Full Lyrics
here we are again
balancing on a thread
lost in time… See more
shadows upon our smile
left to my thoughts
until time forgets
Do androids dream
of electric sheep?
lost, empty, people
sweet lives with a sense of shame
no fears
no ambition
no desires
living on false hopes and delta waves
hovering with ghostly apparitions
in an urban jungle
take a ride with other people
was this how I wanted it to be?
so here we go again
feeling each others pain
saving our thoughts
hiding behind a smile
blank stares
until time forgets
erasing all memory
of a forgotten past
lost, empty, people
sweet lives with a sense of shame
no fears
no ambition
no desires
living on false hopes and delta waves
walking amongst surreal faces
in a cardboard city
following emotionless hearts
this was not how I wanted it to be
Its funny how much music can get you going. I started this project with one notion in my mind – that I wanted to sing/write about people living in the city. On top of this, I wanted to convey the notion of deep seated human insecurity, and how we shy away from it. I mean put it this way, we’re all here in a materialistic world where its ‘cool’ to own the latest gadgets as that makes us feel happy, but ultimately its something that will be cast away in an empty cupboard years later. In essence its like poor mans gold – the idea that owning a large quantity of chains, bracelets, medallions and other gold paraphernalia in the style of Mr T will somehow make you feel rich and important. But it doesn’t. You are only you, and its your mind that really matters.
Download the Track
Obscuresounds – Deltawave
Notes: Please show your support by sharing and enjoying. I welcome any feedback.
So this track is essentially about living in the city, and all of the insecurities behind it where people constantly dream of a happier life, but never quite reach it. Instead we’re hiding behind fake smiles and saying its all okay, generally following the crowd like ‘sheep to the slaughter’. Deep, probably a case of drinking to much whiskey. The general influence of this track is as follows: Air, Massive Attack, Ladyhawke, Bat For Lashes, Beck, Radiohead.
This track uses a bit of everything from pianos to vibraphones, and typical band instruments, all played by me. Synthesizer wise I’m pretty happy with how this has turned out – I think its reached the happy medium of an 80′s sound, but with contemporary ideas.
At the very beginning I have a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 playing away (going through a guitar amp to cut through the mix), this is followed up by piano and bass.
The vocal is actually my own voice pitched up to sound ‘female’. The idea being that at some point I’ll be able to find a professional female singer who will want to replace it – I’m not a singer, and I don’t want to try, but this method at least gives me a way of conveying what’s in my imagination.
The fun bit starts at 1:01 where I have a Korg MS-20 blasting away with filter overdrive, alongside the Octave CAT that takes over the bass to do a funkier bass-line with glide. At 1:24 the music goes slightly up tempo and this is where I use the Ensoniq ESQ-1 doing the upward 1/8 (or 1/4) ARP and choir sound at the ‘ghostly apparition’ – I also overlaid the ARP sound with (believe it or not), a Clavinet D6 which smoothed it out with some slight detuning and timing changes.
Some of you might be interested to know that I recently acquired a Publison DHM 89 B2, a rare digital delay that’s great for quirky stuff, and I use it on both the vocals and some of the instruments to give a dirtier sound. During the middle of the track (1:49) I then have the vibraphone and Octave CAT working away alongside my own voice humming for that haunted feel. The filters on the Octave CAT open up as the beat kicks in.
The final chorus (2:48) then utilises a dirty bass patch on the ESQ-1 with a combination of square and detuned saw waveforms to give a steel-drum effect which works really well.
Hope you all enjoy it, and welcome any feedback good or bad.
waiu Said on:
June 10th, 2010 at 11:18 am
I like it. Sounds like a get-together of bands i love. The vocals could use some boost, though.
Lawrence Said on:
June 10th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Hey Waiu, glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully when I’m back in the studio this weekend I’ll boost the vocals a little. Think it was a case where my ears got used to it after a few days, so left it as is. In fact I’ll put the full lyrics on the post for anyone who’s interested. Might help at this stage!
Graeme Said on:
June 17th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Really like the track, good work… at first I thought you’d got Ladytron to sing vocals… amazed it’s pitched up male vox
Regards
Graeme
TheArchit Said on:
June 29th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Hello mate,
You’ve got a great tune going there. I’ve heard the Sound on Sound remix, and in all honesty I prefer your original mix, especially the bus compression and the way it’s affecting the snare. Funnily enough, the low end is in my opinion exactly where it should be (or else we both have a bad monitoring environment). The remix seems to boost the mid-low on the bass drum a little, making it sound more “cardboardy”.
I dislike most of your influences with the exception of Beck’s “Sea Change” – great album. But it is interesting to see how you pick out the best in them to create something original.
Best of luck and keep the good stuff flowing!
Lawrence Said on:
June 29th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Hey TheArchit,
Thanks for the kind comments! I was pleasantly surprised by the SOS article – it definitely helped me figure out the areas I need to work on… mainly EQing, but at least the production/writing style is okay. I’m hoping that as I write more over the year that it might peek some interest… lots to do though! When I get a chance I’ll use Mikes input/advice in the article to remix Infernal Machine to be more in line with Deltawave above (clean it up etc.). I’m indebted to his advice, as I can use it as a reference for other tracks.
So far I’ve got 3 tracks down, so the goal is to write 8 more until Christmas (publishing them here as I go along and generate some support). Really want to create an album that’s kinda universally accepted, but its early days yet! How I’m going to translate all of this live on stage I have no idea!
Beck’s Sea Change was an amazing album – I like the fact that he works on so many levels/styles, and often experiments to get a certain sound.
TheArchit Said on:
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Hey Lawrence,
You’re definitely on the right track to create “universally accepted” music. The key is to persevere and you seem motivated enough. It’s a shame you didn’t get a lot of feedback on gearslutz from what I can see. I’ve been reading the forum for years yet never registered.
I’d imagine that when you say you’d like to remix and clean up “Infernal Machine” what you’re possibly after is a cleaner representation of a dirty track. Given your very retro approach to the whole song-building process there’s probably no getting away from a certain degree of grit contributing to the character of the sound. For some unknown reason the track “No Control” from Bowie’s “Outside” springs to mind. You’ll probably be familiar with it but otherwise highly recommended auditioning.
If you intend to play your songs live, I think you could get away with a second hand AKAI S6/5000 sampler. Its built-in sequencer is capable of reading type “0″ MIDI files. But there is time to figure that out – if you end up playing with other musicians you may have to adapt the songs anyway and get interesting results in the process.
Is there anywhere on the web we can listen to your other tracks?
Cheers,
Nishal
Lawrence Said on:
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:46 am
Hey Nishal,
That’s the one side to Gearslutz I feel is a shame – its a great forum, but (dare I say it), I think most of the producers on there don’t really care about listening to the actual music, just comparing the equipment – so its difficult to get any constructive feedback. I guess one way to look at it is that no feedback is better than lots of bad comments. In fact, essentially that’s my problem – I’m working in a studio on my own, but there’s no engineer to guide me as I do things, so thats why I tend to post on Sound on Sound and Gearslutz forums for professional help.
Heh, fear not – I’ll make sure the original Infernal Machine still retains its gritty nature… its more the mid, as when I play it with subs it literally disappears. Once I manage to space it out a bit more it’ll hopefully be as good at the original – I’ll put up both versions when I get around to it and see what works best. Bowie is another massive influence – Hallo Spaceboy was my personal favourite on the album, but generally it was a wonderful album.
Ahh brlilliant, lucky enough to own a S5000 with a fair amount of ram inside so might give that a try alongside pad triggering with the MPC 3000. I was also thinking along the lines of Chemical Brothers live setup, where they hover around the Mackie 32:8 and trigger off the synths. If I can do it right I might record the patterns in and do ‘realtime’ sequencing via Ableton and Monome or Novation Launch Pad. Lots to think about!
AlanH Said on:
July 13th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Hi Lawrence,
I always love reading SOS Mix Rescue, and that led me here. Congratulations on both tracks.
In particular, I love the way you’ve processed the voice. I too am no singer, but harbour pretensions of being able to convince my unsuspecting friends that I can carry a tune in a bucket – although convincing them I’m female may be a step too far.
Do you mind me asking what you used to get the vocal effect?
Thanks for the music.
Lawrence Said on:
July 13th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Hey AlanH,
Thank you so much! Really glad you enjoyed them both! Its funny you should mention the vocal effect as I think that’s really what makes both songs at the moment… Unfortunately still going to stay vague on the specifics of getting the sound, but you’re about 60% there with Melodyne and AVOX toolkit, so check them out! It sounds a little unnatural when its the dry sound, but I have a few older pieces of equipment here that do a nice job in getting something that’s processed but hopefully sounds pleasant. Ironically I’m not a big fan of the T-Pain/Cher sound, but with no female singer around this seemed like the best solution.
heh… you should have seen the look on some of my friends faces when played the track – I just want to do something different… honest!
Someone recently made a very good point that the sound could quickly become a gimmick, and I totally agree – problem is I love that female vocal style in general, but haven’t found anyone willing to replace it. It needs a Beth Hirsch/Feist sound. Problems… always problems!
AlanH Said on:
July 14th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Thanks for the reply, Lawrence.
When I first casually listened to the track, I thought “oh, that’s a female singer with some mild effects thrown in”. Only later did it dawn on me that it was actually a male vocal with some serious processing thrown at it. I have Melodyne and the AVOX Evo bundle, but as with so many things around here, I’ve never got into them deeply enough – too many other toys! I also have a Digitech Studio Vocalist from what seems like a previous incarnation.
I’d be interested in knowing what the interval was between the notes actually sung and the processed vocal. I seem to be constantly reading that these tools are only “musical” over a relatively small transposition range.
Thanks again.
Alan
Scott Said on:
August 7th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
All I can say is Bravo, man! Great concept.