III
Mr Sandbags
I wanted to play more directly with noise of various kinds so this piece focuses less on techniques and fancy plugins and more on selection & arrangement of sounds.
I spent many hours going through Reaktor ensembles I’ve downloaded searching for noises and sampling their output. I must have auditioned twenty or thirty at least. I ended up with a pile of about 80 samples of different kinds of noise from pure noise to the kinds of things you’d expect in a Krell laboratory.
The rest of the week was spent playing with, narrowing down, and organising the various clips, and learning how they could be made to work together. I ended up with tracks named things like “Periodic”, “Vacuum”, “Mids”, “Krell Science”, “Sweeps”, and so on. The final Live session structure includes about 40 different noise loops across 12 tracks.
Then I also wanted to make use of voices again. I persuaded a number of Alonetoner’s to record me some nonsense phrases. In this piece I heavily process the voices until just the “character” is left to be imprinted onto the space it inhabits. I also brought back the laughter from II.
The combination of having worked with the clips for a week and having (unusually for me) a good sense of where I wanted this track to go (think THX1138 meets Forbidden Planet meets sandbags) lead to the arrangement seeming to fall into place before my eyes and I had a track before I knew it.
The result is a noisy, rhythmic, pulsing, strange, and quite my cup of tea.
I need to figure out how to get Reichatron working for me immediately. My old computer couldn't handle it. I'm supposed to be getting a new computer soon. I'd like to see what I can do with Reichatron. Let me know if you want any more samples from me Matt. JR - Illegal Alien Autopsy
Here I am again listening to this amazing track. One of the things I like about it is it's length; time to indulge. Reflection and digestion. So many interpretations. A moving yet inviting space. :) The only thing I think it lacks is more in the bass spectrum... I just switched to my AKG reference headphones and it's deffo missing in that area. That's not a criticism, I just feel this would be so much more powerful with some subby humm... :)
These sounds evoke a deep state of wonder and fear, passion and disgust, amazement. Keep it coming, sandbags.
Congrats on the release of Reichatron!
Thanks again for all the kind words. I think the next piece will be very largely based on vocals, if I can get some more female voices to balance things out!
It is a long journey down a corridor of alien devices. they come alive and dance as I pass by them. I would like to touch them, however, I cannot seem to move my arms, as if they are strapped to the rolling bed. The constant pulse of the EKG monitor next to me reassures me that I am alive and not dreaming. Something seems to enter my brain and create strange sensations and noises and colors that I cannot control. Very cool experiment here, that is both evocative and disorienting... excellent choices of sound and excellent editing to create an auto-writing story before my eyes. ttfn, Drakonis
Music for the mind. Once again a journey is bestowed upon us..one for which I have to say thanks. The collab you did with Sister Savage was great work too.
Clever and complex. Great job combining all the sounds, and still managing to avoid complete dissonance.
I moved my speakers right up next to my head. Really gets the full affect of the L/R. Fun stuff.......
well done sandbags.
My thanks to all those who contributed vocals to this track: GCD, Sudara, Marlena, MMI, La Savage, Robot Molly, Matt Savigear, Wildgeas, and me!
The coordinated chaos of this is impressive! Those layers are pretty wild.
Initial comment made at 20 secs on hearing my Molly! Then I grabbed the headphones because I suspected I knew what was coming. But no, this is Sandbags. Take equal measures of eerie, crazy and strange, sprinkle with ingenuity and serve with WOAH.
Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damn. How on earth do you manage to get all of these separate things to fit together so well? And reading through the liner notes.... I am in awe of your ability to focus on one piece for so long and what must be an amazing attention to detail. Where can I get me some of that? :)