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Ghosts

By NickLong on June 21, 2026 8:51 pm

This weeks weekly beats is a bit random.
I hadn't done anything at all this week (I wasn't busy it was just nice weather and I had some spiced rum in the fridge).

With only a few hours left I started playing with the awesome new sampler features in Bitwig 6.1 which I'm very impressed with and cut up some random samples including a guitar, flute and some African drums, then added the built in Bitwig 808.

That all sounded quite jolly, but then I decided to layer some super dark synthwave synths with Sublab and Proxima and then add some vocals from Kasane Teto about being haunted.

My daughter has been on at me to get Teto for ages and I finally caved as I want to put some Japanese lyrics into a project I'm working on.
I put Hxvoc in as backing vocals as my daughter suggested it.

Does it work together?

You be the judge. It's kind of a sketch rather than a proper song and weirdly reminds me of 80's Peter Gabriel in some way (maybe the world music elements).
The song is just C, F, Am with a D hanging over every chord for some harmonic interest then a super cheesy chromatic mediant bit for the B section which is maybe a bit more musical theatre than I was going for.

Honestly the bass all by itself sells it for me but apparently I am just that kind of (insert expletive here thats probably not appropriate for wb). I like all the juxtapositions and I thinj there's some really interesting interactions between the traditional instruments and that meaty bass.

It's fun and catchy and I like mix of digital and traditonal instruments. I think the ghost won't leave me alone will be stuck in my head. Great job.

Oh damn this sounds great - especially for a couple of hours as well! Love the percussion. Layers, but agree with Neon - that bass sells the song all by itself. I think you could layer any song with that bass and I’d be like TAKE MY MONEY. Continue to be impressed with what you can do with vocal synths - I might need to break down on one of those eventually smile

Love that deep dark bassline with the 808 groove.  It gave me Depeche Mode meets Chvrches feels. Excellent work!

can def hear some P.Gabriel vibes. i really like how the percussion and bass are working together on this one!

The voice gives me mid/late nineties vibes, whereas the rest is more in the late eighties, early nineties. Great combo.

Great blend of sounds, not an easy task to meld these all together and make it sound so cohesive.  Also like the contrast of the upbeat music and vocals with these dark lyrics.

I did not expect that synth bass to come in after that percussion intro, very cool!

This is so cool. I love how the first half seems to be kinda cheery and then in the middle it gets eery all of a sudden. Love it!

The idea of Teto pulling a Tell-Tale Heart on herself is very funny. I can hear a bit of "Games without Frontiers," so I get the Gabriel comparison. But your song has a cleaner (more modern?) separation between the bright flute/drum layer and the spooky bass. Love the 808 layer on top (especially the repeated claps in the "chorus"). Subtle strings are able to pull in the gothic without abandoning the groove. My favorite bit is the structure: it's poppy despite being through-composed

(Also, I want a mashup of this and "Ghosts" by Japan now)

neon liminal wrote:

Honestly the bass all by itself sells it for me but apparently I am just that kind of (insert expletive here thats probably not appropriate for wb). I like all the juxtapositions and I thinj there's some really interesting interactions between the traditional instruments and that meaty bass.

Thanks chap.

It was a bit of a random slap together, but seemed to come together in the end.

Crash Overture wrote:

It's fun and catchy and I like mix of digital and traditonal instruments. I think the ghost won't leave me alone will be stuck in my head. Great job.

That's the plan to build an ear worm!



Paisleyfrog wrote:

Oh damn this sounds great - especially for a couple of hours as well! Love the percussion. Layers, but agree with Neon - that bass sells the song all by itself. I think you could layer any song with that bass and I’d be like TAKE MY MONEY. Continue to be impressed with what you can do with vocal synths - I might need to break down on one of those eventually smile

I'd love to hear what you could do with Synth V!


Tone Matrix wrote:

Love that deep dark bassline with the 808 groove.  It gave me Depeche Mode meets Chvrches feels. Excellent work!


Love Chvrches so I'm super happy with that.


jwh wrote:

can def hear some P.Gabriel vibes. i really like how the percussion and bass are working together on this one!

THank you!


embix wrote:

The voice gives me mid/late nineties vibes, whereas the rest is more in the late eighties, early nineties. Great combo.

I do two kinds of music 80's sounding and 90's sounding big_smile



Jason Nijjer wrote:

Great blend of sounds, not an easy task to meld these all together and make it sound so cohesive.  Also like the contrast of the upbeat music and vocals with these dark lyrics.

Thanks!



cortx wrote:

I did not expect that synth bass to come in after that percussion intro, very cool!

I was trying to make some strange combinations so glad it was a surprise.



Nik Novo wrote:

This is so cool. I love how the first half seems to be kinda cheery and then in the middle it gets eery all of a sudden. Love it!

I usually have no idea where I'm going to go until I get there so it was a surprise to me as well big_smile



sleepside wrote:

The idea of Teto pulling a Tell-Tale Heart on herself is very funny. I can hear a bit of "Games without Frontiers," so I get the Gabriel comparison. But your song has a cleaner (more modern?) separation between the bright flute/drum layer and the spooky bass. Love the 808 layer on top (especially the repeated claps in the "chorus"). Subtle strings are able to pull in the gothic without abandoning the groove. My favorite bit is the structure: it's poppy despite being through-composed

(Also, I want a mashup of this and "Ghosts" by Japan now)


YES!
Games without fronteers is probably the track it was reminding me of.

This is a very fun combination of sounds! I definitely get Peter Gabriel vibes, I think from the drum programming too as well as the mix of world elements.
Great stuff!!

I hadn't done anything at all this week (I wasn't busy it was just nice weather and I had some spiced rum in the fridge).

Honestly, pretty valid reason ahaha

Tom Foolery wrote:

This is a very fun combination of sounds! I definitely get Peter Gabriel vibes, I think from the drum programming too as well as the mix of world elements.
Great stuff!!

I hadn't done anything at all this week (I wasn't busy it was just nice weather and I had some spiced rum in the fridge).

Cheers chap

This week I have a case of cider so who knows what will happen.

Honestly, pretty valid reason ahaha


Very spoopy, but clearly they just want to groove out.
- Spider

DESLRV wrote:

Very spoopy, but clearly they just want to groove out.
- Spider

They may well have been attracted by the drums.

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