audiokayness

Balmonce Part-video

2011-05-16T17:45:00.002-04:00

Balmonce Part

ye olde J-card

2011-04-27T01:03:00.002-04:00

audible and otherwise

2011-02-09T20:13:00.002-05:00

Much of what's going lately is ad hoc and such.

And posted here.

Rocker Wait

2011-01-25T22:33:00.003-05:00

Rocker Wait

Screwdriver found in the road rocks in the strings of a beater acoustic as Stylophone, Monotron, other such abide with the cheep karaoke machine and Dora the Ex. echo.

Doppeltron Flip

2011-01-06T00:38:00.003-05:00

This is a drone improv on Korg Monotron with some circuit bent Speak & Read and Speak & Spell somewhere in there. Actually the audio/video is overlaid, one bit being played much slower.

Turning Reed

2011-01-04T18:52:00.002-05:00

Turning Reed

Bass, Kay acoustic and Stylophonic reediness.

Wither Thou Goest

2010-12-31T11:13:00.002-05:00

Wither Thou Goest

A big production, even for its time of reverbosity.
Had meant to post it. But a glitch in the one of its kind master recording inspired notions of digital fixing, which mostly happened and slightly didn't. Accelerating only the procrastinating process.

So now's it posted with the rest.

Meantime, mostly non-songs are continually going up in the less archival Tumblr version of audiokayness. Stuff of Berna, Gleetchlab and Monotron & so on.

24 July 2010 Tape Trio No 2

2010-11-21T22:11:00.002-05:00

Probably this needs no explanation. Handheld tape recorders record oscillators & stuff, rewind and playback said stuff. Video of the rewind & playback, including disembodied hand that rides the pause switch on the er, um, lead tape recorder.

Died Laughing

2010-10-22T16:22:00.004-04:00

Died Laughing

Provisional super full-length title: Died Laughing At the Fat Lady At Buckroe Beach.

But without lots of context (the sort that music hopes to obviate if only to get straight to the mood of things) that may seem cruel or unPC or whatever else. Needless to say, the shorter Died Laughing gives it a broader reading at least.

Piezo'd tiny toy instrument is played slide and later used in a feedback loop. Other such piezo fun with toy spring reverb mics, battery springs and the like.

Don't laugh too hard.

the James River and thereabouts

2010-10-21T19:55:00.008-04:00

During a trip to Virginia to visit family and attend the Richmond Folk Festival, I did some field recording.

Having been by, but never to, Ragged Island WMA, I thought it'd be worth a try to record both the James River Bridge (longtime fixture in family history) and the river itself.

I started near the bridge. Which was fine for that objective. But later took the observation trail to further down river. Both places I used the highly kludged together Big Fluff windscreen made with fake fur on plastic cross stitch grid whatever.

James River at end of observation boardwalk trail, Ragged Island WMA, Carrollton VA, noon 8 October 2010

Roughly a 1/4 mile away, the bridge traffic is still a big part of the sound. Noontime sirens sound across the river in Newport News.

Birdsong at Tredegar Iron Works 9 October 2010

The next day at the Richmond Folk Festival, I barely had time to get out my lo-tek MP3 player to do a quick and dirty recording of this birdsong coming from a small tree near Tredegar Iron Works.

Train passing overhead on trestle near Tredegar Iron Works/James River, Richmond VA, 10 October 2010

That following day I took a break by the riverside and a train came over the trestle.

The last day there I went down to Chippokes Plantation State Park, where I hadn't been in over 3 years. Once there, I found a spot on the James I wanted to record.

Forgetting some essential adapter gizmo for mounting my recorder, the tripod was dead weight (on a very mosquito infested trail) and I had to improvise.

James River near end of James River trail, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010

I recorded a couple of other spots on the beach, then switched to some DIY piezo mics for my first outdoor attempt at using them as hydrophones. Below is the sound of them dragging in shallow surf on sand and broken shells.

DIY piezo mics as hydrophones in the James River, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010

Time allotted was running out. I went by the Visitor's Center to see if there was any last fast opportunity.

Near a picnic shelter I just fitted the recorder with the Lil' Fluff windscreen my wife had kindly fashioned from the aforementioned fake fur.

And pointed it down to the banks of the James roughly 100 feet below.

James River surf below Shelter 1 near Visitor's Center, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010 A

James River surf below Shelter 1 near Visitor's Center, Chippokes Plantation State Park 13 October 2010 B

Last We Heard

2010-10-01T01:39:00.003-04:00

Last We Heard

Is this the last title with the word "last" in it?

Somehow doubt it . . .

Crowd 4 Lot--video

2010-09-26T00:02:00.004-04:00

Crowd 4 Lot is an odd hobbyhorse hybrid. Some audio from a museum opening was doctored a bit in Audacity and varispeeded and otherwise twisted in Berna.

But the original audio of these very slowed down bits of overlaid video are also part of what's going on.

Spoken Wave Stepdown

2010-09-25T21:45:00.000-04:00

Spoken Wave Stepdown

Many of the usual suspects.

Solaris slow duplex approach

2010-09-15T15:48:00.002-04:00

Very slowed down video with correspondingly slow ambient audio.

7 minutes in Berna

2010-08-22T12:38:00.002-04:00

To operate a bit more sonically off the books and combine with the coolness of others, I recently created audiokayness (the phantom annex).

Lately, been having fun with Berna some more, using various recordings I've made played at varispeed to feed the Berna beast. Stuff like old 1950s tube intercom feedback. Stylophone and homemade zither run through the reverberant spring-loaded arm of a Luxo lamp via Nicholas Collins implementations of piezo contact mics/drivers.

To post the MP3s directly to the world o' Tumblr, I've kept these improvs [um, relatively] short. A mere 7 minutes each.

Runnymede Turn

2010-08-03T01:40:00.003-04:00

Runnymede Turn

Stylophone through a Korg X-911, electric sitar strummed & ebowed.

Closed Circuit Treadle

2010-08-01T23:13:00.003-04:00

Closed Circuit Treadle

Droney & slow with the ebowed beater acoustic, some Casio SK-1 and a touch of nuevo Stylophone.

Names are the devil. Esp. with instrumental music. I might give something a name for all sorts of reasons, but the impulse of many listeners (myself included, when on the other end) is to take the name literally. Or literally enough not to hear things outside of the context of the dread name.

I read somewhere that an action painter whose last name rhymes with Wallach started using numbers to name his stuff. Tempting.

And some folks (one who rhymes with "la tea") go with names so long & whimsical that folks would rather forgo reading them and just suss things out on their own.

But the digital age offers almost all indulgences except that of a ridiculously long file name. And whatever convenient distillation of the really long name that ends up as the file name will no doubt obviate the too-long-to-bother-reading gambit.

Tho' I will offer here the alternate overly long & oblique title of this humble stretch of soundlike music/music-ish sound: The Closed Circuit Treadle Entirely Unseen & Cast Iron & Heretofore Unspoken Of Except As Woven Into The Cold Air The Greenest Grass Conceals Via Those Unclasped Vectors Of The Lost AlChemist Who Sought Uni & Roy But Found Only The Cricket's Face. There, something to read while listening.

two owls, one owl

2010-07-26T13:07:00.005-04:00

Two Owls Hooting 26 July 2010

One Owl Hooting 26 July 2010

15 Years Ago Redux

2010-07-01T09:16:00.004-04:00

15 Years Ago Redux

One fun sideline has been ~~playing~~ ~~working~~ goofing with Berna, a virtual 1950s electronic music laboratory created in software.

I don't really use the sundry oscillators, tape decks etc. as the actual units would've been used back in the day. No assiduous sound building or manipulations of the patient lab coat variety.

Just a lot of real time toying with oscillators etc. to "tape" and fun with varispeed playback of the recordings with yet more of the above goofage.

For extra art points, this piece has some fractured versification I hatched out, read & recorded that's looping with the rest.

Daylily Fade

2010-06-28T01:44:00.003-04:00

Daylily Fade

Your basic instrumental for acoustic guitar, bass and free range homebrew oscillators.

May someday post pics or other show & tell nonsense about the oscillators. An EE guru/compatriot sent me diagrams many years ago. Maybe his design or taken from data sheets or some of both. Meant as goofy LFOs but somewhat tweaked to allow for audio range play.

Btawak Toglflik--video

2010-06-25T22:23:00.002-04:00

Music video of Btawak Toglflik.

Gone--video

2010-06-18T15:01:00.003-04:00

Music video of Gone.

Btawak Toglflik

2010-06-07T15:36:00.005-04:00

Btawak Toglflik

What happens when a really old beat up thrift store acoustic guitar and some DIY oscillators (built years ago and summarily forgotten) are pulled out of storage and into play? This happens. This.

I forget the chips & particulars of the oscillators, but one accepts something like amplitude and frequency modulation from the other two. With no fancy routing or modular outboard stuff, just riding the cheap on/off toggles on the modulators and various knobs to engender variation.

Gone

2010-05-26T02:41:00.004-04:00

Gone

Songish & songlike, being songoid. Let's just call it a song. With very few lyrics. Not a chant. Tho' chantlike. No, a songlike song.

Like 33rd Floor, features the Kay acoustic guitar tuned to something resembling DADGAD except a semitone lower (C#G#C#F#G#C#). And voices, for that songlike song quality. And other usual suspects like feedback from the Dora the Exp. Karaoke Cassette Player and the Realistic Electronic Reverb. The Ashbory Bass. Oh, and a newcomer, the Stylophone.

(And now there's a music video.)

Herculoid Rumination

2010-05-24T02:37:00.003-04:00

Herculoid Rumination

This time around it's all live and all hardware. A Realistic Electronic Reverb (aka cheesy PA delay) patched to feedback playing into a small old Realistic transistor amp miked by a Realistic mic into a Boss SE-50 set up for a looping delay into the oft aforementioned crappy karaoke machine with echo.

WatUSpace

2010-05-23T22:40:00.004-04:00

WatUSpace, an instrumental hosted on DivShare.

Honestly, this is fun with faking. Depending on what you consider "fun" or "faking".

Or "real".

The synth heard herein is a plug-in called U-NO-60, a virtual version of the Roland Juno 60 polysynth.

Once upon a time anything electronically created, reproduced or enhanced would not be called real. Now circuits and hardware in the devoted service of analog sound creation have become things to be copied and rendered real by their replication. With a dead Juno 106 and no budget for its resurrection/replacement, I find far more fun in plug-ins than semantics.

And the tape delayish manipulations are thanks to the WatKat, a virtual version of the WEM Copicat tape delay. Of which I have a real one, just not patched into a computer & ready to roll yada yada.

Anyway, fun, remember?

Francis Bacon-video

2010-04-24T00:59:00.004-04:00

Getting all glare-filled & artsy with the lack of depth of field and the feedback and the glaven. This time doing low rent Jodorowsky Holy Mtn. with the trippy symmetry and hoodie shroud.

Surfy Meditation

2010-04-15T23:32:00.006-04:00

Surfy Meditation, an instrumental hosted on Box.

Some famous art dude wanted to have a robot likeness of himself to attend art openings in his stead. Some of us remaining humans wonder if passing the Turing Test is really a slam dunk. Or a thing desired in times to come.

While no one's making more real estate, virtual space has been building out and more or less improving. What was spring reverb is surplanted by digital reverbs which are obviated by software versions of all the above. A commonly available entry-level home studio software contained as it were the amp and the ambiance heard herein. Even this low rent bit of Any'verb USA sounds kinda cool.

33rd Floor-video

2010-04-01T03:24:00.004-04:00

33rd Floor

Our Preschool Speakers

2010-03-21T00:08:00.004-04:00

Our Preschool Speakers, an instrumental hosted on Box.

Kinda what it says. A spare speaker from an venerable Silvertone portable hi-fi joins a small stereo pair of speakers from my wife's old Realistic record player. As percussion/microphones. And in the case of the Realistics, as feedback microphones.

The transformative powers of both the Smokey Amp and the cheep no-name karaoke machines are invoked. Singing thru the Dora the Exp. Karaoke Cassette Player. Rhythmic feedback from the same. Ebowed beatup acoustic.

33rd Floor

2010-03-18T03:01:00.004-04:00

33rd Floor by krseward

Also hosted on Box.

Yes, a song. But kind of trancelike . . .

Kay acoustic in DADGAD, toy bass drum, voice with & without Dora the Exp. Karaoke Cass. Player, toy echo feedback, ebowed homebrew steel-string instrument via contact mic into crummy no-name karaoke machine amplification with built in supah heterodyning echo, Ashbory bass. That mostly covers it.

33rd Floor video

Heading Back From The Colonial Store

2010-02-17T23:42:00.005-05:00

Heading Back From The Colonial Store, another instrumental hosted on Box.

What does feedback and the phrygian mode have to do with an old grocery store chain?

Who can say?

But here it goes.

Chester Valley Brood

2010-02-16T23:58:00.004-05:00

Chester Valley Brood, an instrumental hosted on Box.

Seems the Turing Chicken may have hatchlings. If so, they likely inhabit this piece.

Touch Nothing

2010-02-09T13:43:00.004-05:00

Touch Nothing, a songlike instrumental hosted on Box.

A creaking ark of pet sounds, it could also called Touch Everything given the even more than more, supah-maximal approach.

Optigan drums as well as organ are in there. Home organ bass pedal, glockenspiel, feedback, sludgy distorted guitar, two melodicas, sleigh bells, egg shakers. Not quite enough, right? The Yamaha VSS-30 sampler will help . . .

Another older recording mixed to wondrous stereophonic sound.

Echo Location

2010-01-19T23:28:00.003-05:00

Echo Location, hosted on Box.

Slide guitar, feedback, Ashbory bass and the venerable Yamaha VSS-30.

Parlor Apparition

2010-01-18T20:10:00.003-05:00

Parlor Apparition, an instrumental hosted on Box.net.

Spooky ebow sustained notes with something snappier behind & beneath.

Drag Surge & Click

2010-01-02T21:29:00.004-05:00

Drag Surge & Click, an instrumental hosted on Box.

Features slide guitar feedback on an electrified beater acoustic guitar (named "Dylan" by its former owners evidently because it was distributed by a company based in Beverly Hills CA), Salvation Army glockenspiel, kalimba, bass, and wood percussion.

A Sinking Down

2010-01-02T01:35:00.003-05:00

(There Is) A Sinking Down, something songlike, hosted on Box.

Yet more mixing the old. Ohio Art Dynamike feedback, vocal through Dora the Exp. Karaoke gizmo, bass and Casio SK-1 organ.

Always

2009-12-31T00:12:00.003-05:00

Always, hosted on Box.

A songlike waltz featuring electric guitar, glockenspiel, bass, melodica, toy echo feedback, vocals. Initially recorded back in '07, mixed recently.

Cymbal Tap

2009-12-27T22:33:00.004-05:00

Cymbal Tap, hosted on Box.

Features a few cymbals, each used in a feedback loop with a contact mic and a small battery powered amp. Plus feedback from a Realistic Electronic Reverb and ebowed violin drone.

Recorded months ago, finally mixed down in a year-end press to make things count, as it were.

Last I Drove To Value City

2009-12-26T20:49:00.005-05:00

Last I Drove To Value City, hosted on Box.

Some cheating here, with whatever software tremelos could be had and a pitched-down doppleganger track or two to bring the warm (if not the low).

Otherwise just garden variety mic feedback/amplification with the cheep karaoke machine, its aliasing echo, some ebowed gitbox lost in hazy recollection. Plus the on-the-fly pitch shift quiver of the Ohio Art DynaMike voice changer.

Regarding the title, more haze within tethered to an actual place name.

Happy Holidaze

2009-12-24T15:00:00.001-05:00

Over To Pons

2009-12-18T17:49:00.004-05:00

Over To Pons, hosted on Box.

Features Yamaha VSS-30 via a trem/'verbing Twin Reverb and the pervasive karaoke machine. Ebowed to varying degrees of squeeeness is the zitherish Music Maker, an old acoustic and a clunky homebrew zither of sorts cobbled together years ago. The clunky zither of sorts is also plucked, picked.

Foregoing the ritual mention of influences in this garage manifestation.

Previous October

2009-12-17T00:19:00.004-05:00

Previous October is an instrumental hosted on Box.

It used the Yamaha VSS-30 with a few different sounds sampled.

June Bug In August

2009-12-13T01:28:00.004-05:00

June Bug In August is another instrumental hosted on box.net.

Features more of electric guitar, but much of that is processed thru the venerable Korg X-911 Guitar Synth. Or the guitar is controlling the Korg.

Long Gone Away--video

2009-12-09T23:14:00.004-05:00

Homebrew music video of Long Gone Away using old Super-8 footage and some of the Night Wanderer stills.

Whisper Down The Well

2009-12-08T19:25:00.004-05:00

Whisper Down The Well, on box.net.

Something akin to Whisky Drinkas, but without the shambling drums & heavier on the ghostly vibe.

Wandered Past

2009-12-05T22:53:00.004-05:00

Wandered Past by krseward

The words that come to mind are: "Who can say?"

Beyond that open question, there's the not-so-sympathetic (indeed, plucked) strings of an electric sitar, the thrum pulse of low feedback (our old friend, the cheesy karaoke machine), the squee and swoo of high feedback (ditto the karaoke), and something that's likely my voice as quoted by the ever glamorous Yamaha VSS-30 sampler. Some bits are fooled with via a MadShifta pitch shifter VST of yore but are mostly just as God made them.

With that density of musitech geekery who can hold back?

Comet to Raynor

2009-12-01T00:16:00.003-05:00

Place names and puns often mislead. But this is short long time of suspended animation. Something like a swampglacier, as if that were a word or a sensible notion to have.

Comet to Raynor by krseward

Yet again with the almost zither, this time ebowed. And sometimes amplified/echofied thru the mighty aliasing karaoke machine. Sometimes not.

Downward Rise

2009-11-23T01:28:00.002-05:00

Downward Rise by krseward

Again with the droning & feedback & dubious karaoke amplification.

Along with something almost melodic played (again & again) on every museum gift shop's favorite almost zither, the Music Maker.

Last March Out

2009-10-28T23:49:00.002-04:00

Last March Out
Last March Out by krseward

posting records to the hinterlands

2009-10-22T13:44:00.005-04:00

As I've said, I was a hick from the sticks.

Mark, a friend from high school, was one in a vanguard of people who would turn me on to the wide world of music. Post-punk music in particular.

Aside from his mixtapes bearing the likes of the Velvet Underground, he got me ordering from the Rough Trade Records USA catalog.

Meantime, someone was working in San Francisco, filling those mail orders & posting records to the hinterlands: Hilary, the bicoastal city mouse to us two country mice.

During our summer of discontent back home from college, she was our vinyl connection/muse/friendly crush and all around beacon of cool things happening in the big world.

scans slightly stalinized/click to make bigger . . .

And yes, the grass is always greener, even when the paper is pink . . .

This note probably piggybacked with one of my orders:

By summer's end, it was back to college (& college towns with better record stores).

Maybe for Hilary, too, since the next RT order was sent out by Bill.

Eee-noid Wonder Pt.2

2009-10-04T03:59:00.000-04:00

Eee-noid Wonder Pt.2

Eee-noid Wonder Pt.1

2009-09-30T05:57:00.001-04:00

Eee-noid Wonder Pt.1

Dream One, Meat's Meat

2009-09-26T16:12:00.004-04:00

Dream One

Meat's Meat

More 12-Bit Jimson found on cassettes of yore. One spooky but arguably soothing, the other creepy in a Modest Proposal sort of way.

Falling Upward

2009-09-26T04:31:00.003-04:00

Falling Upward

This ol' tune is being hosted over at the Internet Archive.

Indeed, tho' it's hard to say for sure, I'm not so certain how long the Ovi hosted stuff (pretty much everything else here) will hold up as things seem in flux over there.

So, if you're just dropping by & have more than a few curious bones in your body, you may want to poke around while the audio players are up and the links are still good . . .

Hornets In The Elevator

2009-09-16T03:26:00.004-04:00

Hornets In The Elevator

Titles aren't meant to be too literal-minded and are open to broad interpretation (insofar as titles ever bear any relation to the instrumentals named).

But the elevator I've in mind is a grain elevator. A sort of enclosed conveyor belt draws the grain way up only to let it slide down one chute or other to a truck or storage bin.

Taken as a figure of speech, hornets in said gizmo might be like bats in the belfry. Or worse.

And again with the feedback . . .

Garysville Route

2009-08-30T02:12:00.002-04:00

Garysville Route

Yet more feedback, through a Zube Tube.

With a very filtered Yamaha VSS-30.

Dogwood Fabergé

2009-08-29T05:26:00.002-04:00

Dogwood Fabergé

More fun with feedback.

Geese Flyover Broadmoor 28 August 2009

2009-08-29T00:59:00.004-04:00

Geese Flyover Broadmoor 28 August 2009

Yesterday's entry brought an instrumental that used a field recording in the background. This is more straightforward.

Four geese flew overhead at Broadmoor Audubon Sanctuary in Natick MA. One of them can be heard calling out.

I like the diffuse reverberation in the nearby woods. Reminds me of a cow recording a couple of years back.

Backyard Flicker

2009-08-28T04:41:00.004-04:00

Backyard Flicker

Couple of bits of fun feedback sampled into a Yamaha VSS-30 equal the warbly tones and the slapback percussion.

A recording of last night's backyard sounds becomes the background, with occasional pitch shifting to bring about the varispeed of epistemological doubt.

pinned down again

2009-08-13T16:46:00.005-04:00

This is a pin I homebrewed circa 1982 to commemorate a fave post-punk band, Orange Juice.

The fine construction/New World craftsmanship is easily seen . . .

Their "Breakfast Time" (b-side to "Simply Thrilled Honey"), their work in general and that of other bands on Postcard Records was some influence on my own more rusticated inventions:

Instrumental for Plug

Something in the mood of another Orange Juice song, "In A Nutshell", might be heard in these:

Be Here Soon

A Love For All The Ages

the author of Grunt Grunt Pig

2009-08-03T16:21:00.002-04:00

I couldn't fully claim that distinction without crossposting here.

Waver Patient

2009-07-27T03:21:00.000-04:00

Waver Patient

Bring May Flowers

2009-07-26T04:04:00.003-04:00

Bring May Flowers, supahshiftah version

This supahshiftah version features some pitch shifting (with extreme prejudice) of a vocal percussion track. Let's say I liked "ch" snare sound but was less into the rest, so it gets mangled in the name of fun and springtime.

Bring May Flowers, original version

To be fair, cover all bases, etc., here's the original version without pitch shifting.

Rajan Clik

2009-07-25T15:39:00.001-04:00

Rajan Clik

Shookup Hollow

2009-07-25T02:26:00.003-04:00

Shookup Hollow

Answering the question: "What is life like inside a light bulb?"

That is, assuming the light's not on, the filament's broken and one is touching some point of contact for the sake of sound conduction.

(And all heck's breaking loose with some other objects as well.)

A no longer functioning aquarium bulb and some also-over-with cheepo bulb were touched by a cheap toy spy mic and sometimes a contact mic. Everyone's friend, the E-Bow actuated salvaged reverb tank, was also brought to bear on some mic. A toaster oven rack, too.

In the faint mists of time, use of the ever audiophile-quality Danelectro battery powered HoneyTone amp gave some or most or all of these sounds some, uhhhh, characteristic bandwidth and grit.

Red Mellow Carry, version with added bass part

2009-07-21T04:07:00.003-04:00

Red Mellow Carry, version with added bass part

As opposed to the original mix, which was just the funky old acoustic . . .

All Nite Ramble

2009-07-08T05:02:00.004-04:00

All Nite Ramble

This, like many things recently posted, is long and wicked discursive.

But one gloss, this features the same wayward saxophone heard on Grunt Grunt Pig and other such.

Also on SoundCloud:

All Nite Ramble by krseward

Drake Return

2009-07-07T03:40:00.001-04:00

Drake Return

Sunshine Sentry

2009-07-04T15:55:00.002-04:00

Sunshine Sentry

Bloom Mesh

2009-07-04T02:23:00.003-04:00

Bloom Mesh

Sparse as this is, there's an even sparser alternate version . . .

Blue Eyed Shamble

2009-06-22T01:43:00.002-04:00

Blue Eyed Shamble

Long winded fun with various mic feedback, distorted mouth percussion and the Korg X-911.

On The Drift

2009-06-15T03:52:00.002-04:00

On The Drift

On SoundCloud:

On The Drift by krseward

Shorthand Jive

2009-05-31T00:50:00.002-04:00

Shorthand Jive

And the SoundCloud player:

Shorthand Jive by krseward

Wound Beneath The Ferns

2009-05-21T15:59:00.003-04:00

Wound Beneath The Ferns

And, in pursuit of greater redundancy, the SoundCloud player:

Wound Beneath The Ferns by krseward

Walker Rumination on SoundCloud

2009-05-19T00:04:00.002-04:00

Walker Rumination by krseward

Just playing around with using SoundCloud, embedding the player and such . . .

Walker Rumination

2009-05-16T16:33:00.002-04:00

Walker Rumination

Delray Rumination

2009-05-03T01:02:00.002-04:00

Delray Rumination

A not-so-trippy, more structured sort of rumination . . .

Weeds 'Hind The Rose Room

2009-04-04T16:29:00.003-04:00

Weeds 'Hind The Rose Room

Yet another trippy rumination. This time approaching a swampy nightspot by way of outer space . . .

a legacy

2009-03-08T00:18:00.001-05:00

My middle brother passed away late last month.

And for better or worse, for anyone in earshot, he had made some contributions to my music. Direct or indirect.

His old sax that he used to play fell into my untutored hands to be used in numerous tunes:

the ever popular Grunt Grunt Pig

the skronky Bobo

the comparatively refined Music and Candlelight

And tho' I'm leery of words like "inspiration", my brother was somewhere in mind when I wrote these:

Cascade

Who in the Heck Are You?

as well as . . .

Slide Back

2009-01-10T20:13:00.001-05:00

Slide Back

Float Away

2008-12-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

Float Away

Waiting With The Lost

2008-12-07T00:01:00.001-05:00

Waiting With The Lost

When You Go Away

2008-12-06T16:16:00.002-05:00

When You Go Away

sounds like?

2008-12-02T13:25:00.004-05:00

Ehh, maybe the Bengal Burlap. Or something noisy & recent.

Spectral Cakewalk

2008-10-31T00:10:00.002-04:00

Spectral Cakewalk

Halloween tunes vol. 2

2008-10-19T00:01:00.005-04:00

Ghost Town

The ectoplasmic bustle.

Lounge Star (Hungry Ghost version)

The mellow moans of all alone.

Whiskey Drinkas

A spirit seeking spirits.

3rd Day of Fog

Play Misty for me?

Halloween tunes vol. 1

2008-10-18T20:42:00.006-04:00

Who In The Heck Are You?

Lost in the swamp . . .

Glen/Harry

"Insane, ee-ane, ee-ane, ee-ane . ."

Creepy Death Dude

Woo, scary . . .

Faraday Cage

Decor from Better Ohms & Gardens.

More Neon

2008-09-20T21:24:00.003-04:00

More Neon

Why call a droning, steady state instrumental More Neon?

Well, one of my favorite neon signs, a big one out on MA Rt. 9 reading "TERMITE CONTROL", has been taken down.

Maybe for repairs, maybe for good.

In either case, and esp. the latter, I say More Neon, not less.

Second Plateau

2008-09-20T16:13:00.002-04:00

Second Plateau

Safety First

2008-09-16T13:35:00.003-04:00

Safety First

About the same vintage as It Shouldn't Be This Way, this song has similar lyrical ambitions (but fewer lyrics).

Musically, it's the mutant offspring of XTC's This Is Pop and pretty much any single put out by Postcard Records.

It Shouldn't Be This Way

2008-09-16T12:29:00.004-04:00

In a pink caddy of Mary Kay's
Dame Fortune drove by to say
EconoLodge
is Love's cheapest refuge

Running out all you could say
"the Garden State's no place to stray"
How could such pretty lips
spill so much refuse

from "It Shouldn't Be This Way"
©1985 Kevin R. Seward

Somewhere between wanting to be Bryan Ferry and wanting to be Elvis Costello, with some carry over from the works of Carl Jung and the Cavalier poets, I had a lyricless noisy thing I'd recorded with a very loosely tuned guitar.

Lyrics just sort of came along as I was walking in a barnyard of long ago. Then more lyrics came and finally way too many.

But for better or worse, the now more conventional music fashioned from the flubbery guitar thing could hold them all.

So below, the early demo or whatever version. Then a later demo or whatever version.

It Shouldn't Be This Way

It Shouldn't Be This Way (1990 recording)

They'll Hardly Say

2008-09-11T00:36:00.001-04:00

They'll Hardly Say

4 Sept 2008 Squirrels

2008-09-08T00:01:00.001-04:00

4Sept08Squirrels10

4Sept08Squirrels12

Before During and After

2008-09-07T12:39:00.002-04:00

Before During and After

Again with the feedback. Mostly a phone pickup interacting with various (by now forgotten) mini-amp/speaker combinations.

Bright Drive Away

2008-09-04T15:52:00.001-04:00

Bright Drive Away

Cold Island Reel

2008-08-31T00:57:00.001-04:00

Cold Island Reel

Scrape Bottom

2008-08-29T21:37:00.003-04:00

Scrape Bottom

Like Drip Spring, much use of the springy reverb.

Unlike it, there are a couple of spring gizmos doing the ambiance thing, an old Korg gated reverb and a Zube Tube. Getting played directly in more than a few ways is a reverb tank scrounged from a trashed Optigan. Sometimes that is being run through ye olde Korg.

Bake 20 minutes @ 450 degrees. Garnish with parsley.

Fly By Night 24 August 2008

2008-08-24T23:02:00.002-04:00

Fly By Night 24 August 2008

Night sounds with a cub plane passing.