It’s pretty clear that in the battle of human vs. nature, nature always prevails. The only question is, how bad of a loser man turns out to be.

But how about the battle of human vs machine? Now let’s see:

– In chess things are pretty even (as far as I’m aware). But considering that some of humanitys best engineers are doing everything in their power to turn the tides for the machine, things ain’t looking too bright for us.

– In music. We got Bach, Charlie Parker and Weird Al Yankovic. They got a few AI-composers – some even available on your smart phone – designed by the best human programmers this planet has.

– In sports, well, we’ve all seen the videos of funny robots stumbling in stairs. But again, our most brilliant minds are working hard for the glory of the machine.

Bloody traitors.

My little war against the one and zeros of the world ended in a loose truce. It was a sheer coincidence that todays tune was supposed to be BATTLE OF KUSTAANKARTANO. But hey, con is my favourite incidence.

If I do remember correctly, BEYOND THE BITGATE was the last work I did in 2017. And if I really put my serious mask on and look up towards the ceiling, it was mostly a result of me playing around with a random synthesizer sound, without any particular master plan.

It might be a work of a very tired composer, but I still think it came out pretty nice. Big sound is big.

No, bigger than that. It’s big. And it’s got a theremin friend.

(As a sidenote, why is it always the dirty word that catches your attention, when you open up a dictionary.)

LoFi popity-hopity extravaganza of the day. Otherwise describing such a piece would be like telling a fellow human what a human looks like:

“It’s got a torso and you know, toes and all the good stuff.”

Now hey, this particular specimen has a silly name: STOP WHAT YOURE DOING AND TWIST BUT NOT YOUR ANKLE.

(At this point, I took a break to check some twist dancing videos.)

Smiley face.

Forget everyday life.

Forget smoothies, push-ups & dental floss. Forget too fitting clothes and social restrains. Forget drinking too little or too much water per day. Forget to check if your keys are in your pocket, ‘cos they are.

Forget what’s hot & new and forget that you must have it immediately. Forget to comment, subscribe and smash that like button.

Forget at least for a while something really important, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t such a big deal after all.

Forget arki and take a step to another world, where samurais adventure in the pages Kalevala. Via Dar es Salaam: KATALA KATANA.

1) Choose instruments. Change one of ’em. (34€)

2) Play an organic musical line of some minutes. (260 calories)
Note. Mute the track after recording & smoothing it out.

3) Repeat step 2 for each of the instruments. (Gain 2 tablespoons of sweat /track)

4) Unmute everything. Mix, master, tinker, tailor. (111 brain cells destroyed /every 3 seconds)

5) MANOIL SIDEBURN TAKEOVER. (It’s free)

Some nasty buggers that earwormed me in 2017:

– “Try A Little Tenderness “, the Otis Redding version
– “Birdland” by Weather Report
– “Heat of the Moment” by Asia

However, there was one song that tormented me above everything else:

– “Squonk” by Genesis

Damn you, infectious drumming! Go away, please.

My own music didn’t repeatedly pester me too much this year. RAISED EYEBROW AND A NOD for that.

Also, happy!

…or early. Yeah, let’s go with that.

Now, let’s talk about minimalism.

Minimalism is the little things. The little, quick things, and lots of ’em.

Their sole purpose is to do their magic, and weave a complex texture of bigger things. And those bigger things – let’s just call ’em “bigger things” – correnspondingly start to build new textures – that’s right – “even bigger things”.

When you add all these ever developing formations together, you get a piece of music, in this case NOVOCTO DE.

The magic of minimalism is that, if you compare the beginning and the end of the tune, you’ll find that they’re quite different from each other. And you were never supposed to notice how the tune was constantly changing.

The magic of minimalism.

Actually no. The math of minimalism would be closer to the truth.

(As a sidenote, this sort of music would be suitable for a TV-program about the exciting world of psychiatry. “It’s the mind”, you know.)

Also, merry!

The sabre of the word was not very sharp today, my friends. Therefore I present a few options I had, of what to talk about.

1) Once upon a time there was a lonely guitar riff… (Been there, done that)

2) Nes-chiptune-tunes should be a genre of their own. Like for instance compared to C64 chiptune-tunes (Meh)

3) Writing poppy melody to a song that’s in weird time signature (No need to point out the obvious)

4) 9TH FACE. (Approved!!!)

Now hey, this one was supposed to be released in the autumn, a couple of months ago. That fall sure was a quick one.

That didn’t sound right.

Would “how time flies when you’re consuming it”, be better?

Or “how time slips through your fingers when you’re not holding it properly”?

Ok, they’re getting worse.

Also, I’ve heard that mixing British & American English is a huge faux pas. Luckily I don’t care about that. Phew.

NO SEASONS FALL in autumn pop. It’s melancholic & yet quite light, and just like that (poof), it’s gone.

Things are about to get ABSOLUTELY DIGNIFIED.

I had a little story to accompany the tune, but it’s more fun to make up a story of your own, right?

Let’s just say that my version was about a Christmas party held by a slightly overweight count, in the late medieval times. And that celebration ended in a less dignified manner…

Merry December folks!