Penguin

January 31, 2011 9:10 PM

Zenabi and I put together a song for the January MeMu challenge. Here are the goodies.

Zenabi wrote this, played beautiful electric & acoustic guitars, and programmed lots of synths and drums. I played bass and theremin, mangled vocal samples, and also programmed synths & beats. Bill Withers made us smile at the last minute. We had a total blast, really dug working with each other, and sincerely hope you enjoy it.

Down with rock music.

posted by mintcake! (12 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite

Oh man! mintcake is so humble!

Under incredible stress, he created this God-worthy mix! I am convinced he is a genius!

Dang, this was fun!
posted by Zenabi at 9:18 PM on January 31, 2011


Wow, this is pretty cool. I like the way it blows open at :25, and those drums samples are tasty.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 12:51 AM on February 1, 2011


Thanks Karlos.
posted by Zenabi at 1:54 AM on February 1, 2011


I dig it. Very much. What did you use to record this : tools, software, etc... ?
posted by nicolin at 2:13 AM on February 1, 2011


I'm groovin' to the sound of that track... thanks !
posted by nicolin at 2:31 AM on February 1, 2011


I think it all started with a book and a rock ;-)

mintcake! did all the fiddly wave editing bits so I have no idea (ACID, maybe?) I used an Ibanez nylon and and a Yamaha Pacifica electric guitar, going into an E-MU 0404 USB via a...let me see...a Zoom G21u thangy.
posted by Zenabi at 2:32 AM on February 1, 2011


Man, the pumping on that ... reversed kick? ... at the beginning is awesome. The rest is great as hell, too. I dig the bass programming.

And the drumkit that gets exposed during the fadeout sounds familiar...
posted by uncleozzy at 5:54 AM on February 1, 2011


Bass is a Steinberger Q4 (a beautiful, blue Newburgh model) through my warhorse Zoom G9.2tt, captured with an M-Audio Fast Track Pro. I believe the photo-theremin is one I got from Professor Television back in the day. I indeed used Acid 7 for everything on my end - live recording, cutting & looping, mixing, etc. Quick mastering job is via T-Racks. I think that straight drum kit we fade to was out of Addictive Drums.
posted by mintcake! at 7:54 AM on February 1, 2011


Ok...full rundown:

It all started with that little nylon guitar riff, upon which mintcake! and I agreed immediately.

I'd played it to a preset funk drum loop and a programmed bass line (both of which appear sometimes :-))

Mintcake suggested that it needed more of an industrial/acid jazz rhythm. and he politely nudged me that way.

We then bounced many keyboard parts off each other...I think we included all of them!?

As an afterthought, I sent through the guitar solo with a note saying something like, "I'm not sure this fits...Whaddaya think?"

Mintcake! enjoyed it, so it stayed.

We were always vaguely concerned about what should be done with vocals.

Mint said, "Let's layer a sermon from a psychotic rock-music-hating preacherman!" :-)

And then the bass: Well...it turns out that Mintcake! plays a wicked bass guitar!

Theremin!

With about an hour before closing time, and mixing yet to be done, Zenabi thought, "Hey, similar chords...Bill Withers...Lovely Day. Can we end with that?" Sir Mint surmounted.

I hope the picture is now a little clearer, as opposed to mintcake's! ridiculously humble initial song description :-)
posted by Zenabi at 1:05 PM on February 1, 2011


Woah. That intro is beautiful. I love that keyboard that comes in after he says "You don't need to learn about thrash rock, it's just really bad stuff"- almost sounds like a demented laugh from the congregation.
posted by Corduroy at 2:12 PM on February 1, 2011


Yea, there's a lot a genius in this and I agree with Karlos, when this blow wide open you really get sucked in for the ride. Congrats guys!
posted by snsranch at 4:30 PM on February 1, 2011


lovely stuff. do more please. love the bass especially.
posted by peterkins at 4:04 PM on February 2, 2011


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