01.07.11 - DAY 182 - Half Way Point!

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OK, so if you wanna be a dick about it, it's the Half Way Point at 12 noon today...

Anyway... Hey, big apologies for the lack of effort in this 'song' (it's more of an announcement), but I have to travel to Derry today for a music Showcase Conference thing-a-me and I need to catch a train in 30 minutes or so. Once I'm there, I'm going to be busy for the rest of the day and won't be back until well into tomorrow's early hours.

Well, I've made it halfway folks and I'm still enjoying doing this project, very much. Thanks to y'all who are still listening to and checking in on the project from time to time. I never expected anyone to listen to EVERY song EVERY day, I know that's a big ask, but it's still great to see the positive comments and support. Cheerseseseseseseseses!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

30.06.11 - DAY 181 - Music. This Is

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Random notes, lots of effects, general mania.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

29.06.11 - DAY 180 - I'm Tired

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Started to play around with Max/MSP tonight, I was able to route some randomising stuff into Ableton, but that's about as far as I delved into custom made patches. Also, my brain is on about 20% capacity tonight, so this clash of screaming synths and jarring rhythmic mess will have to do y'all!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

28.06.11 - DAY 179 - Blame

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More piano based stuff, with some vocals and beats. A formula I'm enjoying quite a bit these days.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

27.06.11 - DAY 178 - MAX SESH

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Tonight's track is a live jam with Rory Brady. Testing out an early prototype of his new Max 5 performance system, we set up two computers and recorded ourselves jamming through the system's various parameters.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

26.06.11 - DAY 177 - Status Update

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Piano piece in 3/4 today. Capturing a mood of reflection and sadness, or resolution fighting with regret, perhaps. You might notice that SADFAY songs on a Sunday are usually a bit melancholy. This week is no different!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

25.06.11 - DAY 176 - Big Stinking Dog

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Today's track is a wee bit NIN-ish, with a bit of a twist in the middle.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

24.06.11 - DAY 175 - Pier Head

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Back in Mullaghmore for the weekend! This one starts crunchy and dark, then slips into a 3/4 piano and voice piece. Finally, back into the noise!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

23.06.11 - DAY 174 - Quali-Tea Klang

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Tonight, have some bangin' techno, with clangy percussion which has been processed 'ta fawk'!!!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

22.06.11 - DAY 173 - Reicher Seven of Four

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This song is in 7/4 and maybe a bit 'Steve Reich-esque', hence the cheesy (Star Trek referencing) pun title. I used Marimba, Kalimba and Vibraphone patches and a couple of nice fizzy synth patches. The rest was arpeggios and automation.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

21.06.11 - DAY 172 - Do Monkeys Wonder?

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Today's track is a collaboration with the fairly amazing John D'Arcy.

http://johndarcy.com/ John played a few chords and licks on Spanish guitar that we chopped up and arranged into a bank of samples. We spent a while deciding how to loop, pitch and arrange those samples, then laid down beats and vocals on top. Lots of glitchy re-sampling and 'random' type chunks also pepper the arrangement. John seems to have a flair with abstract lyric writing, where does he get his crazy ideas from?

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

20.06.11 - DAY 171 - Sweet Song Don't Fail Me

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A big string pad and big chords, to reflect how I feel. Some sombre over-processed vocals, in reference to the struggle for clear communication. A slow song to soothe, or to reflect the need for a good night's sleep.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

19.06.11 - DAY 170 - 17 Layers

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An A Cappella track tonight. 17 separate vocal tracks. I cut everything up in distinct sections or riffs, to make it feel a bit more rigidly arranged (almost like I would with synth riffs or electronic elements) and the 'beat box' vocal beats were chopped up and put into a sampler so that I could play them like a drum machine. Aside from that, there's only reverb, EQ and compression used (oh a tiny bit of chorus effect on the 'bassline').

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

18.06.11 - DAY 169 - Apologies Twiccepted

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Pretty chuffed with this track. The words are taken from random Tweets with the word "sorry" in them. The music is made up of some nice 'music box' type notes, which I layered up a bit, with different settings, to separate the parts. I added some tinkle-y extra stuff, then processed the feck out of it (as one does). That section is quite pleasing and soft! The next section was actually created first and was where I spent the most time: GLITCH-KRIEG!! (Actually, I must use that as a song title for a future SADFAY!!). A tiny bit of drum-and-the-bass at the end. Robert's your father's brother!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

17.06.11 - DAY 168 - Ninja Jam

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Today's track was made rather discreetly. I rammed a series of automated notes through a tonne of effects (as you do) then played around with all the available control settings. Another layer of similar stuff with a bass patch, some final edits. Hey presto!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

16.06.11 - DAY 167 - The Answer Is In Me

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Hey Charlie! Come with us on a magical journey into your OWN EARS. Yes, Charlie, you are the Banana King and we need you to find the magical amulet! Mystery, deception, excellent acting, 1960s kitsch and BATGIRL. Who's your baby? A collaboration with frightening soothsayer Caroline Pugh.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

15.06.11 - DAY 166 - BayBee BayBee

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Cheese-tastic 80s Pop with Robot vocal.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

14.06.11 - DAY 165 - Bonnie Wee Noise

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Caroline Pugh very kindly let me use recordings of her voice for this SADFAY, which basically mangles the recordings in as many ways I could think of, with a fairly limited amount of time. Caroline and I will be collaborating on a SADFAY track, properly, later in the week!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

13.06.11 - DAY 164 - Eromhgallum

13.06.11 - DAY 164 - Eromhgallum by SADFAY

So, we made it from Galway, all the way to Mullaghmore. Today's track was arranged and then pitch shifted and reversed (a bit). I found a nice piano patch in Reason and recorded a couple of sounds around the bungalow. Thanks to Andrew for the photo and creative input!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

12.06.11 - DAY 163 - High Street & The Merry Fiddlers

12.06.11 - DAY 163 - High Street & The Merry Fiddlers by SADFAY

This song is made up entirely of sounds recorded on the streets of Galway. From Eyre Square, through the High Street, to the Spanish Arch and a little bit of the Merry Fiddler Pub (great craic in there hey!). Chopped up and rearranged in Ableton Live!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

11.06.11 - DAY 162 - A Hallway In Galway

11.06.11 - DAY 162 - A Hallway In Galway by SADFAY

So, as I wrote in: IMPORTANT UPDATE: 4.0 I couldn't get my wav files of SADFAY 161 to upload to Bandcamp, last night. I've since tried uploading mp3s to Soundcloud and huzzah!!! I've been able to get SADFAY 162 up there... Still having problems with SADFAY 161, for some reason.

So this track is a bit of a twisted concept: A clattering of beats, builds up then falls apart into a sound scape, full of random recordings taken here in Galway. That's about it.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

IMPORTANT UPDATE: 4.0

Hey y'all, I'm in lovely Galway at the moment. I'm here until Monday!

So, we made every effort to book a hotel with a wi-fi connection, but after an hour of upload FAIL, it's pretty obvious, I'm not going to be able to get the SADFAY tracks online here.

I'll keep trying, but the connection is pretty ropey...

Tonight's song is done though. And I'm going to get up early tomorrow to get SADFAY 162 finished, so that I can enjoy a bit of this trip away! Sunday's track will be the same.

Anyway, the point is: Internet FAIL = I'll upload SADFAY's 161, 162 and 163 on Monday when I get back to Belfast!

Sorry everyone, but I'm sure you can hold your breath for a weekend!!

:D

10.06.11 - DAY 161 - Cows Farting

10.06.11 - DAY 161 - Cows Farting by SADFAY

Tonight's track was created at Flannery's Hotel, Galway (who's wi-fi connection leaves a lot to be desired). It's is just plain old fashioned, house music. For The Complete And Absolute Win!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

09.06.11 - DAY 160 - I Want To Believe

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The second last time I took LSD, about 7 or 8 years ago, I felt like this music sounds. (The last time I took LSD was a few months after that). I wanted to believe I could stay permanently in that state of consciousness. I wanted to believe that everyone in the Universe was already there, waiting for me to join them. It was great until I had to face the reality that this was utter nonsense. That was a bad comedown. Don't do drugs kids! Anyway, this is a soundscape-y piece that I'm very pleased with. It reminds me of some the moments on Autechre's last album, so of course I'm chuffed.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

08.06.11 - DAY 159 - Lynch Mob

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Tonight I felt like taking my time. I decided to just play piano for a couple of hours and enjoy that. The song writing came along at a slow pace. And that was just fine. It was very therapeutic. I think / hope I'm getting better at adding subtlety to my songs, as I feel the vocals and beats just sit right, not too overpowering or taking away from any other element.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

07.06.11 - DAY 158 - I'll Tell You What It Is Mate

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I like the new Radiohead album, King of Limbs, in terms of production. To me, there are a couple of fairly obvious influences for that sound: Four Tet and Caribou. Still, it's a real pleasure to hear how Radiohead have pretty much stripped away all notions of a band in the traditional sense: There are few obvious instrument parts that play out through the songs, (with a couple of exceptions, such as Codex), instead the songs are a big mash up of off-kilter rhythms and layers of sampled bits and pieces. It can sound somewhat chaotic at times, yet there is rarely anything close to a cacophony. It's like a trick: Things sound messy and full, without becoming tiring. It's very organic and I love this approach, as I have always done with Four Tet and Caribou! Whether it's Radiohead's best collection of songs, is a different debate, but anyway, I thought I'd have a go at this particular 'messy-but-controlled' sample heavy type of arrangement.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

06.06.11 - DAY 157 - Get Closer

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Eeep. Just missing the midnight deadline tonight, on account of being super psyched at having had a decent plug for the SADFAY project, by Rigsy on the BBC Radio Ulster ATL show. Apologies for my slight lateness with SADFAY 157. TSK TSK. I didn't rest on my laurels though: Tonight's track is some smooth, laidback house stuff. I think this is the kind of track to lie down and get baked to. Alternatively you could dance about and point your head to the sky, reflecting on all the lovely things that make you a person who should feel great about the things you've done that permit you to feel so good about yourself.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

05.06.11 - DAY 156 - Tasty Tasty Brain Juice

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I am bloated and tired after a big load of yummy chinese food earlier. This is something of a representation of that, but it was also a chance for me to use the funky little string-percussion-thing-a-me I bought today too. Also added about 20 layers of voice, because I felt like it.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

04.06.11 - DAY 155 - Rebecca Blaurghk

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A noise piece.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^