Everything’s gone green - The world of mistrust music

Following on from my previous post about how I started making music with various bits and pieces of old radios and things, I posted a comment on Createdigitalmusic’s website about all it in an article about Kids making electronic music between the 60s and the 80s. I also I put in a link to “This is the Mood….”, the track I made in the mid-80s using just a Jen SX1000, Casio MT31, and a Kay Drum Machine. I was really surprised to get a reply. I maybe expected maybe a “hmmm”, or “well, it WAS the 80’s”. The reply came from the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher himself, Peter Kirn: “Excellent. Totally excellent”.

I’m convinced there’s something in some of these old tracks of mine - maybe I have a plan….

Have a look at the original article on Createdigitalmusic, with all the comments:

Kids making electronic music

I often get asked how long I’ve been making electronic music. The answer is - probably most of my life! My dad was a TV engineer in the 60s and 70s, so he had allsorts of circuit testers and oscilloscopes and other bits of junk that I could mess around round and make odd bleeps and sinewave wails! My dad also had an old valve stereo radio and I used to tune it in to all sorts of weird and wonderful Eastern European radio stations on Short-Wave, and made crazy frequency sweeps. I even hooked up a model train transformer to the radio’s input socket and made wacky noises. I moved on to buying a cheap stereo reel-to-reel in a wooden box and recorded tunes I made on an old electronic organ that worked by blowing air from a fan. The first “proper” song I made was called “The Car Park”, and then something called “Do you know Mister Wall?” (anyone spot where I got that title from?). I used to try making “musique concrete” tunes by cutting up my tapes, but I didn’t have the right gear to join them up again, and made a horrible mess of the tape heads!

I got my first synth in about 1980 - a Casio MT31, followed by a Kay Memory Rhythm, and then a Jen SX1000. Not much, I know, but it was all I could afford and it allowed me to make tunes for all the lyrics I’d been writing about teenage angst and life in general. I recorded everything onto a Phillips hi-fi system (with adjustable Left and Right mic inputs!) bounced down with a Phillips portable cassette player and a home-made 4-input mixer (in a small tin box!). Most of the parts were pretty much played live, then bounced down and things like the synth solos and vocals were played over the top.

I made about 5 cassette tapes full on songs around that time, and they all survive to this day. The only one I’ve copied to CD so far is the first one, called “Ultraviolent Light”. Listening to them now makes me think of the songs of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, who still use similar gear as I used. One of the tracks from this “album” is called “This is the Mood (I’m in) and is here for you to listen to in all it’s glory. Bear in mind that it’s from a cassette tape that’s nearly 30 years old and I haven’t used any noise removal equipment….. it sounds quite a quirky little song….see what you think!

This is the Mood (I’m in) - 4′40″

Download:

This is the Mood (I’m in)

I’ve been using Acid Pro, samples, plugins, etc for ages but I’m now seriously thinking of going “hardware” (much more fun!). Thought about getting a basic mixer but I need more flexible routing and control (MIDI/Audio), and someone recommended the Presonus Firestudio. It looks like it’s the sort of thing I need, so maybe someone who’s reading this has used one? I think it’s around £500 and seems to be worth it - it includes loads of plugins and comes with Cubase 4 LE, Reason Adapted, and loads of other stuff. I’ve already got a computer so it might be the complete package - it got a great review in MTM too! There’s an offer on at the moment where you get a rebate on the MSR remote control for the Firestudio….

Anyone else used one of these? If you have or can offer some advice, please let me know….It’s a big outlay so I want to get it right!

I’ve been working on the Pitch Black remix for the last week and a half, but I’m getting quite bogged down with it. The problem is that I’ve been too reliant on sample CDs to find something that fits the existing tune (”Rude Mechanicals”) and not really restricting myself to only a few sounds. I use Acid Pro pretty much all the time for getting ideas down quickly, but it’s too easy to become lost in all the options that it gives you. My attempt at this remix is a bit “directionless” at the moment, and I’m probably doing the wrong thing by listening to remixes of other Pitch Black tracks in order to get some direction. A friend of mine - DJ and musician, The Only Michael - who did a Pitch Black remix a couple of years ago, advised me not to listen to other remixes, and to just do what inspires me from the original track.

Just came across an interesting site which gives a really good breakdown on the things you need to do these days to get your music “out there”. It’s been set up by Last FM, the music networking site, who are calling the site “Now form a band”, and has a manifesto of “The Campaign for Better Music”. Aren’t we all looking for better music? Well, hopefully this will explain….

The Campaign for Better Music is here to say: it doesn’t have to be like the old days. We’re going to show you how to produce, promote and distribute your music, without spending a load of money, and without lots of other people getting involved.

Have look for more information over at

Now form a Band….