Ripping off Steve Reich

I was playing around with some new phasing techniques Sunday night. Unfortunately, everything I created sounds like old Steve Reich. On Phase2, I took a single phrase from a rant from an AA meeting. I then looped it a few times. I then duplicated the whole track a few times. In each of the duplicated tracks, I shortened the beginning portion of the song, then extended the last portion to make it the same length as the original track. This means that the multiple tracks slowly fall out of sync, then come back together at the very end of the track. A little different than Reich's process, but similar results.

With Phase3, instead of looping the whole sample, I looped only portions of the sample. This gave the track some interesting changes in texture as one looped section transitioned into another.

I plan on using the same techniques on some melodic material to see what happens, but until then...

Surrent - Phase2
Surrent - Phase3

Stupid at work.

I was waiting for something to finish up at work, so I decided to spent my down time playing in Ableton. I created 6 channels, each containing 3 MIDI loops. Each loop contained 4 notes, but were all different lengths but still related to each other in tempo. For example, my first loop was just 4 quarter notes. Then I created another loop that was 3/2 as long (6 beats), but still only 4 notes so each note became a dotted quarter. After that was a third loop which was 5/4 as long as the original, but still only 4 notes. Randomize. Play with filters. Turn things off and on. MUSIC!

Surrent - SAW

The new sound of North Hero - Hip Hop for Kids.

For a few weeks now, Kari has wanted to make up some hip hop beats to give to some kids she knows. Last night, we sat down and created our first beat. She was the producer and I was the engineer. It was a lot of fun. This is the new sound of North Hero.

Not really.

North Hero - Hip Hop for Kids

Our first label release. Pre-release version for cheap!

I made mention a few days ago about my band being shown some interest by a label. Well, it looks like Reverb Worship, a small CD-R label in the UK, has decided to release our album January February. We couldn't be happier!

Before Reverb Worship agreed to release our record, we had already made a few copies to sell at our show Saturday. If you would like a copy of January February, send Kari or me a message and we can set up payment arrangements. The cost is $5 postage paid or $3 if you are local. I'll even hand deliver!

I printed, scored, folded, cut, numbered and stamped each CD; this release is limited to 14 copies and I've got 10 left.


If you'd rather buy it from us at a show, our next scheduled performance is April 12th in Mansfield. Hope to see you there. :)

Two new North Hero tracks. One new North Hero album -now with Label Interest™!!!

I just posted some new North Hero music up on the ol' MyFace. The two new tracks are "This Is Love" and "Darker, Darker". They are the first two tracks off of our next release, January February. We're clever, aren't we. Oh yeah... Label Interest™. It's really not a big deal. A CD-R label in England wants to release an album of ours. They do runs of 50-100 handmade CD-Rs. Our friends Stone Baby are releasing some music on their label as well, so that's totally cool! We've sent them January February. Perhaps they will enjoy it.

Tour's coming along. Three dates now: May 24th in Rochester, NY, May 29th in Philadelphia, PA, and June 6th in Burlington, VT. We want two more in between May 24 and 29, but we're not too worried. It will be fun regardless.

Surrent - Wastrel

I'm so sick of listening to music right now, but I have to keep at it. Recording and mixing three projects in three days (and four in a week) really wears on your ears. (Un)fortunately, I was unable to get together with my friend Matt to record, so I haven't driven myself to tears just yet. Also (un)fortunately, I don't think the North Hero session from Friday night was good enough to do anything with... maybe.

On the brighter side, I'm very happy to say that my last session, my solo session, was definitely my favorite thing I recorded in the past week and probably my favorite thing I've recorded ever. I combined an acoustic guitar tuned CGCGC (Yes, I'm missing a string) played with a violin bow and my electric, which I played with both pick and bow. I recorded two takes, the first of which was recorded in its entirety. I forgot to set up GarageBand properly for the second take, so I only captured the first 6 minutes of it. Poop. I don't really mind, it got kind of horrible in the middle anyway. :) I've done no editing on these tracks other than adjusting levels and removing a few clicks. Also, if you listen carefully, you can hear my cat, Eh! Steve, making his recording debut!

Surrent - Wastrel

Note: this is the low quality version of the album. I might actually try to do a real release with this, so I need to retain something of value!

Wall of Sound Manipulations

In my first post, I posted a session I had done with Steven Guerrero and A Useful Idiot. I have since manipulated the hell out of a couple sections of those recordings. Weird little beeps and boops get delayed to build very dense soundscapes. Number 2 gets particularly thick.

Wall of Sound 1
Wall of Sound 2

Surrent v. A Useful Idiot - Score Duel

One down, four to go.

Dustin came over last night for a little twin-guitar improv action. The results were okay, not great. I think we played well and interestingly, but the sound quality of the recording is a bit... eh. Before he arrived, I had setup three microphones to capture the carnage: a large-diaphragm condenser on my amp, a dynamic on his amp, and a small-diaphragm condenser as a room mic. I got all the levels set and verified everything was sounding nice. However, Dustin plays a LOT louder than I do. When he started playing, I turned up my amp a bit to compensate but forgot to adjust the mics. Because of this, the mic on my amp was pretty much blown out the entire time and the room mic was overloaded occasionally. However, his mic sounded great. I was able to mix the room mic with his amp mic to get a usable sound. There are a few bits where it gets grainy and clippy, especially at the very end, but on the whole, I likes. I hope you do, too.

Surrent v. A Useful Idiot - Score Duel

I'm not dead yet. More recordings this week! (and a North Hero teaser)

I'm already running into the same problem I've had with other blogs I've done. I've got a ton of content to begin with, but then I give up or forget... I'm determined not to let this happen this time. But if it does, oh well!

Anyway, here's the recording schedule for this week:

02/04: Surrent vs. A Useful Idiot
02/05-08: North Hero
02/09-10: Surrent vs. Steven Guerrero, Surrent vs. welcometovietnam, and a solo Surrent recording.

I'm planning on doing a pure drone album or series of albums. I've wanted to for a while, but it's so hard to commit to the drone. I used to not believe it, but playing slow is just as difficult as playing fast, if not more so. This weekend will be the first attempt. If it sucks, I will stop. If it doesn't suck, I'm sure I'll have a new release next week. :)

The North Hero tour is coming along. We're solidifying the Philadelphia date right now and just got an offer for a show in Rochester. We also picked up a date at an experimental festival in Mansfield in April. Things are looking up!

Anyway, here's a few tracks Kari and I recorded a couple weeks ago:
North Hero - 20080123song1.mp3
North Hero - 20080123song2.mp3
North Hero - 20080123song3.mp3

We're going on tour!

North Hero is going on tour. Not too bad for a band that just officially formed on Monday, eh?

We just confirmed our first date: June 6th @ Radio Bean, Burlington, VT.

I'm also working with ET on setting up a date with his band LATRALMAGOG in Philadelphia in the last week of May.

We're also looking for dates in these areas at the end of May: Baltimore/DC, NYC, Albany, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, New England, etc.... Anybody out there got some shows they'd love to give us? Or millions of dollars? Or our own spaceship?