Yes, we rock!

I don’t have a lot to say about SIT AND BURN. It rocks pretty hard and there’s a lot of tom-tom. The big one.

Distorted Stratocaster sound is… well, there’s just something about it. Sometimes it may sound a bit weak, but on some occasions, like now, it just fits the like a donut in a piggy bank – meaning splendidly!

The main riff may not be the most original riff ever. It sort of resembles about 14000 other songs, but hey… Every one of those 14000 songs took great inspiration from a song “Grmph” Ugnu the Caveman made some 140000 years ago.

So yeah. Rock!

… I contacted the synthesizers dev.

The guy responded very quickly via email. He was very polite and keen to help me fix the issue, and after a few messages back and forth he found a solution. Wanna know what it was?

“Check this box.”

Then, my favourite software synth back online, I thought: I might as well make another version of the tune, with the original soundset & vision. And so I did, and here it is: NOIDANKUKKA classic. The word classic refers to the retro synthesizers in use. Otherwise the song is exactly the same as our previous tune.

(Oh yeah, there’s the french horn which was also featured in the last weeks tune, it being the only real instrument there… Although it’s not “real” in the truest sense of the word, because it’s just 1’s and 0’s in a box… I don’t even have a french horn and in fact it happens to be one of the intruments I’ve never played in my life, the others being kazoo, heckelphone and left-handed guitar)

Anyway, that’s it for now. Coming up: Very rock!

So, a while ago I started produding stuff with crystal clear vision. It was one of those times, when I jokingly said to myself “hey, it’s almost done”, when in fact I was only booting up my recording software. Everything was coming up Milhouse.

Problems only occurred when I was exporting the recently finished song: The software synthesizers – which was almost the only instrument in use – somehow “went down” on several points of the track, creating unwanted silences to the tune. I had never experienced anything like this, and I’ve used the synth in question multiple times before. I tried my best to fix the issue – I’m not gonna bore you with details – but nothing seemed to work.

Determined to finish the song the same day, I then took a alternative route: I switched to another synthesizer and essentially changed the whole soundset I was using. The result was NOIDANKUKKA (= witches flower), and despite all the extra trouble, I was quite pleased with result.

After a good nights sleep, I started investigating the issue again, because the pest of a synth was, and still is one of my favourites. I tried this & that, but whatever I did do, the problem persisted. A little frustrated, I did the only possible thing I could think…

To be continued.

Something we, or me and my site were desperately lacking: More latin!

Ager plenus anguillarum!

Heh, a little joke there. Seriously, latinic music time it is:

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE is jolly and it has many, many elements that might be from caribbean or south- or central-america… In fact all the other americas except the northern one… Or maybe our little song here has some qualities that can be heard in some parts of Miami, and most parts of Texas, Arizona, California & New Mexico. (Or is now called New America?)

But, Canadian this is not, nay I say. And most definitely not Alaskian… Alaskan… Old Russian-American, and Sicilian this is no more than pianos fly in the spring!

I neededn’t sayeth no more!

Sometimes it’s fun just to play. Wander around aimlessly.

“Juoksentelisinkohan”. Yes, that is a word in finnish. It’s english translation is hilarious. I won’t spoil it. Try g00gl3, not translate.

So, LAZY JAKE is me playing around on a synthesizer and, you know, there’s some background stuff as well, in fact a whole song!

The keyboard part is somewhat jazzy, but I decided to put this in the RnB-category. After all, there’s the new jack swingish beat and everything.

Next week: No jazziness at all!

With this one, my influences were clear:

I was thinking of the Thelonius Monk composition “Evidence” from 1948, 1957, 1958, 1960 and 1964. (Personally I prefer the 1963 Japan version)

Fear not, nothing is being plagiarized here!

So, LOSE THE EVIDENCE, although more suitable title would be “Lose to Evidence”, ‘cos comparing these two works is like comparing the whole western literature to a big mac Dave bought last week. You can decide which is which.

Anyway, my piece also has melody with jerky rhythm, and a chord structure, which only little by little starts to make any sense.

Now that I do some rare and actual thinking… The Monk in Japan “Evidence” was probably among the very first videos I ever watched on uTub… Also Coltrane live… And Cecil Taylor in gray sweatpants playing some crazy-butt solo piano stuff…

Off to the internets!

There’s Spotlight Kid. It’s an English band. Apparently they play shoegaze music, which is like the funniest and most sincere musical genre word there is.

Then there’s The Spotlight Kid, a 1972 album by everone’s favourite captain, Captain Beefheart. It’s definitely not his most bestest album eva, but it isn’t his worst either, because our good Captain doesn’t have worst albums.

And I guess I should mention Spotlight Kid, Rainbow song from 1981. It’s a fun one. The main riff is a blast to play on the guitar. Hard on your thumb though.

Finally we got SPOTLIGHT KIDS, my humble contribution. Poppy-pop yeah.

Why using a title that’s already there?

Because it sounds fun, I like it and my tune there wanted to be called like that.

Yeah… I’m just gonna throw this out there: PANTOMIME VILLAIN SCAMBACKS COMEBACK.

Yeah… Nuff said.

Yep, I remember this one being made:

HOURS OF GLASS was constructed during the peak days of a pretty nasty common cold. I specifically remember wanting (or being forced by my condition) to make something really short, simple & sweet. Something that’s just pleasant sounds – not those dreadfully tinny ones – and being tender and happy and all bliss.

So… that’s it. We got something simple… and really very nice and good.

Little sidenote: The tune contains some extremely low frequency bass notes, which may be difficult to hear on low-end earbuds. But they’re there. And they’re meant to sound pleasant… and really, very nice and good.

After completing the tune – back in November I think – I ate like a norse and took a nap. Two best cures for common cold.

Happy new January friends!

I thought we’d start a new year by closing a book, that’s been in the works for some years now. So, SHAMELESS PART THREE. As the title suggests, it’s the third part of an prog-rock saga in Asus4. The first two parts can naturally be found in the “Rock”-category.

When producing the first part, I made some mistakes. This was caused to my inexperience with my recording sotfware & whatnot. To keep the tune in uniform, I had to keep repeating the mistakes in later parts. That’s ok. At least I now know that I’ve leveled up my producing skill several times.

Despite the productional shortcomings, I think the tune – and the whole trilogy – came out really good. It’s coherent, pretty organic and most of all, a ton of fun!

Special thanks goes to: Focus, King Crimson, Genesis, Camel, Deep Purple, Wigwam, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Kingston Wall and a gong.

Thanks guys!

Oh hey, what about what songs earwormed me in 2024?

All of ‘em.