this was for a project on the god lives underwater mailing list. it's a pretty abstract remix that has a few things of note:
1) this is the first thing i can recall recording directly into the computer, without using the 4-track as a temporary medium. well, i was still using it as a mixer for a little bit, but i wasn't recording directly to tape. it was just pragmatism: i had constructed the drum loops using a wave editor and didn't have the right cord to transfer it to tape without it getting all full of tape hiss. i also remember being a little sick of having to run everything through noise reduction (which adds these high pitched burbles and other weirdness).
here's the thing, though. it's 1999. i'm 18. i don't have cash to shell out on fancy software like cakewalk (now sonar) or logic (now garage band). warez existed, but internet connections were slow. dial-up slow. there was also restrictions regarding the speed of my pentium I, or whatever it was; i managed to find myself an 'evaluation copy' of logic, but the computer was only able to use it as a sequencer.
so, i had to improvise. i didn't realize the ramifications of the approach i took until years later when i took a math course in wavelet design, of all things. the approach i settled on wasn't merely a shift in technology, it had a *dramatic* effect on the composition process.
what i did was pretty crude - i recorded files in one at a time and pasted them on top of each other. what i didn't realize is that this is actually carrying out a type of *synthesis* rather than a type of *mixing*. this creates a blurry sound that produces an impressionist aesthetic that i would learn to take full advantage of.
2) this is my first conscious attempt at something trip-hop.
3) some time after i posted it to the list, i got a snotty email in my box from david reilly (singer of god lives underwater) that said something along the lines of "i am aware of what you did to my song", as though it was some kind of travesty. i laughed...
recorded in february, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/medicated-to-the-one-i-love
