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March 29, 2024, 12:47:58 AM

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Haha Tape IV. Buy in?

Started by Johnny Textface, August 18, 2017, 07:31:24 PM

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NoSleep

Quote from: drummersaredeaf on September 12, 2019, 03:55:18 PM
No one has ever Skyped clothed from the waist down. I refuse to be told otherwise.

I'll play this as your intro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mscqzxoLvXo

gabrielconroy

My effort came about largely because I'd recently got a digital piano. The fact that it was scoring a black and white silent film meant I could feel free to play with that genre, although it has to be said it's a slower and more melancholy thing than most of the music of that era was. My section crossed a few scenes, and while there is a lively party scene at the start, there are points of hardship and sadness in one of the other scenes that I focused on, as is my wont. And that's it.

Petey Pate

My segment of the film started quite neatly at the point where the characters land on Mars. As the setting is now an alien world (and, spoiler alert, a dream) I felt the music would have to sound weird and eerie. The sequence also contains an unsettling 'love' scene between Aelita and Los. I tried to imagine what the musical motif for Aelita would be in her appearances and that in this scene, the same melody would be distorted or arranged in a spooky manner, perhaps sounding like an off-key love theme from a conventional romance film.

The sequence also contains some also suspenseful moments with the characters sneaking around avoiding the Martian soldiers, in addition to more comedic scenes with the bumbling Kratsov character. Despite the difference in cinematic eras, this brought to mind Henry Mancini's music for Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers films. I wondered what kind of music might have been made had Mancini been an industrial artist or if he collaborated with The Residents.

I don't really have the knowledge or skills to pull off these concepts so I fell back on my home turf of including some breakbeat, which helped to give the track some rhythmic backbone. I was flattered that Y Groes/hummingofevil said the it reminded him of Plug/Luke Vibert, though I never consciously had his work in mind as an influence. There's also some samples of vintage Russian jazz, hopefully unrecognisable, though I cannot recall their origins anyway.

McFlymo

I started working on my track, when I got a software emulation of the Korg M1 keyboard (famous for all the sounds used in 90s chart dance hits). I was just pissing about with presets on it when I got to the opening chord sequence, which I found pleasantly "spacey". The beat came next, which I put together using a few breakbeat loops and some drum samples (kicks and claps etc). I wanted to make the beat have a good thumpy impact and be quite simple, the bassline came from a similar place. Eventually I thought about applying some sort of overall thematic vibe, and thought it'd be fun if I found some samples where people were saying something evocative and romantic about space, or the universe, or science, but the dialogue being actually totally wrong, so I went looking for stuff about flat-earthers. Other than thinking, "oh I have this sort of space themed song" my contribution has fuck all reference to the film: So any elements of my song that line up with the film in anyway are entirely coincidental. I'm not even sorry about it.

McFlymo

Will the launch thing still be happening at 6pm (UK time)? I'm in work on Sunday 1pm - 6pm.
I turn 40 on Monday 16th September.... Just saying....

NoSleep

Something may still be going on by 6pm, but I am conscious of eating into Phil_A's (spam) time by that time.

Talking about Phil's (spam) time, I wondered if he would be able to show the rough cut of Aelita: The Music Video, that I'm putting together, at some point, maybe even this Sunday? Hopefully I have the mastering of the album finalised today so I have the rest of the day and tomorrow to complete the first draft of the film.

I guess also that today I will be starting another thread in General Bullshit advertising the launch, which I encourage you all to post in to keep it bumped until Sunday afternoon.

olliebean

These programme notes are great, really getting me buzzing with anticipation for the album.

NoSleep

Launch thread in General Bullshit started: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,75180.msg3949543.html#msg3949543

If you see it flagging in the thread find an excuse to give it a bump until Sunday.

NoSleep

Also, if you think I've missed anything out from my blurb.

Phil_A

Quote from: NoSleep on September 13, 2019, 06:40:45 AM
Something may still be going on by 6pm, but I am conscious of eating into Phil_A's (spam) time by that time.

Oh don't worry about that, i think we can suspend normal scheduling for the day, take as long as you need.
Quote

Talking about Phil's (spam) time, I wondered if he would be able to show the rough cut of Aelita: The Music Video, that I'm putting together, at some point, maybe even this Sunday? Hopefully I have the mastering of the album finalised today so I have the rest of the day and tomorrow to complete the first draft of the film.

Yeah, I'd be happy to do that, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all comes together.

NoSleep

I'm hoping we can all have a go at tweaking it after the album is released. I'm just throwing this in as a starter. It isn't a film soundtrack I've created, more of a music video. I've extended some of the tracks in an attempt at covering the entire film, but if I had time and more stems of individual instrument parts I could make it more interesting. I've done this in places with the couple of tracks I have as stems (mine, jonnycuba's, drummersaredeaf's) and made loops from some other tracks to extend them (Dusty's, falafel's, Rich Uncle Skeleton's, Beagle's; probably more before Sunday). The whole thing reminds me of the way they used to use old footage to create videos for tracks on the Old Grey Whistle Test, actually before the era of the music video.

NoSleep

#491
The album's uploaded to Bandcamp! All that's left to do is for me to pull the "publish" lever some time tomorrow afternoon.

Have any of you primed up your Skype accounts? Don't be shy; best sort this out before tomorrow and I would love to exchange a few words with you all before I play your tracks on CaB Radio tomorrow. I have a couple of old accounts already (Phil_A & Petey Pate), but wondered if they are still active?

My Skype name is nosleepnigel

Johnny Textface

#492
Most my track was made on a train bound for Milton Keynes. I'd watched the film a few weeks earlier and had tried to come up with something interesting a couple of times but hit a boring wall. I knew I wanted to do something unlaboured and 'off the cuff'.  I took this little sampler with me and made a rule that the heart of the track had to be done on the train journey. I came up with a loop that I liked using samples from the train carriage, toilet and platform (and a couple of hits I'd been using in previous non-starts).  To give it a more sci-fi atmosphere I added some synth, piano and drums when I got back home.  When I've got a bunch of decent loops together I enjoy letting them run through the track to see if anything interesting happens by happy coincidence. I think that happened a bit with the drums and synths. Gear: Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator KO. Arturia Microfreak. Roland SP404A. Renoise.

falafel

My track is basically a remix of Dusty's. I would call it an homage, but it's more like outright theft.
I got the section of the film where Natasha gets roped by Erlich into going to a secret nightclub in what appears to be a fairly ordinary house. Once inside, everyone throws off their frumpy winter coats and gets their jive on. But Natasha can't quite escape from reality.
The rough cut Dusty sent me had this insistent, jittery, repetitious and hypnotic melody to it which I just thought it would be a pity to not capitalise on. So I decided to incorporate that melody to give some continuity between scenes, and to set myself a challenge. I knew I wanted to contribute something that maintained that eerie undercurrent, but I also had the chance to knock up something quite fun to reflect the nightclub environment. So my initial goal was to do a sort of italo-disco pastiche, and the first cut ended up somewhere between that and 10 Ragas To A Disco Beat. After a year's gap or more it was time to take a second look, and fresh ears revealed some obvious weaknesses. Some finishing touches were added to make it a bit more punchy and less lo-fi. I have no idea how much Dusty's track evolved after the version he sent me, and I don't even know if I mentioned to him what I was doing with it. Even if the continuity is broken I'm still grateful for that initial spark of inspiration.

ArtParrott

I've not contributed to a project like this before and I was a little intimidated after listening to the quality of tracks on previous HaHa Tapes.

Fortunately, when I got a look at my section of the film, I was pleased that it started and ended pretty neatly, with the launch and somewhat bumpy landing of the rocketship. So I wanted something that represented that journey, it would need to be a bit spacey but also not overly repetitive and didn't hang around too long.

After about 6 months, I had to scrap my first attempt which was more synth and sample driven. For reasons I can't quite remember I ended up transposing the basic chords up 7 steps and that breathed some new life in to it. The lyrics and melody were rewritten and I was able to salvage the guitar lines from the previous version.

It was another 6 months before it was totally ready and submitted to NoSleep who asked me to turn down the reverb and turn up the vocals, so if you're looking for someone to blame...

falafel

Unlikely to make it to the premiere but will try... Looking forward to hearing how all of these gel together, though. After all these years. Thank you to everyone who kept this going. Particularly to nosleep for mastering and technical magicianship.

Lordofthefiles

That was absolutely brilliant.
Kudos to all involved, there should be medals.

Truly excellent.


NoSleep

#498
For those interested in creating their own version of Aelita alongside the music, here is a my lossless rip of the film from DVD, minus audio:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y3wpkebx6h38owq/Aelita%20The%20Queen%20of%20Mars%20%281924%29%20NTSC%20-%20Yakov%20Protazanov.mp4?dl=0

Obviously the completed music can be found in lossless quality via Bandcamp, preferably choose WAV or AIFF.

And, just to help out in the simplest way possible, here's the extended/edited mixes I created for my first draft of the film: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1m0qrxnhqfx6pq0/Aelita%20EDITS.zip?dl=0

And the new titleboards I created: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rhqpikrq9vl6t5o/Aelita%20new%20titles%20%28BMP%29.zip?dl=0

Best grab these up soon than later; I won't be able to host them forever.

NoSleep

If you haven't done already it's still possible to submit an individual blurb for your track. Rich Uncle Skeleton arrived during the viewing of the film last night and left some notes about his track there. I don't know if someone can retrieve these or if he could repeat what he said here.

Also has anyone got some ideas about tagging their song that might actually create traffic on the bandcamp site?

Petey Pate

The album as a whole is excellent, I listened to it again this morning.

There was some discussion in the chat room last night about doing other film 'soundtracks' in the future. I was thinking perhaps each contributor could be assigned a different silent short film to base their track on.

I also started a remix of my track awhile ago which I never finished but the album release has spurred me on to complete it. Will share it on here if people want to hear it.

Petey Pate

Quote from: NoSleep on September 16, 2019, 11:51:27 AMAlso has anyone got some ideas about tagging their song that might actually create traffic on the bandcamp site?

Perhaps doing more tags related to the genres/styles featured on the album may help. Also maybe including tags along the lines of #soundtrack, #filmmusic, etc

NoSleep

Yeah, I want help on genres, please. So many subgenres in EDM (for example) that some specifics from the POV of the creators would be more than helpful.

NoSleep

Quote from: Petey Pate on September 16, 2019, 11:58:27 AM
I also started a remix of my track awhile ago which I never finished but the album release has spurred me on to complete it. Will share it on here if people want to hear it.

I can add this, and any other similar contributions, as bonus tracks to the album. Or maybe provide them in a side project if we accumulate several. I could include my extended mixes of some of the tracks (once they're perfected; we only saw a rough cut last night; I'm sure I can improve them).

NoSleep

Further goodies for download. A recording of yesterday's cast:

HA HA TAPE IV Launch Party 15-09-2019

Beagle 2

I want to say thanks again to NoSleep and everybody else who took part, it was an amazing feeling to see it synced with the film last night. You know, I fart about with music and nobody takes any notice really but that felt like I'd been a part of creating a proper piece of art.

hummingofevil

Hi. I always get a bit sheepish with these things as I like taking part but am never that convinced by my contributions (some of you guys are genuine talents). I'll give the whole thing a listen in next few days and report back. For what it's worth I was trying to get the feeling of being asleep for my track. :)

gabrielconroy

Couldn't make the live stream but have just started listening to the capture download. Really quite exciting! First track is a banging start...

NoSleep

Here's the film with the new soundtrack

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/318bc0103f251a130cecd53053e7048520190916200449/11654cc8a64ac3052a2332266324c9de20190916200449/620625

Bearing in mind that this is not finalised. Aside from the music not being completed I noticed the very first dissolve in the titles goes a bit wonky.

ArtParrott

I'd also like to send my thanks to everyone as well. I was able to listen to most of the radio broadcast yesterday and caught the end of the screening and it was a real thrill. Thanks especially to Nosleep for all of the effort he's put in, the kind words and that Moroder-esque remix track that played out over the end of the video stream.