StaticNomad

"I must say that this track is even better the second time"

I try to make deep stuff that you can come back to and find many, many things of interest you didn't hear/notice first time round. I honestly have trouble remembering all the sections in tracks that I made a while ago.
"the things which you listed that you do excel in are even more important to my ears than simple theory or whatever"

I agree. I'm not at all a proper musician as I'm not trained in it, can't read music and have fairly terrible pitch and can't sing. Always really struggled to work out how to play riffs by listening. I haven't tried to do that in years (since aged about 16). Just as well I couldn't care less about playing cover songs.

I sometimes wonder if many of the millions (?) of people I seem to hear knocking out dull, soulless, lifeless ripoff electronic dance music are people who are quite good technically (ie with software, computer repair, hooking up gear etc) but have very little creativity or imagination and are only really interested in making stuff that sounds just like the limited few genres they're into.

So, I'm imaginative and can just about get my software to work and tune my guitars (slowly) but feel I know a lot about groove and how to balance a track with different sounds and instruments.

"simple changes could take a song to a higher level"

I'm always fascinated with how good I can possibly make something (and spending ages trying is partly why I do such long tracks). I've done loads of sessions where I've added no new riffs or sections, just tweaked loads and loads of things (track levels, delay times etc)that are difficult to remember. But the end result has been so much better!

I shall go back and make some changes to this magical place as I'm sure I can improve a few things.

Thanks for your thoughts and I'm glad you appreciate my reviews and track replies. Clearly I put a fair bit of effort into them though I won't be doing it forever...

Thanks. I have a lot of problems with the titling of my tracks. I wondered if this title was a bit sentimental and wimpy but maybe it's not.

The track isn't all just pretty, gentle stuff as it gets pretty hard and pumping. But I think there are some magical lead sounds to transport people to beautiful places so that's why I chose the title.

I guess it is quite a massive track but not so much in length (for me). I think it's just a big, powerful combination and layering of sounds.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Greetings, Mr Kurl.

I agree about the "decorations" point. While I'm very much into the whole engine room/foundation of a track (ie bass and drums, groove etc) I love adding fun intricacies on top.

Having things flutter in and out keeps things pretty damn interesting. Your monarch analogy is odd but I think it makes sense. Maybe also like monarch butterflies. I guess they flutter in and out.

You know I almost always build tracks up in intensity as I always feel I have to take things somewhere to justify the track going on and on. Can't just have it sitting at the same level though I guess that is the best thing for chilling (but can also be like wallpaper).

Thanks for the respect - it's mutual.

I don't actually know that much about the technicalities of recording but I do know a lot of music and am good at hearing a good or not so good groove and understanding relationships between instruments and where I can slot inbetween another to get them all to lock together in interesting ways.

I'm more creative and experimental than clinically knowledgeable about how to make music. And I'm good at listening thousands of times and making many, many incremental improvements.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts. More banging tracks coming soon.

Hello.

Yes, I do have quite a few ethnic and exotic instruments in my tracks. Or sometimes I play guitar or banjo in an eastern style. Flute is the main exotic, ethnic in this one, as can be heard on 1:00.

"2:52 Nice bango like instrument"

That's one of my two resonator guitars. No banjo in this track. My other resonator guitar comes in on 3:33 for the "dual slide resonator solo", as listed in the track description.

"Nice bango like instrument, the delay/reverb afterwards is pretty nice."

Not sure which delay/reverb you mean. After what? Maybe it's on 3:12 where I switch to a heavier drumkit with open hat and the add reverb to that slide guitar part to make it bigger and better.

"I tend to think sometimes reverb/delay makes the track sound better"

Oh, I think that a lot. Delay is easily my favourite ever effect. A magical thing that almost is musi itself as it offers so much movement and enhances most playing. Distortion is probably my second favourite. Totally different but really provides some serious balls and grit and power to most things.

"nicely spaced/gated out and open vocal in the background."

No vocals in the track. Maybe you're hearing the delay tail of the slide guitar fading away starting on 3:52.

"Perhaps a bit of influence from me?"

Not sure exactly what you mean or what sound or technique of yours might have influenced me. But I suspect the answer is no.

"wow this took a bit of time to review."

Yes, you've written quite a bit!

I will check out your Mecha EP when you let me/us hear it.

Speaking of 15 min tracks, here's a truly wonderful one from Underworld.

Underworld - Banstyle / Sappy's Curry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5TVBIlyObw

Thanks for the review and glad you liked the production and vibe here.

Hi. Yes, the feel and the underlying foundation is perhaps the key to all my work. Then there's all the fancy stuff that goes on top.

But it's really all based on good grooves and foundational links between instruments, as well as groove changes and intensity an tempo changes.

Those djembe drums help add a bit of extra interesting flavour and work nicely with that smooth synth bass.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Greetings to you and thanks for checking it out.

I like the resonator guitar stuff in the second half and where the two of them come together for a solo (3:33).

I live in the hall of the mountain king!

"I especially like the congo drums"

I think they're actually djembe drums but it really doesn't matter. Yes, they help this track a lot.

This track was created out of leftover parts from this pure electro track, in which you can hear also hear some of the same djembes:

P For Pneumatic

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/156638

"The drum session at 3:53 did catch me off guard but I like the switch"

Not sure yet if the change to fast drums is a bit abrupt or if that's an exciting thing so should stay like that.
Glad you liked my synths. Not much guitar in this and no bass guitar so it's mostly about synths and drums.

"This is a little different from some of the other stuff I heard from you"

I try to make every single track different. They need to all stand out and be memorable and never sound too much like another. Even when I make multiple tracks in the same project (on the same timeline) I can get them to sound very different, even though they're at the same tempo and using some of the exact same instruments. 7

Thanks for your words.

Nice "nice track bro", bro.

"this is pretty interesting!"

Pretty interesting! is what I always aim for. I like to take the listener up to mountaintops, the bottom of the ocean and even the centre of an erupting volcano or the collapsing sun.

"Those drums you were unsure about around 3:52 do fit, but needs a better transition"

I agree though they're not too bad as they are. I will go back to fix a few small things and see if I can do a better transition. Maybe catching people off guard with the change is good. I'm still not sure.

Yes, why do people sign off with their user name online when it's guaranteed to be there when they post? OK, if it's your actual name you sign off with, that makes some sense (the personal touch).

Anyway, glad you liked my pretty interesting track.

Take care,

Static Nomad

Greetings. Best review so far is from you. Good detail and thoughts.

Not sure what you mean by the synth sounds being more impulsive.

"0:40 I like the "paml muted" notes"

Yes, well noticed. I am doing palm muting because I'm playing triplets with fingers and want the notes to be very staccato so the muting is for the close control to make the notes staccato.

1:20 human voice.

Maybe. I have lots of synth sounds in my tracks that sound a little like voices - sometimes human, sometimes animal.

"2:00 I didn't like too much the "bell" sound"

I guess the bell sound you're taking about is the synth instrument that has a bell sound to it. I like it and the melody it's playing.

2:30 yes you're right about the double time drum fill making more sense when you hear the heavier, faster stuff later. However, even without the later drums changes, I still think it sounds good. Double/half time is cool - just as long as it's in time!

3:00 my signature resonator guitar. Hope it's not boring. I use it in many tracks but play it over so many genres that I hope it's presented in a new, interesting way.

I hope I have lots of trademark sounds. Can't say I really invented any but maybe it's just the way I use them that stands out.

Yes, fast section drop back down to the regular tempo chill is good.

"I think your are not really "writing songs": your tracks are more layer of sounds one on top of the other used to provoke feelings."

I agree. They're definitely not songs. Just me being creative with sounds and instrument playing and arranging etc. I'm just exploring things I haven't heard people do before and enjoying and celebrating some of the great sounds I'm able to use and combine in new, strange ways.

I hope it is a memorable track for some people. I try to make every track like that. DOn't want to make simple, easy pop music that sounds like too many other people.

New music coming soon...

Greetings.

This wasn't its own track until last week. It was the last few minutes of a much bigger and better and more aggressive epic that would be easily about 14 mins if I had kept this as the ending.

So, I took those last 3 minutes and added a couple of minutes to it by making a 2 min intro and adding in the double time, fast section around 3:53 (the flute return).

I think it has quite a pretty, gentle but funky feel. Djembes give it tat tribal feel and the flutes then add to that mood.

All my stuff you could say is rich and layered though the difficulty there is always not to make it too overwhelming. Except for short sections that you want to be intense and overwhelming.

I think the slide resonator guitar takes it somewhere else again and then I just felt it should build to something bigger and heavier, even though it's not really that kind of track.

Thanks for your thoughts and not just writing something like "I like it".

Word, FreeRad.

Yes, I totally agree about Orbital. There's a particular track or two that really remind me of some of my tinkly, delayed arps in this. But I cannot remember which one/s!

Not intention to emulate those Orbital chaps - just how it came out at the time.

"percussion is my favourite part"

I'm guessing you mean the djembe part. Maybe also the fat drum loop starting on 0:30. Or maybe just all the drums.

"guitar is cool, it has an almost kazoo kind of effect to it,backed up with some nice distortion"

No idea which section you're talking about. I think you must be mistaking some other synth sound for guitar. No distortion on any guitar parts in this. And there aren't many guitar parts.

Kazoo vibe perhaps comes from the flutes on 1:00.

"Now it's all gone a bit hectic"

You know I love to do that. I see the track as a big, funky chiller but it also seemed to lend itself to being made much heavier (and with double time drums, so up to 190 BPM).

Yes, short by my standards but this was the extended last 3 mins of a 14 min track that I chopped off. So, that one's now only about 11.5 mins. Had to restrain myself in adding more stuff to this one. Very easy to do!

Good for me to have a bunch of mid length tracks so that not everything I do is a lengthy epic. I still think this is a bit of an epic, just done in 5.5 mins.

Glad you enjoyed my no less of a cracker.

Nice comment bro. Actually, I’m not sure it is.

This looks like an attempt at an insult: “you take yourself very serious”.

You don’t know anything about me so I don’t think you should really be trying to guess what my personal character is like. But, yes, of course I take my music seriously. Why wouldn’t I?

I have politely written many, many times in track replies about why I don’t allow downloads to people who have asked for downloads. I’m not going to go over it all again to you now. Anyway, I don’t need to as it’s my choice not to allow downloads from Looperman of my music. It’s my music so I’m free to do what I want with it.

Insulting me is not a good way to get me to allow you to have something for free that I’m not yet ready to give away at all as it’s not yet fully mastered and finished.

If I’ve misinterpreted what you wrote, you’re free to comment again and explain yourself. But try not to make guesses about my character as you don’t know me and probably never will.

Yo. Not really seen your name on here before.

Yes, I like all the resonator guitar stuff. When the track goes heavier, I just add some extra reverb/delay to make it a bit bigger and more far out. In its more chilled out mode (when you first hear it), it has some interesting delay on it but no reverb so it’s quite close to the listener.

I use slide resonator playing in many of my many tracks. It’s kind of my signature unusual sound. Yes, I do some blues tracks but not regular obvious ones. But I’ll put the slide playing in pretty much any genre – electro, metal, funk, jazz, hip hop etc.

I’ll just be honest and say I’ve never heard another slide player use it in so many different genres. There are much better slide players than me but they tend to work exclusively in country or blues or rock (though Harry Manx is someone who mixes it up with Indian sounds and scales).

The double time drumming I like but I’ve done it in loads of my other tracks so perhaps I was wondering if it’s almost a bit predictable in this one. But, unless you know a load of my other tracks, I guess you can’t comment, except to say that you like it here.

Yes, I like it when it returns from that fast, heavy section to the regular time chillout groove.

More tracks coming from me soon.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Thanks. I will check out some of your work, especially as I now see you have tracks on Looperman, not just Soundcloud.

I will keep up the productions. This track's bigger, better and more epic brother coming in the next few days.

Greetings. Glad you liked the magic structure.

Space stations are best when they're static and not moving about too much otherwise it's harder for other spaceships to enter them (I guess).

Not sure what an imprinted static space station is. Maybe one with my imprint in it?

"3:40 that is my favorite part"

3:33 is when the second resonator guitar joins the first one (which has been playing since 2:52). And then they do a bit of duelling, as I said in the track description.

I supose that second slide resonator could actually be a banjo or sitar, as you suggest, as it has a slightly strange (but cool) tone to it.

"inspirational chill" is hopefully what I'm all about. This gets pretty busy and intense but I think it has fat, fun chilling at its core.

This track's big, epic brother coming to Looperman next week. See if you can spot some of the similarities in sounds and instruments used.

Greetings. Glad you liked it. I thought maybe you had given up on commenting on my tracks as I haven’t heard from you for a few months.

Yes, my avatar is of a beautiful sunset with rice paddy fields below (where rice is grown and harvested). I was thinking of somewhere maybe more magical (and not on this planet) for this track but I still agree with you.

“You are addictive to that slide stg...I better prefer your simple solo tone for every place I hear that instrument but this is your taste”

I’m still trying to work out what this means. I think (but am not sure) you’re trying to say that you would prefer it if I used just my regular electric guitar in place of my resonator and its slide playing.

I love the sound of the slide and it makes me play in a different way and gives me a different feeling when I play it. Sorry you don’t like it (I didn't know that) but there is quite a lot of it in my music (I hope not too much) and I think it’s something that gives my music some unusual character.

With my question about the return of the flutes, I didn’t ask it properly. Yes, I agree the flutes should return. I was just asking if making the drums go double time (fast and heavy) is also the right thing to do. Maybe I’ve already done that in too many other tracks.

Thanks for your thoughts and yes I am OK. Another massive new epic upload from me next week. This track is quite short…

Hello. Yes, this does have some serious vibe.

Dark, brooding and psychedelic but with hip hop, eastern elements and slide country blues and banjo and strings and stuff. Sounds like an unlikely mix so I suspect there may be no other piece of music quite like it.

I sort of hope there isn’t (to make mine stand out as unique). However, I also hope there is as I’d like to listen to it.

I particularly like the title. It’s really a comment on the mix of instruments, with the idea of having instruments that sound from a different time (so, a lot older) mixed with much more modern, even futuristic, instruments.

So, I guess the older instruments are the banjo and resonator guitar and the newer ones are the filtered, psychedelic strings, beats and generally slightly futuristic vibe. I guess it’s also an unintentional reference to time travel, where you’re in the right place but you’ve moved through the centuries – a bit like what happens quite a few times in the excellent Back To The Future trilogy of films.

Thanks for checking it out and leaving some thoughts.

Yo. I have a bunch of tracks listed as 'blues' on here, such as this one, which will probably be the opening track on my still unreleased blues album.

The Swedish house loops joke is still a good one. They're really needed here to liven up what is a pretty damn chilled track. Still haven't found out what Swedish house loops actually are and doubt I ever will. Try making the joke on random people's tracks. Might confuse them a bit. Hey - it could become the new "Nice track, bro" type of pathetic track comment: "Not bad but needs some Swedish house loops".

"guitar has a nice slide effect"

Slide effect? That's me playing slide! This might be my greatest slide track, though I've got a few and in different genres too, not just blues (and certainly not country). Some of the playing is quite exquisite, in my totally unbiased opinion.

Shame there's a bit of a problem with the delay/reverb on some of the guitars as it makes for a bit of a muddy mix, though still pretty damn good.

Pretty short track for me, eh?

I made it at least about 6 years ago but made improvements this year so updated it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Hey - I was only joking about having multiple accounts and personas. I'm just StaticNomad on Looperman. I like to have a laugh!

However, if you listen to my "quality catalog", you'll find there are a lot of different genres and sounds and stuff covered (sometimes in the same track). Often gets very confusing when I'm putting a track together.

I'd like to cover many, many more styles and sounds but I have loads of limitations in my playing and don't really technically or musically understand how to make any genre.

I just use sounds I like and styles of playing I can manage and comfortably play and then groove along to a good loop and build things up from there, piece by piece, sometimes over a number of years.

So, I sort of try to combine all my musical personas/preferences/abilities at the same time in some tracks. Lot of work to stop it sounding messy!

This was a slightly more straightforward track as it doesn't cross multiple genres and doesn't have any recorded instrument playing - just synth playing and programming.

If you'd like to hear the continuation/second half of this track, here it is:

P For Pneumatic

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/156638

They both share many of the same sounds though each also have their own particular sounds that aren't used in the other.

I guess Tribal Warfare is the better track but maybe not.

Thanks for checking in on my little electro tribal groove thing.

Hi. I’m fine, thanks. Good to hear from you.

“I like that all the tracks listed play together kind of like a movies OST.”

Damn – that sounds like you actually listened to a load of them in one go!

“your style has grown onto the listener”

You know I don’t exactly make pop music. I’ve always felt that my sort of lengthy, complex stuff needs to be listened to a good few times so that people can some sense of what’s going on and how it all fits together. It’s not really suitable music for people just browsing on Looperman expecting to hear a nice, simple short catchy tune. This is the shortest track I’ve ever uploaded.

People really do need to own my stuff to get into it properly (sorry that’s not possible just yet). I’m not writing one album but about 8! I just keep putting off releasing even one as I don’t yet have the artwork though tracks for the first two albums are pretty much done. Though I do always worry about mastering as I’m no expert and want my stuff to be as good as possible.

I’ve had strong interest from a few people on the site about me releasing/selling some of my stuff so must get round to it sometime.

This one was going to be a 15 min track but I chose to turn the extension into its own 11 min track and leave this one as it is. Here’s the extension, which I’m pretty happy with:

There Goes Gravity http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/156081.

In RAOHK, I’m particularly happy with the second half guitar solo. One of my most melodic and best constructed. I do also particularly like the strings early on. You’ll hear the same string part at different ponts in There Goes Gravity. And the same shuffle drums, though they get heavier and more insistent and also seem to get faster (though it’s all at the same tempo, as with almost all my tracks).

Thanks for your thoughts.

Yo. Guess you must have come here via the Unique Song thread.

I do like this one and feels it's pretty unusual though I still have some problems with some aspects of the sound though I don't think I can make it any better.

But there's still some movement that just really gets me every time, such as the main bassline starting a 1:42 (which was constructed from different bits of processed guitar and bass guitar playing), the strings, guitar and so on.

Thanks for the interest.

Yo, dude. This does have some serious vibe. It's that simple, sparse, essential groove right at the start that was so inspiring and made the banjo notes flow out so easily.

Kind of simple banjo playing but then gets more complicated and fiddly as I rise up for the fills at the end of the bar. Then there's some cool string stuff going on behind the banj.

"mysterious yet captivating"

I agree with that. Maybe it's more mysterious than dark, as I've previously been describing it.

Good call regarding Breaking Bad. There is some slide guitar in that show. This might be the soundtrack to some gangsta shit in it. With the slide playing I guess it's got a southern, delta/country feel that might go well with the desert (Albuquerque) setting of the show.

I have a hell of a lot of tracks on here, mostly heavily groove-based. For a hip hop guy like you, I'd recommend a fat very alternative hip hop-related epic in a genre I've named psychedelic blue grungehop. Check the link to see if I really do manage to fuse blues, hip hop, grunge and psychedelia. Oh, and also with some big eastern vibes at times.

Zero Per Cent Proof

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/149490

Thanks for checking in and I still love your Love Alchemist track and have downloaded it.

Yo. I've never made this a featured track but it seems to have so many comments because it's the first one on my profile and people come and check me and it out and decide they like it.

Yeah, didg is cool here. A sound I'd like to use more.

Yes, African animal documentary might work though maybe it's a bit too tight and funky for that.

This is one of my shortest ever tracks, believe it or not. Many are at least twice as long. Some even go up to over 17 mins, though that's something I'm trying to change (with some success).

Yo. I changed my mind on this one and am fairly sure I'm going to leave just as it is. What it could/would/should/still might become is my latest upload called There Goes Gravity http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/156081.

That's all the extended stuff that I already mostly had when I uploaded this (which was just an experiment to see how I felt abut this short length).

I'm trying all the time to not do such gargantuan tracks as I do listen to people's whinges about the great length. But I must also always bear in mind that some of these complaints probably come from people not at all into lengthy, far out music so I must not change and deviate from what feels right just for them. It's really hard to know, isn't it?

Maybe a little like someone always reviewing your stuff telling you to be less weird and make your music sound more like Coldplay or someone.

Yes, the guitar tone during the solo seems pretty perfect. And the sitar touches are pretty unusual but also kind of subtle. I can think of no other blues track with a guitar solo and sitar underneath.

Yes, the chillout drums drive the whole piece and totally inspire most of the instrument playing.

You get gardening but don't forget There Goes Gravity. You may enjoy that even more as it gets really psychedelic towards the end. And it's got more sitar and tambura stuff in it.

Yo. I only directed you to this one as an example of me definitely rocking good and hard. Didn't know you'd already heard it. Anyway, you've had your say about it now, which is a good thing as there are some nice phrases.

Lots of effort involved to sort of smoothly swerve from one sound to the next. There are various riffs in here that probably deserve to be heard for longer. But I had so much to fit in and I think I was also going for a crazy onslaught of never-ending riffage so I guess it's OK for some things to only feature relatively briefly.

However, I'm not a fan of crazy guitar hero prog rock that seems to be changing drastically about every 3 seconds. With some of that stuff, there never seems to be a riff that you really get to hear so it becomes boring quite quickly rather than it being a fun onslaught of riffs you can get in to.

One guy I can think of who does that a hell of a lot is called David Maxim Micic so check him out to hear technical wizardry far, far superior to my playing abilities that is also fairly boring.

When I come up with a good part, I like to hear it a fair bit so I tend to change various things around it in order to progress to the next section that I have sitting on the timelines waiting for another to merge with it.

"You let the harder sounds roll and then reel them back in with enough subtlety to indeed create a funky gloss over it."

I like that point and do that sort of thing to provide a break from the onslaught and to fit in some of the more chilled out stuff I always seem to come up with, even in a heavy track like this. Smooth, groove-based chilling is kind of my natural playing home rather than heavy rocking.

Sorry, no downloads of this or any other track yet as I'm assembling a whole bunch of albums. This will be the first on the heavy album. You can record it off the speakers if you like, as I can't stop you, though I'd rather you didn't.

You'll be able to have a download of it someday as I'll let Looperpeople know when my albums are available for download (probably free).

Thanks for checking in.