I had an idea how "plums" are a euphemism and thought about recording vocals, but changed my mind as the track developed.
Then I thought about how the poem's warning might be understood by a child and found a menace in it, that came to the fore as I played with bass sounds.
The Junto this week is to "Delete a note at a time."
There is just one step to this project: Record a piece of music with a slow melody that repeats. Each time the melody cycles around, remove one note, until during the final repeat none of the notes in the melody remain.
I've recorded a chord progression using my recently upgraded Squier.
It's tuned Nashville style, so the chord becomes more melodic as the range is limited across the strings.
The original version of the song was slower and felt too long, so I look a bit jumpy in the video as it is sped up.
Upgraded the pickups, tuners, bridge and pickguard on my Squier Paranormal Nashville Stratocaster.
Unexpected result is the neck pickup is out of phase and sounds really funky when combined with the others.
The pickups are a "Pure vintage 64' TL Set" from a Chinese website and they are a big improvement.
It really says something about the business model of this website that they accept up to five returns each month, with a prompt refund soon after the post office scans the barcode on the label provided.
Anyway, my expectations were low but changed dramatically when I installed these "Texas" pickups.
The wax crusted onto thick metal base plates was encouraging, as were the cloth-covered wires.
So imagine my surprise that they sound amazing!
I feel so inspired with the tone that's coming out of my excellent Artist guitar, which was super cheap as it had an electrical fault.
There aren't any moving parts in a pickup, so I expect these will keep performing and inspiring me to do the same.
The Junto assignment this week is to "Make music with a browser-based Omnichord as your sole sound source."
I wasn't sure about using a browser-based instrument, then I remembered that my Omnichord was still plugged into a pedal board.
So here's a quick jam, where I wish that I spent more time getting the levels right.
There's clearly a story here, although one imagines that none of those involved want to discuss it.
It made me want to try a Nameless guitar, however their website seems to have vanished.
While I had been looking at buying a Fender, the message gave me pause to think about their dominance in the market.
So I decided to support a different brand and went looking for an Australian guitar.
The Junto assignment this week is to "Change the “focus” of a track as it plays."
I had an idea to record a few instruments, but decided in the end that I only had energy for one take.
As I'd been watching Rick Beato's interview with Tony Levin, so I thought to use a bass which wears his likeness.
There's a pedal board I put together for bass and you can hear it uses EHX Superego for a drone, then an MXR phaser for modulation, before adding EHX Talking Machine.
"Consume art with your heart" gets to an argument I believe about the emotional connection that humans expect in the media they consume.
Anyone had experience with Chinese copies?
So I bought this copy, just so I can not worry about scratching the paint on my real Fender Meteora.
It'll be interesting to see how close it lands when it, um, lands.
The prompt this week is "Do that thing you’ve been meaning to do."
At first my mind turned to the folder of lyrics that I'm yet to record, but as I opened it I noticed another on my desktop.
The track I recorded for the "Dense Fog Advisory" Junto was one that I'd been meaning to tidy up, in the same way that I'd gone back to refix that track last week.
I had been surprised how well the guitar breaks worked, as I recorded them quickly and at the same time as the vocals.
It was good to clear space in the mix and then I had an idea to shift the key.
I dropped the instruments down a fifith, but took the vocals up a seventh.
The result makes me sound a bit like Neil Young, I think.
The Junto prompt this week asked for a piece of music with a tendency to fall apart repeatedly.
I usually have an idea that forms when the email from Disquiet arrives and then find myself looking for ways to justify it.
This week my mind turned to a song about glass breaking that I recorded in September as a response to a poem by Half Unusual shared by Naviar Records.
There were some drums that fit the piece, so I added a bass part.
Then I went on Archive.org and looked for video of glass smashing, using "toughened glass smash" by tim hunkin and "Glass Door Breaking Meme" by Richie.
Murray cod are Australia's largest freshwater fish and, as a freshwater person, I kinda relate to it.
In particular, the line about the skeleton prompts me to share this remarkable discovery:
These fish are known to be protective fathers and travel long distances, like salmon, to return to their home to spawn.
They nearly were made extinct by large-scale fishing and, in recent years, have become an aquaculture crop.
The story is that Lake was told a cod had taken residence in a neighbouring dam, where he found it used a 44-gallon drum like it was a treehollow for spawning young.
Anyway, I can talk about cod for a while since I put together an exhibition about them.
I've been spending too much time looking at guitars, but among all the photos I saw last night was this screenshot puportedly from Bob Dylan about a musical process.
The Junto assignment is to "Make music for a haunted spy film."
My first step was playing with the "Black sabbath" sounds in the M-Tron, but it didn't go anywhere.
Next evening I decided to explore a spy theme and thought I'd start with a 5/4 time signature like Mission Impossible.
I don't think the result has that timing, but the idea was moving.
Added a few more parts and found the horror trailer, then thought I should finish before Halloween faded.
This is my favourite pedal board at present, although the mix in the video has a lot of post effects too.
There were a few takes but the above version was concise and features a cameo from my youngest.
Dunno, the version below is longer and seems to work better?
The Disquiet Junto prompt this week is to "Record a track in which you play along with the storm."
I found a wonderful storm on Archive.org by Brother Elias and played my bass along while it screened.
There were a number of takes, but I edited this part since it captured some of my favourite ideas.
I also thought I'd record a piece explaining my Junto process, since I haven't been giving it much reflection in recent years.
Portal is a useful mixer-style pedal by Sonicake with options to invert, stack or parallel the inputs.
The result has been a lot more use of the Alexander pedals, Reverse delay and Space Race reverb.
With the Portal blending in those Alexander effects when my guitar play gets louder, it makes the experience so much more dynamic.
I'd been pondering dynamics and gated effects in recent months, and another moment was hearing the EarthQuaker Devices Data Corrupter through the gate on the Coppersound Triplegraph (not shown) -- which made an overbearing effect a lot more musical.
Anyway, as someone who is sick of seeing the word "freeze" on pedals, I've been wondering why more effects don't have a gate?
And, yes, I have started using an oven rack as a pedal board.
Suzuki Omnichords are like little time capsules.
I've thrown a few things at this one over the years, particularly my Roland Boutique synths.
Similarly, the 505 drum machine is like hearing a beige version of a more famous Roland.
Somehow they pair nicely here, which was obvious when I substituted Roland for a punchier Alessis drum machine.
The arrangement of pedals has been changing and I like the quirks that get added.
Another quirk here is the tenor guitar, which has been tuned like a ukulele but from a low A.
That idea arose from learning about Keith Richards!
The Junto prompt this week is to combine works in progress.
I found a couple of sketches in 135 bpm that merged nicely with this NASA video.
It’s funny, there were already “combo” titles when I opened my folder of unfinished Live’s als files.
One of those tracks I recognised from last year, so I looked instead for similar bpms and found a few possibilities around 135 from this year.
Then I found this NASA video waiting in another folder, which effortlessly fit the audio.
While, it looks like the Junto came together easily, I had a whole other process up until I re-read the prompt.
Although I knew I had plenty of material, I really wanted to try recording away from the screen and thanfully it was really quick.
Along the way I considered whether a pedalboard would be a work-in-progress, which has been a fun detour.
The haiku shared by Naviar Records reminded me of the red butterflies that I've observed at the start of autumn, such as this scarlet percher.
The Disquiet Junto assignment is: Play with and against a steady beat.
Step 1: Locate a metronome and set it to play at a speed of your choice. Recommended: 70 bpm.
Step 2: Practice playing with, and against, and entirely apart from the beat.
Step 3: Record a piece of music in which you start off playing with the beat, and then veer away from it, and then are drawn back to it, and then veer away, around and again. End the piece while playing apart from the beat, not in sync with it.
My metronome was Ableton Live and the 70bpm recommendation stirred a couple of tracks as I let the Junto directions simmer since reading them on Thursday evening.
After a day or so an idea arose for a beat that veered away, so I started scaffolding a structure of a track.
Sunday morning arrives and I start recording a drum track, using the second take, then first takes of bass and ukulele.
Along the way I thought of veering on the bass too, more than the ukulele anyway.
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 Disquiet assignment is to "Layer two eras of recordings, one of them imaginary."
My father died recently and I was remembering that he had wanted to become a doctor.
So I had an idea that my ancestor might've used a rhyme to remember the bones of the body.
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
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
“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.
I liked the image of a lonely fisherman inspecting waves and thought it spoke to those moments of introspection and reflection.
Sad to learn of the passing of Tom 'DJ Wasabi' Jones
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 arrived with the knowledge that I wanted to remix the track I recorded last week.
I knew there would be vocal takes that would fit together nicely, and I’ve panned them to either channel here with a reverb shared on the buss.
What I was stuck on was who to imitate in my remix.
I asked my partner and she said “your former self.”
So the bassline takes some inspiration from the song ‘Slow boil’ on my first album, which I published online more than 20 years ago.
I used the UAD Opal synth for bass and a kind of textural sound at the beginning, middle break and end, along with Ableton Live's 909 samples.
These were given various saturation and distortion for warmth and to add legibility on smaller speakers.
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.
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.
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.
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
