Funky (The Slow Jam)

This uses three different audio sources. In this version, there’s no effort to do beat matching and the playback rates are all based on the same minor pentatonic scale, but without coordination between the rates. I like the end.

All of my Christmas songs this year are fundraising for the Hackney Night shelter, which my wife has been volunteering at. There are very few shelter beds in East London. This roving shelter makes up a large percentage of them.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:20 — 3.9MB)

Walking in a Winter No Man’s Land

Perhaps the strangest part of the lyrics of the original song is when a snow man demands to know if the narrator is single and the narrator immediately suggests polyamoury:

[The snow man will] say ‘Are you married?’
We’ll say ‘no, man.
But you can do the job,
When you’re in town.’

This rendition primarily relies on the Andrews Sisters, but also on Dean Martin and Johnny Mathis. The title was suggested by a member of the Mastodon social network, @oliviadahling@mastodon.social,

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:02 — 3.3MB)

Lettuce, No

Yet another deconstruction of a baby boomer favourite. The title was provided by a member of the Mastodon social network, @emdeesee@octodon.social.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:07 — 4.6MB)

I Saw the Mummy Killing Santa Claus

The uplifting choir bits at the very beginning and very end of this 1950s Christmas pop song sound a bit like weird moaning when slowed down.

Many of these pop songs have virtually no instrumental parts, so the only sections that aren’t full of voice are the intro and the outro.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:06 — 5.3MB)

Der Tannenbaumherumtanz

This piece uses the sax solo from another baby boomer favourite Christmas song. The title was provided by a member of the Mastodon social network, @mattamatic@wandering.shop.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:27 — 6.2MB)

Deviation from the Norm will be Punished Unless it is Exploitable

This was inspired by (and titled from) my favourite holiday meme.

All of my Christmas songs this year are to fundraising for the Hackney Night shelter, which my wife has been volunteering at. There are very few shelter beds in East London. This roving shelter makes up a large percentage of them.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:04 — 3.4MB)

Out in the Cold

I kind of hope this is the last year I ever have to hear ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’ as anything other than a bad example.

It comes from a romantic comedy from the 1940s, as a sound track to a scene in which the female lead is trying desperately to escape a Pepe le Pew-like character. This then cuts to an inversion of the scene where a foreign man is trying to escape a woman. That inversion is played with physical comedy.

This song has been covered countless times, but the only versions I could find with the aggressive-woman variation were two sketches starring Miss Piggy.

This cut up uses one line from the film version, plus a few measures of bridge section from that recording.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:59 — 3.3MB)

Met Office Forecast

There are two versions of Bing Crosby singing ‘white Christmas’ on YouTube. One is an older recording, full of hiss and pops and the other is the official version put up by his record company. The official version is much shorter and, despite being remastered, is a lower-effort production.

This is a remix of both versions. The vevo recording has been run through Paulstretch. The older version I manually cut up into 1 or 2 bar phrases. I wrote a SuperCollider script to loop the phrases, cut them up and navigate through them. This is all of that mixed together, plus one word from the song.

The song was originally about nostalgia and climate change – he used to know Christmases with snow. Now the song itself is laden with a nostalgia and wording that has been troubling co-oped. I think it’s important to keep the climate aspects central to the song’s ongoing meaning

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:40 — 6.0MB)

Have Yourself a Scary Christmas

Have yourself a Scary Christmas

Once again this year, I’m doing a series of Christmas music where every piece is written within a few hours. All of the pieces this year will be at least loosely based on the Vaporwave genre. Today’s song is a remix of Judy Garland singing ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’

She sounded like she was already a bit merry to me on the recording, but then I ran it through Paulstretch and expanded it by 8 times the duration and it became suddenly clear that this song is actually made up entirely of existential anguish. This remix uses an 8x stretch, a 30x stretch and a little bit of normal speed, all assembled in SuperCollider.

This year, I am fundraising for the Hackney Night shelter, which my wife has been volunteering at. There are very few shelter beds in East London. This roving shelter makes up a large percentage of them.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:30 — 8.2MB)

Shorts #39: Something Happy

Shorts #39: Something Happy (2016)

Commissioned and titled by sevenhelz in honour of Deathboy.

This piece is influenced by the Vaporwave genre and movement and was written in SuperCollider. The melody is based on a markov chain of common melodic gestures. The instrument is based on the ‘Epic Sax’ code by Rukano. The bassline is adapted from the help file on Patterns. The plucking instrument’s durations is quarter divisions of random durations used by the melody, which is what gives it it’s slightly odd character.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02 — 1.9MB)

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Music by Charles Céleste HUTCHINS

New Electronic and Acoustic Sounds