Devil

A short rap song about the devil for the music challenge.

This is part of the "Amen" break. The diabluses are in the details. In particular, the bass riff and the arpeggiated synthesizer line have them. Thank you for your consideration.

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posted by chrchr (4 comments total)

While listening I was going crazy trying to figure out what this reminded me of, and I think it's Megamanic by Bob Mould, from The Last Dog and Pony Show (I can't find it anywhere for free online or I'd link to it.)

Do my ears detect augmented fourths?
posted by usonian at 5:58 PM on February 28

I came here from the feedback thread, and my little bit of critique would be that in the repeating section (one example at 1:08) you sound like you're stumbling over the lyrics a bit - my recommendation here would be to either practise saying it super quick, or even better, overdub so that there's a little overlap between one line and the next.

I really like the little hum refrain that first comes in at 0:04, it's a nice touch.
posted by greenish at 3:10 AM on March 1

I have no idea what the intervals are anymore. It's somewhere in the arpeggiater effect. I was aiming for the flattened fifths described in the music challenge but it's probably not the only weird sounding interval in there.

Among rappers I am uncharacteristically modest so I can admit that I am honestly not that great at rapping and also I tend to be pretty impatient about laying down vocals and getting it done and moving on, and these vocals certainly suffer for it. There's more than a couple places where the take reflects the fact that I didn't know the lyrics very well. I should be making a rough take and listening to it for a few days until I know the song inside and out and then do it for real. This was kinda a quicky though. I'm sure I could nail that part if I were to re-record it. The humming is a sample from Yusef Lateef, I think. You can hear a little bit of a flute or maybe a soprano sax under it too. I also recorded the vocals with a SM-58 instead of the fancy expensive condenser mic I normally use and I like the way they came out.

Thanks for listening.
posted by chrchr at 3:29 PM on March 2

Just got here from that feedback thread as well. There is something that sounds like sort of a "seam" in the backing track (like an imperfect loop) that I find a little offputting, but I wanted to say that I really like your rapping style. I don't rap, but I've thought about trying it in a way where it "doesn't sound like rapping" -- as in, not explosively boastful, but more like the real me "talking," yet in a musical way. I feel like that's how you sound, which I think is awesome and not at all as easily done as one might think. Keep it up!
posted by edlundart at 12:12 AM on March 6