A change of feel

Understanding that I’m staring at the vertical ascent of a huge learning curve, I’m undeterred in forging on with the type of sounds I really want to create. Capitulation and Indian Summer have helped me serve my Cubase apprenticeship. They’ve been a vehicle for understanding grid editing, send and insert FX, the fundamentals of mixing and with this as their objective, I’m fairly pleased with the results.

My goal is to produce much edgier music than either of these pieces. Don’t misunderstand. I’m happy with both of them as compositions. They’re just not in the space I want to be in. I don’t want to go down the ambient / chill / trance (or Bollywood!) route. I’m keen to explore – and take as my “steer” – artists like Noisia, Riot 87, The Prodigy and Matmos.

I think it was @idoliside who said on Twitter that listening to Invaders Must Die (Prodigy) made him believe that his music was “pants”. It’s clear that Liam, Keith and Maxim set the bar extremely high, but these are the sounds to which I want to aspire. I realise that I’m chasing a bullet train on a bicycle, but it feels good to have a target (even a wholly unrealistic one).

Since buying Cubase and composing and mixing Capitulation and Indian Summer, I’ve opened my ears. I’m listening far more critically (and “technically”) to everything. This is bound to help, but I need to be more selective about exactly what’s on my playlist. So, if you’ve any recommendations, please feel share them with me. You can be happy in the knowledge that you’re helping a naive fool make himself look even more ridiculous!

Tags: axiom, matmos, noisia, Riot 87, the prodigy