Freestailo #38 - 6/22/12

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Why I want it to rain

I woke up this morning, and for once in my life, I wasn't totally stoked to go to the station and play you some tunes. We've all had that morning: you wake up, stare at the ceiling, realize you got up earlier than your alarm, lie in bed some more, realize you need to DJ, put on some pants, and grab some records. If it hadn't been for a small theme of "rain" I found between two records I had, I probably wouldn't have had so much fun. 

All right, now let's talk about my experience with the long layer that I did for this show. There were a lot of things I liked, but also a lot of things I didn't like. My thought process for it was to start soft with the guitar, and use the Robert Lax recording to slowly layer, but I accidentally put in the wrong CD, which was a dumb mistake. I think that might have gotten me in a weird groove, despite fixing it immediately. After that, I layered the "Istomonography" track, which perhaps just added a lot of white noise to the equation, along with the jungle sounds, which was more white noise, in a sense. As I listened back to this, it was almost annoying, until the Carpet Musics track came in, which I simply put on repeat for the duration of the layering. I think that this gave a lot of stability to the layering. It had the same calming sound like Robert Lax, but brought together the noise to make aural sense. The Ravi Shankar track was next, which was an interesting balance for the layering, because at times it went together well with the Carpet Musics track, and at times it went together with the noise tracks.

A little infographic I modded for y'all. You're welcome.

Throughout the track, I found myself really focusing on Robert Lax and Carpet Musics, and grouping the others together in a separate track completely, as if the layering was composed of only 2--maybe 3--parts. This brought me to a small revelation about freeform, and the layering technique: it must be aurally comprehensible. I don't know about all of you, but for me, my brain can only take so much of a "noise" soundscape before my ears shut down from listening critically, and therefore must have something to separate. Instead of having 6 things to try to understand, my brain split it into 2 or 3. To successfully layer something, I've concluded that the listener must be able to divide and comprehend it aurally, and that for a long layering, it's best to add things one at a time, with a good solid space in between.

Robert Lax

My favorite thing about the layering piece was the moment when the tracks slowly started ending, but Robert Lax was still talking. I could feel my body relax more and more, especially after such tension throughout the piece, and when it came down to just 1 track (still Robert Lax), my brain had no choice but to focus itself completely, almost like meditation. Like I said before though, I definitely have mixed feelings about how it actually sounded, but the fact that I strandled the line of failure helped me really understand more about how I create more interesting pieces for you guys. 

Let me know what you thought of the show, and especially the layering! 

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain - Shaka Zulu
2. Hugh Masekela: Motlalepula (The Rainmaker) - Techno Bush
3. Edith Piaf: D'Accordéoniste - Disque D'or de Edith Piaf
4. Kohwi: Rem - Hidden Trees
5. Moe Tucker: Hey, Mr. Rain - Moe Tucker
6. Mira: Don't - Mira
7. The Marcels: Blue Moon - The Best of Doo Wop Uptempo
8. Los Marimbas Caliente: Macarenas - The Gaiety and Romance of a Holiday in Mexico
9. Kid Loco: (track 1) - The Graffiti Artist
10. Julius Katchen: Variations & Fugue on a Theme by Handel - Brahms: Complete Piano Works
11. Whale: Deliver The Juice - All Disco Dance Must End In Broken Bones
12. Bob Dylan: Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - The Essential Bob Dylan
13. Coco Rosie: Trinity's Crying - Grey Oceans
14. Mo Kenney: Eden - Eden/Great Escape
15. Tabla Beat Science: Triangular Objects - Tala Matrix
16. Billie Holiday: Stormy Weather - The Unique Billie Holiday
17. Ed Sullivan: How Are Things In Glocca Morra? (From "Finian's Rainbow") - Songs of Ireland
18. Daedelus: Fair Weather Friends - Love To Make Music To
19. Bobby Darin: Mack The Knife - Beyond The Sea/Mack The Knife
20. The White Stripes: Red Rain - Get Behind Me Satan
21. Amon Amarth: Across The Rainbow Bridge - Versus The World
22. Kazumi Totaka: Rainy Day - Animal Crossing GC OST
23. Santiago Navascues: Gaspar Sanz: Twelve Dances from "Instrucción de Música Sobre la Guitarra Española" - Music For The Spanish Guitar
24. Robert Lax: Various - Wake up re:lax
25. Nautical Almanac: Istomonography - Cisum
26. Rainy Season Sounds - Sounds of a Tropical Rain Forest in America
27. Carpet Musics: Hail Storm - Weekday
28. Ravi Shankar: Raga Kaushi Kanhara: Gat in Dhamar - Full Circle Carnegie Hall 2000
29. Bonnie Pink: It's gonna rain! - Rurouni Kenshin Themes
30. Red Sea Pedestrians: Golden Apple - The Electromagnetic Escape
31. Osibisa: Seaside Meditation - Welcome Home
32. The Andrews Sisters: Rum & Coca-Cola - Rum & Coca-Cola/Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
33. The Supremes: The Lady Is A Tramp - The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart
34. Rafael Mendez: The Little Russian Donkey - Magnificent Mendez
35. Madeleine Peyroux: California Rain - Half The Perfect World
36. The Carpenters: Superstar - Superstar/Beasts & Children
37. Himadari: Lucid Lure + Ah, Elektra - Himadari
38. Trio Mediaeval: Nu solen går ned (The sun is setting) - Folk Songs
39. Faze Action: Là-bas c'est naturel - I <3 Serge
40. Regina Spektor: Raindrops - (unreleased demo)
41. Cookie Monster and the Girls: Me Lost Me Cookie At The Disco - Sesame Disco
42. E. Koestyara and Group Gapura: Sangkala - Sangkala

Good things:

1. Rum & Coca-Cola: I bought this gem at the NXNE Record Fair, and I hadn't listened to it before bringing it to you guys, so this was as much a surprise for me as (possibly) you. Can't wait to play Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy sometime.
2. Cookie Monster: I think this was a pretty nice way to wrap up the show. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for die Discothek now. 
3. Ladysmith Black Mambazo: I've been listening to this record for the past week quite a lot, and I keep falling in love with it. I'm really happy I got to share it with you guys. You'll probably hear it again. 

Bad things: 

1. Pauses: I don't think they were tooo long, but there were a few pauses that I didn't have a handle on because I was previewing the next song to play, and just lost my head. That'll teach me not to drink coffee before coming to the station.
2. Yawning: Sorry about this. Maybe you don't care, but if we were having a conversation and I kept yawning like I was, that would just be flat-out rude, and not my style. Was this distracting for you?
3. Trio Mediaeval: I just wasn't digging this. The recording was too quiet, and it was just a bit languid for where this was in the set. 

Thanks a lot for listening, and please give me some feedback if you have any! Or even just say hey. Until next week!