a label for music and other creative pursuits in ypsilanti, michigan. curated by bill van loo
PasteMusic has a great song by Sufjan Stevens entitled “woman at the well” available as a free mp3 download on their site.
Makes me want to get a set of bells to use in my recordings…beautiful acoustic guitar, chiming bell tones and softly breathed lyrics. Lovely.
I posted this on the front page of chromedecay, but thought I’d also capture it here, too.
No year-end recap would be complete without some top 10 lists, and mine is no exception. The records here were mostly released in 2004 (though not all) and serve more as a way of recording what I was listening to, not what I thought the best 10 records or tracks were that got released in 2004 – this is an entirely personal, subjective listing.
Full recordings:
Tracks:
I don’t really do New Years resolutions. However, I do have a few things I want to be more on top of this year.
One is updating this blog more often. Given that this is the 4th entry tonight, I’d say I’m doing OK so far. However, that really falls into a more general resolution to stay in better contact with people, both personally and regarding the projects I’ve been working on.
Therefore, here’s a little entry about the projects I’m currently working on.
I tracked vocals for Listener’s contribution to my ‘songs in the night’ project on New Years Eve day in the basement of Shameless mogul Brown. That was a lot of fun, and I think the track he’s on will take that record to a deeper, grittier place than I’d expected. It’s grown-up business for sure. I also spent a number of hours working on video ideas with him – I don’t want to say too much yet, but hopefully I’ll be contributing a video to one of his upcoming projects.
Also, I’ve been working out ideas this weekend for the title track “song in the night” for the ‘songs in the night’ project. I got the melody and a scrap of lyrics while driving a number of months ago, and after I put together a basic sketch of that in Logic, I found myself beatboxing along to it in the car. I called my voicemail, recorded the beatbox, and then dumped that into Logic, too, which gave a skeletal outline for the rhythm track. This weekend was spent refining the rhythm track and chords, and figuring out where it’s going. Fun stuff.
Now it’s off to bed, so I can get up in time to go the the fitness club I joined at the end of December (again, not really a resolution. Honest.).
2004 in review
Personally, 2004 was a great year for me in many ways. It saw the birth of my daughter, Hannah Elaine, another year of marriage to my wife Sarah, and my son Collin starting kindergarten. I also became more and more involved and active in my church, especially running live sound for both regular services and special events.
Musically, 2004 was a year of intense studio work punctuated by several performances. I was blessed to perform at the Shelter (Detroit) in January with my good friend Josh Schnable, debuting material that will be on our collaborative record to be released in 2005. I also traveled to Montreal with the thinkbox crew for a performance at the Mutek festival in June, which was a great trip and overall experience.
As far as thinkbox-related news for 2004, we released our second record, entitled “guitar”, in the thematic series thinkox editions. I had two tracks on that record, which made up the sum total of my recorded output that was released in 2004. I also made the hard decision to step back from my previous level of involvement with thinkbox and take the role of a contributing artist rather than a core group member. I will still be involved in thinkbox projects and events, however, and I treasure the work we’ve done together (and will continue to do).
Finally, looking foward to the future: I made reference to the fact that 2004 was a year of intense studio work, and a number of the projects that were worked on will finally see the light of day in 2005. My long-time friend Josh Schnable and I have been working on an album’s worth of material for around 3 years now, and that album is finally finished and being sent to various labels for release consideration. We’re both extremely excited about it, and can’t wait for it to be available to hear and experience.
I’ve also been working on a project of collaborations for the past year (initial production began in December of 2003) entitled “songs in the night”. This project has been very special to me, as it’s the first of my artistic endeavours to directly reference my Christian faith, and I’ve been blessed to be able to bring in a number of very talented guest artists to contribute, including Listener (Mush, Deepspace5), Double Helix (Transmat, Emoticon, Rush Hour), and others. The first 2/3 of 2004 were spent in production for the record, and I’ve been slowly working with the guest artists to put together the shared music we’ve been working on. I expect this record to be released in 2005 sometime, though no plans are certain as to label or release date at this point.
A few favorite tracks for 2005 so far (all vaguely centered around hip-hop, though only the Mars ILL tracks are really anything “purist”).
Mat Kearney – girl america (bullet)
Mars ILL – reach, flirt with fame (pirate radio)
Soul-Junk – Ungst Func Slag Collision, Hogging All The Islands
We have a new addition to our family now: Hannah Elaine Van Loo. She’s 13 days old right now, and is a beautiful addition. I thank God for such an awesome new child.
Not at all related: I figured I would post links to a few unreleased tracks that have been sitting on my hard drive for a long time. They’ll eventually make their way into the dowloads section, but for now, you faithful blog readers, you get them exclusively.
Feeling Loverly [a downtempo instrumental from 2001-2002…hip-hop and dubbby in feel – 10.3MB mp3]
A rhodes jam [another dubby hip-hop downtempo instrumental from the same time period as “feeling loverly” – 7.9MB mp3]
bells and chimes rework [a glitchy, beatless piece I worked on without having a place to release it; there’s a part 2, but the rhythm track just doesn’t quite work. maybe someday I’ll finish it and release it as an entire piece…maybe. 3.9MB mp3]
You may have known about The Shins for years by now, but I’m just getting into them right now. Their record “Chutes So Narrow” is super good pop music (a friend @ work has it) and I’m checking them out live on KCRW right now (an archived Morning Becomes Eclectic set).
The Shins live on KCRW (from November 2003).
I first found out about The Shins from an article about them in Tape Op, my favorite magazine about music production. Producers of all stripes, take note – it’s an awesome magazine about music production for the rest of us (that is, those who don’t make records on $750,000 SSL consoles and $5000 Nuemann tube mics). Plus, it’s free for a subscription!
Tape Op – sign up today!
New Breed, “Love” (from “Nine”, on Uprok)
Who in hip-hop drops a line like “And rock it til the hands of time on clocks stop / til the speakers get burned out by the power of my passion / til loving one man with all your heart comes back in fashion”? That’s Elsie, on “Love”.
Braille, “Hip Hop Music” (from “Shades of Grey”, on Syntax)
Classic production (love the horns!), makes me think of Pete Rock or DJ Premier in their prime.
Procussions, “Water’s Edge” (from “As Iron Sharpens Iron”, on Basementalism Records)
A beautiful closing to their full-length debut album.
Flynn, “Love is Dead” (from “In Like Flynn”, on Illect)
This is a bomb, it just explodes out of the speakers.
Dert, “A piece of forever” (from “Fledgling”, on Isolated Music)
Note: the recommended way to listen to “A piece of forever” is as loud as you can bear while driving in a car with the windows down. Subwooofers recommended but not required. This track is as good as anything Jay Dee has done, in my book; nice sample of the announcer from A Tribe Called Quest’s “Midnight Marauders” album, too.
Plus, the full album is only $5 at CDBaby now!
Wow, there’s a lot of dust around here. Sort of like my studio before I started the massive clean-up effort that I engaged in immediately after returning from Montreal and the Mutek festival. I’ll put pictures up as soon as my new 4-space racks arrive and I get things neatly bolted into them.
Anyway, I’ll be posting a Mutek wrap-up soon, but for now, hold tight.
My favorite album of the moment (for the last week or so, really…) is Dert’s “fledgling”. It’s my “Endtroducing….” for the spring/summer, I think. Check out isolated music (dert’s label) for a little more info, and purchase and listen to 2-minute samples of a bunch of tracks at via
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