i spent the summer and fall of 1997 programming drum tracks into an ry30, notating them into a tablature program and sequencing them using noteworthy composer. i did not know how i was going to record these tracks. i think i was expecting to use the computer, but that was probably naive; instead, i was gifted a 4-track recording machine. i then spent the next year and a half rearranging and rerecording the songs i programmed over that period. as these tracks were recorded into my pc, they are time stamped...so i have a much clearer understanding of when they were finished.
the jump to incorporating computers into the recording process is something i always wanted to do, it's just that it wasn't really previously feasible. first, there was a learning curve. i was a smart kid, though; the learning curve was just a time concern. the larger problem was simply access to a pc. i did have a pc at my disposal, but it did not have a modem and it was only equipped to run windows 3.1, which basically meant i could run civ 2 and wolfenstein and little else. the windows 95 computer had dial up but it was in a central location for family use.
when we moved across the city, my dad bought a new computer and i happily inherited his old one. this gave me internet access, which allowed me to download some freeware. it also gave me the time i needed to learn how to do certain things.
i'm separating out a handful of my first electronic sound experiments and collecting them together into an ep. what these blasts of noise have in common is that they were constructed on a windows 95 computer out of samples or generated sound and with very primitive software while i was waiting to get some kind of recording equipment. most of it was pasted together meticulously using the windows 95 sound recorder; the rest of it was constructed in cool edit, which i used as a sort of a synthesizer.
for the most part, these weren't really ever meant to be songs. i ended up using them as connectors, introductions, background. "continuity". yet, i find the idea of throwing them together here to be interesting from an autobiographical perspective.
created in mid 1997. sequenced in november, 2013. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - cool edit (wave synthesis, digital wave editing), windows 95 sound recorder (sampling, digital wave editing), yamaha ry30 drum machine (programming)
released dec 1, 1997
1) the beginning is from a disney film or something, i can't recall which one. it's all wiped away by a wash of war drums and civ2 samples. it's more misanthropic than anti-war, really.
2) noises generated with cool edit. it seemed like the coolest thing in the world, at the time.
3) homer, indeed. i think that might be the ry30 with the drums, recording directly into the back of the pc.
4) i'm using cool edit as a synthesizer and a wave editor, but i think the core of it was done with the sound recorder.
5) some more sound created and manipulated in cool edit.
6) so, there's this dude, and he sounds sort of like one of the monsters from doom II, and he lures a cow with a weird mating call and then attacks it and it's kind of twisted and hilarious. subtle vegan brainwashing? yes, but more on an environmentalist level.
7) the guitar loop is taken from a popular nirvana song, whereas most of the building sound pasted on top is from civ 2. no real message here. just a particularly savvy squirrel that's getting ready for winter by building some kind of fortress.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Re: Fw: Neue Anfrage aus dem Sennheiser Kontaktcenter vom 2013-11-03 [##SVS-Web-SK]
From: sennheiser.ca
To: "Jessica Murray" <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
Hi Jessica,
The required cable is available in our Montreal warehouse.
Part number: 069427
Cable steel 3m jack3.5/jack6.3
Cost: $ 36.19
Shipping: $ 9.00 plus applicable taxes.
Grand total: $ 51.06
Please send a cheque or a money order to:
Sennheiser (Canada) Inc.
221 ave. Labrosse
Pointe-Claire, QC
H9R 1A3
Please make the cheque or money order payable to:
Sennheiser (Canada) Inc.
Reference: Parts department.
Have a lovely weekend!
To: "Jessica Murray" <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
Hi Jessica,
The required cable is available in our Montreal warehouse.
Part number: 069427
Cable steel 3m jack3.5/jack6.3
Cost: $ 36.19
Shipping: $ 9.00 plus applicable taxes.
Grand total: $ 51.06
Please send a cheque or a money order to:
Sennheiser (Canada) Inc.
221 ave. Labrosse
Pointe-Claire, QC
H9R 1A3
Please make the cheque or money order payable to:
Sennheiser (Canada) Inc.
Reference: Parts department.
Have a lovely weekend!
remastered inri001 re-release completed
my second
demo, recorded over the second half of the tenth grade, is a
considerably more polished recording. by this time, i had learned a lot
about how to record things and had improved my drumming and keyboard
playing. while the vocals remain highly erratic, ranging from
precociously insightful to devastatingly stupid, the music here is
actually not far from a professional recording.
recorded in spring 1997, remastered in fall 2013. as always, please use headphones.
recorded in spring 1997, remastered in fall 2013. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, drums, keyboards, tapes, vocals, sounds, metronomes, production
released june 1, 1997
demo #27: nothing to say
this is really the only thing that's quite like this in my discography, partly because the synthesizer is a tool that wasn't fully available to me at the age that i would have written more upbeat psychedelic pop songs like this (15-17). by the time i had really secured access to a synth i could use on my own terms, i had defaulted fairly heavily to a type of structured synth pop - and i then grew out of pop altogether rather quickly.
this is also the absolutely last thing that i recorded before i lost my studio for the first time due to moving across the city. specifically, the drums were sold (i was given a drum machine as a replacement, which worked out just fine) and the 4-track i was using went back to my dad's friend, who owned it. i ended up getting a 4-track for christmas, and a synth for my birthday. i spent the next six months refocusing in various ways, and honing in on a more electronic sound.
i think i needed that time, and this song (along with the few before it) are evidence of that. the music was tightening up, but i was getting a little bored with the topics i was exploring.
so, this closes this introductory experimental/learning phase of my musical career.
the explanation of this functions on two levels. i knew this was the end (for the foreseeable future) as i was recording it, so it's written as a reflection. maybe it's true that i didn't really have anything worthwhile to say...
however, the lyrics are all restatements of things that i heard other people around me say at school. i'm reflecting equally on the irrelevance of daily conversation, and suggesting that if this is what we're wasting our time doing then maybe we should all just give up and go home. so, it's a little tongue-in-cheek at the same time as it's not. as always...
musically, this is one of the more developed pieces in the early demos - it's the second keyboard driven vocal track i did, and required sneaking into my sister's room to record the parts. i think there's something forward-thinking about it as it kind of foreshadows a strain of indie/psych/punk/pop that was popular in the mid 00s. but, i'm honestly not sure what i was drawing on. like i say, it sort of stands out...
recorded in may, 1997. remastered on nov 8, 2013.
this is also the absolutely last thing that i recorded before i lost my studio for the first time due to moving across the city. specifically, the drums were sold (i was given a drum machine as a replacement, which worked out just fine) and the 4-track i was using went back to my dad's friend, who owned it. i ended up getting a 4-track for christmas, and a synth for my birthday. i spent the next six months refocusing in various ways, and honing in on a more electronic sound.
i think i needed that time, and this song (along with the few before it) are evidence of that. the music was tightening up, but i was getting a little bored with the topics i was exploring.
so, this closes this introductory experimental/learning phase of my musical career.
the explanation of this functions on two levels. i knew this was the end (for the foreseeable future) as i was recording it, so it's written as a reflection. maybe it's true that i didn't really have anything worthwhile to say...
however, the lyrics are all restatements of things that i heard other people around me say at school. i'm reflecting equally on the irrelevance of daily conversation, and suggesting that if this is what we're wasting our time doing then maybe we should all just give up and go home. so, it's a little tongue-in-cheek at the same time as it's not. as always...
musically, this is one of the more developed pieces in the early demos - it's the second keyboard driven vocal track i did, and required sneaking into my sister's room to record the parts. i think there's something forward-thinking about it as it kind of foreshadows a strain of indie/psych/punk/pop that was popular in the mid 00s. but, i'm honestly not sure what i was drawing on. like i say, it sort of stands out...
recorded in may, 1997. remastered on nov 8, 2013.
demo #26: stupid
i was violently anti-tobacco in my teens. to an extent, i still am.
i like the music here. something i'm realizing going through these old songs is how much they shadow the creation of post-rock, which was beginning to happen right at about the same time but that i had no realization of. i was in tune with something without realizing it.
lyrically, again, i wish i had articulated myself just a bit better. i wouldn't present the health care argument at this point; i guess my thinking has evolved away from that kind of base liberalism and to something a bit more universal in scope. well, i reject the entire concept of currency at this point, so it doesn't make a lot of sense. nor do i think we'd have to make resource-based decisions if it weren't for the limits provided by currency. so, i'm retracting that statement.
i think the general theme remains valid, though. smoking tobacco is hard to describe without using the word 'stupid'.
recorded in april, 1997. remastered on nov 8, 2013.
i like the music here. something i'm realizing going through these old songs is how much they shadow the creation of post-rock, which was beginning to happen right at about the same time but that i had no realization of. i was in tune with something without realizing it.
lyrically, again, i wish i had articulated myself just a bit better. i wouldn't present the health care argument at this point; i guess my thinking has evolved away from that kind of base liberalism and to something a bit more universal in scope. well, i reject the entire concept of currency at this point, so it doesn't make a lot of sense. nor do i think we'd have to make resource-based decisions if it weren't for the limits provided by currency. so, i'm retracting that statement.
i think the general theme remains valid, though. smoking tobacco is hard to describe without using the word 'stupid'.
recorded in april, 1997. remastered on nov 8, 2013.
demo #25: sick
ok, so this. i forgot about this. umm...
i think i was trolling, but i think i was also applying the disturbed pathologies i was exploring in these songs to people around me and realizing that maybe we're all fucked up inside in our own different ways. there's actually somewhat of a message of egalitarian social reform buried in this. are any of us really 'better' than any of the rest of us, or are we all guided by the same contemptible, morbid fantasies? a little cliched, but...
....i think i was mostly just trolling.
i was also coming to the point where i had finished exploring what i wanted to explore and wanted to shift directions, thematically. the song is meant to be a sort of a summary of what i'd written previously, offering a conclusion.
i should also trigger this. the attempt was to be shocking on a dark humour level rather than seriously disturbing, but it's at least somewhere near that line that separates out good taste.
recorded in april, 1997. remastered on nov 8, 2013.
i think i was trolling, but i think i was also applying the disturbed pathologies i was exploring in these songs to people around me and realizing that maybe we're all fucked up inside in our own different ways. there's actually somewhat of a message of egalitarian social reform buried in this. are any of us really 'better' than any of the rest of us, or are we all guided by the same contemptible, morbid fantasies? a little cliched, but...
....i think i was mostly just trolling.
i was also coming to the point where i had finished exploring what i wanted to explore and wanted to shift directions, thematically. the song is meant to be a sort of a summary of what i'd written previously, offering a conclusion.
i should also trigger this. the attempt was to be shocking on a dark humour level rather than seriously disturbing, but it's at least somewhere near that line that separates out good taste.
recorded in april, 1997. remastered on nov 8, 2013.
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