Brandywell

A quick song I did for the RPM08 challenge. Written, sequenced, and mixed in a day.

The RPM challenge is a way for musicians to give themselves a push, with clear deadlines and limitless means. Take the month of February (the shortest month all year), and create an entire album (either 10 songs or 35 minutes of material).

Any one else participating in this, as well?

This song, more than anything, made me long for the day I'll have room in my apartment for a real drum set, and the set up to record it.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by pedmands (6 comments total)

Sweet! This is a lot more - polished? complex? -- than I was expecting from the one-day description. This is the sort of thing that takes me months to do.

A drum set is nice, of course, but it's neat how you filled in the rhythm with string-squeaks and breath noise.

Nice organ-and-hand-claps bridge, there.

Ha ha, great ending, too!

Out of curiousity, how much do writing and sequencing overlap? How much of the conception is pre-construction?
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 7:04 PM on February 14

Karlos- thanks for the kind remarks!

Just recently I realized I almost never have a complete idea for a song when I start composing it. I look at my tools as a sculptor might- I have to use each one in a different way to find the shape in the piece of metaphorical stone. I'll throw a vibraphone part in there, for instance, and it will change the course of the song while tying to the previous part. Then I might go over the entire thing several times to wash it all in the same color.

This, quite obviously, doesn't always take a day- sometimes I just get lucky :)
posted by pedmands at 7:21 PM on February 14

I'm with Karlos, it sounds a lot better than what I would manage in one day. And there are many little details I really like, like the "a-ha-ha, a-ha-ha" breath thing, or the vibraphone. And you have a rather nice voice. The ending seems a bit abrupt, though. Perhaps you could leave something like a vibraphone hit fading away.
posted by micayetoca at 8:08 AM on February 15

whoa, this is lovely. Very different from what I've heard on here before - very late-Beatlesy, in a good way.

Nicely done!
posted by ORthey at 3:18 PM on February 15

This turned out very well. Congrats! For some reason I like the sort of abrupt ending. Makes me think of some of the quieter Rob Crow stuff.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:33 PM on February 15

I am participating. I have 7 songs done so far.

You can hear them all here: http://rasterweb.net/raster/category/audio/
posted by raster at 12:16 AM on February 17