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A bit more of the straight ahead rock stuff tonight. Vocals were recorded in one take without any pre-written lyrics. ... I.e. random nonsense.
Cheers ^_^
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Friday, 29 April 2011
29.04.11 - DAY 119 - Mr. S. Leazy
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I was in the mood for a bit of funkin' today. This is kinda bluesy funk. The sleaziest kind. Probably.
Cheers ^_^
Thursday, 28 April 2011
28.04.11 - DAY 118 - Heaven Weight
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I had one of my nasty blocks on this song, in the form of not being able to play the guitar riffs I wrote, no matter how many times I practiced and practiced. I hate finger picking! I'm left handed (of course, all geniuses are...), but I learned to play guitar right-handed. That's my excuse for finding finger picking stuff so difficult anyway. Ended up playing this with a pick in the end and it's still a bit rough around the edges. Got there in the end and I think the lyrics and vocal layers ended being worth the hassle.
Cheers ^_^
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
27.04.11 - DAY 117 - Opening Scenes
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Today's song has a bit of a movie chase vibe to it. So get your running shoes on and have a listen.
Cheers ^_^
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
26.04.11 - DAY 116 - Sleepy Travels
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Just back from Mullaghmore and I'm pooped! So a sleepy, plinkle of keys and hits. I am pleased that this is probably the first proper SADFAY song that contains, actually, NO STRUCTURE, harmony, arrangement... Yet it's a fairly busy, complex piece. It's fun completely messing about with what can be regarded as 'music' sometimes.
Monday, 25 April 2011
25.04.11 - DAY 115 - Happy Birthday Mum!
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I spent a bit of time down at the harbour today, recording the sea and moving peebles. I didn't know what else to add, but the organ sound seemed to work well. Simple and short, but I love the mood of this. Plus it was a nice experiment taking my gear down to the sea shore and seeing if it would survive... It did!
And it's my mum's Birthday today, so Happy Birthday Mum!
Cheers ^_^
Sunday, 24 April 2011
24.04.11 - DAY 114 - Happy Birthday Linda!
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I've been a bit burned out all day, after the weekend's exploits and travelling three hours to Mullaghmore, I felt something soft and simple would be the best option today.
I love being here though, so I attempted to capture the sound of my parent's bungalow and the cheerful family activity going on. Tomorrow and Tuesday I might focus more on outside sounds, like the sea, the birds chirping, etc.
It's my sister's Birthday today too, so I'm dedicating this one to her!
Enjoy
Cheers ^_^
Saturday, 23 April 2011
23.04.11 - DAY 113 - Warm Up
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I sneakily recorded a bit of Steve from Hexxed playing piano, onto my mobile phone, while I was in the stairwell of our practice room. I was singing and liking the sound of the reverb, knowing that, somehow this recording would make it's way into today's song. Decided to go a bit meaty and mental with this one. I guess it's kinda like Dub-Step, but pretty heavy and fuzzy, overall.
Cheers ^_^
IMPORTANT UPDATE: 3.0
OK, so the weather is lovely and it's possibly the only chance I'm going to get to Holiday this side of Summer, so ...
I'm off to Mullaghmore, County Sligo tomorrow for a couple of days.
Internet access there will probably be non-existent.
I am going to bring my laptop, microphone, midi keyboard and maybe a guitar. So I will continue making my SADFAY songs while there.
They'll just have to be uploaded when I get back on Tuesday 26th April.
Of course the other way to do it, is to write the songs before I go away and have someone else upload them for me here. Or something like that.
BUT NO!!!
I have to stick to my rules: A new song EVERY DAY. No writing songs one day to use for a future day. To me that's a cop out. That's not committing to creating something new and original each day.
Anyway, enough ranting. I'm off to make a lot of noise at band practice, then hopefully stuff my face with lots of MEAAAAAAAAAATTTTT!!!
Friday, 22 April 2011
22.04.11 - DAY 112 - Muddy Groove
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Today's track is a FREE download - A wee present for the Easter weekend!
It's a smorgasbord of samples and loops. Sloppy lo-fi-ness, meets soulful flyness in a funky old skool hip hop stylee.
Cheers ^_^
Thursday, 21 April 2011
21.04.11 - DAY 111 - [ʃʊ̣ḍ]
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I can't wait until I can move into a new studio, with all my equipment. Moving out of my last studio, back home, was painless enough, but making SADFAY songs from my bedroom has it's drawbacks.
Cheers ^_^
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
20.04.11 - DAY 110 - Tones 110
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A few nice tones, processed, reversed, effected. Robert's your father's brother.
Cheers ^_^
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
19.04.11 - DAY 109 - Tired And Emotional
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This is a song about reflecting back on when I was 14 / 15 and being somewhat disappointed, realising at 31, very little has changed.
Cheers ^_^
Monday, 18 April 2011
18.04.11 - DAY 108 - Marathon 2930
Spacey, trippy, moody, synthy, bleepy and other adjectives-y... Just lots of Reason synths put through lots of effects plugins and occasionally resampled and mucked about with in Ableton.
Cheers ^_^
Sunday, 17 April 2011
17.04.11 - DAY 107 - Have You Got It Yet?
A bit of tripped out psychedelia for you all today. Taking inspiration from Syd Barrett era, Pink Floyd. Mixing it up with a somewhat typical "90s brit pop" kind of sound. While looking for lyrics for this, I got the song title from an interesting article about Syd Barrett's last days with Pink Floyd. I am hoping this blows your mind, just a wee bit.
Cheers ^_^
Saturday, 16 April 2011
16.04.11 - DAY 106 - Epic Drama Finale
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This is sort of an attempt at making something "film score-y". It's big and epic and there is lots of reverb! It's been constructed entirely out of my voice recordings, except for the huge boomy bass sound at the very start and end (which is a drum loop put through FFT stretching stuff + effects). This is another piece where, when I started, I had no idea what I'd come up with. I am quite pleased with where the creative journey ended.
Cheers ^_^
Friday, 15 April 2011
15.04.11 - DAY 105 - Harassment Act
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This was just going to be a basic wee acoustic jam, but then I got a barrage of texts, phonecalls and voice mails and I thought, "hmm now I'm inspired to sing something..."
Feel somewhat petty for doing this, but I'm in a rush and I felt laying down a vocal was a good way to spice up the guitar stuff. Plus, venting is useful sometimes.
Cheers ^_^
Thursday, 14 April 2011
14.04.11 - DAY 104 - ELECTRO HOUSE 1 (LOW BATTERIES)
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Mood: Accomplished. Super slick sounds of the 70s, with some afro beats thrown in for good measure.
Cheers ^_^
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
13.04.11 - DAY 103 - Mophree Sounds
Listen (and/or buy) now on BandcampToday's piece is short and sweet, like the blood curdling death throes of a head on collision.
Today is also the 13th and as we see in the image, it can be unlucky for some. Other things recently have been like a head on collision.
Image by Niall Kelly.
Cheers ^_^
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
12.04.11 - DAY 102 - Summer Edge
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Today has been an intense mix of exhilarating, uplifting experiences, followed by incredibly stressful and tiring ones. I'll reflect better on all of this tomorrow, when I've had a moment to stop and think. For now I am feeling somewhat positive and somewhat drained. This piece seems to capture that accurately. It's fairly intense and unrelenting, but it is also an exploration of the rich character that these noises can release. Pain meets endurance with a sense of accomplishment? Hmmm, good thing I have a hefty beard to stroke.
Cheers ^_^
Monday, 11 April 2011
11.04.11 - DAY 101 - Murder Most Horrid
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Decided to make song 101 early today, i.e. I started working on it at around 2am and I'm uploading it now, at 5:10am. This will let me have the rest of the day off, which will be nice. I think the song turned out quite well too. It's definitely got a late night vibe about it. And very definitely influenced by Portishead's early stuff. The lyrics are vaguely related to Brokeback Mountain (as someone mentioned that it was on TV tonight) and a particular scene that always stuck out for me. I liked using lots of crusty, gritty "lo-fi" sounds for this. Loving the "school organ" and accordion patches too.
Enjoy
Cheers ^_^
Sunday, 10 April 2011
10.04.11 - Day 100 - Centum
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SADFAY 100!!!
By Martin Byrne and Adam Mc Causland.
Image by Adam Mc Causland.
Cheers ^_^
Saturday, 9 April 2011
09.04.11 - DAY 99 - Party Like It's Pi (to the 99th decimal place)
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Today's piece explores German mathematician Ludolph van Ceulen, who dedicated his life to calculating Pi to 35 decimal places. He was so proud of his achievements that he had the numbers engraved on his tombstone.
Image by Niall Kelly
Cheers ^_^
Friday, 8 April 2011
08.04.11 - DAY 98 - Flattering The Fool
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Today's track is a collaboration between myself and Amy Best. She only has another year left at being the Best, before she gets married and becomes a Mackky Causland!
Amy provided vocalisations all over this bad mofo and I provided the obligatory riffs and beats. And burnt pizza. mmm.
Enjoy
Cheers ^_^
Thursday, 7 April 2011
07.04.11 - DAY 97 - Palms
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Today's been pretty busy and pretty stressful. I haven't had a chance to put a lot of time into SADFAY, so I've gone for another, Kaoss-Pad-One-Take-Wonder! Today's theme: Ain't Money A Bitch? Damn Straight! I iz tired of workin' for nuthin' be-atch!! ... And so forth.
This one is very much like "I can" from the other day. I apologise for the very obvious similarities / lack of new ideas, but you know, the Red Nex / Lou Bega / Eifel65 / 2Unlimited / were allowed...
Anyway, I want a chilled beer and a cigarette right about now.
Enjoy
Cheers ^_^
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
06.04.11 - DAY 96 - Retro Marketing
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It was suggested to me that I make a short intense piece tonight. I liked that suggestion. This track contains 20 audio tracks, using the Aux Sends on my old Behringer mixer for feedback, a few layers of voice, one track with the clicking of a lighter and two tracks of Postcard Weevil noise. It is 34 seconds long.
Tonight's artwork is a scribbled / doodled image of how the first seven tracks in the Ableton project looked.
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
05.04.11 - DAY 95 - I Can
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Diary of Day 95 of SADFAY:
- Woke up at 10am.
- Watched a bit of crap TV.
- Checked email, facebook etc.
- Seen a challenge for me, laid down by the inimitable Rachel Austin: "... a catchy, pop, kaoss based tune... your challenge for today."
- I mulled this over for a few minutes and then went back to bed.
- Woke up at 5pm.
- Showered, dressed, jumped on a bus up to studio.
- Arrived at studio 6:45pm.
- Made some ridiculously spicy chilli con carne (it came out of the can like dog food with kidney beans).
- Devoured said "food" while writing some lyrics. Theme for today: "I can do this".
- Set up Kaoss Pad, hit record in Ableton and banged through my first take about 7:30pm. Hit stop. Yep, Kaoss-Pad-One-Take-Wonder... Done. No mixing, mastering, edits, other processing or effects.
- Started uploading finished song at 7:45pm.
Job done!
Cheers ^_^
Monday, 4 April 2011
04.04.11 - DAY 94 - Kaleidoscope Temple
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A multi-layered "soundscape" piece today. Audio plugins were used to process source samples. Pitch shifting, stretching of samples. Some master channel processing to give the piece a pretty trippy / hallucinogenic / head melt-y vibe in places. I recommend meditation along with this one.
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