Tripecac - Aerosol Concrete

This starts the album with the oldest song idea that I had recorded on my camera, back on 2010-08-24. I included the actual "tick tock" audio from that recording at the beginning of the song, and then used AudioSnap to quantize it so that I could added other instruments to it. Thus is introduced the "looking back" theme of the album.

As for the instruments, I was testing out the new synths in Komplete 9: Battery 4, The Giant, Monark, and Session Strings. My verdict? Cool, meh, meh, and meh.

The song title refers to the fact that my musical ability is progressing at a snail's pace. A confused snail, that often back-tracks. Pretty soon I'll be banging on tupperware again and singing songs about flat cats.

Ultimately, this is an uninspired mish-mash of quarter-baked cliches which clash with each other and grate on the ear drums. Aside from that, it's great!

This started with the drums, which was based on an idea from 2010-10-26. On top of that I layers a simple bass track, and then a clav riff from an idea started on 2010-12-02. The funkiness came from the present, baby, the present!

Speaking of presents, I decided to finish this on Mother's Day, as a gift. Well, of sorts. It's not like my creations are worth that much these days. Especially not the ones that sound like half-baked rehashes of the same old same old thing I've done for decades.

But it's the thought that counts, right?

Right?

On a positive note, I like the EQ I applied to the kick and bass; they give the low-end a decent presence in some parts. But not in others, for some reasno; at around the 5 minute mark the beat kinds dissolves. But then it cames back in again. EQ is my friend.

I recorded the rough idea for this on my camera back on 2010-12-08. Shortly afterwards, I thought of renaming Tripecac to "Tripacat". I even bought the domain name (tripacat.com). But then over time the idea lost its appeal. Too much work, really; it's not like the new name was particuarly awesome or anything.

Well, years later, at least I finally get to use the name "Tripacat", if only for a song. A long song, though. Too long, perhaps. Like a cat's tail.

If you're looking for profound meaning in lyrics you should really go elsewhere. You can pretend that these are about the escalation of drug use or animal cruelty leading into violence against people. But really it's just babble.

I was fiddling with the EQ for the kick drum and ended up compressing it pretty heavily, giving it a really low-level thumping effect. It's a bit extreme, at least when I look at the waveform visually (maxed-out peaks with each kick), but it doesn't sound too bad, at least on my current headphones. If it sounds horrible on other headphones or speakers, I'll tone down it down a bit. Thump, thump, thump!

I recorded the vocal idea on my camera on 2011-01-13. It's pretty simple, both musically and thematically. The same old same old, really.

The vocal idea came from something I recorded on my camera on 2011-02-17. It's a coincidence that I started working on it on the 13th anniversary of a "big bad" day.

Lyrically, it's pretty dumb. Musically too. But it was fun to work on it. And it took less time than the last song. So that earns it some big bad brownie points in my big bad book.

The lyrics came from 2011-02-22. The music is all new. It's got a faintly afrobeat flavor, which I like.

I didn't use any effects on the vocals. Not even reverb. At times they sound cool like this, but at other times they sound a bit too amateurish. Oh well, it's not like "amateurish" is anything new to my listeners!

The lyrical idea is from 2011-11-23. The music is completely different from the original vibe, this time with a krautrocky feel.

The bass, drums, and horn idea came from a camera recording on 2012-03-17. The lyrics came from 2012-09-23. They refer to an error message we used to receive on computers long ago (back when we used floppy drives).

The initial drum pattern is from 2013-01-24. The first verse of the lyrics is from 2013-05-23, when I was in the middle of working on my "reggae" album (Tripico). I don't remember why I didn't finish the song back then; it seems like it would be appropriate. Anyway, the rest of the music and lyrics I made up when it was time to finish the song.

It's all a bit silly, and messy. Hey, for the last album, it would fit right in. And for this one too. And just about every Tripecac album. They're all about the same, aren't they? :)

I recorded the basic idea on my camera on 2013-03-29. The rest is new. But not so good. I really don't like the drum kit, which feels very canned. The delay is too agressive, and it didn't have any cymbals, which made things hard for me. Also, the drums breaks sound horrible. Yuck, yuck, yuck. To my ears at least. My precious ears.

Well, at least I squeezed a goofy vocal improv in there. Gotta love those. It was inspired by recent conversations. And my general disdain for hemp huggers.

The musical idea was from 2013-05-29 and the vocals were from 2013-07-11; both were recorded on my camera.

The new material is repetitive, mellow, simple, repetitive, gentle, and repetitive. There's not much else to say about it. Other than it finally pushed us over the 60 minute mark for the album, finally. Yes, finally!

Hooray for Quantity! Quantity 1, Quality 0! Hooray! Hooray hooray hooray! Finally!

Repetitive.

I recorded the main vocal idea on my camera on 2013-07-23. The rest is new.

I like the krautrocky feel, but the mix doesn't feel right. The thresholds on different drum sounds in the kit (particularly the hat and cymbals) were a bit finicky, so different hits ended up sounding too loud/crisp or too soft/muted. I couldn't get it sounding balanced without spending a ton of time on it. And a ton of time I don't have, since we're nearing the end of the year and I want to get this album finished by Christmas. As a result, the mix is a bit rough, but the overall groove I like. Well, sorta. After all, it is Tripecac we're talking about. Or I am. Yep.

I sang the first piano idea into my camera on 2013-09-06. The rest of the stuff is new. And a lot funkier than the original idea! Who could imagine that a waltz could have so much (sloppy) oomph???

Since there were no lyrics in the original idea, and since I didn't want to take 5 minutes to make up new ones, I avoided adding them. It's not like they're needed anyway.

This song's title is a hasty cramming together of the album name. The music, similarly, is a hasty cramming together of different styles. It was fun to make, which is hopefully audible in the energetic solos, but the mix was horribly rushed (in order to finish the album quickly) and the song could definitely use more editing. Yep, it definitely could stand to be about 5 minutes shorter. :)

But at least it's done. And so's the album, more or less. Just a couple more days editing and designing the cover, and off it goes! Time to celebrate by breaking out the Christmas cookies... and the vaccuum cleaner!