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I've been having a bit of a writer's block lately because I couldn't figure out how to mix elements of music that I liked.. good harmony (semi complex), jazz influenced line writing, punchy electro sounds, synths, funky syncopation, and a bit of dancability. House was pretty close, but that was stylistically too strict.

So anyway, I wrote this one thinking, "well, why don't I have all the instruments (synths, ep, electric bass) just live in their own styles, but line them up with groove grammar".. and it worked much better than I'd expected!! Turned out to be a very organic mixture of all my musican personalities.

Definitely a work in progress, esp mixing, but all comments welcome. I'm just so releaved to have found something that clicked. This logic allows me to throw in almost anything. I think it's just the past week or so that I've finally began to digest my first of year's worth of jazz lessons.. I don't "own" the material yet, but slow it's seeping into my music mind.

Hi Ken !

I like this !

Sort of mixing Niacine and Zappa´s intrumental stuff.
But jazzier.
Did you ever hear Black Page prt2, by Zappa ?

Looking forward to the end-result of your journey!!

J_S

Oh BOY!!! You have hit upon something here Ken!

You have this keen sense of orchestration that has always impressed me. Those sounds you let sit in the background make the sound of this tune(more than 55 seconds please!!) Your taste is flawless.

The harmonies aren't really that complex, maybe a bit hard to get around the extreme key changes for most people but nothing to make one lose grip with the movement.

By the way, this has NOTHING to do with FZ's Black Page part 2. That tune has only 3 chords in it (except for the ending grupetto) and gets its life from a most impressive melody build around a drum solo.

thnx for all your feedback, I'm adding more to the song as I write. I'm really happy to have found a happy medium, perhaps not directly related to this style, but of a way to apply what I have digested into practical situations. It's as if I'd tried too hard to complicate the arrangement all this time.. it boils down to bass, chord comping, and percussive hook phrases.. I guess there's no need to go further, and the jazz foundation really helps me get the basics down, so that I don't have to go too much further (put in strange tricks) to make things intersting.

thnx paul, I can't be more flattered with such comments coming from a composer of your caliber. I really respect your work, and your comments mean a lot to me.

I'm trying to stick to a single scale melody (yet to be written), and so although the progression diverges a bit, it more or less implies the same scale in one key. I just started practicing improv spanning accross different scales (just major and relative minor, using harmonic minor scale), so it'll be a while 'till I can digest multiple scales in multiple keys.... in the same melody.. but all in good time I guess.

It's really interesting, I had tried to avoid staying in th same key, using the good old I through VII over and over, with subdominants connecting to other subdominants to pull the progression further.. (usual II-III-IV-V selection) And now with bettervoicing ammo, those weren' so boring after all.

btw, jimmy hasn't checked in yet, but I'd like to thank jimmy for reminding me of the importance of layering. It reminded me that layering is unison, and like in orchestral arrangements, so many differnt timbres can be created from different combinations of unisons. I need to make use of this more!

It is too short !!

I really like the sparse effects used, and the textures are really FAT.

It has a great sense of movement in the stereo field, and the layers as you say seem to revolve.

Can't wait to hear more of this.


Very unique and powerful.