StaticNomad

If by "let loose" you mean "get heavy", I'm always looking to do that as I like the excitement it provides. There's much more heavy stuff in the second half of the 18 mins.

5:34 heavy section is perhaps my favourite in this half (yes, I agree with "Pay Attention!"). Kind of wish I'd got some of that heaviness in earlier. Not sure if you can tell, but it's mostly just putting the clean guitar you've hear for the previous bars through an overdriven software amp. With, obviously, a move to the crash cymbal. But those two things sort of makes it sound like a new part.

This track's bass is almost entirely bass guitar, which may interest you.

I have actually been drunk on a tropical island. Martinique in 1997. That's when I really learned about regular large amounts of alcohol not agreeing with me. Found myself having to give up for a couple of days just so that I could start again! The beer was even on tap at lunch in the Club Med I was in.

Thanks for noticing the 8:47 banj0-guitar interplay (love that short section). It was previously a lot jumblier but I spent ages editing both banjo (lots of fast runs there) and guitar to get them not to clash. What they're playing does clash (I played each separately, didn't intend for them to go together) but I just kept chopping notes out. They also both have delay which makes a mess more likely. That's another trick - remove the delay, even if just for a second or two, if things are getting too messy.

That's why, these days, I very rarely record delay with my guitar, bass or banjo (cos then you can't remove it). I add it in software afterwards so that I can control it very carefully. Also makes chopping up stuff as much as I do much easier.

See - you did have some useful points to make so thanks for making them.

I'm still not happy with the first couple of minutes in this one. Nice as it is, I think things should get rocking sooner. Maybe I'll do something about that but bit fed up of working on this right now.

Have fun with the full version. The extra minutes have most of the best rocking. There's even a very conscious key change in one section!

Yes. Lots going on but about the same amount of changes and progressions usual for me as . But there are fewer instruments and sounds than unusual.

Maybe a bit like a jam band. But I hope it's a bit tighter than your average jam band.

If you think you might have the stamina for the full length version, check it out here:

https://soundcloud.com/endlessrotary/things-that-have-never-been

Second half has some more rocking stuff that might appeal to you.

Yeah - it is a bit heavenly. I go there from time to time and these were the kind of sounds I heard so I sampled them with a small dictaphone and incorporated them into this track.

Don't know if copyright laws apply to material from up above. But if I've sinned, may God strike me down and take back his samples...

Lots of love and joy in this - I agree.

Thanks. I have a lot of it and I don't just mean in this mega lengthy track. I've uploaded loads of far out epics in the past few months.

Thanks for the interest.

Cool. I can't help recommending other music by me to people who like one or more of my pieces. And I do stuff in a lot of styles so some people like some and not others.

Hi. Thanks for checking out some of my tracks. I'm fairly happy with this one though not entirely with the movement of the various basses. Found them hard to do and they're still not quite right though it's hard to put into words quite what's wrong with them.

But there's a lot that's enjoyable with this track and its basic tribal groove. It has a sister track that will be finished some time in the next few months that will probably be near nearly as good.

I'm going to just make an assumption here and guess that as you're into r'n'b, you like at least some hip hop too. I do some very alternative hip hop epics that incorporate a whole bunch of genres. A few to check out, if you feel like it, are: Zero Per Cent Proof, Way Beyond Wrong and The Fatness.

Thanks. Yeah, I guess my stuff is worth money but I haven't tried selling anything yet. I'll probably just end up allowing free downloads of the proper albums I'm in the process of compiling (about 7 right now, many more to follow of older stuff after that).

Hadn't hear faded before for 'stoned' but am sure there are loads and loads of words for it in almost every language on earth.

Wasted, monged, mashed more common here in England but you can kind of come up with anything, can't you?

If you check more of my stuff, you'll probably agree it's all serious smoking music. I love far out sounds!

Thanks again for listening.

Thanks. I am a groove obsessive. Good ones and psychedelic far out sounds inspire me more than anything else. This track has both, as do most of my tracks.

Sorry but I didn't quite understand what you mean by 'faded'. And why would you be offering me some money? There's some reference there I really don't get.

Thanks for taking me up on my suggestion and checking this out.

Thanks. It's a pretty emotive piece. I know what you mean about country and urban but I hadn't really thought about it in those terms. The urban is from the bass and drums (there's a simple hip hop kit in there plus other acoustic drums) and the country from the guitar though I think of it as more Eastern blues though the slide playing is reminiscent of country too.

You'd think there would be more of this sort of thing (eg in the US) but I've never heard anything quite like it. You just need a decent slide guitarist to get together with some creative hip hop guys.

I do have country guitar in another very psychedelic, heavily layered and almost indefinable track on here called NightTime Thrones. The full version is 17 mins and you can find the link if you go to the 10-min Looperman version. Thanks agan for listening and offering your impressions of the music I enjoy making.

Thanks. I try to not have too much repetition and not have too many changes as I tend to have a hell of a lot of the latter, which can be a little discombobulating for the listener.

Maybe I got it slightly wrong here with siting on parts (ie repetition) but maybe you'll get used to it if you listen again.

My banjo is pretty cheap (and 6 string so like a guitar, just with strings closer together so more difficult to play) and I even do a bit of slide on it as I raised the action. I'd like a more expensive one and would love one with a pickup so I don't have to mic it up.

Lovely with some delay added afterwards! There's also a glitch retrigger effect I sometimes use on it at precise points to make it sound as though I've played the notes much faster and closer together. Very useful and you might not know it's an effect.

Thanks for coming back to comment...

"you make very diverse genres play together nicely"

That's a really nice way of putting it.

Yes, people fear the banjo! But I don't play it in a regular way and there's hardly anyone using it in electronic music - it's all predictable country and bluegrass, some jazz etc.

I've found one guy using it in electronic music and he's very good. But I've forgotten his artist name!

I like playing it with lots of delay and in a an Eastern style. Have recorded loads with it in past 18 months.

Go to 5:20 in this track for some crazy cool banjo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxNcxo-sPwE

Almost all my synth sounds for last 12 years have come from various synths in Propellerheads Reason software, which I've been using since version 1.0.

Quite a few basses in this and they are indeed quite fat.

Thanks. There are still some things that bother me about it but there's a lot to like, especially the cool grooves.

In 13 years of producing music, I've only used didg in two tracks.

I think I should use it more.

Maybe the sensual thing come from the groove, the bass and the overall sort of edgy, slightly aggressive nature of the track, combined with the psychedelic elements and Eastern sounds. I'm not sure, really. The simplest way of putting is probably just to say "it's got some vibe".

The time I take over stuff really comes from the way I compose. I don't write these pieces of music in any sort of planned out way. As I said before, they mostly come from recycling leftover sections from previous tracks. If you want to hear the two sister tracks to this one (same tempo, same key, some of the same sounds plus many new ones), go to my Sound of An Unsound Mind page on Mixposure and listen to Three Miles Late and 28 Levels Above Top Secret.

I just keep jamming over loops I love and slowly adding new bits of playing, with a focus on using the more interesting incidental bits of playing that I didn't plan on doing. Because I cycle record over a loop, I have loads of versions of the main sort of riff I planned on playing, plus loads and loads of different fills and stuff. Then I take these and layer them up and start new sections with loops of some of the more interesting parts.

I just find it so easy with modern DAWs to add all manner of complexity and effects and carefully automate it all. When making a track, I have find trying out loads of different effects and synth parts and drum grooves. And then I spend ages thinking "Well, how can I fit all this in?".

I just keep adding things bit by bit and then use different effects and fills to get the transitions from section to section as natural-sounding as possible. So much detail makes for a complex mix but my aim is to make unique music that never fails to be interesting so I don't mind having to deal with so much information and elements competing to be heard.

Thanks again for taking an interest. I shall do more with your tracks though I currently have very limited internet access.

Thanks. I still have some problems with this track, especially the bass, which I found surprisingly difficult to do and it's still not right. I made most of this about ten years ago and then this year updated it, adding another couple of minutes to its length. Maybe I'll go back in and try hard to improve it. There are some very cool bits in it while some other elements could and should be better. Must try to use that main arepggiated lead synth more!

I shall check The Fragile out and see if I can find anything that reminds me of this track as I guess I'd like it.

Will be a shame if I can't find it but, then again, we all hear things differently. So, if this reminds you of it then you're not wrong.

"Ask Trent Reznor for vocals maybe"

Well that is an interesting idea and certainly not one I would have thought of. I don't see this track as being that dark.

I do like some NIN, especially Pretty Hate Machine though I haven't really listened to anything of his/theirs in years. Maybe I should.

I can't really see his style fitting in to this track. I'm sure he'd want more distortion (there's harly any on this) but maybe it would work.

If you can get him to listen to it, maybe we can get an answer to two things: does he like it and does he want to try out some vocals on it. So please email him or whatever and see if he'll reply.

Thanks for stopping by, listening and sharing your interesting idea.

Yes, it doesn't belong in hip hop but as it's got hip hop in it I thought I'd give people a little surprise and post something in hip hop that they're probably only likely to hear once in the hip hop section. I've never before heard banjo in hip hop, though I guess there must be some somewhere.

Yes, I really like some of the guitar playing on this, particularly the finger brushed chords in the last guitar section in the last minute or so. I can't remember very well but I think they're chords played with the glass slide (but without any actual sliding around).

As regards performance, I always do multiple varied takes of actual playing and then spend ages and ages piecing together the best bits and moving things around and so on. So there are some guitar parts that are full, unedited performances but they are often just 20 seconds or so, often much less, before I do an edit or layer something else on top(I don't care where I do it, I just do what I think works for the track).

I always record on a loop (8 bar, 16 bar, whatever) so never worry about getting things "wrong" and that allows me to really relax and let go and do whatever comes into my head or through my fingers.

Thanks for listening and I'll be posting another track very soon, probably today.

Cool. I guess that's sick as in good rather than sick as in in the head.

Can't remember exactly what the wubby bass was. Might be a synth sound in Reason. Might be my Korg Z1 (which I don't use anymore, mostly Reason these days for synths). But I think I need to find out and use that sound again!

No plan to do the Arabian thing but I love those sorts of sounds, have no idea how to play them but they just come out once I start using semitones and move about the guitar or keyboard.

Yes, I'm always dropping new stuff in the mix, though sometimes my stuff actually changes too much, which can be be a bit of a headache after a while for people. I'm trying to change stuff a bit less. I have loads of other similarly eclectic things (and much longer stuff on other sites) so feel free to check more out.

Thanks again for stopping by and I appreciate the appreciation.

Thanks. I've got a slightly improved version as I wasn't happy with all the drums on this but otherwise I also like all of it. No, I'm not really looking for anyone to sing on this one. I'd have to remove lots of lead playing (such as the guitar) so would have to pretty much do a whole new composition/remix. But I'd need to work with the singer so would really need to be in the same room as them so would have to know them.

I am always looking for singers to work with me but I need to know them and can't just do it online with people I don't know. It might work out doing it online but there's so much that can go wrong!

Sorry it's taken me 3 years to reply to this comment. I don't know why I didn't bother before. Thanks so much for the appreciation.

Oh thanks but I can and do pick fault with that. I made this years ago but in the last year extended it by about 2 minures and improved loads of little things.

It's just not as good as I hear it should be in my head. I know everyone can say that about anything they've done but I feel it more acutely on some tracks than others. Sometimes you just have to give up, I guess. I think I've probably done all I can with this.

Yes, it is a cool basic tribal sound. That main drum loop plus those djembes, didg and bass sit really nicely. Everything came from that beginning. Check out my track on here called Circular Motion as it's way better than this one and I wouldnt change much about it. And it has some things in common with this track.

Thanks. I guess by 'main drums' you mean that hip hop loop. Yes, it is a total classic and, for what it is, difficult to better.

I have used it in quite a few compositions at different tempos. You can too if you have Propellerheads Reason software. It is the very first drum loop loaded into the very first demo song in the very first version of Reason. Yes, it was so good I could not help using it over and over again.

I use very few drum loops these days as I've progressed to complex, detailed, programmed acoustic drums, which I much prefer (though a great loop is a great is a great loop).

Please listen to my track on this site called Circular Motion as the same drum loop features quite prominently in that one too. It's a much better track than this one and I made it about 13 years ago when I was only about 20. It's almost a fluke of a good composition as it stands out as being much better in terms of production than almost everything else I was doing around that time. It's also a nice blend of ethnic and electronic sounds. Actually, there aren't really ethnic sounds but ethnic scales/melodies so achieves a similar vibe.

Yes,it takes a couple of minutes to get going and really kick in to that main, compelling bassline and sort of Middle Eastern guitar.

I hope those couple of minutes are interesting enough as it took me a while to work out how to transition in to the main section beginning around 1:45.

I have other tracks related to this one so have a look round my page if you feel like it. The track called Circular Motion might be a good place to start.