28​.​02​.​11 - Happy Days Are Here Again

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Happy Days Are Here Again was a wee rushed track that I recorded in my bedroom. I've had a fairly busy day. So I started this at 22:20 and took all of about an hour on it. Pretty rough vocals, rough guitar too. I don't even know if my acoustic is in tune, but sure, the strength of the song should shine through like so much heavenly light of the truly gifted. ... GAFFAW!!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

27.02.11 - Bodae N Sole

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More f-f-f-PHat grooves tonight. Enjoyed making this and was pretty gob smacked when the two random samples I grabbed actually fit into the track with nearly no editing: one just needed to be pitched down by 1 semi-tone. The other was almost the same tempo and pitch! I love when little flukes like that happen.

SAMPLES:

soul II soul back to life acapella

Billie Holiday - Body and Soul acapella Eeva s cover

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

26.02.11 - Morning Grit

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Another collaboration, this time with SADFAY regular: Niall Kelly. We started this around 8am this morning, then we had to go to band practice (Niall and I both play in the prog/metal band Hexxed), after which I came home and finished the track off. A bit of a minimal techno track this. Quite short though, more like a taste of what will come when Niall and I get a chance to spend a full day on a track or two for this project.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

25.02.11 - We Gotta Get Together (feat. Patsy Bush)

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Today's track was a bit of a retro 90s hip hop experiment collaborative thing with the very cool "Patsy Bush" (aka Rachel Austin)!

Rachel Austin is a folk rock singer, originally from Virginia, USA. Check out her very awesome music here: www.rachelaustinmusic.com

SAMPLE: All of Me by the Count Basie Orchestra.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

24.02.11 - Danz La Fizz

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Today's track was a collaboration with Michael Sampson who produces music under the name MN. MN have produced 2 full length albums, you can check them out in the self released page of www.matscanmusic.com,

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

23.02.11 - Great Conditioner

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What comes after grimy? That's right, sleazy. This track is pure grimy sheer sleazy cheese. Give in to the cow shake. Awwww yea!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

22.02.11 - Crudisphere

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Moved the speakers in my studio tonight, it's amazing how much better things sound. OK... So tonight it's MORE BEATZ & PIECES! And stuff. Just shake yo' ass to this, what else can I say?

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

21.02.11 - The Ritz Hitz

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Grimy dirty swagger-y beats with some fuzzy blippy background noize.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

20.02.11 - Idealism

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Track 51 is another collaboration with Adam McCausland, who also collaborated with me on "Motherhood" (30.01.11). We didn't want to repeat ourselves, so this one is a bit faster and has more acoustic / "real" instruments, but there is still some rather nice piano, guitar and fiddle from Adam.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

19.02.11 - Spring Spiral

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Song 50 today! A lovely collaboration with Adrian O'Callaghan, local session percussionist. I've never seen such a massive collection of really interesting percussion instruments. There was cajon, logdrum, udu, claves, shakers, rattles, guiro, various hand percussion and effects, cymbals, chimes and bells, which was only a small few things from his extensive collection!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

18.02.11 - Ach. Dance Sure.

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Tried to keep today's track "live", in the sense that, there are no synths or programmed samples / beats etc. There are live drums which I had to edit a little (as my timing isn't so great... Still learning) and there is live bass, guitar and vocals (put through my Kaoss pad) and that's about it. Oh, I also put the hi hats through some analogue-delay-filter stuff.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

17.02.11 - Listless Lives

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Listless Lives, some vocals over a flavoursome groove. Hmm yes.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

16.02.11 - Why the Deceptions? / Love Mania

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Today's track is ... hmmm... "challenging". I'm not sure if it's all the caffeine, the stress of recent finances and bad sleeping patterns, dodgy text messages from people I just don't wish to communicate with at all, or (most likely) a combination of all of the above! But this turned into a bit of a cacophonous noise assault on a fairly manic level. Oh my, oh my.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

15.02.11 - Mikado For Free And Daytime TV

Listen (and/or buy) now on Bandcamp

Some beats in the electronic fuzziness kinda place today.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

14.02.11 - Dirty Dizzes Harange

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Today's track is back to the phat beats and bass vibes with a wee bit of glitchy madness thrown in.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

13.02.11 - The Diamond of Moscow

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The Story of Laika. Part Seven.

The concluding part of our journey through the life of the brave little dog from Moscow.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

12.02.11 - The Sweet Unknown

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The Story of Laika. Part Six.

Laika has been blasted into space. What now becomes of our brave heroine?

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

11.02.11 - судьба

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The Story of Laika. Part Five.

Laika is finally released from her prison, to meet her destiny...

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

10.02.11 - жестокость

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The Story of Laika. Part Four.

Laika is adjusting to her new environment
Training and torture and cages that get smaller and smaller.

Another collaboration with Conor Barry today, Conor pretty much came up with the Story of Laika concept (see 07.02.11).

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

09.02.11 - Where Are You Taking Me?

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The Story of Laika. Part Three.

Minding her own business on the streets of Moscow. And then...

Today's track was a collaboration between myself and Ian Pearce. Ian played dulcimer, drones, bass guitar, organ and percussion.

He also plays bass for Comply Or Die: http://www.diecomply.com and produces his own brand of drones and noise under the name Devonian, which can be heard here: http://loscabras.bandcamp.com/album/cairns

Give Ian a shout at: strongreaction@hotmail.com

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

08.02.11 - Ethical Implications

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The story of Laika continues...

Space. The final frontier. But is it right to send a man into that unknown void?

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

07.02.11 - Bad Ass Dog From Moscow

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Today's track is a collaboration between myself and Conor Barry. It tells the story of a bad ass dog from Moscow and there may well be more to this story very soon....

Conor is a drummer in the QUBe (Queens University Belfast ensemble for improvisation and experimental music) and is studying his second year in Music Technology (BSc).

(thanks to N.Kelly for the taxi-ing to and from the studio tonight!)

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

IMPORTANT UPDATE: 2.0

"Themed Weeks"

Back before the beginning of this project I made a list of rules. Here they are:

• The 24 period per song can only be between 00:00 and 23:59.

• The piece of music can be any length (so jingles and short music motifs are OK, provided they are complete and not just "the beginnings of bigger songs")

• The music can be in any style / genre of music.

• Other people can collaborate on a piece, but it has to be completely original and not a reworking of previous song ideas / re-hashing of old riffs.

• No covers. No remixes.

From here.

However, I also decided that each new day had to be a completely new idea and song. I.e. There can be no preparing tomorrow's or next week's songs today. The process has to be spontaneous and about spare of the moment creativity. It has to be about working to a strict deadline and seeing what you can pull out of the bag.

There is one issue with this though: Back before this project started (and while it has been going on) I've been talking to people about the idea of having "themed weeks", where a week would be dedicated to writing songs in a specific style. I really love this idea, because it really opens up the potential for all sorts of craziness! Some themes I've thought of so far include:

• A week of noise pieces (electronics / broken machines etc)
• A week of a capella pieces (no rules on any style of music, just that they must ALL be made solely with voice)
• A week of METAL / FOLK / ROCK / JAZZ, (delete as necessary: i.e. genre themed weeks!)

More abstracted themes could include:

• Only use analogue gear (no laptop for a week, this would be really tough actually, but I do have an old cassette four track here)
• No drums
• Only drums / percussion
• Themes based on films / books / tv series / games
• Write based on a particular era of music (60s, 70s, 80s etc)
• A week of very quiet pieces
• A week of very loud pieces
• A week without any reverb or delay plugins ( I use them a lot!!)

Anyway, you probably get the idea. So I felt I should make people aware that this will happen soon: Occasional "Themed Weeks" for the SADFAY Project. I do apologise if, to some of you, it seems like I'm suddenly bending the rules or cheating, but I had discussed the idea of "Themed Weeks" long before January 2011. I think occasional Themed Weeks (and it's important to remember I would only do themes occasionally) would make for more interesting and enjoyable output and would involve more interesting creative experiences with collaborators.

I promise I will still stay true to not writing (or premeditating) anything for each song before each day, but obviously using Themed Weeks has implications for how original each day's new work is. That's the only thing I am a little concerned about: Themed Weeks slightly breach the rule about not premeditating any of the song before each new day. But this seems a petty thing to get in the way of what is essentially going to bring a lot more life to this project.

I believe it's still possible to write a completely original song every day, even if you already have some idea of a certain set of genres or rules you are going to work within. And I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that I'm not going to cheat or premeditate the songs that are part of these "Themed Weeks".

I'd very interested to hear any feedback on this from the followers of this project. If enough people say they don't like it, then I'll scrap the idea, but otherwise I think it's going to be a good way forward.

Cheers!

06.02.11 - And Round Again

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Sometimes creating is about destroying. So yes, today's track is somewhat "abstract". The track works like a big loop. It plays backwards then forwards, so that the end is the start is the end is the start type thing. Creating this track was a somewhat cathartic experience I must say.

Enjoy-yojnE

Cheers! ^_^

05​.​02​.​11 - Money Pease!

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Today's track is one of those things that I probably think is just a bit of craic, but someone will point out something quite obvious about it that I've missed and make me realise it was actually very ill-judged and a little inappropriate. Ah well... Fuck it!

For the record, I have applied for a few jobs recently and a couple of things might pan out, but it would be massively awesome if I could make money from my music and I'm currently in the Graduate scheme, which is really helping support, guide and mentor me into turning my studio into a business. I'm also looking to teach people guitar and music production, so be a pal and spread the word if you can!

Enjoy

Cheers! ^_^

04.02.11 - Mugen Critique

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Another collaboration today, this time with Conor Agnew. Conor is a musician who is currently studying classical composition at QUB and popular music. He writes in a wide array of stuff and has played in a variety of bands from noise to technical death metal, (but likes electronic music on the side aswell). You can find Conor on: www.facebook.com/conorda and his recent music:

www.soundcloud.com/mantelope. email him at: allotherbusiness@hotmail.com

This was a great collaboration! Conor and I pulled out all the riffs and samples so quickly. The session just flowed. Conor played all the guitar, piano and bass parts, with myself laying down the beat and synths, we both worked together on the arrangement, with myself processing things, editing, mixing and finally singing over the piece.

The lyrics came from a random "critique generator" online.

LYRICS:

Mugen Critique

The optical suggestions

Of the purity of line

Visually and conceptually

Activates the larger eye

The issue of content,

The sublime beauty in light

Of a participation

In the circle from day to night

Visual hestitation

To spatial relationships

Endangers the devious

Handling of light

Handling of light...

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

03.02.11 - Terms And Conditions

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Banged this one out fairly quickly this evening. Not much else to say really.

LYRICS:

Terms and Conditions

See my hope raise it's wings

As I walk towards the sea

People staring at the freak

Smiling to himself so free

Here is everything you need

But terms and conditions apply

I am sailing through the breeze

You can throw rocks when I pass by

Such a naked wonder shared

Without doubt I know you cared

Finally, I'm not concerned

I hand over all I've learned

Healing, truth without grace

The layers of angst peel away

Healing, truth without morality

A fact is a fact, regardless of what you want it to be

Here is everything you need

But terms and conditions apply

I am sailing through the breeze

You can throw rocks when I pass by

See my hope raise it's wings

As I take off towards the sea

People staring at the freak

Smiling to himself so free

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^