Despite what the writers and litigators of copyright would have you believe none of us create in a vacuum. All the things we hear, see and experience are drawn upon consciously or unconsciously as we make. As we grow in our art too we, perhaps more consciously, look at the things we think are good and look to see how other artists create sounds,images , words so as to learn new techniques.
The video above is very decidedly a piece where some of the things I love are very overtly copied. It originated when it suddenly dawned on me this week how a drum sound I love is created.
The music you grow up with settles deep in your mind - even people who no longer follow new music still have a strong emotional connection to the music that was played around them when growing up. One of the sounds I particularly loved, when I was young and now - was that kind of almost tribal tom tom playing that you find on Faith by the Cure, Joy Divisions work and a number of other records from that time. Over the years I've played around with various drum samples but have been unable to find “that sound”.
Driving back home from the school run this week listening to Closer by Joy Division I was musing on Peter Hooks comments that he and Sumner were somewhat dismayed by Martin Hannetts production when they first heard it. And it suddenly occurred to me “They Gated drums in the 80s!!!” and of course that’s exactly how you get that sound.
This track then is a mix of playing with that sound (and just that sound) for the rhythm. The lead overtly draws on another deep favourite Jon Hassell (I figured out how to get his sound earlier in the year - you need to either pitch shift or tune oscillators to 3rds and 5ths - in this case the Sound Toys little alter boy is pitch shifting down a 5th and one of the oscillators on the DPO is up a 3rd)
This is the second track I’ve made in Ableton and I’m liking it very much. I need to save up for the upgrade to the full version at this point and I think I’m going to save for the Push 2 as well. In this video I’m controlling it with the touchable app.