tom moody

Made/posted this tune a couple of years ago:

"Love Reconstituted" [6.3 MB .mp3]

It's kind of an "atmospheric techno" bit with analog synth burbles and a "rave hit" ending consisting of some early '90s house piano stabs. Those were reconstructed more or less note by note from this nutty remix somebody did of the pop tune at the bottom of this post (sound quality is dicey because it was cassette-taped from a radio mix show in '92):

"Love in Motion (Unknown Mix)" [7 MB .mp3]

As you can hear, it consists of "vocal science" made from clips of the diva's voice over minimal banging piano chords. I've always really liked the energy and simplicity of it. And thanks to the miracle of YouTube (the poor man's iTunes), I recently found the "original" hit that mix was taken from, Bizarre Inc.'s "Love in Motion." It's pretty lightweight (unlike moi) but not unenjoyable:

"Love in Motion" [YouTube]

"Lithium Valley" [3.3 MB .mp3]

This song, and the previously-posted song "Peak Lithium," are not about meds. They are about lithium, an element we need for batteries, so rare that wars must be fought over it, we are told. It is a blues song because this state of affairs is unbelievably sad. It is a lament to lost dreams and the promise of Hopey McChangealot.

This language is vague because I'd like to keep posting self-penned songs and artwork on this blog and not have it suddenly vanish at the whim of said McChangelot and his dudes (for the sake of Hollywood's right to sell you total crap, and lithium). [Google "73,000 wordpress blogs"]

Update: Took out some of the upper piano key frills at the beginning.

"Peak Lithium" [2.2 MB .mp3]

One minute work for piano. Could vary the dynamics of this but right now it feels like it needs to be "insistent."

"Floorswabber" [8.7 MB .mp3]

A fairly straight-up techno-house tune with scattered nerdy elements. Again, this is mostly Reaktor "groovebox" presets, played live by changing "snapshots" and muting/unmuting tracks. I altered all the snapshots before playing and feel that in most cases added hooks that weren't there. The ravy organ part that plays twice was added later.

"Software Caddy" [6.5 MB .mp3]

A slab of techno-primitivism (more than usual). All done in Reaktor - two sequences, some muting/unmuting of tracks. The variations are programmed into the presets (which I "tuned" to get this group of six percussion instruments) - don't know if there's any randomization or if it's LFOs sweeping various parameters - should re-read the manual.

"Vocoding in Tongues" [2 MB .mp3]

Same piano and percussion softsynth as the previous piece but this is a song (under one minute), with granularized vocals. My better tunes seem to happen right after ones I busted my back over.

"Variations for Element P and Piano" [6.7 MB .mp3]

Have been continuing to add to this earlier-posted piece for piano and an FM-ish percussion softsynth, in 3/4. It's done now, at 3.5 minutes. Was hard to get the "wrong" piano notes exactly right. I took down the "second stage" and deleted the post. Here's what it said:

...This is getting a bit brittle and spiky--will probably add a softer section after this (if I decide to keep going with it). Working on "Minuet McArdle" got me thinking about chords, which I hardly use, except for pads, that are automatically "chorded." All these were arrived at pretty much one chord at a time, one note at a time. There is no tonal theory other than "I want it to be dissonant, or 'bluesy,'" or "I want it to change mood," or "Now it needs to sound angry" or "how is this working with the synthesizer?" Changed the name from "Peon Element." Was going to call it "Peon Element Extended" but that sounded too much like a male enhancement product.

"Theme Nine including Untitled 2" [3.3 MB .mp3]

A saxophoneless "Theme Nine for Saxophone" with a Sound Club tune of Travis Hallenbeck's sutured into the middle. The pads are from Project AKO (a 4Hero alias), mid '90s. The drums are cut up Les Baxter.

Title inspired by the inner sleeve of the first King Crimson LP (1969 - vinyl release), where almost all the songs had "including" in the title: "21st Century Schizoid Man including Mirrors," "Epitaph including March for No Reason and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," "Moonchild including The Dream and The Illusion," and "The Court of the Crimson King including The Return of the Fire Witch and The Dance of the Puppets."

"Peon Element" [1.9 MB .mp3]

This may continue into a longer "suite." Composition for piano and an FM-ish percussion softsynth called Element P.

"H.M.M.J. 1" [5.6 MB .mp3]

Collaboration with Travis Hallenbeck: he came to my studio and we played a "live MIDI" set.

A desktop computer plays MIDI files that we prepared in advance of the jam. One channel goes out to my gear: the Sidstation synth and Mutator analog filter. All the rest of the channels go to Travis's setup, which includes a midi mixer and Roland MT-32 sound module (see YouTube demo and this diagram).

So it is a live performance in the sense that the computer is dispensing a stream of MIDI on-off notes and we are changing settings on our gear in real time.

I was recording the performance, and did some minor post-production mixing, mostly for EQ and levels.