genres. pfft.

you know why the beatles were so awesome in the second half of their career? because every new piece they created defined a new genre. even the pieces that weren't really influential exist in their own space, just waiting to spawn something.

this has never really been replicated. not at that level, anyways. but it's not like it's impossible to replicate. sure, they had unlimited resources, and it helps. but we're in a technological space now where virtually anybody has possibilities that far exceed what they had, if you're willing to use technology to sub in for the orchestras. anybody can plug a moog into a vsti, and there's forty years of new synths to plug in on top of it.

if there's one thing i could say i aspire to, i think it's that. i don't want to exist in a genre. it helps with marketing, sure, to package something that fits a set of cliches. but fuck that. i want every piece i write to define a new genre, to exist in a unique space.

i hope i've been moderately successful at this. at the least, it's what i think the narrative ought to be, one day. "blender rock". sure, but it's out of the necessity to box something i don't want to box.

the most interesting genres are the ones that don't exist yet.

if you can create ONE genre nowadays, you're considered brilliant. but this is a contradiction relative to what we have in front of us. the task of a creative mind in this endless array of creative possibilities must be to take advantage of it. i'm not going on a marxist rant about contradictions in capitalism.

but, a record like sgt. peppers that spawns a dozen genres is just unheard of. that's what a younger set of ears is going to hear: how absurdly diverse those records are. it's like almost outside the realm of what they're expected to even contemplate.

ok, i think i'm done the arrangement, excluding minor tweaks. it's huge, though (more than 100 pieces), and is going to take some to mix. part of that is going to be isolating certain sections...

i had to scrap a few things that were there, which cost me some days, but i'm thinking either this sleep or the next is pretty much certain.

contrabass (15)
violin (14)
viola (14)
cello (14)
french horn (9)
flute (8)
trombone (7)
trumpet (7)
english horn (6)
oboe (6)
bassoon (4)
clarinet (3)
piccolo (2)
timpani (2)
harp
koto
agogo
melodic toms
tubular bells
glockenspiel
piano
music box
orchestral drum set
+ choir

so, that's 120 + choir. 200 people?

it's a little exaggerated. some of the parts could be played by the same person, but the score isn't acknowledging it. it's not written to maximize people in that way.

but it's not likely to go down too far. you're not squeezing this under 100, with the choir.

"so, why don't you ever play shows, j?"

i know, i know, i could rearrange it for one person. but that doesn't sound like a lot of fun, to me. i'd rather sit in my room by myself and orchestrate things to ridiculous extremes than cut them down to hobble together something for the sake of it being "live".

i'm sorry if you'd like me to see it differently, but i don't.

i'm aware that it's been a while since i posted a new tune - about a month and a half, and it's going to be another week at minimum before the track i'm working on comes up.

i have a few excuses, but the short answer is that the track i'm working on has turned out to be sort of complicated to mix. i'm working almost entirely with existing sound. it's really the mixing that's been very slow.

that being said, i've actually got more than enough material cobbled together to complete the ep, it's just the final mix that's a ways off. there will be an orchestral mix up here within hours, followed by a synthesizer/ambient mix in the next few days. i'll then have to take those dozen mixes put together over thirteen years and finally mix them down into a final mix - while adding some final touches in the guitar work.

so, something is coming, and it's actually going to be pretty gigantic for it's 14 minute frame. in the mean time, you can try and digest some of it's constituent parts by checking out what's done, up to now, of the associated ep.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/untitled