An exciting find on YouTube. Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint performed without any multitracking, but with an entire ensemble of guitar players performing it live. The thing is, Reich originally composed the piece for Pat Metheny, and it was meant for one electric guitarist to record all the different parts (more than 10 different tracks, if I recall correctly) and then play along to the tracks. Metheny did that, and so did Jonny Greenwood.
But these Filipinos got together to play every ... single ... track ... live. How awesome is that! I'm thinking it must have taken a constipation-inducing level of concentration and focus to pull it off. You can hear a few minor mistakes here and there, but overall, it's a highly commendable effort. I mean, to even consider doing something like that is already amazingly brave.
And then, there is this wonderful and imaginative use of a sample from Electric Counterpoint by The Orb. It's really infectious.
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
Monday, 1 April 2013
A New Phase (So May It Secretly Begin ...)
As followers of redplanetsongs may have noticed, the music took a new direction recently. With this changing of gears, it has been decided that redplanetsongs will be disbanded. From now on everything will be done under my real name.
Lately with this new direction I've felt more comfortable than I'd ever in the past. Thus, it truly reflects who I am. Hence, this decision to do away with a pseudonym/band name/stage persona/concept.
The Luna Mars colony facility will cease operations with immediate effect. All equipment will be sold as scrap to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
No, I'm kidding. They will be sold to Galactus as snacks.
There will be many new things on the horizon, hopefully interesting things.
I came, I saw, I composed.
Final log and transmission.
End
Lately with this new direction I've felt more comfortable than I'd ever in the past. Thus, it truly reflects who I am. Hence, this decision to do away with a pseudonym/band name/stage persona/concept.
The Luna Mars colony facility will cease operations with immediate effect. All equipment will be sold as scrap to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
No, I'm kidding. They will be sold to Galactus as snacks.
There will be many new things on the horizon, hopefully interesting things.
I came, I saw, I composed.
Final log and transmission.
End
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Cities in Musical Flight
We here at Luna Mars are watching the comet fly by the Earth. And somewhere along the way, we are reminded of the James Blish magnum opus, Cities in Flight. Earthlings may soon have to flee, since our skies are pretty busy these days with comets, meteors and asteroids.
So, in tribute to urban colonies, on both Mars and Earth, we have been putting together a symphony of sorts. As of this moment, we have a Section 1 with three parts, and a Section 2, with two parts so far. The endeavour is ongoing, as you may have guessed.
City Songs, Section 1 Part 3 is available on YouTube:
Section 2 Part 1 - Evolving & Revolving is available on SoundCloud:
Meanwhile, Section 2 Part 2 - Bells & Chimes is available again on YouTube:
So, in tribute to urban colonies, on both Mars and Earth, we have been putting together a symphony of sorts. As of this moment, we have a Section 1 with three parts, and a Section 2, with two parts so far. The endeavour is ongoing, as you may have guessed.
City Songs, Section 1 Part 3 is available on YouTube:
Section 2 Part 1 - Evolving & Revolving is available on SoundCloud:
Meanwhile, Section 2 Part 2 - Bells & Chimes is available again on YouTube:
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Yes, I am trying to drive you mad with repetitive bells and chimes
Transmission from Luna Mars
Station log: #354BE768
Output: Alpha 019
Re: Experiment in effects of audio in space
We on Luna Mars love a good experiment once in a while. OK, maybe a lot of times in a week. We've just finished with our petri dish of bacteria in the outer quadrants. Some of it escaped into the Martian soil. Hopefully there won't be an epidemic of killer spores around here.
Meanwhile, in studying the music of the spheres here, we recently delved headlong into violinist Daniel Hope's new release, Spheres. You can check out a listening guide here:
In studying what sweet music the planets and other space objects make, we decided to try and see if we can drive our astronauts crazy with repetitive bells and chimes, in what we cleverly disguised as "minimalist music" in the style of Reich, Riley and Glass.
We decided to upload and transmit the track, Eclipses (Variation 6/8) - Mallets, Bells, Chimes, Phaser & Strings (ya, a mouthful), onto SoundCloud and hopefully everyone else in the universe can also participate in this experiment.
Leave us a note here to let us know what effects, if any, this music has on you. If we see gibberish in the comments, we would then know we have been successful.
Station log: #354BE768
Output: Alpha 019
Re: Experiment in effects of audio in space
We on Luna Mars love a good experiment once in a while. OK, maybe a lot of times in a week. We've just finished with our petri dish of bacteria in the outer quadrants. Some of it escaped into the Martian soil. Hopefully there won't be an epidemic of killer spores around here.
Meanwhile, in studying the music of the spheres here, we recently delved headlong into violinist Daniel Hope's new release, Spheres. You can check out a listening guide here:
In studying what sweet music the planets and other space objects make, we decided to try and see if we can drive our astronauts crazy with repetitive bells and chimes, in what we cleverly disguised as "minimalist music" in the style of Reich, Riley and Glass.
We decided to upload and transmit the track, Eclipses (Variation 6/8) - Mallets, Bells, Chimes, Phaser & Strings (ya, a mouthful), onto SoundCloud and hopefully everyone else in the universe can also participate in this experiment.
Leave us a note here to let us know what effects, if any, this music has on you. If we see gibberish in the comments, we would then know we have been successful.
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Space Rock!
Unless you've been living under a space rock, you would have heard about interstellar stone objects hurtling towards Earth lately. We here at Luna Mars have been closely monitoring these activities. One dropped into the atmosphere and provided proof that Hollywood filmmakers were prescient enough to know exactly what it would look like when outer space threw stones at us.
The second one attempted a kind of outer space-style drive-by shooting, but botched it terribly, which was good for us.
The thing is this: NASA is supposed to be watching the skies closely to protect us from such stone-throwing activities. So, what the hell happened with the Russian space rock? Perhaps they were too busy watching Mr D14. But that's just as worrying. It means if we have another double-whammy in the future, they'll be watching only one.
Anyway, we should learn to stop worrying and love this old track from the days when redplanetsongs first started. It's a Latin-jazz-hip-hop tribute to Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr's Satantango.
The second one attempted a kind of outer space-style drive-by shooting, but botched it terribly, which was good for us.
The thing is this: NASA is supposed to be watching the skies closely to protect us from such stone-throwing activities. So, what the hell happened with the Russian space rock? Perhaps they were too busy watching Mr D14. But that's just as worrying. It means if we have another double-whammy in the future, they'll be watching only one.
Anyway, we should learn to stop worrying and love this old track from the days when redplanetsongs first started. It's a Latin-jazz-hip-hop tribute to Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr's Satantango.
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