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90210

By laguna on April 17, 2016 11:51 pm

Well, this week I have something a little bit different. I purchased a reasonably cheap Roland SP808 which (long story short) have some drive defects that crashed my whole project. Though I hope to be able to replace everything and put it to good use, it was Sunday and I had nothing, so I built this one, complete in the box.

This one's heavily influenced by the work of Dashcam and SammyJams as SUNBATHER. I wanted to make a shinny and bright track after a hard week fighting life and the weirdness of old ZIP drives, so... What's better to return to a really happy place that never really existed?

The track is really simple musically. It takes samples from a famous one hit wonder: Cathy Dennis' "Touch me (all night long)" from 1991, which is in fact a cover. The originator was Fonda Rae in 1984. Those of you old enough maybe remember it... and enjoy it.

I chopped "the bells" from the intro and 1/4th long slices of (samples on CAPS) "THE(re's no turning back)" and "all night lONG". The project contains so many lanes of automation that I could not fit all of them in my usual screen capture. Would post a snapshot of the arrangement sometime later.

I discover that the new incarnation of Ableton's Simpler sounds really good but is also more resource hungry. The whole project uses a Drum Rack with 8 slices and my Macbook couldn't handle it at 96kHz.

Lots of filters, some flanger, some phaser, some delay and just one send for slight reverb. Maybe the trick is make all frequencies move but... could it be that simple?

I included a Youtube video link so you could check the original and tell me if you think I abused too much of my sampling. I did my best to use small slices and do something creative with it, but as always, I'd really appreciate your opinion on that matter. Sometimes it's hard to find a fair balance between collage and plain stealing smile

So... A really busy week for me. It's been hard to keep up with work, WB and life, but this one made me really happy. I finally build some kinda-danceable mid-tempo thing instead of my late slightly dark heavy beats. For some of us "downtempoers", disco, funk and techno are heavy influences which become like Conan's "secret of the Steel": the quest for it drives you, but you'll never reach it.

But for today, I feel like when I was barely 14 and watched Brandon and Brenda in their sunny and mythical California. Nothing could go wrong in Beverly Hills West smile

Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Share Alike (BY-SA)

This track is 'really simple' as you put it, but also really effective. The music is so crisp that when the vocals submerge, you can really feel it. Love it

God so good man! Super honored that youre diggin our stuff smile keep up the great work!!

Sodabelly wrote:

This track is 'really simple' as you put it, but also really effective. The music is so crisp that when the vocals submerge, you can really feel it. Love it

Thanks Sodabelly. I'm glad you like it, specially since your music is so elaborate and rich. I indeed respect you very much as one of WB's finest composers

Cheers!

donnyjankowski wrote:

God so good man! Super honored that youre diggin our stuff smile keep up the great work!!

Thank you both! you're making a hit every week (i've been banging "Love ain't cheap" in my car for weeks!) and it inspired me to find that sunny place full of VHS memories. Please keep doin' dope tracks and we're all be inspired

Sweet sound.

If you go by Polish law regarding "quotations," then I think you're covered.  But reading copyright opinions just makes me more confused usually.

Edmund Snyder wrote:

Sweet sound.

If you go by Polish law regarding "quotations," then I think you're covered.  But reading copyright opinions just makes me more confused usually.

Thanks for listening, Edmund! I'm not so worried legally, but musically. I think the piece is fairly different from the original taking familiar elements, but others may hear "sampling" and think I ripped 4 bars, add a drum beat, went to sleep smile

It's an interesting debate among musicians IMHO smile

sounds quite nineties French house, you use the sample like the Daft Punkers and young etienne de crécy's used it! Fun track, has summer written all over it! Great bass, love the filters!

Love it, nice work. I agree that as a downtempo creator, disco and funk can be heavy influences. You captured something here, a great slice warm summer good time.

You really tapped into the retro vibe but still kept it modern production-y. Great work!

dj someguy wrote:

sounds quite nineties French house, you use the sample like the Daft Punkers and young etienne de crécy's used it! Fun track, has summer written all over it! Great bass, love the filters!

Whoah, thanks for such a comparison! Etienne de Crecy' "superdiscount" was one of my favourites back in the day, along with the "tempovision" album and the works of Alex Gopher. I should mention that I stumbled with that bass accidentally, because my first chops were the bells/mallets and expected to find just vocals and some chords. Trying to isolate/remove the drums to preserve de vocals, I found that bassline combining three unrelated slices.

Thanks again for listening and giving feedback. Always appreciated

This is a hit!! Super-great-job. 

It definitely has that early Daft Punk feel to it.  A grooving track!

I think that there is something specific about the notch of that filter that is giving us the French House/Daft Punk vibe.  I wonder what that is?

You have done such a great job on this track - I love SUNBATHER's work as well, and you're definitely in the pocket with them!

Laguna, you have no idea how much of a huge 90210 fan I am.  I grew up watching the show with my older sister (who was in the age range the show was intended for) and even today, I own the first few seasons on DVD and run through them all on occasion.

I dare say that this track perfectly fits that time when the Beverly Hills Beach Club closes and everyone is headed to the Peach Pit with quarters in hand for Nat's jukebox!  :-)  ...and of course you know that Cathy Dennis track was featured on the show, right?

[ps - your sampling of two syllables seems pretty fair, but i'm a musician, not a lawyer, so I'm always going to be on your side!]

So dope!  I love this track, grew up watching the show and remember the song you sampled and I was in California last week, would like to hear more like this

This is an utterly sweet springtime jam. Great choice of samples--the guitar and voice are really working for me with this great deep bassline and drum line.  So great.

This is a wonderful retro summer groove, great production!

Once again you take it away! I listened to the original and I don't think that you overused the sample at all. The only thing I would suggest is to go back to the middle part when there are two kick drums hitting, introducing the next section. I think if you filter the pop out of the kicks a little, the transition would sound a little better. My explaining is kinda wack but hope this helps! Everything else was superb homie!

miraclemiles wrote:

Love it, nice work. I agree that as a downtempo creator, disco and funk can be heavy influences. You captured something here, a great slice warm summer good time.

Thanks, Miraclemiles. Glad to hear I made some sense with the whole disco/funk rant. It's really good when people feel your track is transmitting something smile

mechlo wrote:

You really tapped into the retro vibe but still kept it modern production-y. Great work!

Whoah! That really struct a chord in me, man. I'm always worried I'd end up sounding like a pale imitation of good nineties songs, so I'm really happy to hear the track brings something slightly new to the table.

Thanks again for listening

Yeah man.  Loving these remixed grooves!!  Super summer :-)

cTrix wrote:

Yeah man.  Loving these remixed grooves!!  Super summer :-)

Thanks mate! I think some of your infectious summer grooves are really contagious. It's good to be out of the dark shadows of glitch hop for a while smile


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