Hey, I figured I’d take the advice I got on the forums and just jump right in. I had a day off today, noticed fight 11 featured a song by the friendliest man on the internet, and so decided to mutilate it. It’s pretty bizarre and most likely not very appealing and obviously done by a newbie, but that is why I’m entering. I figure the feedback you guys can give will be of much help.

This mix started out as minimal, expanded into some crazy drum-heavy thing, then somehow got shrunk back down to a tinkling sort of spacey piece. It actually fits closer to my original conception than I expected, and for that I’m happy. Still feels a bit flat, but on the whole I think I’m starting to get the hang of this.

Took me a long time to figure what I wanted to do with this one. The idea started with trying to get the loops sounding as cheesy as possible. My thinking ran something like: I wonder if I can make it sound like a jack-in-the-box! I kept that element in there, but as it started coming together, I struck upon the idea that my mix was actually coming from an out of tune AM station on a crappy transister radio. On top of that it’s been recorded on a beaten-up and scratched vinyl record. So, in the end, it is what it is: more playfullness from me.

Worked all day and into early morning tweaking things on it. Not much to say except that it’s a Valentine’s Day gift and that she really liked it.

this was started over two latenight sleepy sessions, finished half awake sunday morning. hope you like it!

I titled this one “Keep Them Pure” after a small clip of dialogue featured in the mix.

It started as a dumping ground for bits I was experimenting with in the “real” mix I was working on and lo and behold actually almost sounded good. I tore it apart with some heavy noise reduction and came out with this blippy little tune.

It was created using the Strongbad Method of Mixing (make a repetetive drumbeat, add annoying industrial noise then top it off with a soundclip from a sci-fi movie).

Here is my remix. I apologize for any nightmares it gives you folks.

As for the mix, I had a lot of fun with this one, and for awhile I had a mix comprised solely of layered drum samples. On the last day I decided to add some of the organ and horn loops to try and give the mix more unity. Also, I used a two second splice of a Brad Sucks guitar strum for added flavor.

It’s titled “ROONT” (that’s a nod to the Dark Tower series which I’m almost finished with).

Vocals by Monsterbaby from CCmixter.

It’s mostly a large hodgepodge of source files from stuff I’ve picked up all over, all CC stuff. It’s fairly random silliness, and the only real concept behind it was an attempt to treat each member with a slightly different accompaniment.

my glitchy take on the source…

lots of little snippet adds from previous fights (such as the “ana” fight) as well as some secret ingredients. Threw in a pr0n drum at the beginning for the fun of pretending I’m White Zombie.

This first mix I send is also my first attempt at fourstones’ source. The piece began sounding a bit like the opening credits to a 70’s film (maybe an exploitation pic, or maybe something like John Cassavetes) so I treated it as such, adding bits of dialogue to spice it up. But, ultimatley, nothing really ever coalesced with this, and it’s a bit of a loose sonic goop that barely holds any shape. So, yeah, a bit of an abortion, but I thought it had enough charm for a fight.

This is a very vanilla, very straightforward arrangement type deal with some droning stuff added. It’s actually where I continued with the first mix after dumping the entire concept and starting fresh, just carrying over one or two of the sounds I was creating for that one. The biggest add is the grey rainbow voc adds, which I was very happily surprised to find out timed with the beat almost perfect. I never got in on that fight and regretted it.

And here we go with the last of the mohicans…This one strays the farthest from the source, where I basically just kept the bpm and time signature (sort of) and used I think one of the original files to flesh it out. The rest is mostly tiny snippets of other CC stuff. I refrained from adding any soundbites from outside the CC network so I could maybe post this on Mixter soon. I did have some chopped vocals, but they really just overpowered the whole thing, made it seem overproduced. I’m really happy with this one, and I hope y’all get a kick out of it. It’s called “H.P. Lovecraft’s Theme from a Bonfire Party at a Pondside Cabin in the Mountains of New Hampshire whilst an Evil Spirit Watches from the Wooded Gloom”. I got the name because while listening I got a very strong visual (first time happened to me from listening to my own stuff) of my grandparents cabin in the NH Green Mountains at about Midnight on a balmy summer evening, a small group of teenagers drinking around a bonfire while some C’Thulu like creature watches from the coal-black shadows of the old-growth forest. Creeped me the fuck out at 3 am last night. Admin Note: I shortened the mix name for brevity sake - MCJ

Great loops to work with, although at first I was daunted by their seeming complexity, but when I got them boiled down to bits of manageable size it became real easy to mix n’ match. The first mix I be sending you is entitled “Closing the Bar Down with Lux Divon”, it was (not really) recorded live at a seedy little dive, performed to a handful of drunk patrons at 2 in the morning.

And here’s number 2. This one went quick. Once I knew what kind of mix this’d be, without vocals, I felt free to throw out the old tempo and create my own.

These two mixes, while the concepts were already in my head, were strengthened by the influence of a coupla new CDs I picked up the other day. White Rainbow’s “White Rainbow Box”- White Rainbow’s been someone I’ve been meaning to check out for a year after reading a real excellent review (and I mean the review itself was excellent, it was one of those rare music reviews that accomplished the difficult task of decribing a musician’s sound in three succinct paragraphs), and prompted me to buy the CD without even hearing the actual music. Well it blew me away. The other was Polmo Polpo’s “Like Hearts Swelling”- This was playing in the record store while I was searching for the album mentioned above and it totally gave me a friggin’ brain-boner. I thought it was maybe God Speed You, Black Emperor or one of their offshoots, but I guess it’s not. Strangely the album turned out to be strikingly similar in tone to the White Rainbow stuff, I guess a bit of synchronicity there. I only add the links cos I think they’re really great and cool and maybe you’d like to check them out. I suppose it can’t hurt to mention that I initially went in to pick up the new Nick Cave (I ididn’t even realize he had a new thing out since Grinderman till I read it was like no. 5 in the charts here in Portland) and the sorta new The Jarvis Cocker Album and I will go on record as saying those are really terrific albums as well. Okay, and I re-bought Cat Steven’s Greatest Hits, and that too is swell and should be listened to at least once a year. Enough of my picks of Spring ‘08. Peace, Artemis.