Looping. Threw this one together from Ben E. King’s classic track by way of Jade Castrinos’ cover. I only used elements from the original track.
Reflection and Response.
-P
the LIFESTYLE
Reflection and Response
Tag Archives: Samples
Bob Amy #1
(Train Tracks near Robledo de Fenar, León)
This track is a continuation on my Looping project I started with the Radio Leon series. Here I sample parts of Amy Winehouse’s Take The Box and Bob Dylan’s The Times Are A-Changin’. I also use my own drum set (sampled from hits taken from a session in Seattle) and other instruments from León. These sort of tracks are super fun to do live because of the power of effects and arrangement made easier by hardware that makes firing off samples pretty simple.
Reflection and Response
-P
Patchwork: Landscape
Patchwork: Landscape.
For this patchwork I used a sample recorded back in Berkeley from a nearly forgotten session with some old friends. I found an accordion track that seemed to go with the idea of the bicycle journey. I wrote the lyrics the next day (January 30th post day). V’s piece uses motion is such interesting ways- both the narrative and detail of V’s piece stuck out to me and were influences on this patchwork.
Full track
Instrumental
A Capella
Patchwork: Landscape
A friend said they look something like mountains/ obstacles to get around in/ a hill of wheels/ peaks an valleys/ bars and steel/ falling freely/ the feeling of a thousand movements suddenly still/
He said he’ll never again depict bicycles/Minute curves made many lights dull/Into morning/He’s pouring over each individual frame/3 panels later the piece became/What it is today/
Off in the dusk/ Johnny gets up/ Brushes off his must/Hops on two wheels starting to rust/ Heads downtown because it’s market day/ Grabs his mackerel two jars of lard mayonnaise/ Sets up his stand right by the French fry place/ Amsterdam’s morning hours are an early grey/ These surly markets will surely pay/ For a fresh fish sandwich that he’s still learning to make/
To the Southeast/ The second prayer is sounding/ Sarah peddles between beggars and sheiks/ Already the second quarter she’s missing her team/ Qualifying for championships/Rides her 6 speed over the mountain back to her crib/ Fast as shit/ Shifts to evade pebbles/Her gown nestles / Her nerves/If they score she needs it that’s passion for sure/ Cousin sees her fly fast a blur/ Blurts out Salam in time for the third/
A friend said they look something like mountains/ Obstacles to get around in/ A hill of wheels/ Peaks an valleys/ Bars and steel/ Falling freely/ The feeling of a thousand movements suddenly still/
He said he’ll never again depict bicycles/ Minute curves made many lights dull/ Into morning/ He’s pouring over each individual frame/ 3 panels later the piece became/ What it is today/
Back in Seattle/ Northwest’s saddle/ Steve’s done working/ He straddles the lake path’s rambles/ Got miles turned up with Chet Baker on the way/ Goddamn these Husky fans sure crowd up Montlake/ As he turns up that hill on forty-fifth/ Burning in his legs lets him know he’s still fit/ Prefers this to constraints of his car/ Gets home stows the Bianci in the backyard/ Feet up opens that peanut jar/
Joanna in the city where Steve’s bikes are spinning/ In the plant where this week her hours way past 60/ Used to make Ipads till her friend started feeling shitty/ Now can’t move her hands just turned 15/ Lives on the facility/ Her faculty is limited to assembling the same 4 millimeter part times infinity/ But she remembers when she arrived here on her two wheels/ Proud with work she can provide her own meals
A friend said they look something like mountains/ Obstacles to get around in/ A hill of wheels/ Peaks an valleys/ Bars and steel/ Falling freely/ The feeling of a thousand movements suddenly still/
He said he’ll never again depict bicycles/ Minute curves made many lights dull/ Into morning/ He’s pouring over each individual frame/ 3 panels later the piece became/ What it is today/
-P
-Reflection and Response.
Argentina Thursdays: A Pair of Coplas
Buenos Aires, early 2010. Coplas. Found throughout the Spanish-speaking world, the set up is a call and response format accompanied by a bombo, or drum. The coplas I recorded by folk music activist Pablo Martinez are Andean in origin. The instrument that sounds like an elephant is called an “erke.” I played the erke in Pablo’s folk music band, and play the erke part between the vocal parts on the track.
Think Spanish gospel.
Pablo Coplas
Aquí estoy porque he vendio
Porque he venido aquí estoy
Si no les gusta mi modo
Como he venido me voy
Una sola mujer tengo
Dos hijas quiero tener
Una pa de vez en cuando
Otra pa permanecer
Jujeño yo soy señores
Yo no niego a mi región
Jujeñito lengua dura
Canta cuando hay ocasión
Here I am because I have arrived
Because I have arrived I am here
If you don’t like my way
As I have arrived I’ll go
I have only woman
I want to have two girls
One for every now and then
The other for always
Gentlemen I am Jujeño
I do not forget (negate) my home
Young Jujeño of hard tongue
Sing when there is an occasion||
I then did a remix of Pablo’s track and added some drums, piano, bass, and chopped up his vocal sample. This remix was a fun way to collaborate with a kind of music that I had never heard before.
Coplas Remix
Reflection and Response
-P
Argentina Thursdays: What She’ll Miss
I used to be in a band during my first few years of college called Tuition Well Spent. Before I left to Argentina I recorded a melody I had written with Mike, the vocalist from Tuition. When I was in Argentina and learning how to use Logic Express 8 I found the vocal parts and decided to see what I could do with them. I can be heard using drum sticks to tap a rhythm out in the background during the vocal track. I also let Mike know that I felt the take by the grunts at the end.
Full Track
Vocal Track
So she doesn’t want to see me I can tell
Why she takes me so high that I fell
Maybe I over-think it all but I’m not sure
I got these blues baby I need a cure
So she doesn’t want to see me I can tell
Why she takes me so high that I fell
Maybe I over-think it all but I’m not sure
I got these blues baby I need a cure
Such a princess perfect every way
Find myself losing yet still I chase
One day she’ll know what she missed
Until then I swallow this bitterness
Reflection and Response
-P
Bed Bugs
I made Bed Bugs when I first visited Vicken in Brooklyn in August 2010 as V and his girlfriend Megan successfully avoided the bed bug scare that had become a problem in the borough that fall. Sometime during my stay at their apartment I had V say some things about bed bugs into my laptop’s microphone. Then I made a beat around that sample.
Bed Bugs
V’s Sample
Reflection and Response.
-P
Spark This Shit Flaming
Spark this Shit Flaming is a song that is over 5 years in the works. When I was in high school in Berkeley I used to practice with my band in my parents’ basement. One day I recorded myself playing a simple drum line thinking I might use the recording sometime in the future. Over 4 years later in 2010 in Seattle I cut up the drum line and had the homie Clarke play an organ part. I also added wah-wah guitar and a bassline. I wrote the verses in Spring 2011. I finished and recorded the chorus on the day of posting on September 19th, 2011 in Madrid, Spain.
Here’s the finished track. You can find the instrumental and a capella version below.
Instrumental
A capella
Search for the spark to start this shit flaming/ Burn the house of cards down all in and sick of playing/ Then flip the table over all the chips fall down/return to the night before the dawn clouds
I was sure she was like the nicest one around/ Both in a new place but from the same town/ So we stood that night spoke on the steps/ But she wavered sometimes just hope for the Best
And it’s like that/ and repeats the same way/ Fight back with verses I gain strength/ High above the surface shed its dang weight/ free of the smog of this bog we call days/ unlearning how to feel down forget she’s not calling/ Replace the brain better thoughts like fresh poppies/Turned into narcotics/ File failure away/ Collects dust like prophets who silently strayed/ Levitate with predicates hooked on phonics/ The subject takes a hit/ Adjective’s awesome/ rather be that then vapid/ Or hide my love away like cup cakes and fat kids/ but I’m breaking down the door to fatness/ Thinking these 20-minute runs put muscle where flab is/ Feel pain right where the calf is attached to the feet that beats down this path in
Search for the spark to start this shit flaming/ Burn the house of cards down all in and sick of playing/ Then flip the table over all the chips fall down/return to the night before the dawn clouds
I was sure she was like the nicest one around/Both in a new place but from the same town/ So we stood that night and spoke on the steps/ But she wavered and sometimes just hope for the best
Something I used to believe/ Everyone else is doing great/ Sandra comes up and into her arms she shakes/ She found love and so did Sandra/ They’re happy with their plugs and poka-dot bandanas/ And thank god they are/ They prefer the charm of happiness for those drama and scars/ Pharmaceutics preferred by college students/ Campus is a water bed designed by dr. Seuss’s/ Green eggs and ham themed fraternity party/Roman attire twisted to turn naughty/ sophomores perform Pilates on dance floors that tomorrow be more sticky than potties/Half the house wakes up with no belongings/ Cell phone been in that bowl since he texted that hottie/ Passed out before he send it now she’s off to Johnny’s/ She’s lost forever and his hangover’s throbbing
Search for the spark to start this shit flaming/ Burn the house of cards down all in and sick of playing/ Then flip the table over all the chips fall down/return to the night before the dawn clouds
I was sure she was like the nicest one around/ Both in a new place but from the same town/ So we stood that night spoke on the steps/ But she wavered sometimes just hope for the Best (x2)
Reflection and Response
-P
the LIFESTYLE 