The Loop

August 11, 2014 3:22 PM

After spending a few years rehearsing and making rough and ready demos, Sredni Vashtar finally made it into a real studio last month. Here's one of them - the mix is still a bit rough so it works best on headphones.

'The Loop' is an old-school builder, mixing a couple of loops (one on a drum pad, the other from a guitar), a cyclical guitar riff and vocals that walk the line between hope and pity. A couple of bum notes still need to be fixed, but we're pretty pleased with this overall. We recorded with Andy Ramsay, formerly Stereolab's drummer, at his fantastic Press Play studio in South London. Enjoy.

posted by srednivashtar (6 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

I really like this, but the drums are the weak point for me. I'd actually love to hear this without the drums present at all. I think it would be perfect without them.

If you keep drums in the track, my personal opinion is that you need more from them than what this loop is giving you. The track develops and fluctuates, the drums don't. Either a live drum track, or take some time to programme them in, or even keep it minimal and just have percussion to accent key moments, just toms and cymbals, say.

Anyway this is just my opinion. And I like the rest of it a lot :)
posted by greenish at 8:09 AM on August 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ok I'm listening to this again and I insist that you try a version of this without drums. I think it would be killer.

Even better, let me have the masters and do you a mix without drums :)
posted by greenish at 8:12 AM on August 13, 2014


I'm tempted to try it, but not sure what to tell the drummer! The drums are actually live, although probably manipulated a bit in the studio and the drummer is also triggering the descending keyboard motif on a Roland drumpad. But thanks for the kind words - we're going to get the masters at some point.... I might drop you a line.
posted by srednivashtar at 12:27 PM on August 13, 2014


That's golden. Great track, it's a nice fit in today's listening mellowscape.
posted by TheNegativeInfluence at 5:58 PM on August 13, 2014


I agree with greenish. The drums might work better if the mixing were a little different, though -- right now all you hear is that snare on 2 and 4, which gets pretty repetitive, and the bass drum is pretty hard to hear. The vocals and the rest of the mix are great, though.
posted by en forme de poire at 12:35 PM on August 15, 2014


I actually put this song on "repeat" on my MP3 player! Could I trouble you for the lyrics? It sounds like you don't have a family, then want to do more to protect them, which can't be right. Also at the end, is that "cornices of my mind" or something else? Your voice is great for the song, just a little mumbly in the mix. This is as good as any pop song of its ilk.
posted by AppleSeed at 8:41 AM on October 4, 2014


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