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[gnarphlager]

Hello everyone!  Last week I wrote a new piece of music that's a little different for me.  I performed it Wednesday here in Pittsburgh opening for Remora.  I love Remora, but I don't know how many others around here know him; the show was poorly attended.  Regardless of that, the song seemed to get a good reception.  I'm still, however, unsure about the piece and if I should follow up on this style in general.  QC often references music that I like and that this particular song was influenced by, so I thought I'd share it with you guys; see what people like, or don't like, and where I should try and go from here.  I haven't formally recorded the song yet, but I do have a rehearsal recording from Sunday, which is here:

http://www.gnarphlager.com/sounds/dark2.mp3 (size warning...the song is 20 minutes long)

Previously, with this project (Pancreatic Aardvarks), I had done a lot with ambient guitar, a la Stars of the Lid (the first 5 minutes of this song are all guitars), but I wanted to try bringing some of the electronic influences I have, as well as more melodic post-rock type music.  This was the first result.  For the gearspotters out there, it's done with a roland MC-909 and 12 string guitar in open d tuning (the trad. folk influence there!)  Also, it being a rehearsal, you'll forgive the occasional wrong note (11:55 makes me wince!)

Anyway, enough babble.  Let me know what you guys think, good or bad or ambivalent!  If you'd like to e-mail me, josh (at) gnarphlager (dot) com will get to me.

Thanks for listening!

[Thrillho]

I'll give this a listen. Ambient 20-minute guitar pieces in DADF#AD? That's my kinda shit.

If you're into making this kind of music, you might like the ambient, post-rock kinda stuff that I've done. Fancy a gander?

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=434314

'Hoping For Palestine' is my masterpiece, if you care. So I'd suggest starting with that one. It's also the one with the least hiss..

[Thrillho]

Right - I quite liked this piece. Although like a lot of ambient stuff, I find it hard to necessarily pay attention for the entire track, it worked very well for what it was and I like it a lot. Also, considering it was predominantly guitars, albeit in open tuning, I was very impressed.

[godinpants]

I'm still listening to it, about half way through.

I have to say, that is a lot of sound to be be getting out of a guitar, but i felt like it didn't go anywhere for so long. It just stayed on the same soundscape, there wasnt really too much of a build up until you get to where the bass line comes in.

I like the drum parts, it's hard(atleast for me) to create a drum pattern that will keep it moving while also maintaining the whole ambient spacious feel of the piece.

If that is just your rehearsal recording, I would love to hear the final work.

I liked it, are you creating all those looped atmospheres and triggering the drums and everything on the fly? I'm curious what your live set up involves and how you do it.

[Thrillho]

Yeah I'm curious about that too.

[gnarphlager]

Thanks for listening!  Equipment-wise, the synth parts are programmed into the 909, which is great sonically, but sadly deficient as far as recording melodies and/or drones as you play.  Contrast that with the Korg EMX-1, with which I can play a melody, do filter sweeps and effects manipulations all without stopping the pattern.  That said, the EMX is limited to 8 bars per pattern, while the 909 has some sort of insane limit of a couple hundred bars per pattern.  Right now all of that is an 8 bar loop (which is why the flute melody, for example, gets really redundant really fast), but I'm working on that now.  Anyway, for this recording, I more or less triggered sounds, fading them in and out as appropriate as I played the guitar. 

I've been working with a vocalist (the other singer from my band, Narse) doing textural effect/type vocals, so hopefully that will make the intro move a little more, but not TOO much.  Ambient music is still my main love, and seeing how I can mix it with the melodic bits and drum machines.  When it moves along to a "final" recording, I'll post it again!

Your stuff is pretty good too, DynamiteKid.  As you mentioned the recordings are a little on the low-fi side.  What are you recording with? 

[Thrillho]

A shitty computer mic that was probably put together by Vietnamese children for less than a penny a week and whatever instruments I choose to use.