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Comments
I try very hard to be open-minded, the main criteria I look for in the music that is posted is that it should make me feel something - which I think should leave some room for weirdness etc... However, as reflected in my comments, I also like groove and melody - and I would imagine so do the vast majority of music lovers, I'm not an outlier in those tastes.
But there is a obviously a significant number of musicians posting here that like to do the weird and more difficult. Maybe as a group you have a greater understanding of each other's work than I do.
Not sure what the solution is, I could stop posting crits on the more esoteric works, but that really feels like a bit of a cop-out designed to not hurt people's feelings. The thing is, I actually quite like weird music, if it stirs some kind of reaction in me, and I'm prepared to give tracks several listens. On the flip-side, I think that making experimental music is inherently more risky than writing pretty tunes - and that risk, the risk of being misunderstood, comes as part and parcel of the territory.
For me personally the weird works best when there is still a little beauty in it somewhere - personal taste of course, not a prescription telling other artists how to work.
But, maybe in the interest of debate what people can do is to push back against the crits, defend the work, educate the ignorant etc... If someone doesn't get the idea, maybe some explanation as to the intent behind the piece would help.
I don't think we need a solution because i don't think there's a problem to be honest.
.
People are very good at giving and taking crit here - lets just carry on.
That's my opinion anyway.
Maybe - I think framing it in terms of a "problem" was a mistake on my part, let's just say that it's a good discussion to have and I would be interested to hear the opinions of others.
Yup, agree with all of that except the option to stop posting. More discussion will always be a better option and I am eager to contribute.
My response was intended a little tongue in cheek to highlight that the madness or wierdness is all a matter of degree. I think Igneous was paying me a compliment as it happens.
I was !
I'm sure people try to be open minded and that's not easy, in some respects. My tastes are broad, but that also means that stuff that seems (to me) pretty 'normal' should be critiqued in the same way as the more 'out-there' stuff (which is preferable for me).
I think it's all good, the real value here is the spirit of friendly exchange, or, more specifically, the absence of The Pissing Contest. It's very hard to get feedback that isn't your mum or some quietly jealous one-upman-type. I disagree with the comments I hear sometimes, but learn from them often and leave the rest, and all because I believe they're coming from a reasonably fair and honest place; no small thing, for as long as it lasts
@richardyot
I think this shows good development in song construction (consciously or otherwise; I presume the former).
I like the chorus a fair bit more than the verse, which is good news and probably as it should be. I think the very first word(s) should somehow be stronger. Not in content but delivery. We wait for the singer to start and (s)he is our guide. We want to trust that they know what they're doing. To give ourselves over to them, as it were. Having listened to this half a dozen times, I realize I feel the very start is too woofly (technical term).
It might be a matter (which is of course at the start of every verse) of the note you start with. Might be worth experimenting with alternatives if you decide to work on this piece further at some point.
I also wonder if a very subtle double tracking of the verse voice wouldn't give it just a bit more spine (however dreamy it's designed to be).
Overall I feel the need to put this in MY drawer for six months as well
I think, with your stated desire to work on the shape and delivery of your songs this is a good part of the ongoing process and has a sophistication (especially in the lead up to the last chorus) that you would have been very happy with a few months ago. I think Gadget (although not obvious to a casual listener) has in this way been your friend.
@JohnnyGoodyear thanks for the thoughtful critique - I think I agree with all of it. I have deliberately been creating verse melodies that are in a lower register and that are simpler/slower paced than the chorus, an obvious artifice that gives a payoff when the chorus comes, but results in pedestrian and monotonous verses - I need to work on this.
As for song structure it's something I'm always thinking about, in this track I think the instrumental before the last chorus is probably 4 to 8 bars too long, and although it builds up effectively the actual musical content could be stronger.
But yes, Gadget is definitely a great songwriting tool IMO, because it makes it so easy to put together cool sounds. I always do the final arranging in Auria though, because you can't work with vocals (and other external sounds) in Gadget.
For what it's worth guys,I'm just super chuffed and grateful that I can play my songs to more people than the usual 3 or four that I always have done over the years:)
So here's my submission for this month. The collaboration with Johnny isn't quite finished so that will have to come early next month.
This track is a slight departure from my Drum & Bass stuff. This one is more Electronica. It started as some experiments with Tokyo while on holiday, and was also inspired by Doug's Helsinki video.
Every single sound comes from Gadget - no external samples at all in this one (not even any London drum samples). I tried to keep it to a limited number of gadgets too - so it's mainly Tokyo, Helsinki and Kingston, with a supporting role from Wolfsburgh and the bass is in Dublin. Mixed in Auria using just reverb, EQ, compression and a tiny bit of delay.
This is good Mister Matt. I'm PM-ing you with regards to it etc.
Been an all over the place kind of month, geographically and beyond. This piece started out as a single Bebot line and the idea of an old protest song. Ended up with a Gadget backtrack and a long story of left and right. It's not finished or polished or whatever, but that's not my strong suit (or my interest if I'm honest) and I'm not prepared to spend the next month making it so.
I think I know most of the things that aren't right with it (beyond the mixing, engineering etc), but I think we all approach SOTMC a little differently and for me I'm mostly interested in writing full songs here, rather than (more typically, by me) trying to polish up short pieces.
This is five minutes and should probably be 3.30. But, it's a song. And now I can put it away and start something new
@Matt_Fletcher_2000 This one has a mix of the uncomfortable and the beautiful, and lots of interesting textures and contrasts layered in a subtle way. The clangy percussion inevitably makes me think of Autechre, but I like all the varied sounds that evolve throughout the length of the track.
The melody that comes in at 2.30 provides the beauty to contrast against the juddery bass line and percussion sounds and is a nice contrast to what has come before it. This is definitely a track that benefits from multiple listens. It makes for a dark but haunting soundscape.
@JohnnyGoodyear you're lucky to have a strong enough voice that it can feature so prominently in the track with so little backing, and in terms of length this is definitely a new record for you
So the vocal melody is great, and the shuffling rhythm pushes it all along nicely, but it lacks variety and structure for me - it needs a change of pace, I imagined a different, slower, vocal melody being sung as a chorus with hand claps to accompany it to punctuate the song.
It's also too long, especially since there is little variety and a lot of the lyrics towards the end are being repeated. There's the basis of a good song here, but at the moment it feels more like a long coda than a fully fleshed out track.
Also stylistically this doesn't have some of the deep atmosphere of some of your previous entries - it still works on an emotional level, but it's not as powerful a sound as some of the music you have posted in the past. It's a good thing to explore different genres and styles, and you've done a fair amount of genre-hopping over the months, but you might want to revisit some older tracks to plunder the very effective atmospheres that were in them, I think for example "An Explanation of the Break Up" had a wonderful atmosphere and that is a sound you might want to explore and develop further.
@Matt_Fletcher_2000
Good stuff, nicely imaginative. Good range of textures. I think the drums need a bit of 'glue' to pull the rhythms together a tad more in parts, as the bass line is pretty oblique. Speaking of oblique - heck, it sounds like some of my stuff in parts ! I like the melody at 2:30, which reminds me a bit of the excellent Mrs Jynx melody lines. Overall I think it's a dashed good attempt to do something in a different vein.
@JohnnyGoodyear
Another goodie, for me. It is a bit long but I presume the lyrics are determining the duration (?). I think some dry / non double tracked vocals in parts would add some variety and some more space / dynamics in the instrumentation.
I get a hint of a more minor key feel at 3:24 and the backing vox at 3:10 could make some great chordal accompaniment for the backing.
Thank you Richard, thanks Johnny.
@Igneous1 - thanks also. Can I ask, what is this 'glue' that everyone talks about? And where do I get it from? Does it mean the drums stick out too much? Too loud? Or too harsh? Are we talking about the actual pattern of the rhythm?
Personally, listening again this morning at a louder volume (got the house to myself) - I realised that I'd overcooked the kick drum and the bass. I need to turn them down a bit... That might help. I tried side chain compression (kick to bass) for the first time too - and that might be an issue since I was kind of guessing on the settings.
I went for entirely synth drums (Tokyo) in this track and I find that harder to control mix wise than samples (where someone has done the work for you).
Anyway- thanks for listening. Much appreciated. As alsways I'll go through them all asap.
Matt,
In this case, the 'glue' could be just a straight snare on the beat / off the beat, just something more constant, to work with that bass part.This is something i find I really need to work at on a lot of my tracks - to make a drum part / pattern flow a bit better.
Busy month for me, I didn't think I would get one song done, let alone two. I resampled my ambient track "The Boy Lost His Grip" that I made this month to start a track in Gadget with Abu Dabi. This was my first real get along with Gadget. All the synths and drums were done in there. I mixed in Cubasis, and added some guitar and reverse guitar sounds. I finished by starting and finishing with a field recording of my three year old son's favorite park. I will catch up with all the tracks I haven't commented on yet!
@BvsMV I like a lot of this, perhaps -for me- it doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts, but then that would presuppose I understood what your idea or aim was here, which I don't (of course).
I really like both the start and the end and I think the 'fresh' recording of playground sounds really works well here. Can be a cliche, but doesn't feel like that in this case.
Biggest 'crit' for me would be the bass which seems too pedestrian for the position it has in the mix etc. But overall, again, I liked the atmosphere.
Thanks JG. I appreciate the feedback. I was kind of rushing to get something done. I will probably go back and tweak a little bit, especially the bass. I kept doing other things in Gadget, and it just wasn't flowing. I think I'll stick with the Korg theme and try some Microkorg.
@BvsMV I like the little melodies and choice of sounds for many of the parts - and the backwards guitar is great.
I think maybe the intro is a little too busy, there's so much going on in those first few bars it's actually hard to focus on it all, it might work better if elements were introduced more gradually.
I'm not really keen on the rhythm parts, for me personally they are too disjointed for most of the song. There are parts where the rhythm settles (1.40 for example), but the part with the snare rolls at the one minute mark and the section at the end are too choppy and don't really seem to complement the music for me. Also not that keen on the Kingston sounds, again, not sure what their purpose is, all I think when I hear them is laser beams.
I think all the little melodies are really appealing, and there's lots of creativity in the music which makes it a real pleasure to listen too, but for me the rhythms are a little too jarring. It's an interesting idea to contrast pretty and chilled melodies with choppy rhythms, but if it were me I would keep more of a groove and use the jarring rhythm parts as occasional spice rather than have them happening most of the time.
@johnnygoodyear
Really like this track a lot. I think it's one of your best.
Yes, it's too long and repetitive - but other than that I think it shows a leap forward.
I love overall mood. Fantastic.
I love the single note that repeats throughout (what is it? Guitar or something?)
I love the horns towards the end
The beat is very good too. Interesting sounds. Understated and beautiful.
Your voice is great.
The track reminds me a bit of Jack White. And a bit of The The. It's kind of punky blues, to me.
It needs better structure (ha - I get to say that to you
) - needs something to develop half way thorough or something. But the overall sound is great I think. Keep doing what you're doing 
@richardyot
Again, one of your best, if not your best yet.
Reminds me of a few things - indie and 80s/90s related mostly.
The start is probably my favourite bit. Love that glock sound and tune. It's very smooth and sounds very 'pro'.
I also like the big supersaw/distorted guitar type climax stuff at the end of the track. Also the little bits of atmos and FX stuff you're throwing in from time to time.
Your voice sounds good.
I actually prefer the verse in this track (it's beautiful) to the chorus. But both are good.
Big leap forward I think. You're rocking now. This sounds very cool.
Is all the music made in Gadget? Good job on that too if it is. Which Gadgets?
@Igneous1
Thanks re: glue. It has a very subtle splashy synth snare throughout - but perhaps this is too subtle.
Listened to your track a few times. I like the choice of sounds - some lovely percussion stuff in there. There's also some nice variation throughout - it seems carefully put together. It has an oriental feel to it.
It feels quite 'interlude-like' because of its length and it's lack of obvious VCVC structure - but I guess that's what you're going for.
Also sounds very smoothly mixed.
Mostly made in Gadget - I used quite a few different Gadgets. The chime is done with Wolfsburg this time, and there are pads/chords played with Chiang Mai, Helsinki and Kiev (I love Kiev). The supersaw solo is done with Berlin. I added some of the atmospheric sounds with Alchemy and some extra drum parts in the instrumental section with DrumJam. The main rhythm is a loop from SessionBand Jazz with some additional messing with in Abu Dhabi.
I like the idea of doing synth solos within tracks, like guitar solos - obviously not gratuitously but with the aim of adding some additional emotional dimension to the song. One of my favourite bands ever is an indie band called Galaxie 500 and their sound was based on very simple chord progressions (sometimes with only one chord, sometimes two or three) and very simple but very effective melodic guitar solos. An idea that I ripped off a little too obviously in my guitar based tracks, but that might have legs in the context of synth-based work.
Keep meaning to get a hold of
http://www.yetipublishing.com/G500.html
Am interested to see this 500-style into Gadget develop further. It was my mistake to go on about TJAMC when Galaxie is far more of a connection to the Yot Sound, but then where did they come from? And why aren't there more of them. I have a part of my growing-up soul that is almost entirely based on The Velvet Underground and the jangle of the guitar with the plaintive voice is such a particular sound, feel, that I look forward to the same approach (partially or otherwise) with synths.
Of course, I still assume that once you've perfected that you'll end up spraying some jangle back over it all at some point
For the record, I blame Dean Wareham.
Didn't know about that book - bought!
Even though the JAMC and Galaxie have very different sounds, I think they share the same obvious influence: The JAMC based their sound on the Velvet Underground's first album, and Galaxie 500 on the Velvet's third album.
This is a great example of the Galaxie sound, especially the instrumental at the end, and the dynamics of the song, especially the way the drums respond to the guitars, is really great:
@richardyot For a band I know very little about, I find myself somewhat fascinated with these guys, as much for what's unknown as regards their production and the part played by 'Kramer'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramer_(musician)
who I first 'came across' as involved with the Urge, Overkill cover of 'Girl you'll be a woman soon' and then the band 'Low'.
I was a little obsessed by Kramer in the very early 90s (and Galaxie 500 obviously). I really liked the label he ran (Shimmy Disc).
here's another Shimmy Disc gem, love the lyrics in this song:
@bvsMV
Potentially a much more interesting track than it currently is. The drums are a bit stiff in parts. For me though, it's the bassline that doesn't gel - longer (more sustained) and lower notes may work better. I like it's 'whimsical' feel (hope you're not offended by that !) The field recordings do add a nice 'ambience'.