The Flow Of All Things
Morphing Mechanism III
The idea for this project came about at the end of 2006, when I started toying with the idea of putting together a new, hardware based live pa. I was hoping it would become the 3rd Morphing Mechanism live set I did, an ongoing series I do to chronical my live sets over the years. (the last one was called "Transitions" and is on the DJ Mixes page).
Initially the project was to use my Elektron Machinedrum paired with a Virus TI Keyboard. For whatever reason, I kept running into bugs with the combination, so I gave up on the idea of doing it all with hardware. My next idea was to use a single softsynth and software drum machine in Live to create a concept CD using the same theme. I settled on Zebra2 and Battery 3, and quickly got to work on creating an hour long piece of music divided into 8 sections. The idea was the have the whole album play more like a single performance, but with distinct sections based on my theme of things in nature that flow continuously.
Only a few weeks later I had written a massive amount of music, when suddenly Battery 3 somehow corrupted all of my Live project files. Luckily I had made some audio recordings of the work in progress shortly before this happened, so I was able to use the drum sounds from Battery directly in Live and recreate all the drum parts. Almost a year went by as I worked on the songs, and things were going very well. I hadn't really set any sort of timetable for getting everything done, so I was content taking my time and making it all work just right. Then around July of 2007, I learned that my wife and I were going to be moving to Seattle, which more or less meant the project was going to be shelved right as I was nearing completion.
The move took longer than expected for various reasons, and by the time my studio was back up and running, I was no longer really in the same headspace as when I started the project. Add to that the stresses of moving, and trying to find a new job, and I knew that I would never be able to complete the CD project as originally intended. Instead I slowly worked on finishing the tunes and releasing them one by one. So in a way the tunes I released from January to June 2008 are the original ideas I had for The Flow Of All Things, just with different names (these are on the Tracks page btw).
Fast-forward a few months and things had finally settled down for me in Seattle. I had also managed to pick up a Korg EMX-1, which seemed like a great piece of gear to pair with the Machinedrum. As I worked with both more, I began to think that perhaps it was time to revisit the Flow idea, and that I could finally do it all as a performance piece using only hardware. So I set about once again creating the 8 movements that would encompass the entire set.
By August I was more or less done with the writing phase, and I set about working on performing the set, something I had not done with hardware in more than a few years. I was finally able to record the set I thought best represented what I wanted to achieve on August 26th, 2008. Simpler and less dense than most of my studio productions, I think this live set is a good counterpoint to the type of music I normally write. I daresay more minimal than my usual tunes, though not minimal in the sense of that genre.
Recorded live in one pass, no editing, mastering or other enhancements done to the recording other than a bit of limiting to use up the empty 0's. Drum are all done on the Elektron SPS-1UW mk1, and all the synth parts were done on a Korg EMX-1. These were routed seperately into an Allen & Heath Xone62 for more filtering and EQing on the fly options, then recorded into Logic Pro 8, via a MOTU Ultralite.
Hope you enjoy.
Tarekith
August 25th, 2008
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After getting many requests for a follow up to my first Thievery Corporation DJ mix, I finally got around to getting it done. Uses songs from all their studio albums, check the DJ Mixes page here for the tracklist!
Thievery Corporation V2 DJ Set
In other news, I'm just putting the finishing touches on my new Live PA, the first all hardware set I've done in years. Hoping to have a version recorded an online any day now, so check back often for the download link.
Tarekith
August 25th, 2008
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I am now selling my tracks on Addictech.com, as one of the few independant artists they have agreed to carry (along with such heavy-weights as Tipper, Bill Bless, and Kilowatts). As such, all tracks on my Tracks page released after 2006 are now 128kbps MP3's. For 192kbps MP3, 320kbps MP3, FLAC, and WAV file versions of these songs, please visit my artist page on Addictech.com. If you like what you hear, or have gained some benefit from the numerous articles I've written about music production, I'd really appreciate you stopping by and showing your support by buying a track or two. The proceeds will help me to pay for this site's bandwidth, which has skyrocketted in the last few months as more people download my DJ mixes, gear reviews, and production articles.
To celebrate the Addictech deal, another DJ Set is up on the DJ Mixes page, this one some nice, chill summer downtempo.
"Splintered DJ Set"
Thanks, and enjoy!
Tarekith
May 28th, 2008
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