30.09.11 - DAY 273 - Ebor Puddles

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And so we come to the end of September and the skies have bucketed over Belfast. My feet have been soaking wet all day, either from running through the rain, or standing in it figuring out where to be heading next. It's been an interesting month, with some very awesome collaborations, against some very abstract pieces. September has felt like time has gotten away from me and there have been few spare moments to delve deep and create, while at the same time, some songs have been shining examples of the progress and development this project has taught me.

Tonight's song uses a dirty rhodes riff from a Dr. Dre sample collection, simple beats, hiss and rain. Emphasis has been on sampling and re-sampling sounds. Every gesture hints at something that has existed before. Referencing back, the way hip hop often does. Samples soaked in the past, even with ideas that are from the present.

(cheers to Chris Smyth for all the help today!!)

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

29.09.11 - DAY 272 - Stairs

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I have spent the day moving everything I own into my new house, where the internet is but a ghost, roaming the stairs and landing.

Rachel Austin very kindly lent her vocal talents to this song and then very kindly let me use her computer to try and upload it.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

28​.​09​.​11 - DAY 271 - Disco Six Pence

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Today's track is a collaboration between myself and Karlos Lokokos. Karl is one half of the Tech House duo Lokokos (http://soundcloud.com/lokokos) and has been DJ-ing around Belfast for many years now. We've known each other for a long time. Karl and I used to produce tracks when I first started dabbling in making electronic music, probably around 1997. Some of that stuff still holds up surprisingly well too! Tonight's track was possibly waylaid a little as we spent a long time catching up and reminiscing, but there's some quality disco vibes in here (and some random vocals, done in one take!!)

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

27.09.11 - DAY 270 - Still Birth

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I tried a few different approaches tonight in terms of how the layers in this were arranged. Using gates, switches and duplicating large numbers of tracks into groups in order to compress and mix them together. Things got a bit messy in the end, in terms of the Ableton arrangement window, but pretty chuffed with the results!

Thanks to my brother William and sister Linda for the song title and image suggestions (you weirdos!!)

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

26​.​09​.​11 - DAY 269 - Second Life (ft. Duke Special)

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Tonight's track is a collaboration with Duke Special. He stopped round for a couple of hours, recorded his vocals, piano and flute tracks in just a handful of takes, like the true professional he is! Duke wrote the lyrics while I was setting up a basic backing track. The subject matter of the lyrics explores the phenomenon of Second Life and alter egos online. I spent the rest of the evening laying down other elements and adding my trademark quirky production skills.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

25.09.11 - DAY 268 - Jamz A.M

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So after playing a pretty decent gig with Hexxed (our first in nearly a year, my first as a bassist), and after being talked into playing bass for Screaming Blue Murmur next Saturday(!), I ran into Kyle Mc Cann. Kyle's an amazing guitarist, he plays with a few different groups in the reggae / soul / funk spectrum of things. He's also a really sound bloke, so we sat up into the wee hours of this morning jamming and having a bit of craic. This track documents some of the nice (and occasionally whacky) moments we laid down. (It's probably worth noting, that we had imbibed several alcoholic beverages long before these recordings took place.)

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

24.09.11 - DAY 267 - Grainy Mountain Range With Volcano

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Big atmospheric track, with lots of heavy tones, distortion and noise.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

23.09.11 - DAY 266 - CULTURE NIGHT

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So tonight was Culture Night in Belfast and what better way to spend it, than to set up a microphone, laptop and let the people of this fare city record themselves making noises, singing, screaming, playing music, laughing and generally going buck mad for a SADFAY Special?

Big thanks to everyone who contributed, I did my best to use a little bit of everyone's wonderful contributions. You all made this little music producers life feel rather warm and fuzzy and wonderful tonight! Though from the hours of recording, certain edits had to be made, so I hope you all hear yourselves in there somewhere and I hope you all enjoy!

Also, a big thanks to Cafe Italia who helped me set up and let me borrow their gazebo while trying to deal with their own hordes of hungry Culture Night customers! And a massive thanks to Rachel and Steve for the support! Biggest, awesomest thanks to the absolute legend that is David Braniff, for being the wrangler master and coaxing hundreds of people into laying down some sort of Culture Night message for tonight's song (and cheers for the lift home)!!!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

Culture Night - Song A Day For A Year - Cafe Italia

So, you might have heard that SADFAY will be holding up in Cafe Italia for the, rather festive Culture Night, which takes over the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast for one night only, showcasing the many talents and artistic skills this city has to offer! There is (more than) something for everyone and it's great to be in the area for the sheer buzz and excitement alone.

Come along!

For Culture Night the S.A.D.F.A.Y. Project will be doing something a little bit different:

Set up in the cosy confines of Cafe Italia, Culture Night visitors, attendees and enthusiasts will be encouraged to come in and record some sort of message, noise, musical gesture, words, claps, bonks, twangs, screams... Whatever!

At the end of the evening, all sounds and contributions from you lovely people will be edited down into some sort of original piece of music that will be uploaded to the website: www.songadayforayear.com

Also available in the cafe, aside from great coffee and treats, there will be a chance to listen to previous SADFAY songs, to hear how the project has come along over the last 9 months!

- Hope to see you there!

22.09.11 - DAY 265 - Evacuation Plan

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Rattles, hums, bonks and drones. A soundscape, YES! But not a crap one, as an excuse to get out of making a 'proper' song (for a change).

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

21.09.2011 - DAY 264 - Little

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A little song with little things that do very little.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

20.09.11 - DAY 263 - 3 CUPS

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Tonight's track is caffeinated. Like me. Stretchy, glitchy, quirky, stuff-y...

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

19.09.11 - DAY 262 - I A N T O

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A song for Ianto: Celebrating the beautiful little, Siamese kitten now living, biting and playing happily in the arms of a cherished friend.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

18.09.11 - DAY 261 - Into The Night

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Tonight's track was made in a rather frenzied, panick... But was saved by the wonderful Rachel Austin!

Rachel Austin is trying to raise money for a recording project in Austin, Texas. There is only a few days left, so come on folks, go here, dig deep and support an amazing local talent!

http://www.indiegogo.com/austin-in-austin

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

17.09.11 - DAY 260 - Multi-verses All Minging

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A short piece today. I am going to sleep now. Good night y'all!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

16.09.11 - DAY 259 - Thirtee Too... Christ

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A free Friday download for y'all today!

I was in the mood for big beat madness. Chunky ass grooves, phatness and all of that sort of malarky. This will suffice! I didn't spend a long time on this one as I've been busy all day, but yes, I believe it provides.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

15.09.11 - DAY 258 - Sponic The Smedge Hod

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Sylenth with Lyric Generator. Just toying about with some ideas with Niall Kelly. Bingo bango! Sonic Sandwich!

Image by Niall Kelly.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

14.09.11 - DAY 257 - Bad Sausages

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Today's track is ... Smeh... And waffle... And slartibartfast!

Beats, guitar, bass and vox. Groovy vibes y'all... Mmmhmmm

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

13.09.11 - DAY 256 - Sleepish

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This is a small sound study of sleep and falling asleep. Myoclonic jerks and so on.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

12.09.11 - DAY 255 - A Little Bitter?

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Love songs. Heh... Sometimes it's just good to say it from the heart.

Today's song is a live recording of a song I wrote in about 10 minutes. Still I think it's a decent wee tune. And there's the added 'bonus' of getting to watch me perform the song in my bedroom too...

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

11.09.11 - DAY 254 - Collapse of Balance

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Another very creative collaboration between myself and Adam Mc Causland (Fragile Human Organs, MAW, A-MCC Design & Photography). Adam recorded guitar and piano parts this morning and sent them to me over t'internet, I spent a long time marvelling at the bits and pieces, then attempted to add drums, strings, electric guitar, vocals and other wee bits and bobs.

The lyrics came from writing lots of words down and seeing what images and connections they made. Vengeance and destruction over long periods of time, choices and balance are all in there somewhere.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

10.09.11 - DAY 253 - Ridiculicious

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Today's track is a little bit of a mish mash of some groovy riffing and ridiculously big chunky ass beats. Umm... And that's about it really. It Rocks! (see also: 'RAWK')

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

09.09.11 - DAY 252 - Brkbt Grawn Rote

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Process music. Arises from a process. It may make that process audible to the listener, or the process may be concealed. "A 'musical process' is a highly complex dynamic phenomenon involving audible structures that evolve in the course of the musical performance ... 2nd order audible developments, i.e., audible developments within audible developments" (Seibt 2004, xiii). These processes may involve specific systems of choosing and arranging notes through pitch and time, often involving a long term change with a limited amount of musical material, or transformations of musical events that are already relatively complex in themselves.

But I didn't make a piece of process music. I made a piece of 'Aleatoric music' (also aleatory music or chance music; from the Latin word alea, meaning "dice") is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer(s). The term is most often associated with procedures in which the chance element involves a relatively limited number of possibilities.

Mmmmm beards are being stroked.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

08.09.11 - DAY 251 - A Big Flanger

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Well you've all had a week of free downloads. It's sadly time to start charging again, but it's only £1 per tune (or £5 per monthly album), so don't fret too much. And of course you can always listen for free on Bandcamp. YES! YES!

Today's track was given a little bit of encouragement (and egg shaker) by Niall Kelly. It's another acoustic track, some nice strumming guitar with a sprinkle of magical fairy dust in the form of other random synths and instruments. The lyrics are mostly random nonsense. Yays!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

07.09.11 - DAY 250 - Proove

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Another free download.

I seen some amazing projects from the MA (Sonic Arts Masters) students today at SARC (The Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queens University, Belfast)

Some very entertaining things, some things that got my imagination into flow. A great collection of varied concepts and execution.

But now... I'm home again... I'm tired. My brain is craving escape from this annual task. This ball and chain... Song A Day... For A (feckin') Year... Yes sireee...

I'm kinda tired of trying to prove anything with this project. So here's a piece of 'music', that I just vomited out of my computer. That's it. Some random spewing out of my subconscious. Bugger it. It's just as valid as anything else.... What is this all about anyway? What is the point of the credibility of the work? Does that factor in? Or is any sound recording valid, provided it is made in the specific day I'm uploading for? Are the 'good' songs, shining examples of greatness? Are the 'bad' songs "OFF DAYS"? Or is it all just a thing. A thing some random mad man is doing? Is there any debate on quality? On validity? Any discussion on the intentions? The outcome? ...

Naw. Doesn't seem so...

So here, have some mind spew. And download it for free! Go wan, go wan... Eh?

... I'm actually not sure I can do this anymore.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

06.09.11 - DAY 249 - In My Humble Opinion

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Well, waddya know, another free download tonight!!

I started writing this rant about modern times and how we're all destined to be tied to our computers and unable to function outside in the real world. Then I remembered that there was a scene in the movie Wall-E (towards the end) that depicted this notion perfectly. But then I also thought: "I hate when songs try to preach to you about the way things are and the way things are going to be", so I decided instead to write a song about that: The fact that, very often, we really know nothing about the world around us. We miss out on so much. We make assumptions about so much. We speculate. We judge. We second-guess. There are massive gaps in our understanding of even the remotest subject that we're not immediately connected to. And then I spent a while arranging lots of beats and keys and guitar and so forth. Pretty chuffed with this one.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^