I recorded takes for different parts and arranged them. I'd listen to this in a forest.
naviarhaiku590 – dreadful the stream
The dreadful stream in this case is an estuary, and the rain was elusive.
Disquiet Junto 0695 Clean After Each Use
The Junto assignment this week is to "Put a piece of music through the dryer."
While I've been holidaying at the coast I'm making happy associations with a chord progression in A# on my ukulele.
A week ago I tried making a song based on lyrics about cupid's arrows and innuendoes.
It was rough and didn't entirely work, but I've used the backing here.
(This chord progression worked better with my Easter Sunday song, I think.)
For the Junto I've taken my backing track and tried to put it through the dryer, but I'm not a fan of those machines for the energy they consume and the uselessness they have in my life.
(There isn't much rain where I live and lots of opportunity for me to get my washing on the line.)
I considered a granular approach to represent lint, but when I decided to use a video from swimming in the Pacific off Valla Beach, arrived at a result more akin to a washing machine.
There's some rotary speaker emulation added, as well as Goodhertz' Lossy effect and DelayCat.
naviarhaiku589 – rising sun
On Easter Sunday I convinced my partner to take a trip to Valla Beach for the sunrise.
There we met a group of people gathered around a fire with guitars to sing medicine songs.
My partner joined them while I took photos, then I sang a little and one of the group offered a jar of "eggs".
As we continued to walk among the waves at sunrise I had words form around the scene, which I've drafted into the song here:
First verse:
With each breath to caress the earth
at the start of every day
the seasons have a rhythm
of sunshine and rain
like shifting sands
under the movement of waves
as morning light will break
through clouds in a golden ray
Chorus:
Everything will change
nothing stays the same
all of your wisdom
crystallised from pain
Second verse:
In the rumbling of the ocean
a rhythm as old as time
a melody in the roar
song of ebb and climb
as the storm can leave behind
a peaceful breath of calm
from chaos we make meaning
dance like fire to our song
Bridge:
We crash like the waves and we break
then we rise again and learn from mistake
build a home in the unknown, make peace in the storm
finding strength in lessons we learn from being born
Chorus
Disquiet Junto 0694 5/4ify
There is one step for the Junto project this week:
Take a pre-existing piece of music that is in 4/4 — either your own or something in the public domain — and add a beat to each measure, transforming it into 5/4.
As I'm preoccupied with homework, I listened to a few of the sketches on my desktop for inspiration.
This bass riff is a bit uneven, so the extra beat in the drum loops hardly seems to unsettle it.
Which meant that I added more feedback to the delay on the synth!
Disquiet Junto 0693 Melody Sorted
The Disquiet Junto project this week is to "Reorganize a familiar song note by note."
It outlined a process using sheet music, but I thought I'd use a MIDI file instead.
So I downloaded Hall and Oates' 'I Cant Go for That' and rearranged the melody into an ascending sequence of notes.
It was a process that I stopped after running out of space, so there are still some of the higher notes in place -- particularly at the start of verses.
Then the song seemed to need a bit of rearranging, so I muted a couple of parts, such as the organ.
I also added some randomisation to the MIDI for the drums.
Connor's ASMR board
In the middle of our recent Easter hat-making one of the students declared that he was building an ASMR board.
I hadn’t seen these before and Google results suggest it is more likely a fidget board, but I like the concept and am thinking about building my own with a piezo pickup embedded.
One for the jazz fans
Disquiet Junto Project 0692 Combust a Move
The Disquiet Junto project this week is to "Record a piece of music in which the sound of fire — match, burner, cigarette, etc. — provides the primary source for the rhythmic track."
This morning I recorded the matches and lighter, then used a video from the 2016 Queensland Burning Man event to create a bass with Sinevibes Reactive.
Disquiet Junto 0691 Un-Ravel
In hindsight I can see how I got here, as there's been a lot of interest in my rapping recently. The kids at the primary school where I work often ask me to rhyme.
As I listened to Ravel I admired the strings and thought they would be great in a hiphop-style track. Then I slept on it and woke up thinking about putting words to it.
When I went to publish the result I looked again at the Junto assignment and wondered if I'd strayed too far?
There's no One Way
Last weekend I recorded a quick vocal performance and then spent the week making it work in two different tracks.
I like the rawness of the version above, then it was surprising how much the arrangement in the version below changed the tone of the delivery but I went further with edits and going pop.
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