this is the last one of these sample collage things; my noise pieces after this are at a higher level of abstraction.
there's a bit of a shape of a trip in it's rise to a peak and slow fall.
created in february, 1998. remixed in dec, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/slow-down
Thursday, November 21, 2013
the wonderful noise (original album mix)
this is taken directly from my first demo tape:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-wonderful-noise
it's a cleaner recording, here, actually.
recorded in november, 1996. edited in dec, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-wonderful-noise-2
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-wonderful-noise
it's a cleaner recording, here, actually.
recorded in november, 1996. edited in dec, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-wonderful-noise-2
medicated to the one i love (remix/cover for inrimake)
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
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
jesus gets fucked on robitussin (original album mix)
robitussin was never a recreational drug of choice, but i was sick enough for a few days that spring that i had to stay home from school so i decided to experiment with some very high doses. this is kind of what i ended up feeling like...
recorded in mar, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/jesus-gets-fucked-on-robitussin
recorded in mar, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/jesus-gets-fucked-on-robitussin
publishing gene-o’s – a soundtrack for an italian breakfast cereal (inri027)
somebody asked me to do this for them for a school project. we're both italian. silly joke, no offense intended.
i never saw the final version, but the guy described it to me. it was an anti drinking and driving ad (think madd) for a marketing class. they sequenced it up with shots of one of them stumbling towards a car, getting in and driving off. very clownish, apparently.
recorded in the spring of 1999. released as a standalone single on nov 21, 2013. as always, please use headphones.
this track eventually appears on my 3rd record:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inridiculous
credits
j - hammerhead (909 emulator), digital wave editing
released march 9, 1999
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/gene-os-a-soundtrack-for-an-italian-breakfast-cereal
i never saw the final version, but the guy described it to me. it was an anti drinking and driving ad (think madd) for a marketing class. they sequenced it up with shots of one of them stumbling towards a car, getting in and driving off. very clownish, apparently.
recorded in the spring of 1999. released as a standalone single on nov 21, 2013. as always, please use headphones.
this track eventually appears on my 3rd record:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inridiculous
credits
j - hammerhead (909 emulator), digital wave editing
released march 9, 1999
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/gene-os-a-soundtrack-for-an-italian-breakfast-cereal
gene-o’s - a soundtrack for an italian breakfast cereal (original album mix)
somebody asked me to do this for them for a school project. we're both italian. silly joke, no offense intended.
i never saw the final version, but the guy described it to me. it was an anti drinking and driving ad (think madd) for a marketing class. they sequenced it up with shots of one of them stumbling towards a car, getting in and driving off. very clownish, apparently.
recorded in mar, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/gene-os-a-soundtrack-for-an-italian-breakfast-cereal-2
i never saw the final version, but the guy described it to me. it was an anti drinking and driving ad (think madd) for a marketing class. they sequenced it up with shots of one of them stumbling towards a car, getting in and driving off. very clownish, apparently.
recorded in mar, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/gene-os-a-soundtrack-for-an-italian-breakfast-cereal-2
publishing pop music (a tribute to carbon doxide) (inri028)
i can't date this exactly. i know it was the first half of the second semester of grade 12, which was spring of 1999. further, i'm taking it forward to about midway because the first part of the course was about voice-leading and i spent it orchestrating the beatles' something.
i was lucky: i went to a high school with a big music department. not an arts school, mind you. just a school that had enough funding to run a wide array of course options that are outside the basic core topics. there were three main assignments in the course, and while i don't remember the exact assignment questions, i do have two pieces to show for it.
this, here, is a conceptual piece about pop music. all of the sounds are created from pop cans. yes, puns are fun. the samples run from pouring water out of pop cans into the sink, to crushing and smashing pop cans, to opening them, to exploding them, etc.
i used the tab of a pop can as a pick as i played the ambient guitar parts. it's all thrown together, processed, warped and perfected in a wave editor.
recorded in the spring of 1999. released as a standalone single on nov 21, 2013. as always, please use headphones.
this track eventually appears on my 3rd record:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inridiculous
credits:
j - guitars, effects, samples, loops, digital wave editing
released april 15, 1999
i was lucky: i went to a high school with a big music department. not an arts school, mind you. just a school that had enough funding to run a wide array of course options that are outside the basic core topics. there were three main assignments in the course, and while i don't remember the exact assignment questions, i do have two pieces to show for it.
this, here, is a conceptual piece about pop music. all of the sounds are created from pop cans. yes, puns are fun. the samples run from pouring water out of pop cans into the sink, to crushing and smashing pop cans, to opening them, to exploding them, etc.
i used the tab of a pop can as a pick as i played the ambient guitar parts. it's all thrown together, processed, warped and perfected in a wave editor.
recorded in the spring of 1999. released as a standalone single on nov 21, 2013. as always, please use headphones.
this track eventually appears on my 3rd record:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inridiculous
credits:
j - guitars, effects, samples, loops, digital wave editing
released april 15, 1999
pop music (a tribute to carbon dioxide) (original album mix)
i can't date this exactly. i know it was the first half of the second semester of grade 12. further, i'm taking it forward to about midway because the first part of the course was about voice-leading and i spent it orchestrating the beatles' something.
i was lucky: i went to a high school with a big music department. not an arts school, mind you. just a school that had enough funding to run a wide array of course options that are outside the basic core topics. there were three main assignments in the course, and while i don't remember the exact assignment questions, i do have two pieces to show for it.
this, here, is a conceptual piece about pop music. all of the sounds are created from pop cans. yes, puns are fun. the samples run from pouring water out of pop cans into the sink, to crushing and smashing pop cans, to opening them, to exploding them, etc.
i used the tab of a pop can as a pick as i played the ambient guitar parts. it's all thrown together, processed, warped and perfected in a wave editor.
recorded in april, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/pop-music-a-tribute-to-carbon-dioxide
i was lucky: i went to a high school with a big music department. not an arts school, mind you. just a school that had enough funding to run a wide array of course options that are outside the basic core topics. there were three main assignments in the course, and while i don't remember the exact assignment questions, i do have two pieces to show for it.
this, here, is a conceptual piece about pop music. all of the sounds are created from pop cans. yes, puns are fun. the samples run from pouring water out of pop cans into the sink, to crushing and smashing pop cans, to opening them, to exploding them, etc.
i used the tab of a pop can as a pick as i played the ambient guitar parts. it's all thrown together, processed, warped and perfected in a wave editor.
recorded in april, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/pop-music-a-tribute-to-carbon-dioxide
inriverted (remix/cover for inrimake)
tricil and i were on some of the same lists in the late 90s. he put out a request for remixes, and i took it up.
dating this exactly is difficult. the mp3 i have is time stamped to early 2000. tricil suggests it may have been late '98. there's the possible window. yet, judging from the style, i think it has to be post-demo. i have a lull in the april-june period. judging from other tracks of the period, it also seems to coincide best with my 'shockingly crude samples' phase.
regarding those samples. well, they're from reservoir dogs. three levels. first, i was thinking, listening to it, that it would work well with reservoir dogs. i eventually rejected the idea as too restricting, but i was entertaining the idea of working in film scores at the time. what i'm saying is that the music reminded me of the scene rather than the other way around, so i tossed the scene in. second, once i actually got it together, i enjoyed how twisted it sounded, 'cause i was like that. third, i was thinking a lot about huge dicks at the time - coming off the rejected ruiner cover and in general. i should note, however, that i've removed roughly 45 seconds of the track due to the reservoir dogs samples (the john hughes / madonna scene) being pointlessly crude.
musically, what i've done here is take the chord progression in the track and build something entirely different out of it. there's but a single loop in the track. i'm basically just jamming with myself in building up the different tracks. yet, it's a radical departure that exists firmly in the pivot point i was taking.
this is so dramatically different from the original that it's reasonable to say something like that it's "inspired by" the original rather than a remix or a cover. it does contain creatively reinterpreted samples of the original.
here's something more recent from tricil:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gITRmVkZp7A
recorded in may, 1999. edited on nov 21, 2013.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/inverted
dating this exactly is difficult. the mp3 i have is time stamped to early 2000. tricil suggests it may have been late '98. there's the possible window. yet, judging from the style, i think it has to be post-demo. i have a lull in the april-june period. judging from other tracks of the period, it also seems to coincide best with my 'shockingly crude samples' phase.
regarding those samples. well, they're from reservoir dogs. three levels. first, i was thinking, listening to it, that it would work well with reservoir dogs. i eventually rejected the idea as too restricting, but i was entertaining the idea of working in film scores at the time. what i'm saying is that the music reminded me of the scene rather than the other way around, so i tossed the scene in. second, once i actually got it together, i enjoyed how twisted it sounded, 'cause i was like that. third, i was thinking a lot about huge dicks at the time - coming off the rejected ruiner cover and in general. i should note, however, that i've removed roughly 45 seconds of the track due to the reservoir dogs samples (the john hughes / madonna scene) being pointlessly crude.
musically, what i've done here is take the chord progression in the track and build something entirely different out of it. there's but a single loop in the track. i'm basically just jamming with myself in building up the different tracks. yet, it's a radical departure that exists firmly in the pivot point i was taking.
this is so dramatically different from the original that it's reasonable to say something like that it's "inspired by" the original rather than a remix or a cover. it does contain creatively reinterpreted samples of the original.
here's something more recent from tricil:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gITRmVkZp7A
recorded in may, 1999. edited on nov 21, 2013.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/inverted
why I’m not uploading ruinri
i have a cover of a nine inch nails song, ruiner, that is time-stamped to mar 27, 1999. i'm going to choose not to upload it (it might be the *only* completed track that i skip) for two reasons:
(1) it was never released anywhere else.
(2) the sampling and vocals are both terrible.
i did the cover for two reasons. first, i really wanted to get on a nin remix disc. all caveats aside, it's an interesting piece of music that i'd pick over a lot of the more recent nin remixes. second, i wanted to do a cover of the guitar solo. that's the primary thing that drove this specific song.
so, it's this meandering 14:00 mess centered around myself doing a lengthy adrian belew impersonation. which is sort of masturbatory. and i definitely picked up on that. now, the song, ruiner, seems to be about erections on some level. how did it get so big? i dunno, trent. so, masturbation. penises. me under the age of 20. you can see where i went with this.
there's about five minutes of penis samples, sequenced in a narrative that goes through such twists and turns as explaining a 5 foot penis as the result of a nuclear accident and shaming the listener for listening to such filth.
if it was my own song, i could shrug it off. but this is a cover. i don't feel comfortable unzipping this....
sorry. i should stop before i begin.
as i'm sorting through my work, though, it stands out as an important track in my development. you'll notice two things in my description of the track: 14:00, lengthy guitar solo. da fuck? everything since the cassette demos (which, until last month, meant everything i'd released) was relatively short, starkly focused and mostly free of solos! what urged you to meandering prog all of a sudden and out of the blue?
now that i've uploaded those demos, it's a little more clear that the "meandering prog" (the terms 'pronk' and 'psychedelic' are better descriptions) is where i was, musically, to begin with. rather, it's the fairly short drum machine period that sticks out. and, that's what happened. writing songs based on drum machine patterns enforces a level of discipline. the machine doesn't tangent. using a drum machine like the ry30 to record music is like composing at boot camp. it's very strict! introductions, bridges and endings must conform to the tyranny of the beat.
once i was done the two demos, i pulled myself away from it. i need to be clear: i liked the way it sounded, i just needed more flexibility to express myself. and i've really rejected the idea of working with drum machines ever since. today, i use a number of different strategies for percussion, including an electronic drum kit.
so, i started creating loops in the wave editor out of samples instead of in the machine. instantly, i had total freedom. i could do a six minute keyboard solo to open the track, if i wanted, and there was nothing the machine could do to stop me! ha!
the pendulum swung almost immediately. hard. going forward for the next little while, 14:00 is more like the average track length.
i just can't upload this, though.
(1) it was never released anywhere else.
(2) the sampling and vocals are both terrible.
i did the cover for two reasons. first, i really wanted to get on a nin remix disc. all caveats aside, it's an interesting piece of music that i'd pick over a lot of the more recent nin remixes. second, i wanted to do a cover of the guitar solo. that's the primary thing that drove this specific song.
so, it's this meandering 14:00 mess centered around myself doing a lengthy adrian belew impersonation. which is sort of masturbatory. and i definitely picked up on that. now, the song, ruiner, seems to be about erections on some level. how did it get so big? i dunno, trent. so, masturbation. penises. me under the age of 20. you can see where i went with this.
there's about five minutes of penis samples, sequenced in a narrative that goes through such twists and turns as explaining a 5 foot penis as the result of a nuclear accident and shaming the listener for listening to such filth.
if it was my own song, i could shrug it off. but this is a cover. i don't feel comfortable unzipping this....
sorry. i should stop before i begin.
as i'm sorting through my work, though, it stands out as an important track in my development. you'll notice two things in my description of the track: 14:00, lengthy guitar solo. da fuck? everything since the cassette demos (which, until last month, meant everything i'd released) was relatively short, starkly focused and mostly free of solos! what urged you to meandering prog all of a sudden and out of the blue?
now that i've uploaded those demos, it's a little more clear that the "meandering prog" (the terms 'pronk' and 'psychedelic' are better descriptions) is where i was, musically, to begin with. rather, it's the fairly short drum machine period that sticks out. and, that's what happened. writing songs based on drum machine patterns enforces a level of discipline. the machine doesn't tangent. using a drum machine like the ry30 to record music is like composing at boot camp. it's very strict! introductions, bridges and endings must conform to the tyranny of the beat.
once i was done the two demos, i pulled myself away from it. i need to be clear: i liked the way it sounded, i just needed more flexibility to express myself. and i've really rejected the idea of working with drum machines ever since. today, i use a number of different strategies for percussion, including an electronic drum kit.
so, i started creating loops in the wave editor out of samples instead of in the machine. instantly, i had total freedom. i could do a six minute keyboard solo to open the track, if i wanted, and there was nothing the machine could do to stop me! ha!
the pendulum swung almost immediately. hard. going forward for the next little while, 14:00 is more like the average track length.
i just can't upload this, though.
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