Spivkurl

Hey jamid, thank you for the very kind comment! Totally pleased that you enjoyed listening to this one! Hope that you have gone and picked up your free copy of the album. I'm happy with the vocals on this one as well, especially since I built the microphone they were recorded with. As far as the drums go, I'm quite happy with the fills and transitions that I played live with hands and feet. Was very fun to do. I appreciate you listening and faving!

Hey buddy, it's good to hear from you on this one! You're not far off in your impressions of my work spaces, except I turned in my lab coat when I got fired from the optical lab... (should have kept one!) Got some freakin cool gear on it's way currently, after a serious shopping seizure. Already got our music man Ray34 bass, which sounds killer through the old music man tube/SS hybrid amp we've got! Waiting to make any serious music until after the mercury retrograde, but things should get ugly after that. Appreciate you always listening and leaving your kind words!

Hmmm... remix project. You raise an interesting idea. Not sure if I have the energy to go back to this and host the project though. Definitely have moved on to other things now, with good reason. I will keep it in mind if things change though. Thank you for taking a listen!

Hey, seems like it's been a while! Happy that you enjoyed listening! Hope that you have grabbed that album, as I think it's the best yet. Appreciate you listening and leaving a comment! Take care!

Always appreciate when you stop by to hear my tracks and leave your words! Hope that you are well!

Hello Orlando! It's good to hear from you on this song! I've been getting some good reactions to the album offline, from the few people who have been given a copy. Not so much feedback album wise online, but people seem to enjoy the individual songs... mostly just a testament to how people indulge in music any more I think. I'm proud of this album, as there is much variety in method and instruments... many pieces of gear only show up once in the album. Thanks very much for taking a listen!

Hey buddy! Thanks for stopping by to listen! The microphone used on this one was my "100 Proof" electret condenser, which I built last year. It's actual a stereo microphone, but for vocals I just use one side (they have separate output jacks). Thank you for the compliments about the vocals. There are probably a few reasons for my voice sounding different from the usual radio stuff - a big one would be my background, as I have spent time in many different parts of the US and canada throughout my life, and picked up a conglomeration of the local accents. Also I have smoked various smokeables pretty much constantly for 25 years. Then there is my on and off obsession with European music and film (especially UK and anything Eastern Europe). In all honesty, a large part of the album is already posted here on Looperman, though some have updated mixing and/or mastering on the album (haven't updated the others yet). You can download it for free at wearerecords.com though. Best burned to a CD and played on a hi fi. Thank you for the nice comment!

Hello Wayne, I'm happy you stopped by! Also pleased that you enjoyed listening to this one! As far as the shooting goes, I honestly try to restrict the flow of news into my brain. Not to say some of is doesn't get in. I do not watch the news, or read the paper (unless I'm trimming herbs on said paper). I seem to remember something not long ago about a home invasion which ended in a shooting, and I think it was in our neighborhood. From what I know of it, it was a very personal situation, which is the case with much of the crime in our area. Many people are far to trusting when it comes to who they allow into their homes, as well as into their lives in general. Much of the local news is very biased these days, and Minnesota has become one of the most racially biased locations in the US. Really, I was too focused on my own government/police/legal battles last year to be too concerned. I'm glad you can see the various circumstances that the idea of "modern disease" can be applied to. Really if I had not been short on time, and somewhat restrained, the song could have been much more verbose. Heh. I really appreciate your feedback and conversation!

Bear, my friend, it's great to hear from you! The solstice turned out better than expected for me this year. All signs point to me spending the day in court, so I put all of my energy into getting the album done. Didn't want it sitting there half formed if I spent a little jail time. Instead, everything was dismissed at the hearing, so I could use the solstice as the official release instead! You're too kind about the mix! I think that you and I have similar aesthetic preferences when it comes to audio, regardless of any genre borders. The vocals on this have their flaws, but I think I succeeded in conveying what I wanted... and as a bonus it ended up reminding my wife and I of Shriekback, who one of our favorite groups. That synth at the 3:30 mark, as well as the related synths in a couple other parts were designed on the microkorg. Even after 12+ years, I still love working with that synth. Many of the keys are dead from overuse, but it is great as a module or vocoder... I have better controllers now any way. Several people give the "mad scientist" respect, and I can fully appreciate that. There are days where that's exactly how I feel - compelled and obsessed with new sounds, devices, and ways of making music, to the point that anything else gets put aside. Thank you for your words and listen. Hope that your holidays were enjoyable as well! Have a good year!

Hey there, thank you for your kind feedback! I have heard of Newgrounds before, but never visited the site. I have it bookmarked now, so I can look deeper into it, thanks for the tip! There have been a few games released which used some of my audio, thanks to looperman. Really games were part of how Spivkurl began. My buddy at the time was a programmer, and had a game all planned out. I spent quite a while developing my skills, leading to giving him a demo of songs for the game. Unfortunately, both the game and the future of our friendship dissolved. Still, it helped me learn a lot. You're right, this was a lot of fun to make, and I hope to develop this way of working much further. Thanks again!

Ha ha, yes, that is no problem! I don't charge for any of my solo releases at wearerecords.com of course. I would be willing to ship you a CD copy though. I try to make my albums to be heard from beginning to end, uncompressed and on a good stereo system... so the CD would be ideal for that. I wish I could release a double vinyl for this album though! Thanks!

As do I, my friend! Thank you for the inspiration! This song will be on the album I release next week. I hope you don't mind. You will be in the liner notes as ViVaDa, if that is what you prefer. If you'd rather have a different name listed, then please contact me. Thank you for leaving your words!

Likewise, it is nice to see you visiting Looperman! Thanks for your kind words! I thought that the description for this deserved some attention, partly because anymore people will just assume a song is virtual. This one is very much non-virtual, but hands on/DIY. Just made a couple more additions to my modular, and hopefully soon I will be able to leave it in the past and get to hard work on the new case of modules. After all, I have recordings of some of these modules from 2004 still! I appreciate you listening!

Thank you Evan for the kind words! I honestly don't know what the big deal was either way regarding the song. None of it was the biggest deal for me, aside from being used as some kind of symbol for the downfall of an online community. I may have been guilty of the same in past times, but I can't disagree more these days. Sounds like your high school experience was far different from mine, but then I didn't finish... positive frame of mind is always a good thing when you're peaking though! I went into making this new album with the intent to make it far more supportive and positive than my last couple, and after hearing it all the way through a few times, I think I mostly succeeded. There is a definite shift onto the B-side any way. Well, I appreciate you stopping by!

Thank you for your insight into this piece! Yours does seem like a different impression, when compared to the others. Yours makes sense to me, as those dark and broken trees are to be seen most every day around here, and we're no strangers to toxic pollution. In fact I'm starting to feel dark and broken myself. Oh well. Happy you enjoyed the listen!

Hey buddy, thank you for the enthusiastic comment! I always appreciate when you stop by, and I welcome the urge to go and hear some of your music! Hope all is well with you!

Hey buddy, thank you for taking a listen and leaving the kind words! You are right, I did have a lot of fun working with the gear... Things have changed drastically in my studio, and I'm just getting settled in... things have even expanded since making this track a couple of weeks ago! I am capable now of 9 different CV/gate/trigger sources for controlling my DIY gear from the DAW, and it's nice. The beach-style ambiance is probably due to the field recordings at the beginning and end... they are actually from a stereo recording taken out my studio window, which contains many crows and a barking squirrel in the distance. Thank you for taking the time to listen!

Thanks Stohgs for the kind comment on this song! Many people seem to think the organ does not quite fit in... it's odd to me, as I know it is played with the same notes that are present in the rest of the song. I can only think of two things... first the fact that the song is primarily modal and the organ part uses some chords, often not done in classic modal music... second, the organ stops used are less focused on the fundamentals and more on the overtones, so some of that focus may be auditorally confusing. Thank you for your words and listen! My new album is out today!

Heh, thank you for listening and leaving a comment! My new album is out!

Your words mean much to me, since I know that you know your way around a synth (or a studio). I'm guessing it's partly the modular brassy tone which gives the impression of brightness and detuning. I would agree. The low note priority based portamento added a good subtle vibrato sort of effect... while the FM (Both F's) and AM added brightness and interest. I can't lay claim to playing all percussion parts myself (some were carefully sequenced with MIDI), but the ride cymbals and tom/kick rolls were spontaneous non midi stuff. I get what you mean about the colors, I think I experience that condition at times. Part of why I like to use certain colors on my DIY gear. Thank you for checking out the track, and leaving your kind words! Have a good day!

Thanks for your interest. I have contacted you with a couple of questions about your project, and I await your reply. Thanks again!

Thank you for listening and leaving a comment!

Thank you joe for the friendly expressive comment! You are right, this song did have more of a focus on making the music rather than other things. I think this is partly due to creating it based on inspiration from an image. There were of course other things happening in my life, and they all feel into the piece. I'm used to people running away from my music, or driving off the road, or hell forbid turning it down...! I really enjoyed the process, and into to work a bit more like this. Thank you again!

Hello again! Appreciate you being the first to offer some sort of appraisal here on the loop! Your views on the mood are interesting to me, and also most likely spot on. When I began the composition, I was feeling a glow, like I was in a good dream... then the organ part was the last instrument to be created, at a moment when I began to feel disjointed and frantic. Technically, the only trumpet sort of sound is part of the organ setup, and using that "wow" foot control almost gave me a blister on my toe... need to were socks or shoes next time! I find the modular part to sound rather saxophone-like. There is an unusual feeling throughout partly due to the C# phrygian mode which I chose to represent the color green, with subtle suggestions of A dominant bebop (resulting in a moment of honesty)... The note of A represents green in some other schools of thought, and the scales are enharmonic aside from that G which ties them together in the song. The birds are actually a flock of crows which visits our neighborhood around this time of year, and I captured them out the window of my studio last December... there is also a squirrel barking buried deep in there. The "sea" is actually the sound of the wind from the same recording... our city is one of the windiest areas in the country. The snare drums are not technically analog, though I can't say for sure the source of the sounds on the machine. This was far more involved, hardware/physically, compared to most of my synth stuff. Used foot controllers on four of the instruments to do accents in real time, as well as tweaking the string part in filter and delay domains. The artwork was a big influence on the song, and I can be thankful for that. Wonder why it didn't show me the fave on here? Oh well. Hope you are well! Thank you!