Tripecac - So So

This is probably my least energetic album-opener ever! It's a super-mellow jazz improv, half asleep and kind of sad-sounding, most likely due to post-Christmas blues. The name refers to my feeling of being musically out of practice. It was the first song that I started with Cakewalk, on my music pc, which I just bought. I was probably fumbling around a bit.

This was a close follow-up to "Rusty". It's slow, gloomy, and sloppy. The title indicates how uninspired I felt by it. It does have a nice bit, though: the quiet percussion sounds in the middle and end.

This keyboard improv was the last song I started in 2000. Musically, it has more bounce than the first two songs I had started on the music PC. It originally had a guitar part, but after seeing how poorly "Audia" had turned out, I decided to create a keyboard-only version for this CD. I later put the guitar version on So Long.

This was the first test/song I started in 2001. I was trying to see if I could record two (stereo) audio tracks simultaneously. First, I created the Triton parts; it sounds like I didn't bother editing them very much. I then recorded the Triton along with some improvised vocals on one stereo track, and my simultaneous guitar noodlings on the other track.

I ended up not liking the mix of the Triton's instruments, so I overdubbed a second (more polished) Triton mix later (in 2003). The song's two mixes clash a little, but I like bits and pieces and the overall groove.

This was originally a long, sloppy multi-track improv. I later polished it up into an intricate-sounding jazz/new-age "suite". I'm not a fan of the "so-faux-sticated" chord changes, but there are some pretty moments in here that I like.

I originally sequenced this (standard-sounding) reggae/jazz jam in Cubase. I later ported it to Sonar, which I used to finish all the songs on the album. It's pleasant background music. I really like it, and wish it were longer.

This is a cacophonic test of four stereo tracks of guitar piped through the Pod Pro, recorded at 24x44. I trying to see how many tracks of audio I could playback before getting pops and clicks. When I was polishing it, I deleted the first (short) guitar track but kept the other three. I applied applied zero (0) editing, minor mixing, and uploaded the shebang as-is so that I could call it "done". Thankfully, it's pretty short!

This mellow, piano-based reggae/jazz jam was a test to see how "extreme" I could get with a flange/phaser effect. The mix is pretty muffled thanks to all the effects, but I like the groove once the song gets going.

This is yet another jazz/funk groove, except with a twist: a brass section. I tried hard to make the brass instruments sound "real", even though they're just Triton patches.

The title could have come from an earlier, pre-brass version of the song (droning on and on). It also might have been inspired by my (or someone else's) dissatisfaction with being a "slave to the weekly grind".

This is a long, mellow, extremely repetitive EP-based jam. The bass part is a typical "practice" pattern; if it sounds familiar, that's because there's variants of it in several other songs. On that initial day of recording, I also added a couple tracks of solos. The drums and percussion parts are all from 2003, when I finished the song for CD.

This is another Cubase test, finished in Sonar for the CD. I started it after more than a month of musical inactivity. It's slow, quiet, and focuses on pretty melodies rather than rhythms. It's listenable, but forgettable. I don't think gentle new age is my forte.

This started as a very simple, bland test of Cakewalk's swing quantization. It's very dull in the beginning, just an uninspired piano part. Things pick up a tiny bit after the first chorus, when the bass, drums, and organ enter. After the second chorus, I lost interest in the song. I just banged on the piano, not caring what came out of it.

When it was time to finish the song for CD (in 2003), I decided not to waste time fleshing out the early bits or forcing a return to the verse/chorus structure after the bridge. Instead, I gave the bridge a steady crescendo, adding barking dogs, screaming synths, and pounding drums.

The title comes from the swing quantization and the fact that the song seems like a "mood swing".

This was a funky, catchy ditty that got the life quantized out of it. To make things worse, several of the MIDI parts got out of sync with each other, and the effects are erratic. :( It could have been longer, but I was frustrated by my technological difficulties (and mistakes). Oh well, at least the bass line is still cool.

This is a short excerpt from the "trancy" section of "Last Bit". I used it as an outtro for So So, and then a similar piece for the intro to the next album, So On.