Weeklybeats is a 52 week long music project in which artists compose and publicly release 1 song a week for the entire year.
Starting January 1st 2024 GMT each participant will have one week to upload one finished composition. Any style of music or selection of instruments are welcomed and encouraged. Sign up or Login to get started or check our FAQ for any help or questions you may have.

WeeklyBeats.com / Music / george bowles's music / Again (How can this happen?)

Again (How can this happen?)

By george bowles on January 14, 2024 7:39 am

similar to last week, i recorded a live improv session, cut the end off and made it the beginning, but this time i cut out most of the middle part of the performance.

this time i made the drums more obscured and didn't use the main output of the drum machine, just some of the individual 1/8" outputs of the drum brute. i used three synths, hydrasynth, roland jd-xi, and korg monologue. the latter two had long delay pedals on. i also used feedback loops again.... history repeats itself.

i would say this track kind of sums up my anxieties of the moment... war drums in the distance, history repeating itself with robber barons and incredible inequality, the monotony of daily life and office work, etc. the dichotomies inherent in post postmodern living or whatever era we are in now.

when i was close to being done with this track my weirdo cousin from Alaska sent me an mp3 of him doing impressions of characters from history (20th century) and somehow it fit this all perfectly. i took his recording of doing impressions of walter cronkite, reagan, kennedy, nixon, and more and ran them through some analog emulator vst filters to make them sound like old recordings. i almost scrapped this one several times but i just kept working on it so here it is.

Very interesting and organic.  Good ambient soundscapes, those samples are weird!

Entropica wrote:

Very interesting and organic.  Good ambient soundscapes, those samples are weird!

hahahaha

also used feedback loops again....   "history repeats itself." 

No pun intended?  hehe

Enjoyable twists and turns amongst the layers of chaos.

++good

This is wonderful!

Cauldron of Bats wrote:

++good

Dkstr wrote:

This is wonderful!


Thanks so much!!! I appreciate 🙏

The samples add a lot of importance to this trippy inferno. Well done.

Q-Rosh wrote:

The samples add a lot of importance to this trippy inferno. Well done.

thank you! Yeah it has a postnuclear war kinda theme I almost went with that narrative lol

The sudden cutoff at 1:38 was cool.  I like how you can still hear the storm raging underneath and then it builds back up.  Impressions were a nice touch.  The Fat Albert one caught me off guard and made me laugh.

CosmicCairns wrote:

The sudden cutoff at 1:38 was cool.  I like how you can still hear the storm raging underneath and then it builds back up.  Impressions were a nice touch.  The Fat Albert one caught me off guard and made me laugh.

hahahaha yeah the fat Albert one is my favorite and it's like totally out of context

I'm gonna try to get my cousin to send me recordings

Glad you kept going with this track!

Cool you recorded a long improv session and cut down from there, I do that often, its fun, but can be hard right? This is wild, lots to dig into and wash away in, new thins bubbling up all around, nice. Awesome recordings from the cousin!

I like the sounds that are happening around 2:30 - it sounds like your strumming a piano with a fork or something. And I enjoyed imagining a person in Alaska doing all those impressions!

cool vibes - nice blend of sounds and moods!

i love those vocoder-like chordal movements around 2:30 and the way everything transforms into it from sudden silence with the (what sounds like)filter-pops... and HA! GREAT choice on those voice samples, they do add the right edge to an already edgy dissonance which reigns beautifully over all big_smile

s0nlxaftrsh0ck wrote:

Glad you kept going with this track!

Me too! thanks for the encouragement it ended up being an interesting one!

miraclemiles wrote:

Cool you recorded a long improv session and cut down from there, I do that often, its fun, but can be hard right? This is wild, lots to dig into and wash away in, new thins bubbling up all around, nice. Awesome recordings from the cousin!

yeah i used to be horrible at knowing where to edit some things, but this is forcing me to edit more stuff out because i am still learning my live setup and how to be more concise with it. post production is just as fun as the making of the material imo.

Holzter wrote:

I like the sounds that are happening around 2:30 - it sounds like your strumming a piano with a fork or something. And I enjoyed imagining a person in Alaska doing all those impressions!

i'm happy you heard that i am definitely going for some surreal sounds, that sound familiar but also strange.

pineapple_dan wrote:

cool vibes - nice blend of sounds and moods!

thank you! good to hear... sometimes i wonder how it will be perceived, and ultimately i'm just trying to convey some emotions in sort of an abstract but almost filmic way.

RajaTheResidentAlien wrote:

i love those vocoder-like chordal movements around 2:30 and the way everything transforms into it from sudden silence with the (what sounds like)filter-pops... and HA! GREAT choice on those voice samples, they do add the right edge to an already edgy dissonance which reigns beautifully over all big_smile

thank you so much! loved that review:)

Nicely done once again. (aside: dude, I think we've inhabited the same practice spaces from time to time. Im from the lower shitsville are of Chicago)
Cheers!

NeonRebar wrote:

Nicely done once again. (aside: dude, I think we've inhabited the same practice spaces from time to time. Im from the lower shitsville are of Chicago)
Cheers!

b that could very well be! i rented spaces off and on since 2011 or so (before that i was lucky enough to practice at home or friends houses). i rented from thymme's basement space, and at like 3 or 4 different other practice spaces so it is quite possible! i was in a lot of bands in chicago during that time, 2011 to 2019 or something like that, as i said before that i had free options but i was in some bands then too.

I'm definitely receiving the feelings you described in your blurb in this piece. Well done with this improv, really coming across well defined, something I struggle with when I do live improv I feel.

scottux wrote:

I'm definitely receiving the feelings you described in your blurb in this piece. Well done with this improv, really coming across well defined, something I struggle with when I do live improv I feel.

improv is my specialty:) i do it a lot in music lineups as well as solo. hard to find other people to do this with though, most want to be serious about writing and repeating. i find that more difficult than just making stuff up on the spot.

You need to login to leave a comment.
Login Sign-up