Erykah Badu - "Southern Gul" (Nonagon remix)

The last couple of months have been marked by a series of transitions in my personal life, among them an aborted move to a new apartment that forced most of my studio gear into storage through April. Thanks to the kindness of friends, though, I've never been for want of a roof over my head, and I've managed to commandeer a corner of a living room table to put together a functional studio lite. Results below:

Erykah Badu - Southern Gul (Nonagon remix) by nonagon

Like all of my hip hop remixes, this is an entirely new instrumental written to the contours of the existing acapella. Unlike most of my remixes, however, major components of the instrumental for this track actually started out in another song, "Shadowless" which I wrote in collaboration with Angie and Adam Donkin a couple of years ago:

Nonagon - Shadowless by LoveTech2011Comp

It was during preparation for a show last year that I discovered that the Erykah Badu acapella worked well with the pads from Shadowless and the beat from another track I was working on. I've been playing versions of this remix live for many months since, so it seemed like a good project to formalize and release while the studio was in survival mode.

For anyone interested in the production side of the coin, here's an overview of the project in Ableton Live:

Special thanks to Exkclamation for the MP3 cover art!

Dead Prez Remix

Just wrapped up a remix of the classic Dead Prez track "Hip Hop."

Dead Prez - Hip Hop (Nonagon remix) by nonagon

You can download a high-quality MP3 of the remix with the little down arrow on the right-hand side of the player widget.

The repeating synth bassline in the original track is so iconic that I decided to ditch it entirely to give myself a little more creative freedom. I went for a slower tempo (big surprise!), deep sub-bass and sparse, atmospheric production that opens up into edgier distorted synth lines in the last third. When I say "deep sub-bass" I really do mean it- the bassline in my version gets down to around 40Hz, meaning it'll vibrate your entire body on a proper club soundsystem, but will likely completely disappear on smaller speakers and most headphones.  You should've retired those iPod earbuds years ago anyway.

Dead Prez's lyrics on the original are fantastic, and were a big part of why I chose this song to remix, so instead of chopping them up I left them alone and instead tried to accentuate and emphasize the message of the original tune with my new instrumental backing.  Unfortunately, the only acappella I could find had all the PG-13 words chopped out, though on a positive note I guess this makes my remix more toddler friendly for all the hip parents out there (you know who you are).

For comparison, here's the original track in all of its (youtube compressed) glory:



And of course, for you loyal readers the instrumental version of my remix can be had right here:

Dead Prez - Hip Hop (Nonagon remix) Instrumental

Shadowless

Over the past few months, I've posted some cryptic photos and vague comments here and on my Facebook page about a new collaborative project I've been working on.  It's finally time to pull back the curtain (at least a little bit) and share a taste of what's been brewing.

The new project started out simply enough- I had some unfinished instrumental tracks that I thought would be perfect for vocals, so I got in touch with my friend Angie Donkin, lead singer for the LA band Vibrasol to see if she'd be interested in collaborating.  Luckily enough she was, and over the next few months we got together a handful of times here in San Francisco to share ideas and record some of what she'd come up with.  Angie's brother Adam (a talented musician, studio owner and audio engineer) initially came onboard to direct our first proper vocal recording session, but before long it became clear to me that the ideas he was bringing to the table necessitated his being part of the project.  And thus the unnamed project came to be.

Today I'm proud to present you with "Shadowless," one of the first tracks born of our new collaboration.  The version you can listen to (and download) below was only given a hasty mastering pass by Adam, but I think it sounds fantastic, and should give you a good idea of the vibe we're going for.

Nonagon - Shadowless by LoveTech2011Comp

We currently have five complete tracks in need of final mix and mastering sessions, and four or five fairly well developed demos that are well on their way.  We'll be giving our first live performance on Friday, January 28th, 2011 at the LoveTech 2 Year Anniversary party here in San Francisco (I'll also be playing a brief set of my solo instrumental work immediately beforehand), and presumably releasing a proper EP in the month or two that follow.

It's great to get a chance to work with other musicians with similar styles and visions, and I'm really looking forward to sharing more of what we've been working on very soon.

Missy Elliott Remix

Project "Finish All the Work I Started Over the Last Eighteen Months" has officially begun. Despite the lengthy title (albeit with a moderately pronounceable acronym: FAWISOLEM), this should mean a lot more public output from me in the last quarter(ish) of 2010.

To get things started, here's a little remix of "Lick Shots" by Missy Elliott I wrapped up today.  You can listen in the embedded player or download the track with the little arrow icon- or both!

Missy Elliott - Lick Shots (Nonagon remix) by nonagon

For reference, here's the original (produced by one of my heroes, Timbaland).



And, as a little bonus for those of you following the blog, here's my instrumental version:

Missy Elliott - Lick Shots (Nonagon remix) Instrumental

Evan Morris Remix

Back from beyond with a just-released remix of Evan Morris' chiptune powerhouse "Death Face."

Evan Morris - Death Face (Nonagon remix) by nonagon

Full remix album available here.
Original album "Vector Krush" available here.

Deadlines, Bless Them

I find this hard to fathom, but it's been about ten months since I last posted a new song here. I've been working hard the entire time, but since last June or so my focus has been on figuring out the P^3 and getting Days Away out the door. I've developed a sizable backlog of unfinished work during that time, some of which is "almost there," but I've largely succumbed to the desire to generate new material instead of sweating out the details to finish any of what I've started. Enter The Deadline.

A few months ago I read about the Tra la la blip project on the Ableton discussion forums. In their own words:

tra la la blip is an artist collective based on the far north coast of new south wales. (...) our first release is titled "soundbeam sessions volume 1" We did 100 copies, each 1 individually stamped by the musicians/artists. (...) soundbeam sessions is a compilation CD, all artist[s] on the CD have some form of intellectual and or physical disability. all the songs were created live during jam sessions at Multi Task human resource foundation in Lismore nsw. It is loop based electronic music created using multiple midi controllers and instruments like the tenori-on, soundbeam, kaossilator, microkorg, a macbook running ableton live software and a microphone.

While the concept alone strongly appeals to me, the best thing about TLLB is that their music is fantastic: sometimes playful, sometimes moody, melodic, and dare I say "deep." Thus, when artistic director and organizer Randolf Reimann posted an open invitation for remixes, I decided to get involved. And getting involved meant actually finishing something for the first time in almost a year.

I'm proud to present my finished remix of Indigo Caroline by Tra la la blip. The original TLLB track is somewhat unique in that it consists of just three components: a vocal track (participant Gaye singing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline") over Monolake's song "Indigo" layered with an original synth line. The result is haunting and atmospheric and right up my alley. My remix takes things in a very different direction, but (hopefully) without losing the spirit of the original. I hope you like it!

Indigo Caroline (Nonagon remix) by nonagon

P.S. I'm trying out Soundcloud streaming for the first time with this song. I'm going to hold off on making it downloadable until I get clearance from Randolf, as the track will be making its way onto the Tra la la blip remix CD to be released later this year.

Happy Memorial Day

... here's a little present to help you celebrate:

No Time For A Change, Pt. 1

I feel good about the way this one turned out, but as you might have guessed the whole story's not being told today: it's a two-parter, and for now you only get the first half. It's a bit of a cliff-hanger, but rest assured that the thrilling conclusion is forthcoming. It's like old-time radio up in this!

In penance for the aural blue-balling, behold the awesome limited-edition print Jess made me for my birthday, post front and center- there are a total of twenty photo-etched, individually printed copies of that image in my possession now, and you'd better believe I have some exciting ideas about what to do with them. I guess that makes for two cliff-hangers... stay tuned!

A Day Late

... but we'll leave the dollars out of it for now.

Fixed Action Pattern

Enjoy!

Don't Want No Short (Track) Man

And now for something completely different: a song that's under three minutes long!

Mr Sniggle's House (Instrumental)

This one's written as the beat for an MC to flow over (as we say in the biz), hence the "Instrumental" caveat. If I can't get someone to throw down in the next few weeks, I might temporarily layer an existing acapella to give it the proper feel- we'll see. As it stands, it's a no-frills, to-the-point track that ain't gonna hurt nobody.

In other news, my long-delayed demo will finally be hitting the mailbox next week! After endless delays and deliberations, I've put together a CD label and tracklist that I think is representative of what I do. Here it is (phone number removed for internet safety):

And the tracklist will be:

• It's Come To This
• Forever And Never Again
• Undelayed By Reflection
• From A Platform Above

I'm still not expecting anything to come of these, but it's going to feel damn good to say I finally tried. Wish me luck!

P.S. New (full-length) track almost finished! Watch this space.

Risen From The Ashes

... of the working world! These days I'm splitting my time between thirty hours a week at work (poor me), weekly band practice with Nick and Johnny D (for a future project TBA), and good 'ole Nonagon. It's working out pretty well so far- I feel more driven and productive during the time I have for music, and so far I'm not feeling overly oppressed by life on the job. Just gotta keep my fingers crossed that things stay that way!

On the music front, I've decided to group my work from 2007 into an album and move on. It's cathartic to put it out there as a single thing- I learned a lot, but now it's time to go forward to more focused (and hopefully better) things. The album is called "Days Away." What becomes of it is currently unknown.

On the topic of moving forward, though, here's a little something for the stereo:

Forever And Never Again (Instrumental)

This one's actually intended for vocals, but until I get those pulled together I think the instrumental stands fairly well on its own. First track of 2008! I'm pretty proud of it, and I think it's yet another step closer to my elusive "sound." Comments welcome as always- have at it!

A Year Already?

It seems appropriate to post on the one-year anniversary of leaving my job (which, coincidentally, happens to be today). Thankfully, and even more appropriately, I've got something more relevant than words to mark the occasion:

From A Platform Above

As usual- hope you like it!

A Tidbit

It's a blog exclusive!

I haven't really been sure what to do with this little piano-centric piece I put together a while ago; it's been sitting mostly finished on my hard drive for a few months now, but in characteristic me fashion I've been having a tough time calling it "done." Because so much of the expressiveness of the piano is based on the nuance of the pianist (which I'm not), it was a tedious and sometimes frustrating job faking my way through, which I think contributed to my hesitance. In the interests of overcoming self-imposed adversity, though, I think it's time to let this one out of the bag, at least for the few people who still follow this journal. So here you go:

Goodbye Goliath

Despite my best efforts I still don't think I'm ready to post this one to the assorted Nonagon streaming sites (at page right), so for now we'll just let this be between the two of us, OK? I'm particularly interested in any feedback on this one, though, since it's so far from what I normally put out. Fire away!

Care For Another?

It's that time of year again- the days are getting shorter, the skies are getting cloudier, and weoggers everywhere are releasing their latest songs onto the internet. I've never been one to buck a trend, so hopefully this'll be good enough to keep me in the club:

It's Come To This

This track is the most recent step in my continuing struggle to define "my sound." The goal is to combine the elements I like most from my favorite genres into something new- or at least newish. Specifically, I'm trying to blend:

• The atmosphere and aggression of Drum 'n Bass


• the sub from Dub Step


• the technical attention to detail of IDM, and


• the melodic and harmonic sensibilities of plain old "good music."

I'm also trying to develop an interplay between half-time tempos and more frenetic double-time rhythms, for what it's worth. The result this time falls into the same category as my older track "Process of Illumination," but hopefully takes the ideas in an interesting new direction. Or maybe I completely failed! Either way, there are a lot of things I like (and a few I'm not so sure about, as usual) in this one, and I'd love to hear any feedback or criticism you might have. As long as it's positively glowing, of course ;).

In other news, I submitted a CD of my tracks-up-to-this-point to the licensing company Pump Audio, so we'll see if they think my work is appropriate for the next big Colgate ad or something.

Until next time!

P.S. Most of my songs (but this one in particular) really need decent speakers to be heard properly- there's a lot going on in the sub-100Hz frequencies that smaller speakers just can't reproduce. Just so ya know.

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

... will forever be the day that things finally went official for me. For better or worse, success or failure, I'm finally putting myself out there. No use beating around the bush then:

• The name of the band is Nonagon.
  
• The MySpace page for Nonagon is here.
  

Of course I'll continue to update this blog as (ir)regularly as ever- no changes there. But for now I'm going to keep it "insiders only" and let MySpace be the public front for my music.

But that's not all! I'm also proud to announce the release of a brand new track, hot-off-the-cpu: (updated 10/31/07)

Undelayed By Reflection

Notable about this one: it's the first song I've composed start-to-finish in OS X. Not that notable, I know, but I had to say something about it, and as usual I'm not in much of a mood to go into great (or even shallow) detail about the compositional process at the moment. I guess I will at least say that I'm proud of the way this one turned out. Oh, and I'm going to give it a day or two before pushing this one onto MySpace- gotta let it age a little. =)

I'll leave it at that for now, but since I've finally settled on a name there are plenty of things to look forward to here, including (but not limited to): logo design and artwork solicitations for YOU, demo tracklist ponderings, label submission musings, etc. Stay tuned!

About F'in time!

It's New Track Saturday!

This one has been a long time coming. Scheduling constraints played a role, but the truth of the matter is that I struggled with this song for longer than I'd like to admit. There were endless variations, endless thematic adjustments, endless arrangements, to the extent that I really started to feel kind of hopeless that it would ever be finished. It was definitely tough going for a while there.

Ironically it ended up being the "things keeping me from my music" that ultimately brought back the creative spark that I needed to wrap this one up. Coming back to it after a few weeks, the problems I was having seemed less impenetrable, and things started getting wrapped up faster than I could have hoped. I think I always knew, but it bears repeating: sometimes a break can do you good.

So here it is, as finished as it's going to get for now. Logistically this is the most ambitious song I've ever worked on, involving about forty-five tracks, recorded guitar and voice and God knows what else. It's a long one at just over ten minutes, but I don't consider any part of it dispensable. For better or worse, I'm glad to have finished it, and I'm looking forward to starting with a clean slate again. Catharsis, anyone?

Enough talk, then- have a listen:

Process of Illumination

JB, out.

The ? Day Itch

Why do mosquitoes fuckin' love me so much?! I'm like the French Laundry of mammals to them- and today the food's all free!

I went backpacking in the Emigrant Wilderness this weekend and had an incredible time save for the aforementioned teeny-tiny Lucifers. Nothing like a little hard-core nature to give one perspective on this city life. That said, it is nice to have a bed that's not made of dirt and rocks, and I don't miss the feeling of three days of sweat, dirt, sunscreen and (apparently totally ineffective) noxious chemicals caked onto my skin. But I'd do it again in a heartbeat- at least as soon as I stop itching.

With that little adventure behind me, it's been back to the task at hand! It felt good to get back into the studio (which I'll post pictures of at some point, I promise) after a relatively long hiatus, and yesterday I managed to put the finishing touches on something new I'd been working on for the last couple of weeks. And guess what?! Here it is!

Vicarious Innocence

I tried a new and kind of scary approach to this one, which I'll explain forthwith for those interested in such things. If you know the way I work (which I don't think anyone but me really does, but anyway), I have a weird compulsion to make everything reversible. By that I mean that, if something starts out as a bunch of MIDI notes fed into a sound generator, I want it to stay that way instead of recording the output straight to audio and working with that instead. What if I want to change the notes?! What if I want to change the sound!? Can't do that with audio! So goes the voice in my head. Over the past few months of working with Ableton Live I've bounced a few small MIDI tracks to audio, but rarely anything substantial, and usually just to save the trouble of having to ReWire Reason into Live. This time though, I took a baby step towards quashing my inner audiophobe: I dumped the whole track and edited it directly.

What this means is that I wrote pretty much the whole song from start to finish (sans anything "fancy"), then rendered it to a single stereo track and went all Gangster No. 1 on it. I made many, many edits to the final waveform, mostly in the breakdown you hear in the middle of the song, and boy did it scare the hell out of me! After all, if I decided to change anything in the actual composition of the song, hours of tedious work would be lost! But a little fear is good for creativity, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Note that the glitchy stuff you hear was done in two phases: first with effects and small per-track edits in the "master" composition, then with bigger edits and effects on the final stereo mixdown. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine which sounds are which.

Or you could just listen to it without considering all this technical blather and let me know what you think... as if listening were the point of music. Psh.

Just let your ears do the talking. Or... you get the idea. Enjoy!

Don't Tell 14 Year Old Me...

...but I'm now the proud owner (and operator) of a 15" Apple Macbook Pro. Nevermind that I'm currently running Windows almost exclusively on it- it's still a pretty historical transition for me. So far it's been really great, and as soon as I sort out the little problem of Windows-only VST plugins, I'm looking forward to getting a little deeper into OS X too. For now though, I'm just happy to have a laptop that doesn't feel like it's going to rattle apart every time I pick it up (sorry Sony, but your little VAIO went home to Costco today. Adieu). Adventures in Computing!

In celebration of the change, I'd like to announce the release of my first cross-platform (sort of) track, which was started on the old laptop and finished on the new one. I give you:

South Without a Candle

I had a good time writing that last drum 'n bass track, so I decided to give it another whirl, and this one's the result. No commentary for now- I'll let the song speak for itself. Hope you like it!

7/1/07 Update: After a whopping half-day online, I've updated this track to RC2. The changes were very minor, but if you snagged RC1 hang on to it- it might be a collectible someday! ;)

Hear Me Now, Rudeboy!

Remember way back when I said I was feeling inspired to try my hand at a little Drum 'n Bass business? Well, I did. And I spent what felt like forever on it. Seriously, this one has been quite a journey for me- but today I'm ready to call it done, at least for now.

Though it's not without it's issues (damn, still can't escape those disclaimers!), I'm really proud of the fact that I managed to produce something that's (at least to my ears) a lot better than much of the cookie-cutter crap you can buy at your local record shop. Not to mention that my price of $0.00 USD is highly competitive! So get it while the getting's good, dear friends.

Clocking in at almost nine minutes, it's:

The Distant Glow

Hope you enjoy it.

P.S. As always, higher-quality encodings are available for anyone interested- just drop me a line.

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

It's a man's world! Sex machine! Get up offa that thang!

Sorry, couldn't help myself- blame the other JB.

Though I'm not feeling much like a potato, there have been some big changes 'round these parts. After much uncertainty and delay, I finally made a significant life change late last week- I've left my long-time home on Fell St in favor of more "intimate" accommodations in the Mission. Thanks to my friend (and now flatmate) Cramer's penchant for taking out mortgages, I've downsized from a four- to a two-bedroom apartment, and so far it's been exactly what I'd hoped it would be.

It took a whole lot of painting, carrying, organizing, and related activities (with the diligent assistance of Jess and the aforementioned Cramer), but the bedroom is mostly in order, and there's food in the pantry to keep us fed. Perhaps most importantly though, the studio is now functional.

And no, when I say "studio" I don't mean half of my bedroom- I mean "the studio," aka the entirely separate downstairs room (with separate door) that has now been converted into my little music-making paradise. Yeah, that studio.

I'm no longer a bedroom producer! Not in the literal sense anyway. Now I have a place where I can be loud well into the wee hours of the afternight and not worry about waking anybody up; where I can be "in the zone" and other such wonderful things. I don't want to tempt fate, but I have to say that so far it's been really great. I'll post pictures when the place is a little more put together, but for now just take my word that it's a big step in the right direction for me creatively. I feel like such a pro! Now I just have to learn to act like one.

Music-wise I have a couple more tracks in the pipeline that I think are showing promise, but I'm going to abstain from posting clips this time- I'd rather just drop the finished versions on you when they're ready. You know, more dramatic that way or something. Since it's been a while since I posted anything though, I've decided to share a slightly older track to keep the blogmentum going. This one was written for Jess for her birthday- part of it you might recognize from a clip I posted a few weeks ago. Since it was written especially for her I hadn't considered it part of my repertoire, but she gave me permission to post it, so here it is:

Untitled For Jess

More soon now that I'm getting readjusted and refocused on the task at hand. Thanks for tuning in.

New Track City

I'm never really sure what to write when releasing a new song into the wild... maybe a haiku?

This is my new song
I think it has potential
But is it finished?

Wow, that should totally be my new track release haiku every time! Thanks ancient Japanese lyrical forms!

Haiku stated then, here it is:

Your Eyes Sparkle When You Cry

I've been sitting on a mostly-finished version of this for quite some time now, and I decided today that it had stagnated long enough and that I'd better get the damn thing out into the world. A few tweaks and some rewrites and bam! I think it's close to finished, though I feel like it still has a lot of really nice melodic opportunities that I haven't explored yet. Maybe they'll see the light of day on a rare 7" of B-sides once I'm famous and need a few extra bucks to polish the Maserati riding mower or something. Until then though, I think this initial version is a nice exercise in ebb and flow, with some good melodies thrown in to boot. Not to mention that chest pounding 808 bass drum! The 80's never died!

As usual, comments and criticism would be very much appreciated. Enjoy!