music, noises and other stuff
audio
Remix: Nighthawks
Sep 28th
I’ve not posted any music here in a while, partly because I’ve had my head up my bum, and partly because of running around organising projects. Several are coming to fruition all at once, so expect more posts like this in the coming days.
I’ve just completed this remix for Canterbury-based band Artist, aka Artist the Band, who have just released their first album entitled A Muddle and a Mess.
I went the sort of mellow House route, which is the cheezy way my brain works.
Here is a clip of the original song:
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Annnnd here’s my remix:
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Tuesday AM
Aug 15th
So, I woke up on Tuesday with this tune in my head. Staggering over to the console, I had a bash at capturing it before caffeine or daylight could dissuade me.
This particular approach to writing music is a mixed bag. The tunes we hear in our dreams are often earth shatteringly fantastic and emotive – but suck once you drag them into the real world. I keep a dictaphone next to my bed so that if I wake up in the night with an idea I can hum it and go back to sleep. 90% of the time the idea is rubbish or I cannot understand what my nocturnal mumblings are about.
In this case I quite like the result. Like much of my work, it’s not quite finished, but this is as far as I’m going to take it. I’d rather move on to something else before it becomes a time sink.
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I can’t feel my nose
Jul 27th
Damn but it’s cold here in Cape Town today. There are chunks of ice falling out of the sky, and I am wayyyyy pleased I don’t have to go out there for any reason.
It’s been both gratifying and humbling to see how many of you have downloaded the Intrepid OST – thank you very much. It turns out I made a screwup in the mp3 pack, Track 17 was wrong. This has now been fixed, but if you’d like just the correct track without having to download the whole thing again, you can grab it here.
Now then. Karl and I had a great doef-doef session today where we dusted off something we began ages ago. It’s coming along really well, getting a good solid feel in this track. Bonus points if you can identify the source of the brass samples in use, though I can’t imagine anyone but a member of my family guessing this.
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If you’re a female vocalist and you can do house and kwaito vox, please get in touch.
Annnnnnnd as it’s Friday:
Weird Scifi Sewers
This is a gallery of pictures of the Japanese sewer system. It is mind bogglingly cool – the structures down there are massive, and remind me a lot of elements from HR Giger and Bladerunner and The Lord of the Rings … check it out, it’s extremely cool.
Unfortunate product placement
I have a love-hate relationship with advertising. On the one hand, I really think that a lot of it is art. Or can be. But I also hate how it’s everywhere. This page has a lovely list of instances where the message of the ad got a little warped by it’s placement. With picturey goodness.
Tiny little PC
Okay, you have to be a bit geeky to appreciate this, but I think it’s genius. A PC the size of a paperback novel – and cheap! It won’t run the latest games, but that’s not what it’s for. 12 out of 10 for form factor. I want one. Heck, I want two!
Wizards that could kick Harry Potter’s ass
It’s technically redundant, because we all know that without his wand, any one of us could kick Harry’s ass. Were I in Fight Club, I would fight Harry Potter.
Ahhhhhh cute!
It’s a doggy this week. I don’t normally do doggies, but this is gorgeous.
Intrepid OST released
Jul 23rd
At last! after many cups of tea and much mucking about, the Intrepid OST album is available for download. I want to thank Jeff Hayes for designing such sumptuous cover art – you’ll find his inserts and CD labels inside the archive.
Also big thanks to Dylan Feeney for writing the original and beautiful Intrepid theme, and for giving me permission to include it on this disc.
And lastly a very big thanks to the crew of the USS Intrepid for inviting me aboard – it’s been a crazy ride and I look forward to many more adventures.
Now then. The album is available in 2 versions. First, as a CD image – you should grab this one if you intend to burn it because all the tracks have been mastered and aligned with clever dramatic index points and CD-Text and all those bobs and whistles. Although rar’ed, it’s a chunky download weighing in at around 180mb.
http://rapidshare.com/files
http://rapidshare.com/files
If you plan to play it back on your iPod or similar portable device, it’s also available in mp3 format. Where possible, I used 320kVBR, but even so this pack weighs in at a far more svelte 48mb.
http://rapidshare.com/files/45302561/HLtC_OST_mp3.zip
Finally, if you’d just like to check out particular tracks, the entire album is available via streaming MP3 from this website, right here.
One last thing. Some of you have expressed interest in offering money for this album. I am extremely flattered that you would do so, but here’s the thing: in my opinion, artists don’t make money through the sale of albums (well, most of us don’t).
However, we do earn money via paid commissions that arise from the distribution of our albums. Therefore, if you want to support me and Dylan, then burn a copy of the CD, print a cover for it, and give it away to someone. We’d really appreciate it.
NOTE on using Rapidshare: you’ll want to scroll down the page the links above take you to, and click the button labelled Free. This takes you through to the actual download page where you have to enter some Capcha text to prove you’re not a robot, and your download will commence.
Intrepid – scene 22: Battlestations
Jul 13th
So, we’re still on track to release the OST next week, which I’m looking forward to as a personal milestone. I’ve spent so much time working on other people’s projects; it’s really exciting to be releasing something of my own for a change.
Until the official release, here’s another clip. This is scene 22, the second appearance of the mysterious nemesis, and the crew of the Intrepid go to Red Alert.
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Annnnnnnnnnnnd then, because it’s Friday …
Eat Liver
These guys collect the latest stoopid pictures doing the rounds on a semi-daily basis. Good for a chuckle, but also a bit random, by which I mean that although most of the pictures are amusing, some may scar your brain. You have been warned.
Best Old Games
If you’re around my age, you know that although today’s games are better to look at, they aren’t necessarily better to play. You also remember a time when 640k was a huuuuuuuuuuge amount of memory. Gaze in wonder, then, at this mighty repository of Abandonware. It’s all entirely legal to download, too. Eeeeee, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore, do they Dorris? No. No they don’t.
Optical Illusions
Mangle your brain with this fine collection of optical illusions. My favourite is the colour perception one – the shadow on the chessboard. My head will not accept that the two squares are the same colour, even though I’ve gone and proved it to myself with Potatoshop’s eyedropper tool. Mental.
The All Singing All Dancing Hardgeus
The personal homepage of a geek I find inspiring – not only for his geekiness, but for his formidable weightloss. This link will take you through to the weightloss portion of his site, which is an amusing read in and of itself. The true gold is on the third page in, however, where there is a time lapse animation of the weight coming off. Oddly hypnotic. Also scary when it loops and he transforms from hot to gross again.
Fluffeh time
Obligatory kittens. Ahhhhhh.
We’re back!
Jul 11th
Karl and I have been on a sort of enforced hiatus due to our mutual work pressures, but today we managed to get together and make some of the banging thumping noises we so enjoy. Below is a clip from our current remix work.
Bonus points if you can identify the original track (thus giving away your age). And yes, we are looking to collaborate with singers, so if you’re in the Cape Town area and can belt out a decent House vocal, please drop me a line.
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In other news, the permissions issue around the Intrepid soundtrack has been resolved, so expect the entire OST album to be available for download some time next week – I’m just waiting on cover art at this point. The cover is being designed by the multi-talented Jeff Hayes, which I’m feeling very smug about.
Intrepid – scene 9
Jul 6th
This is a clip from the back end of Scene 9 where Navar is trying to discourage the crew from investigating the new alien species too closely. I had originally intended this to be Navar’s theme of duplicity, but it just didn’t pan out that way.
In the end, it just didn’t fit where I intended it later, so scene 9 is its lone appearance.
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And now, as it’s a Friday, and on the off-chance you are reading this from your desk when you are supposed to be working, here are some amusements:
XKCD
Brilliant and highly geeky webcomic about life, love, and all things intarwebz. Often sharply insightful. You don’t have to be a nerd to read it, but it helps.
Monkey Fluids
Amusing site where a chap called Josh scans pictures out of old Boys Own-type books and re-captions them. Wrong, wrong, wrong. And funny.
Chris has annoyed me for the last time
I was mucking about with After Effects, this is the gory result. Probably NSFW for graphic, if ridiculous, violence.
Purple and Brown
What is this? What is this? I don’t know, but I can’t stop watching. It tickles me in that strange mystical place that makes everything funny to a 2 year old.
I can has cheezburger?
You may. No list of amusements is complete without some fluff. Hooray for kitties!
Spirit of Africa
Jul 3rd
So, as one of my friends has been nagging me for updates on this project (yes YOU Vorgan), I can tell you that Spirit of Africa is now complete. We wrapped production about a week ago. Even though my involvement was fairly limited – I came in on the back end – it was pretty challenging, as Lynn’s arrangements tend to be epic in scope.
This is probably one of her most involved and daring productions to date, and features a host of guest performances by some really top players, including Pops Mohamed, Dizu Plaaitjies and some wonderful vox samples performed by Nobuhle Ketelo. She’s one to watch, her voice is fantastic – very rich and soulful.
My involvement was basically some percussion programming (make drums biggerer) and some input on the mixes. Work on Sands of Time II should begin within the next few weeks.
Lynn has kindly given permission for me to post a clip from the album here; you can listen to more at her website: Desert Rose Music.
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Intrepid – scene 3
Jul 2nd
As you might be aware, our first episode of Intrepid was released last month. It’s pretty cathartic to have it out after all this time.
I intend to release an OST album in the fullness of time, and will do so once certain issues with permissions have been resolved. In the meantime, I’ll be posting individual scenes from the film here.
In this scene, the Captain’s shuttle malfunctions on its way down to the planet. On its current trajectory it will crash into the colony, killing hundreds. After a frantic effort to save it, the crew of the Intrepid have no choice but to shoot the shuttle down.
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Amalion – it’s underway
Jun 30th
I’m currently working on the score for a German sword & sorcery fanfilm called Armalion, based on the computer game, in turn based on the minitures game of the same name. This will be my second collaboration with Nic Mendrek from Almost No Budget Films (I love that name) – last year I contributed some music to his epic adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies.
It’s fun to be working with Nic again, and his work has really progressed by leaps and bounds since his last film.
This snippet of music is the introduction sequence.
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