P A N droppin' his links...
 

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Hello zevokes,

So far I have listened to your zevokes MySpace music and Twiddophile, since you said the latter is your most recent. I enjoyed the variety of sounds you use!

The first song that I listened to was "Left Open," which has a mellow light sound with you singing with yourself, correct?

After listening to this song, I was then surprised to listen to the others, all of which I'd classify as electronica mixed with your wide variety of instruments! The songs have a meditative quality to me, since your melodies are usually fairly simple but you introduce many different variations and sounds. Your quick panning left or right made the songs grab my attention. There certainly is a lot in them. I liked the complexity.

"Shoot sprout"...I liked the deep hits at 1:40 and 1:56 or so, and especially the flute with its raspy sound (such as at 2:55).). I think this raspy sound happens when the air flow sets up some strange vibrations. Was that you playing? Have you considered using vocals in some of your purely instrumental songs?

"It's called canvas 3009" (I hope I'm reading my notes correctly from last night)...very quick panning L and R. If I had had a headache, I might have felt that quick L to R to L to R got too much, but I didn't have a headache so I enjoyed you playing with where the sound comes from. Lots of sounds...rasping, scratchy sounds, thunder-like sounds, spluttering. It was a longer song and I didn't hear much cohesiveness from start to finish because it seemed to change a lot. A lot of distortion!

"Maude" song...interesting chanted vocals!

"Twidophile"--definitely sounded the most intricate to me. Bell tones, syncopation, rasps, rapid fire hits. I especially liked a little swooping note you used...perhaps the slide whistle? Sometimes I wished that the lower tones in the song were held longer or were deeper, more ominous. Again, I enjoyed the variety of sounds, which kept my interest. At 2:53 you introduced a new overlapping repetitive motif (counterpoint), which I liked.

Summary: the complexity of your music appeals to me. Despite all that goes on in them, your music somehow still seems soothing...perhaps because of the repetition in it. I'll plan to listen to the rest, too!

thank you vegangelica for listening and commenting. i did not expect such a strong critique, but i guess that's what music banter is for.

firstly i'd like to say that aside from being a drummer, i am a novice at all the other stuff. i really enjoy experimenting, but like you say with Canvas 3005, cohesion is sometimes hard to achieve when i don't have an idea of what i want before going into it. canvas 3005 was one of my very first attempts at purely synthesized music. honestly, i think i'm going to rip the whole first 1.5 minutes out of it... or i might, anyway. and as for the panning, i've since learned to use the effect of it in a way that is much less hard on the brain. i still like the dramatic shifts, but if you go to far left or right too quick with certain sounds, as you say, is not good for headaches.

"left open" was the first song i ever recorded (and maybe wrote) using my own voice, a guitar, and protools... and some finger-played percussion.

"shoot sprout" and it's flute are synthesized, meaning that the rasp and flutter were generated via lots and lots of time spent fiddling with parameters to get a certain timbre or tone or phase or whatever. i would love to have real instruments, but they are expensive, hiring people to play them is expensive, and quite frankly there are things you can do with synthetic sounds that can't be done with physical instruments, things i'm rather fond of.

Maude Generic Tester. the chanted vocals on that track are the bane in the history of my recording. it's actually called throat singing. that sound is achieved by vibrating both sets of vocal cords at two different (but harmonizing) rates. the reason i call that song the bane is that i really like throat singing and don't think it should be over-used, but when i finalized that project something happened and the chant went out of sync with the rest of the tracks. i think it's like two beats ahead or something. i would correct it, but i make my music on a desktop computer not quite geared for sound, and shortly after i finalized that track my computer crashed and i lost all the data which made up that song. this happens to me all the time, and is why in my MB profile it says that i want a record deal, so as i can spend some money on solid gear and not have to worry about all this sh*te.

twiddophile is currently my favourite synth music that i've made. it took a very long time to make, because the glitch sounds that came out weren't made with some automated plugin which rips sounds up for the user, but rather i actually had to program every single little micro sound to achieve a less "algo-rhythmic" feel and a more random or organic sound. i can't recall if i used a slide-whistle-type VST, but that's definitely possible. as far as low tones, i'm currently doing a bit of research so as i can properly "seat" those kinds of frequencies. as it stands, i find them entirely difficult to manage. i also have this tendency to get too "notey" with the "bass" end, resulting in my never finding lines that i like.

i like that you find my music soothing. not what i expect to hear, but nice to hear nonetheless. i do plan on adding vocals to some newer electronic stuff that i'm doing. well, i'm actually working on it, but find it hard because the sort of sound scape that i create synthetically is one i find hard to mesh with the way my voice works, but like i say, i'm working on it anyway!

the current work that i'm most excited about is actually composed entirely of vocals. lots of chanting and swells, plus a little bit of my voice turned into a synthesizer... inspired to a certain degree by Bjork's album Medulla. i look up to bjork in a really big way.

i hope that answers your questions sufficiently.

and yeah, THANKS FOR YOUR TIME!!! MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

EDIT: i just noticed you said in "left open" that i am singing WITH myself. you are indeed correct. i don't have a good microphone, so i layer the vocals, which gives a little more depth.

You are very welcome, zevokes. Learning about the process others use to make their music is the main reason I'm here!

I like the dramatic shifts, too: they make the song reach out and interact more strongly with me, which I like, but I think it is true that too much panning can be hard on the head.

I couldn't even tell for sure if the flute was synthesized! I also like synthetic sounds because they are distinct from real instruments' sounds...though surprisingly similar sometimes.

There's a thread in the international music section that includes some throat singing! So are *you* doing the throat singing yourself!?

I actually hadn't realized the singing was out-of-phase with the music at the end...now I'll have to listen again more critically!;)

Your data loss must have been a horror come true for a musician making mostly synthesized music. Do you have an external harddrive that you can use at least to back-up your computer?

I could hear the effort in this song. I appreciate that. Thanks for describing some of the issues you face as you construct music (such as with trying to prevent the bass lines from getting too "notey"). I like hearing about the thought-processes you have as you're constructing the song, because I relate them to my own and learn from them.

I can relate to that issue of not feeling that vocals match the sound of the music one wants.

I'll have to look up Bjork's album Medulla. I'm happy to hear about your excitement over making music, because I love the whole process, too! It's nice to connect via MusicBanter with people who enjoy the creative process in a similar way.

Yep, you answered my questions and you are welcome for my time...I'm glad to help. It helps me, too, to hear what other people are creating.

~ Erica

the whole of Bjork's Medulla is composed of only mouth sounds. it's quite amazing. mind you, like me, she's taken tiny pieces of her voice and other peoples' voices and turned them into all sorts of other sounds. so sometimes you're probably thinking, "there's no way that's made of a voice," but it all is. it's very much different from all her other work.

yes, it is me throat singing. my dad got me into it by showing me these Tuvan throat singers, who write their music as messages to the wind and rivers and mountains and so on. i'm not very good at it, but find that rhythmically i can achieve a pretty neat didgeridoo-type sound. there's much more to it than i have time to concern myself with, and by no means call myself a throat singer.

i unfortunately do not have an external hard drive to back up all my stuff. see, i'm the stereotypical broke-ass musician that when he does have money, blows it on instruments, food, coffee, and cigarettes (and bills and rent of course), and sometimes i don't think about the things i REALLY need (ie. external hard drive), which of course bites me in the ass on a regular basis. i'm currently in search of work too, which makes this problem more apparent in my life... but you know, whatever. i think i have some luck coming my way....

what kind of music do YOU make, Erica?
-z.

I listened to the songs on your ilike page, z, and have some more feedback to give.

"Let's Bang," "Spiral Caught" and "Prayer" all remind me of folk songs mixed with Native American chants. When I lived in Wyoming, I liked going to Pow Wows to get close to my Native American roots (of which I, alas, have none), and I enjoyed the chanting and spontaneous drumming that arose among various groups/tribes over the course of the day. Your songs have a lot of repetition, similar to the the chants in the Pow Wows, and your voice is strong. You even do some yodeling!

I had a hard time understanding the vocals (the actual words and their meaning), but in "Prayer" I felt the somewhat bluesy lyrics were very rhythmic, which perhaps relates to you being a drummer: you like complex rhythms.

I also listened to "The Sip" and "Oh Yeah." "The Sip" has an eerie feel and you are doing the throat singing, as well as using piano and drums and a bubbly sound, which give an interesting beat. Again, you use lots of details. I found myself wanting the deeper sounds to be drawn out and accentuated...perhaps lower notes sustained throughout parts of the song to give a more cohesive, solid sound beneath all the intricacies you like.

I realized that one reason your songs sound meditative to me is that they often lack clear build-ups and releases (common in pop music). The energy level doesn't change dramatically throughout the pieces.

In "Oh yeah," an orchestral-sounding song with a repeated motif, there *was* a buildup around midway through (after which "trumpets" enter and the piece takes on a Copland feel). I expected to hear a sudden introduction of drums into the piece near the beginning...something to make the energy rev up to a higher level earlier on. "Oh yeah" was my favorite of those I listened to today, probably because as a violin-player I gravitate to the orchestral sound of this piece.

Your "synthetic" songs verge on being controlled chaos, which is part of their appeal for me. However, I'd prefer more definite build-ups and releases so that I felt more form in the chaos. Also, during "Oh yeah" I found myself wishing again that there were more base to create a solid feel under all the syncopation. I enjoyed very much all the details of the different sounds, and the rhythms, but wanted to hear a clearer over-all shape to the song.

I listened to one of her songs from "Medulla" and can hear she is a musical adventurer.

It's an interesting effect and one I don't know how to achieve. I have enough troubles with regular singing! ;) A didgeridoo sound *is* nice, though.

You mentioned quite openly in the "Spiral Caught" video that one of your goals is to make money through music (which I interpret as meaning you want to survive doing something you love). That has got to be a challenge! Since I like to make music purely for fun, that takes off all stress. Do you find much of a conflict between your desire to make music that you feel is revolutionary, and your desire to make music that people will pay to listen to?

You asked about my music. I make fledgling (as in no songs are in their final form yet!), lyrics-driven music using all "real" instruments (that vibrate the air). I play in my spare time when I am alone in the home, which is infrequent, and so I have less time than I want right now to play. I love the whole process of making/recording music very much, though. Thinking that I'll have a big chunk of alone time to practice gives me something to look forward to for days!

Unlike you, I'd say I'm not the stereotypical musician (except that I do tend to acquire a lot of instruments). I don't know how many middle-aged moms suddenly get the urge to create their own music after over 30 years of playing other people's music in classical music groups! Maybe there are some of us out there. I haven't met any yet!

i don't know how much of your post i can tend to right now, (i say that while very much appreciating the time you've taken to form an opinion and post it), but i wanna say something about that video where i say i want to make money to start. it is my belief that i don't play pop music. it is also my belief that the state of popular music's criteria is a dim thing to witness. i don't make money playing music. i just know that i can serve as a medium through which music can pass. i could chalk this up to many years of practice and of playing the drums, or i can look at it as though the will of LIFE ITSELF is inside every note that comes out of my manipulations of space and time. i also believe that anyone is capable of this. but that dim-thing-to-look-at thing runs rampant in the peoples' psychological framework (due to something you could probably call "omni-exposure") effectively obliterating the will of the majority to recognize the "notion" that music is one of the only things that is real. as a result of it being so real, all living things can make music. music is alive in everything around us, and will still be here when we are not. this is very important, i think, that music is in everything, because to recognize this is to bend your perspective... it's not likely that you look at the world as a very complex and beautifully articulated formula or set of frequencies... and when you bend your perspective to account for your own involvement in this enormous and amazing thing, you begin to harmonize yourself with everything else in it... which is exactly what people need to do, because the world is falling apart, whether anyone is in denial or not, and it's simply because we've lost touch with our... with our... hmmm... inner-animals? inherent nature? we're bent and broken versions of a species that was once not ever lost, and our current advancements are brought to us in ways that help us ignore the most great aspects of being human and alive in the universe ... or multiverse ...

when i say i want to make money "making music," i am thoughtfully submitting to the monetary system, knowing full well, that without a demo or a band, or a gameplan for that matter the chances are slim to none. i think money itself is at the very roots of the current state of the human and it's decrepit and lame posture. to be frank, we're f*cking slaves to a system run by men and their dumb and archaic but nonetheless POWERFUL wills. we live in an age of technology where the total amount of information on the planet will double in 10 months. after 1.5 cycles of that, every eight months. awhile after that and we're at a technological state where the amount of information the people on earth have access to doubles every six months. humans are amazing, and the people that make money running corporations (who are effectively the governors of the world) live in fear of the idea that the people as a whole might recognize this. it would not be good for business if the human race just all-of-sudden starting believing in itself. it's possible, if it actually happened that people connected themselves to everything around them rather than isolating themselves to the limited confines of individuality (i think individuality is a concept and is propagated by what is most commonly referred to as culture), that money probably would not be any use, as technology would be open-source and the already-exponential growth rate of that information would go EVEN FASTER... this is the key to abundance.

i also think that people going to their jobs from 9-5 (and yes, i know that people can overcome the odds, but there are still odds, and as long as we succumb to the grips of money and personal gain as a worldwide civilization, tim hortons, subway, the factories, and your local corner store will always need people to work for less than what provides them with any comfort at all, and the rich will hand down their little slice of the empire to their sons, daughters, and grandchildren) is no good. people like to work. people also become happy when they discover they are creative. but this whole mechanized approached to dealing with the concept of time is outdated, and really has no concern for the animal that is a human and its biological clock. it's not set up for evolution to happen. it's not even (believe it, or not) set up to foster the advancement of technologies at its most natural/optimum rate... it's way slower.

so anyway, the videos you've seen and the music you've heard on my pages are just examples of my progress in my experimentation. not really "projects" per se. i put them on the net with it in mind firstly that people and friends might like or be interested in what i'm up to, but also with a sliver of hope that someone with some cash will see what i'm up to and help me out. i have very little resources, but am quite passionate about the ideas i want to spread, and have bad-ass rhythm. although i cannot devote 100% of my energy and time to this, i would like to, and that can only happen if i have a substantial amount of money to work with.

and as for your ACTUAL question (oops, haha) i don't think people should have to pay to see music. i do understand though that stages and "performances" cost money and this is why they do. but no, i do not find that balance difficult, because as i say, i don't believe i make pop music, and if people decide to listen to me, it is because either they already get it, or they like those sounds coming from the speakers and the ideas that are there feel oddly relevant...

that's all for now.

thanks again, Erica.

and, is there any of your music online i can listen to?

Yes, I agree your music isn't pop music and doesn't intend to be, zevokes. My main complaint with popular music is that it sometimes seems vapid and designed mainly to impress. I think the theatricality of popular musicians, who try to appear unique such that the masses admire them, is a strange phenomenon and a little sad, since it seems to separate people from music-making.

hmm...actually I *do* look at the world as a very complex set of frequencies of energy and states of matter! ;)

I agree music is in everything and that there really isn't a divide between musicians and non-musicians. We all make sounds intentionally, which I would define as human-created music. Right now my keyboard is making a pleasant tick-tick-tick-thud sound. Music? I'd say, yes!

While I don't see people as being broken versions of our human ancestors, I do agree that human greed and love have led the planet in directions I wish it weren't going.

Also, with all the distractions (materialism, for example) I think it may be hard for people just to sit back and enjoy our awareness and our participation in existence. I don't know who said it, but I very much like some quote about how we humans are the universe that has become aware of itself. I like that quote because I feel it is true and it does encourage a feeling of unity with everything.

Getting rid of money would be very difficult because money equals power and without it people can't buy food, can't go places, and have essentially no choices in life. I do feel life would be better if governments offered security and support to citizens so that basic life fears (such as how you'll afford food and who will care for you in old age and how will you pay for it?) can be diminished.

I agree very much that people are happy when they discover they are creative and, I would add, capable. I agree that capitalistic exploitation of workers, all for profits of shareholders, is ethically wrong, and I feel requires government regulations to prevent business greed from overcoming concern for fellow humans who, lacking money and power, can be easily exploited.

It is difficult to have the time to be creative when you have to spend a lot of time trying to earn a living. I applaud you for trying to find a balance between the need to make a living and the fundamental urge to express yourself, zevokes, under tough conditions. As someone who is also rather passionate about her causes (you'll see! ;) ), I can relate to your drive.

An advantage of music in the Internet age is that you may not need *too* much money to reach an audience. A disadvantage is that the chance of having a large audience is pretty small since there are so many musicians out there...though this is actually a good thing, I feel, for people as a whole...that is, I'm glad so many people are enjoying being musically creative.

I also like the idea of creating music that says what you want, without catering overly much to what others wish it would be...since then it wouldn't entirely be your music anyway!

I know musicians want to earn a living, so I understand why they charge money for their creations...just as artists charge money for their paintings.

Yep, I have some music online, with the link in my contact information of my profile...and I have one youtube song posted among my lyrics in my songwriting thread. Many of my songs are about people mistreating animals...plus I like to write some non-serious songs to amuse myself and hopefully others! I'm a "radical vegan."

Say, would you like to post some of your lyrics? Like I wrote earlier, I can't follow them completely when you sing them, so I'd like to read some if you wouldn't mind posting them!

~ Erica

very cool!

wow man. jesus. i could say SO MUCH right now. i'm actually afraid to get going for fear of spending three hours typing... so i'm just going to type out the lyrics of "Left Open," the "acoustic" track on my myspace page. i really like this one, because i did it in like two hours. it just came out one day, and my computer and recording gear all happened to work. (mind you, the sound quality is poor, and i don't care)

here goes:

it's a weird time, this time,
what with all the decisions to consider
the revisions to deliver
and about which way down
which little river
is this little boat gonna go....

it's a fine line
this time between
the heavenly and devilish,
brevities, longevities,
and about which way
will the levy break...
...and how the wave'll carry me down.

i got no paddle
and it doesn't really bother me
cuz all around a before me
is this big, beautiful sea,
shining and beaming
and gleaming and trying
to bring me

out into the open.
that's where i can,
where i stand, where i'm Man...
...and that's still something to live for.

sometimes you just gotta take little second to ask a question;
and, so i say:

did it ever occur
to anyone else
that maybe, just maybe
there's a little baby
in all of us
with a mother out there
who really really really really really really cares
to see us strive
and see us alive...
...and see that our time's not wasted?

"Left Open" is beautiful, zevokes.

I would write more...and will write more later...about the word choice, the flow, and especially the meaning...except right now it is 9:15 PM for me, and I am a mother out there with a child I need to put to bed and read stories to, because I really really really really really really care to see him strive and see him alive and see that his time is not wasted!

More later! :)

~ Erica

z., I have a little more time now (I'm on a work break!) to tell you what I like about your lyrics. I decided to put my comments in a new post, rather than just edit the previous one, so that you'd realize my new comments are here.

The overall meaning, first of all, is one I like. I would summarize your song in this way: "Life is full of many small and big decisions we make, but much of what happens to us is out of our control. At some point we just have to give into the flow and realize how beautiful and big the whole experience is. Throughout it all, we hope to find some meaning and a feeling of security in our lives."

The comment I thought of, after reading your lyrics, was that I feel people have to learn to be their own "mothers" (making sure we enjoy and feel the significance of our own lives)...but it is wonderful when along the way you know or meet people who help you feel some security and also help you feel that your time is not wasted.

I especially liked the lines that I put in bold. There are a lot of them! The constrast between "brevity" and "longevity" is clever and concise. "About which way the levy breaks" symbolizes to me the aspects of life that are out of our control. Once the levy breaks, the water will carry us in that direction...and we don't have a paddle to change our course.

And I especially like the end line, because this is really a very core feeling I have: that I don't want to feel my (short) time alive is *wasted.* I don't just want to exist. I want to feel like I'm really living.

I listened to the song again to match the lyrics with them as you sing them. I thought once more about how your songs, like this one, often have a solid underlayer of repetition. I think you use just several chords in this song, repeating them again and again! This gives the chantlike feel. Yet you are very spontaneous with your placement of syllables. So there is an interesting contrast there.

Your music sounds a lot like songs I've listened to in the electronica thread where there is this sense of continual unyielding forward motion, which depending on the song and its handling can, to me, sometimes feel monotonous.

I also listened again to "Oh Yeah," your synth orchestral piece. Really, this would work very well as a traditional modern orchestral piece, I feel, with "real" instruments. I could imagine it being one movement in a modern symphony. Have you considered making a synth symphony with several movements to go along with "Oh Yeah?" You could have this be an opening sonata then have an adagio, a minuet, and an allegro movement! Just a thought I was thinking of as I listened to it again.

i'm happy that you've taken meaning from what i've written. i must be honest though and say that the meaning you've found is yours. i write lyrics with the intent of supplying the listener or reader with just enough "triggers" that allow for their own imaginations to take the reins when it comes to the produced "meaning." for the most part, i'd rather not talk about what it means to me, because i think having an experience with music doesn't have anything to do with interviewing musicians, and for me to supply the listener with "answers" is not achieving my goal of provoking thought.

all of this is of course not to say that you've failed or misinterpreted the meaning which is in this song. it is what it is, and aside from the fact that your meaning is very similar to mine, there are no right or wrong perspectives, nor can all perspectives be verbatim duplicates of those of the medium through which music comes.

"...how your songs, like this one, often have a solid underlayer of repetition. I think you use just several chords in this song, repeating them again and again! This gives the chantlike feel. Yet you are very spontaneous with your placement of syllables."

the chant-like feel of a lot of my music probably derives from something meditative... i don't know how else to describe it. in the future, with a little more experience i would like to achieve more peaks and valleys within the same sort of meditative apparatus. not sure how i'm going to achieve that quite yet, but i'm working on it. this should help with the "forward, monotonous feeling" you're experiencing, which is a point that i'm quite with you on.

as for "Oh Yeah," i got my hands on a really great orchestral VST instrument and that track is the result of my first couple of days with it. i'm rather fond of the idea of using that music or music like it inside a more whole concept, but i also find the task and time involved a rather daunting exploit. perhaps when i can afford to not work as a slave to the dollar i will pursue such a venture.

i'm gonna leave this one with some more lyrics, to the song on youtube entitled Spiral Caught:

eon-long blinkspan
dream-tongue speakfree
tree-climbin' paradise-liner
grappling the step-up block...
...flight at fingertips.
CAPOOM!
POW!
up & awaytops
bottom-drops & roundabouts
but not stops
for those caught in orbits
hopping & pining in concert-shots.
protectoreferee man
sector off & filigree sandlines
in a byzantine & labrynthine
gleamer of possibilities
as Hold is here now
on the illimitable totality
of a jester
gone madman
gone lostman
gone
not-quite-yet-foundman
uprooted from the earth
and gone what way zooming
while the weaver's out brooming
the doom
from Trajectory's brand new bloom-thing.
Do You Know How Fast We're Going?
Super-faster than your last guess could probably have ever been...
and on six different lines at that
so effectively a gyroscope
without the tiniest little hope
of ever going in a straight line.
forward thinker reassemble reassess direction
when dancing and dining with an infinitely gliding
spiral-caught wandernaut thought of as a
castlebuilder.

I understand what you mean, z., when you write that you want the meaning of lyrics to result from the creative combination of the listener and the song, so that the song's meaning is unique to each individual listener. Art is a creative process on both the part of the artist and the viewer/hearer. Your intentions behind songs are less important to you than wanting the songs to take on their own life in someone else's mind.

I agree that there are no right or wrong perspectives on a song's meaning. Though I must admit I'm curious about the meaning you felt when you wrote "Spiral Caught," since this sounds much more to me like a stream-of-consciousness song than a direct, literal one! I should probably try writing a more amorphous song like that, since I usually prefer the "beat-the-listener-over-the-head-with-the-meaning-of-the-song" method. ;)

Here's what I imagine when I read "Spiral Caught.": humanity has a short time-span of existence yet tries to understand more about the universe, such as through space travel, in which we hope to explore a little more of our spiral galaxy and try to understand our place in it, when there really may be no meaning beyind it all.

Either that, or I view the song as being about the complexity of non-linear thought!

haha! i like your method too!

you're right about the stream-of consciousness aspect of Spiral Caught. it's quite free.

the meaning as perceived by myself is actually quite along the lines of something like being about lateral thinking. the term "castlebuilder" essentially describes a mentality wherein the individual is concerned with security and gain, in contrast to the theme of being caught in a spiral, where the groove certainly dictates any possible outcome. the spiral symbolizes life. life has this funny way of tricking us into believing that we provide for ourselves while keeping us (consciously or unconsciously - it doesn't matter) on the brink of possible "death" at any given moment.

the words sound like they are talking about space travel, which is intentional. but in the case of my head, outer space is life symbolized, and i and my body and spirit are the craft which Life (an external as well as internal presence) uses to explore itself.

these words also have largely to do with this human notion that we own things. parts of the universe "belong to us." i don't believe that to be true, and i think when people begin to look at their spouses and their children and their material possessions as beautiful mentionings of Life made by Life, then harmony becomes more possible and fruitful. i think realizing this is a big part in the evolution of the human race.

there are also hints at psychological "instability," which is simply stating that people carve identities out of pure information and as a result project that information onto their surroundings as though their surroundings couldn't live without it. this is referencing the ego or narcissism boom of the last 20 years. people place their individuality above all else and use their search for independence as the driver of their lives. there is no such thing as independence. whether you're a multinational corporation-owning gazillionaire or a humble farmer on the side of a mountain generating his own electricity and growing his own food and building his own walls... we're all part of a system. the system provides for itself. being that we are a part of that system, i think it's important to not want it to provide for us, as that it selfish and negative.

"dreamtongue speakfree" is phoenetic playing, aimed at establishing intuition as a resource. we too often let our intuition step back while logic and numbers do all the defining of probable outcomes. dreaming is one place where this logic is abandoned and i "argue" that dreaming is one of the human's most important insights into the divine positions of bodies in the universe.

i don't know if any of that made sense. but i gotta jet. early mother's day meeting!

take care.

Hmm...if this is really true, zevokes, I think you're in the minority! I'll post lyrics for a song soon that is a pretty good example of my "beating-people-over-the-head" songwriting method. While it's fun for *me* to write such a song, I don't think readers get much joy! :D One advantage of my method is that people probably know exactly what I'm saying...the disadvantage is that they hate it! :p:

Thanks for explaining what you were thinking of when you wrote "Spiral Caught."

Everything made sense to me except the last part about dreaming providing important insights into the divine positions of bodies in the universe. I see dreams as outgrowths of brain functions that provide some biological advantages (dreams let our brains learn through non-experienced experiences). It sounds like you see them as having much more significance!

I like the idea of the self/body as vehicles through which life explores itself, and I agree that ownership of anything (and certainly ownership of others) is a facade. Ownership is always temporary, too (such as of a home). I don't put too much value in possessions, but that is also because I have all I need.

Individuality...I hear about cultures that don't view people's individuality as so important, compared to the community or system in which people belong. I know I've definitely wanted to feel like an "individual" and wished to be self-sufficient since relying on others too much can be risky. Having trust in a community feels *very* good, though. For example, I have great neighbors and knowing we watch out for each other is comforting.

I think it is nice if and when one feels one contributes something to "the system" of which we're a part. One of the most depressed times in my life was when I had no job for a year and wasn't going to school and felt unuseful. It is nice to feel one can contribute something. At the same time, I realized it is not healthy to determine self-worth based on one's actions, abilities and contributions.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about your song. I like hearing what goes into your song lyrics. I see you doing some things I'd like to do musically and lyrically...be more spontaneous and flexible, for example. So, learning about your process helps me as I think about ways I'd like to change my own. I hope talking about your songs is helpful to you, too!

Have a happy mother's day!

well, i don't look at the dreams you have when you are sleeping as significant events which happen on a nightly basis... it's rather the dreams we have when we are children about all the things we want to accomplish. when i was a kid, i wanted to become a firefighter, an astronaut, and nearing my teenage years i wanted to become a lawyer. these dreams were not based on the acquisition of anything material but rather just the prospect of living the experience of saving people from intense situations, seeing earth from not on earth, and using my ability to argue very efficiently to a degree that my parents and grandparents could appreciate.

but, i should note that i do believe the dreams we have at night are significant if we can remember them. Carl Jung (Freud's pupil) developed a system by which we can reference the imagery in our dreams in terms of their archetypal indicators pertaining to the life we lead in three dimensions. i've tried to discount the validity of this "technology," but find that it simply makes too much sense. reality is only as we are capable of perceiving it. our individuality is simply the sum of many circumstances. so our brain creates more refined meaning (only possible in the surreal world) and adds it to familiar or near-inherent imagery in order to tell its own life-driver that changes need to be made or vice versa, in whichever descriptive form it can muster.

all in all (as i figure things out as i write them!), i guess night dreams are like maintenance and are a direct connection to the will of even the smallest members of universal biology, who all experience the will to live. and i guess childhood dreams of the future are important for adults to have because.... well, children are innocent, and far less concerned with everything that mass brainwashing has convinced adults to care about and worry for.

all for now.

happy mother's day to you too!

oh, and i should say here (and i might go edit the main message to include this) that my music - particularly the synthetic stuff - is far better if you crank the volume on it. i find that to listen to music quietly is to have a very cerebral or intellectual experience with it. adversely i think if you listen to it loud enough that you have a physical interaction with it, you begin to suppress the influence of our current paradigm of thought, and begin to experience what the "maker" of that music was after.


SO TURN IT UP!!!

also, there is low end stuff in there which can't properly present itself at a low volume. some of the bass is situated so as to be felt rather than heard. Amon Tobin introduced me to that idea.

Ahh..I understand. And I agree with you about the value of having childhood dreams and trying to fulfill them in some ways. I wanted to be a biologist learning more about how life functions...and that's what I became! Not all aspects of the dream were fulfilled, but it was nice to have achieved a little of what I originally hoped to do.

Oh! Then you'd probably be interested in a show I watched about dreams. Researchers found common images in dreams. For example, during REM sleep, children commonly dream of fearsome creatures (scary animals)...which is hypothesized to have resulted from such dreams enabling early human children to develop an understanding of what to do when facing *real* predators, thus increasing the children's chance of survival (to pass on the dreaming ability). REM sleep dreams often have negative connotations, as opposed to less memorable dreams that we have during non-REM stages of sleep, which usually feel positive.

I do think that as an adult, my dreams are usually more honest with myself about what I'm happy with or unhappy with in my life, since I (usually) can't control my dreams and ignore certain thought processes as I might when I'm awake.

Yes, I know what you mean about bass being felt rather than heard. That is an exhilarating feeling, like when you listen to a parade and you can feel the bass drums of a marching band coming nearer. The thudding inside you gets more and more intense!

A related experience: when I walk underneath a train overpass when the train is rushing overhead with a sort of monstrous power, I like to stand with my eyes closed because the feeling of hearing and feeling all those vibrations is wild and exciting...it feels out of control. If you haven't tried that, z., I recommend it! I find I like electronica that has that same feeling.

new track up @ zevokes - Official Artist Page on iLike - free music, pictures, videos called "'come one." it's all vocals, and the first piece i've done with a half-decent mic. enjoy.

"Come one" was very interesting! Nice rhythm. I like the breathy sounds used almost like the sound of cymbals. My only suggestion would be for the intro (with the initial repeated "mmm ba da" vocalization) to be a little shorter, such that the lower throat-singing type sound starts closer to the beginning of the song. I felt the intro lasted a little longer than I would like, because during it I started to wonder if anything else was going to happen...which it certainly did, but I had to wait longer than I expected!

i don't know if i'm technically allowed to do this, but being that i love this guy like a brother, i totally dig his current vibe, and was in a band with him (the medium) for i don't know how many years, i'm gonna drop his link too. his name is john ferguson and currently resides on Toronto. the link is here:

Johnny Ferguson on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

enjoy. this guy is really... alive.

I haven't listened to the actual track, but the lyrics to "Left Open" are great. Keep it up, zevokes.

thanks muchly. i'm never too sure about my lyrics, so i appreciate hearing that people dig...

Your muchly welcome. I'm the same way, but I've been forced to come to terms with the fact that 80% of my stuff sucks.
But you, on the other hand, are really good at what you do. I listened to "Left Open" and it's better than I thought it would be (and I did have high expectations).
I expect to read and hear some more great things from you in the future.

listening to Let's Bang right now. really like the guitar and your voice, keep it up!

don't know how i missed these last two comments but thanks a lot Antonio and Slj! i'm really looking forward to posting some current stuff on here, but it's slow going due to TOO MUCH WORKING WORLD! it'll come though!

a cell phone vid of a wee medley.

new track up @ zevokes on Myspace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads.

called FlyBoyCircusShow

my first attempt in life at hip-hop. it's only a minute-and-a-half...

EDIT: criticism is good.

i really like the whole feel of this. at the same time, though, maybe making a separate guitar part for a chorus could improve it greatly.

it sounds like a mix of Linkin Park and 8 bit artists like Anamanaguchi. i think this is good. The lyrics sound like stuff i've heard before, but the flow is pretty nice.

in all, if you made stuff like this as well as what you mainly do now, i think that'd be some sweet stuff.

thanks for your critique antonio!

as far as my vid goes, i think a WHOLE BAND would be just right! but the thing about a second guitar part, is that i don't even think i am capable of writing one... i am not really a guitarist. a line in the song which goes like this: "i got four thin strings stretched over stolen property... just a simple little somethin' over which my heart can sing," kinda sheds some light on that. it's basically saying, "well, i live in an apartment and my neighbours would kill me if i played drums in here... so i'm gonna sing... but i'm gonna need something to sing over top of..." which is of course a stolen four-string guitar which is used by someone who does not pay it the attention it deserves as an instrument.

and about my "hip-hop" track... definitely was not expecting to be labelled as sounding like linkin park! they're not an influence of mine by any means. this Anamanaguchi band or artist is someone i'm gonna have to look up. also strange, because 8-bit sound is not really my thing. based on your comments, i see i need to better my mastering techniques extensively.

thanks again for your response. it is much appreciated.

well, it's been a REAL LONG TIME since i've recorded or created music. the link below is the first electronic piece i've started working on in well over a year. i don't have any studio monitors at the moment so you'll have to forgive the mix. also, it's the first time i'm ever implemented techniques from dubstep. i wasn't really intending on turning it into a song. i just wanted to d*ck around with some new software and some techniques, but it just kind of ended up turning into something. that being said, this little thing is a long way from being a finished product.

regardless, i thought i would share it with y'all and maybe you could lend me your thought, criticisms, suggestions... and so on. enjoy. :)

https://soundcloud.com/elementecture/not-right-now

EDIT: is there any way i can get the title of this thread changed to "P A N droppin' his links"? it would make more sense. :/

EDIT: thanks!

still a work in progress (obviously) but i'm getting pretty excited about it. :)

https://soundcloud.com/elementecture...t-now-tester-2