I hope you won’t mind me sharing something I’m proud of. Released my debut album today via the stellar Waxing Crescent Records.
I won’t pre-load with too much emotion but the process of making this sorta held me together over the last year and was a huge help in re-routing this wonky ship. Elektronauts has been a reliable outlet throughout this change and new wee era of productivity: whether as a source of reference or just facilitating good nerdy nonsense chat that is otherwise lacking in my immediate surroundings.
Palette-wise it lands in an ambient/experimental pocket - mainly a little too twitchy/rhythmic/noisy in places to be strictly ambient.
For the nerds: the backbone of this record in terms of sound sources is Malekko Manther into Chase Bliss Audio MOOD that’s being both sequenced and modulated over MIDI by Digitone/OT. Supporting cast: Ableton’s Operator and TreeTone, M4L Turing Machine, Hologram Microcosm, OT, Digitone, Volca Drum, Yamaha PS-20, acoustic guitar.
Very nice textures and mood. I really like those “ceramic” tones I’m guessing are from the Microcosm. Also the stuttering and noisy echoes are quite lovely.
Thanks for listening, Strutter
I like the idea of ceramic tones!
MC is used relatively subtly with a few big exceptions. Mainly used as complementary width and pad-like atmospherics. Big exceptions to ‘subtle’ use are first and last tracks. Favourite noisy elements on this result from using Digitone MIDI LFO to control the ‘Clock’ on CBA MOOD and having the depth set so that the rhythmic bursts of the lowest quality settings can come through, to tempo etc.
Really enjoyed this. Very atmospheric, wall of sound type of vibe going on in parts. I dig it. Hearing the Manther put a smile on my face. I don’t have mine anymore but have some fond memories of tracks I’ve used it on. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, SIM80, glad it resonated with you.
And yeah, the Manther: do have some minor foibles with it but also love it. Highly tweakable, the per-step automation and being able to offset the tuning of the sub-oscillator is a really cool for evolving patterns, being able to fade in a sweet harmony etc.
Got a chance to listen properly yesterday when I was wandering in a woods in the middle of nowhere whilst dodging storm damage. It’s really good… I tend to have a bit of a soft spot for albums like this which seek to get the most out of a more minimal setup. And it really does get a lot out of it. I really like how it weaves in and out of looping and textural stuff. I’m guessing some of the melodic stuff is coming from the tweaking of the clock? Sounds ace either way. Early stand outs from a first listen were Quiet Quitter, May You Always Find and (especially) Imagine My Horror.
Side note, I’ve been trying to avoid getting on the good ship Chase Bliss and this isn’t doing anything for my resolve!! I do love clock manipulation… and further side note, slightly disappointed that OBNE won’t be doing any more of their BL series…
Much appreciated! Thanks for sharing your favourites and love getting a bit of context like your woodland wander!
In terms of the textural aspects, definitely heavy use of ‘stretch mode’, so getting some interesting…sort of unsynchronised shifting through that and responding to that, use of the keyboard drums for ‘noise’ in a lot of instances more than anything. With ‘stretch mode’ you can essentially stop the advancing of a loop through it’s buffer…so I’d open and close the ability for a loop to progress. That’s a big part of ‘What Will The Thaw Reveal’. Clock manipulation is in there too…can really hear it on ‘May You Always…’ and ‘Monodrama’, essentially delivery the chord changes. On ‘Monodrama’, I’m using the pedal’s internal ramping/bounce (LFO basically), modulating with random as a source so the chord change would be unexpected and I’d then answer with the wee keyboard motif. All that said, another limitation is definitely my keyboard playing! Don’t have much of that, was just compelled by the weird sound source!
I’ll be following up sooner rather than later, big year for releases!
I’d like a second Mood mk2 if I’m honest! And more of the rest of their line-up but there’s zero budget at the moment. The OBNE line did look really cool to me too.
Great to see you at Attack Release and hope they get you on at some point!
Thanks for the additional info, definitely not helping with the whole temptation thing… and I definitely won’t be watchining some youtube vids on the Mood later on. Definitely not. Oh aye, definitely not… I’m only mildly obsessed with the sound of clock manipulation anyway! I’ve got an old Yamaha VSS-200 in a cupboard somewhere and I’d almost be tempted to experiment with some of those ideas myself but I’ve got enough things on the go as it is.
Will look forward to hearing the other stuff you’ve got on the docket!
Fingers crossed for Attack Release… it’s definitely much more popular these days and it seems there are a lot of folk keen to play so we’ll see how it goes.
