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JAMES FITZGERALD BLOG

  • WEEK 6 – ANALYSING KMRU

    Discussing the Synthesis and Sampling used by KMRU’s track “Windbags” and showing an overall analysis of his style and workflow.

    KMRU grew up in Nairobi’s Kariokor neighborhood in Kenya, where there were loud noisescapes and was always noisy with the sound of traffic and matatus. He moved from Kariokor to Rongai before moving again from Rongai to Berlin, in which he started to study a masters in “sound studies” which he mentions in the Adam Audio video. Whilst studying in Berlin he became obsessed with quiet soundscapes which contrasted the sounds he was used to in Kariokor, he also started to produce Ambient, drone and environmental music whilst blending this sound with the quiet soundscapes he was fascinated by, and recorded and processed field recordings to make his sound. KMRU released his track Windbags in 2023 and uses the idea of creating a soundscape with the noise around to give life to an ambient sound he is creating.

    KMRU doesn’t approach sampling in a traditional western pop way by sampling a phrase and repeating it throughout a song, he samples recordings of his environment that he records with a microphone whilst walking around his environment. He chooses to sample things that aren’t seen as traditional like sampling broken instrument sounds or mainly focusing on detuned and percussive sounds. In the video “In the studio with KMRU” by Adam Audio via YouTube, he says he uses this approach as a “tool for compositions” and the purpose being to giving the listener to know “more about their surroundings”. He also has stated this approach is used in his music to “try to invite the audience to slow down” from “An Interview with KMRU” by Sydney van Nieuwaal and Thierno Deme via Subbacultcha, and this takes his music at it comes in contrast to the loudness and excitement of the Matatus he was used to back in Kenya.

    An Interview with KMRU

    KRMU states he picks his sample sounds on the mood and feel rather than the musical tonality. He then adds gain to his recordings that he chooses to sample to pick up discrete sounds and noises to help create ambience. When composing he normally likes to record drones and define these sounds as sampled pedal notes throughout his pieces, which he layers these sampled sounds with synths, clean instruments or long recordings. Sometimes using instruments to add to his sounds from the Ableton library to layer these ambience sounds which creates “a collection of vivid and dreamlike sound sculptures” as mentioned by Shape platforms analysis on KMRU .

    KMRU

    He uses microphones mainly a Zoom H6, in which he states “It all started when I got a Zoom recorder”, this is to record his sounds in which he says “It opened up this new world of field recording for me. Sometimes when I listen back to a field recording, it feels like a snapshot of a moment” and saying these sounds he records “ have a kind of natural harmony.”mentioned in Someone’s Always Listening: KMRU on the Art of Sharing Music via Ableton. He also uses sampled preset sounds using Kontakt 8. Alongside the preset sounds and library by Ableton Live for his instrument sounds. He plays these sounds over each other to create his sounds setting them to an Ableton push and recording them and using different microphones for electromagnetic sounds for their sonic quality.

    https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/kmru-on-the-art-of-sharing-music

    In the track “Windbags”, there is mainly sampling of ambience, with surround environment sounds around 1 minute in. Birds tweeting appear around 1 min 15 secs in the track, and this plays a few times possible cued in with a sampler and triggered with the Ableton push. Using the Zoom H6 to capture a low ambience sound around city of Berlin which feature in the track past the 1-minute mark. Eventually, wind sounds enter around 1 min 40 secs – 1 min 50 secs. At 2 mins 05 seconds, sounds like some kinds of buzzing sound possibly a bee. At 2 mins 50 seconds sounds like a car starting its engine sound. To finish light rain sounds end the track. All of these sounds help create a sense of a calm environment with KMRU himself creating this sense of atmosphere and having the listener travel through this environment and flow like the wind. KMRU himself states he likes just “embracing what happens” in the KMRU: Spaces video via Ableton, with all these sounds used to helps support the ambience and feeling of the space your in, whilst not being as controlled as typical sampling to help these sounds fit naturally in with the piece.

    Attached below are some hyperlinks I used to conclude my information

    1. Someone’s Always Listening: KMRU on the Art of Sharing Music – Ableton
    2. KRMU – Shapeform
    3. An Interview with KMRU by Sydney van Nieuwaal and Thierno Deme – Subbacultcha
    4. Meet KMRU, the Ambient Musician With His Ear to the World – Pitchfork
    5. Heavy Calmness An Interview with KMRU – Strumandiodine
    6. Electronic musician KMRU collects sound recordings and transforms them into new worlds – Hero Magazine
    7. KMRU (Interview) – Flowstate
    8. IN THE STUDIO with KMRU – ADAM Audio via Youtube
    9. KMRU: Spaces – Ableton via Youtube
    10. One Thing: KMRU – Sampling broken instruments – Ableton via Youtube
    11. KMRU’s “Windbags” – KMRU via Youtube

  • WEEK 5 – MOOR MOTHER INSPIRED BEAT

    Creating a beat/instrumental inspired by the timbres and blends of genres used in Moor Mother’s music to achieve an Afro-futurism sound.

    For this task I got paired with Loui again, and we decided to start our beat by thinking about the elements and components described in the Red bull interview video, to blend these different styles of music and to give a feeling of Afro-futurism to our beat, but also incorporate influences from Moor Mother’s childhood music taste and have our beat mainly centred around a political idea which clearly motivates and paints the majority of her music.  

    To start our piece we decided to begin with the elements of politics, and use this as the foundation to build the piece from, so we added a political speech by Malcom X called “Malcolm X’s Fiery Speech Addressing Police Brutality”. We used this as we considered the lyrics being the part of importance which she focuses on in her own music, but also the idea of her mentioning she was involved in protests of police bombings, so we decided a protest speech would work, and Malcom X was specifically picked due to his far left views and more being linked to some of Moor Mother’s political beliefs, and which lined up with Rock against Racism act, possibly inspired by Moor Mother to use this idea of music to fight politics and support issues worth discussing.

    https://contentstore.cla.co.uk/EReader/Index?guid=b28bf9f8-3b4b-ef11-991a-ebf013606e83&pcid=3241960&t=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJqdGkiOiIyMzNiNDAzYy05MWZkLTQ3YTEtODhiYS0xZTI4MzIyMzY0NWMiLCJuYmYiOjE3NjQwOTcwNDEsImV4cCI6MTc2NDA5NzM0MSwiaWF0IjoxNzY0MDk3MDQxLCJpc3MiOiJEQ1MiLCJhdWQiOiJSZWFkZXIifQ.eaI1YttwBJp6SqNqNx_toi7N-vL9P6Psgiip436_dwo&b=False

    We layered this with a Mellotron choir to give a “Spooky gospel” sound that Moor mother grew up with from her father’s musical side. This plays added note chords and sounds haunting and dissonant which I though helped add to this sound we were trying to create of an uprise and give this feeling of dread but in a powerful way. We also tried to include an idea of the chords being. sort of similar to the idea of “Hip-hop loops can range from a single bar to eight bars or more” said in Looping: The Key to Today’s Hottest Rap Songs, so we looped in a four chord progression like the old gangsta rap styles of Moor Mother’s influence Public enemy and their track “Fight the power” with a strong political message.

    Looping: The Key to Today’s Hottest Rap Songs

    We chose to have a sampled drum beat, in which we looped, whilst also cutting up the audio file and re arranging it to make our own drum pattern. We cued this in the piece as if it was being played on a sampler to give a more gangsta rap sound of something like Wu Tang Clan’s “Wu‐Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit”. This plays throughout the majority of the piece, although we did add distortion to give a more “DIY” sound of the punk scene that Moor Mother achieves in her own personal works.

    For our bass sound we had a blend of a “Sliding Structure Bass” pre set sound from Logic Pro X, and a midi cello sound which we merged together to have two moving bass parts that interweaved with each other in the beat. I made it so it was still harmonically correct, but wanted it to sound sad but also exciting so we mostly used flattened notes, with Loui writing the cello part and me writing the synth bass part. The choice to have both of these bass sounds bordered on what we believed as Afro-futurism to a certain degree, of combining certain “tools to envision alternative futures ethically grounded in the Black experience” with having a bass sound similar to that of Jungle music and to have a cello sounds combining the style of orchestral music.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2025/apr/03/afrofuturism-imagine-futures

    I think this way of working is very interesting for a producer to try and develop their versatility in blending and fusing different styles of music. But also using music as a political power and centring a piece around a certain aspect of a track can give producer different ways to start a piece but also produce a sound and tone appropriate for the political message you are tying to go hand in hand with and give a feeling that leaves your listener empowered and focused on lyrically rather than musically.

    Here are some links I used to find out and support my research

    1. Fight the power: music as mobilization – by John Street
    2. Looping: The Key to Today’s Hottest Rap Songs – Canyon Entertainment Group
    3. How Afrofuturism can help us imagine futures worth living in – The guardian
    4. Moor Mother on Sampling, Afrofuturism and Collaboration – Redbull Music Academy via Youtube
    5. Afrofuturism mixes sci-fi and social justice. Here’s how it works – Vox via Youtube
    6. Public Enemy’s track “Fight the power” – Channel Zero via Youtube
    7. Wu Tang Clan’s track “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit” – Wu Tang Clan via Youtube

  • WEEK 4 – MOOR MOTHER TRACK ANALYSIS

    Discussing the track “Parallel Nightmares”and the production/musical elements she uses and how this piece of art combines into political activism.

    Moor Mother is an American artist, rapper, poet and political activist who combines elements of queer music techniques and blends different genres of music in which she is inspired by or is from her cultural upbringing in Washington Park. The music she writes comes from the sound and time of underground music clubs and political activism societies, which have a link to her sound as she samples or write out speeches of far left politicial messages and ideologies and uses these in her music normally playing over and instrumental that is “queer” and repeats like the four bar loops of hip hop.

    The piece opens with “Spooky Gospel” sounding vocals which she has clearly taken inspiration from her dad on as she mentions in her Red bull interview video, these vocals sound like chants and almost religious in the way they are pronounced, in which she believes is important in her music.

    A J Dilla inspired “queer” beat is used which is very industrial and processed sounding heavy, using syncopation and rhythms falling on and off strong beats, similar to J Dilla’s track “E=mc2” she is using anchor points to not give total rhythmic confusion and make a beat more in style of “Afro futurism” which she, this also gives this feeling of the music being “Difficult” to get into which she refers to her music as in the Red bull interview video, but these beats being blended of reggae and r’n’b drum sounds that are heavily processed are a fore feature of Afro futurism with the purpose that “empowers African people to locate themselves in the past, present and future with agency” as described by The guardian’s article “How Afro futurism can help us imagine futures worth living in”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2025/apr/03/afrofuturism-imagine-futures

    The lyrics are singing political speech inspired lyrics, they sound like a speech at an activist rally. That feels more informal and lots of information and poetic in a way. And coming from her mind and thoughts quickly being improvised or spoken rather than written out with her thought process being that she focuses on the singing and performance with the lyrics coming naturally, mentioned in the red bull interview video.

    The Chorus has vocal parts using these spiritual sounding timbres that sound sampled, taking from her hip hop influence, but contrasts this dark and bleak topic of “the surrealistic horror of our sociopolitical circumstances ” as mentioned by Big Ears Festivals’ article “Listen: Moor Mother’s “Parallel Nightmares” Whilst also contrasting the sound of the “Gothic” R’n’b choir, in a way this come across to as a voice of reason and this spiritual vocal is like the light at the end of the tunnel of hopelessness and coming across to her listeners that if we rise up we have a sense of hope.

    Listen: Moor Mother’s “Parallel Nightmares”

    The instrumental feels very dark and spooky like the gospel vocals, but have this influence of both punk in political lyric topics and hip hop, which she both is very influenced by, in the way they flow and the rhythm of vocal’s movement. Possibly taking from her influences on Public enemy as her experience at their fight the power tour impacted her which she mentions in the Red bull interview video, as well as the “truth” telling she wants her music to have. But the violent and aggression sound in the instrumental contrasts this strong political message sounding haunting is possibly being taken from the punk , even that she “specializes in practical concepts” said by Cafe Oto, which is very typical of the punk genre, this had and impact on her early teen year and bands like “Bad Brains”being a big influence and also using practical concepts apart of their music. This idea of blending genres and “queer” sounds makes her instrumentals stand out and help create an atmosphere to her music similar to experimental hip hop artists like Death grips with their track “Ring a bell”.

    https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/artists/moor-mother

    The Lyrics being spoken are “We are going to kill the king” sounding like a protest and defiance suited in her origins in Washington park and in the part of groups and protests she aligns herself with. This plays throughout the whole song and reminds me of Bad religion’s “Voice of God is government” which takes a mock sound on organised religion and tells the listener in a way to avoid these people in the intro of the song, where as Moor mother’s is used to motivate and lift the listener and speak to the people of lower class and her disapproval of monarchy and social hierarchy, with this being improvised it also comes off as more authentic with saying that she wants “the music continues to breathe” when talking to Walker Art, it gives a fine distinction between the vocals and the music itself and making the vocals the forefront in the message but her accompaniment the focus in terms of the creativity.

    https://walkerart.org/magazine/sounds-continue-to-migrate-a-conversation-with-moor-mother

    Moor Mother’s track is a hard hitting piece of honest and truth of political socialism which she personally feels very strongly about, the choice to sample “Soon And Very Soon” by Andrae Crouch, makes the ideologies of social order and status come across as a product of disgust and something that should be looked at with more concern rather than cheer and support, her instrumentals whilst Brutal and very DIY sounding help support her aggression and coinside nicely with the feeling to rise above the social standards set by politicians, the beauty in her music is that her instrument choices as she mentions are “special to me” but as she mentions “the main instrument is myself” in the Sonic Origins video via Youtube, without this balance of harsh and queer noises, with the spoken words she preaches in her music, her music doesn’t work as this is what makes her sound.

    Here are some links and references below, that helped me in my research and arguments to discuss Moor mother.

    1. Album Review – Fetish Bones – Pitchfork
    2. Listen to Moor Mother’s Parallel Nightmares – Big Ears Festival
    3. ‘I tell the truth about what’s unknown’: Moor Mother on revealing Britain’s ongoing slavery links – The guardian
    4. Moor Mother – Cafe Oto
    5. Sounds Continue to Migrate: A Conversation with Moor Mother – Walker Art
    6. Moor Mother on creating the future you want to see – The creative independent
    7. How Afrofuturism can help us imagine futures worth living in – The guardian
    8. Moor Mother on Sampling, Afrofuturism and Collaboration – Red Bull Music Academy via YouTube
    9. Sonic Origins | Moor Mother – Moog Music via YouTube
    10. Moor Mother’s “Parallel Nightmares” – Don Giovanni via YouTube
    11. J Dilla’s “E=mc2” – maluco97 via YouTube
    12. Public Enemy’s “Terminator X to the edge of panic” – Public Enemy via YouTube
    13. Death Grips’ “Ring a bell” – Death Grips via YouTube
    14. Bad Religion’s “Voice of god is government” – Epitaph Records via YouTube

  • WEEK 3 – INDUSTRIAL WORKSHOP BEAT

    Making a beat/instrumental influenced by Throbbing Gristle and the sound of early industrial, whilst also adding “queer” and aggressive sounds to fit the sound of the genre.

    For this task, we got paired with the person next to us, I got paired with Loui MP. We had a brief discussion before diving into making our instrumental, of what we wanted to make and both trying to collectively agree on something we were happy with. Loui came up with the idea of making a “jokey” sounding industrial beat, and I added the idea of adding to his sort of parody idea by having harsh and industrial sounds and fundamentals to create a weird collision of sounds that would confuse our listeners, we both agreed on this idea and went for the confusion aspect off of the mixed and unsure reaction our class showed to listening to Throbbing Gristle’s track “Hamburger Lady”.

    We started by sampling an early Justin Bieber track “One more time”, using this idea of something popular snd recognisable to be haunting and using it in a more queer manor, to be unsettling and a juxtaposition to the rest of the instrumental. This was thew first idea brainstormed suggested by Loui, with my input of trying to make Justin Bieber sound horrific and violent. We did this by speeding up the sampled vocal line, which also transposed his vocals to a higher pitch to make it more dissonant like the keys of Throbbing Gristle’s track “Almost a Kiss”. We sampled a lot of the vocal line by using it through a build up section and then our main beat, we messed around by automating the pitch and improvising it going up and down to make it sound trippy and haunting as if Justin was being warped of some kind. In the main section we specifically sampled the line “Your world is my world, and my fight is your fight” which I thought whilst still being melodic, suited the harsh and intense sound of the instrumental and industrial stereotypes lyric wise, as well as the eerie and haunting feel of Genesis P Orridge’s vocals, and felt the most appropriate out of lyrics to sample to fit in with the chilling lyrics of songs in the industrial genre.

    We both also sampled more jokey and abstract sounds to make our beat have more emphasis and we made these sounds bleed in our track like an airhorn sound, a big boom effect and a metal pipe falling down stairs, which we all put effects on like reverb for the metal pipe, and distortion for the booms to make them harsh and discomforting to the mix. This was inspired by the distorted effects used by Throbbing Gristle throughout their whole discography, using tape deck machines, to get a similar “avant garde music concrete” sound as described Sound on Sound talking about Throbbing Grislte’s track “Hamburger Lady” with founder Chris Carter saying “The industrial sound that we had was only part of the whole industrial movement that we had going then. It didn’t have to be industrial–sounding as such” which I personally saw when choosing these joke sounds.

    “Everything that we did was industrial to us. It was more of a concept rather than a sound” – Chris Carter via Sound on Sound

    https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-throbbing-gristle-hamburger-lady

    I suggested to use a heavy kick drum after we listened to a variety of different Industrial songs, mainly Skinny Puppy’s track “Blood on the wall” which has a continuous and emphasised heavy kick drum throughout and is so harsh and heavy that it made our beat sound more violent we both liked. We went with the sound “heavy kick” drum preset sound, which I wanted to sound like a “synthetic whip crack” as described by Electricity Club when discussing Throbbing Gristle’s sound on their album “20 Jazz funk greats” I recorded into the DAW, and i tried to create a rhythm of kicks landing on beat one and three but also on some off beats and playing in long and then suddenly short note durations, to give a more irregular rhythmic feel creating syncopation. I suggested to bit crush this to 7bits at +5.0dB so it would mask the instrumental and have a constant loud and piercing sound similar to that of Skinny Puppy’s kick drum.

    https://www.electricityclub.co.uk/tag/throbbing-gristle

    Loui chose to have a heavy bass sound in the Logic Pro EDM bass preset “Grinding Rhythm”. This was due to our limited sound options that were downloaded on the Mac’s, however we found the sound had a thick sound quality and a very pulsing sound that helped add to a harsh and brutal sound I envisioned for the instrumental. We played long notes to create a more soundscape sound feel the other bands like Nine Inch Nails use for their accompaniment. I figured out the notes were using flattened and sharpened notes in the Justin Bieber vocal melody, so Loui improvised a bass line over this that would completely contrast the sweet and polished sound of Justin’s voice with something that I intended to be disorientating for the listener in sound quality and timbre, yet still work harmonically. We were trying to create a sound inspired by Throbbing Gristle on their track “Almost a kiss” that just had more of a “Grim” sound as they stated about their synths, but playing into the factor of being inspired by “the sounds around them” as mentioned in the Synth Britannia video by 23narchy via YouTube sound so we picked a more EDM style for the 2010 sound of Bieber, but also violent in a throbbing gristle style.

    “They all came together into this like weird mish mash of electronic experimental textures” – Chris Carter via Synth Britannia documentary.

    I think what worked was our sample choice, aswell as the Synthesizers and sounds we picked to support this, but our mix and other melodic elements cannot be heard much in the final beat, aswell as other eerie elements could have been added to fit more with the artistic intentions sought in Throbbing Gristle’s sound especially the use of “Roland D-50’s and digital synthesizers” described by Chris Carter via The Synthesizer Book. Lastly our limited sound options on the university’s mac set us back in terms of our creative vision.

    Below are the links and videos I used to help find my research and quotes from.

    1. The gear of Throbbing Gristle – Reverb
    2. The electronic legacy of 1979 – Electricity Club
    3. Industrial Music for Industrial People: Throbbing Gristle 1978 – Datacide
    4. Classic Tracks: Throbbing Gristle’s “Hamburger Lady”
    5. At home with Carter Tutti in the wire (March 2015) – The synthesizer book
    6. Throbbing Gristle/Chris & Cosey clip from Synth Britannia – 23narchy via YouTube
    7. Throbbing Gristle’s “Hamburger Lady” – SaveMeKaiser via YouTube
    8. Throbbing Gristle’s “Almost a Kiss” – Throbbing Gristle via Youtube
    9. Skinny Puppy’s “Blood On The Wall” – Skinny Puppy via YouTube

  • WEEK 2 – ARCA LISTENING TASK

    Discussing Arca’s track “TIME” and evaluating the musical elements in both a standard and “queerness” way.

    A chordal synth part is plays throughout that uses more than 1 oscillator with a high release, this seems to be a signature of her synth sounds demonstrated by Anton Producer via Youtube, who shows an example of recreating her synth sound. The main character of the sound is a heavy delay with a lot mix, this repeats throughout the piece using the same chords, this makes up the majority of the accompaniment.

    A very high pitched distorted synth plays these fills in-between the chords, with a feeling of chorus creating a distorted sound that doesn’t have too high of a gain to complement with the chordal part nicely and not ruining the angelic sense given to the piece. This is added with a reverb that has a long tail on it.

    There are low bass note on a synth which sound every now and then being on the beat but they aren’t consistent throughout being layered with the kick drum.

    A sort of pulsing kind of sample that blurs the kick drum slightly and plays once arca is done singing, this texture feels very layed but not too complicated unlike her other pieces for example “Riquiqui”

    Arca’s choice with rhythm is very interesting, the piece is in 4/4 time signature which is the common time signature of pop music, but this is not clearly indicated as there are no clear drums other than some low kicks which feel layered with the bass synth part, at points feeling like it’s in a free rhythm and the vocals not really following a clear pulse or beat rather sitting on top of this rhythm.

    The drum beat does not enter for the first 1 minute and 10 seconds of the song relying on the chordal synth to provide a sort of rhythm which doesn’t necessarily always fall on the beat, helping this idea of a free rhythm. When the kick comes in it helps support an “anchor point” as described by Broken English Production via Youtube is a “An element of the song that stays the same for an extended period of time” in this case to where the strong beats are the piece, with this sometimes being syncopated with the chordal synth.

    Arca herself also switches between long phrases of rhythm in her voices to quick ones that are matched with quick repeating backing vocals that use delay. At the end a “brushing” like sound helps fill the gap at the end the piece replacing the percussion support of the kick.

    The vocals stand out in this track by Arca, due to it being the main melody line, it uses a heavy delay on the end of vocal phrases,
    with a delay that is used with less of a mix for the rest of the phrases that still echoes the phrases throughout the piece

    The vocals sound as if they have been pitched corrected and use autotune, whilst also having some chorus with a high rate making them feel robotic and whimsical, and have probably been layered and panned.

    Arca sings in a high range which is very gentle and drops to a slightly lower range in some vocal phrases being a bit queer but mainly stays high. Reverb is added to make these vocals sound large, when she sings the words “Time” there is a large reverb tail and this Reverb creates a blurring effect and holds through the gaps where she is not singing.

    The backing vocals which are repeated in the background of the verse with delay that keep repeating and have extremely long sustains, giving all the vocals a feeling of being blurred and sung over each other which gives a disorienting sound to her vocals in a queer manor.

    This is interesting as although the vocals are the focus of the song, they are made to blend in with the instrumental and making them not feel highlighted in a sense, which is very queer as in standard pop songs these vocals would be the highlight in a track of a similar “ballad” like style, like Charli XCX’s “So I” which makes her vocals the foreground, where as Arca is making her vocals in the middle ground with her accompaniment.

    The choice for the emotional tone feels very fragile and delicate which fits nicely alongside its sound. Being in a key of D# minor it sounds emotional and sad whilst describing a topic that feels very sensitive but also giving more emotion and power to the piece. Arca’s voice is sung in longer melodic phrases which suit the tone, this is important as a different tone would come off as distasteful and ruin the song’s beauty and message.

    However this minor key, is nicely juxtaposed with an angelic timbre in Arca’s voice, singing in a high register which is different to her other tracks where her vocals are lower like “Non Binary”. She is singing more melodically and in longer phrases rather than the quick phrases of “Non binary” which feels like rapping vocal phrases the piece’s tone feels more delicate and personal when listening to it. This being supported with the instrumental creates a nice feeling of calmness and almost security with nothing feeling harsh.

    The emotion in the piece is also contrasted well in its blend between human and robotic/producing feel with the synth instrumentation and things done to Arca’s voice like the effects and note repeats, with heavy processing of effects create this warmth and security as well to the piece.

    Arca perfectly gives this idea of a meaning of the song being taking time out of one’s life to figure out their self and meaning as well as possibly identify of fitting in. This is very relatable as Arca herself being queer and part of the queer community identifying as a trans woman even believing it to be an open thing for other who are not transgender with being quoted in an interview with Glamcult as saying “There’s an open-endedness to transness in that sense, because we are all transitioning”.

    The track could possibly be describing her own personal identify issues before, and comes off as a track for others possible struggling with the same situation, with her herself calling this track a “skin shed” in her interview with Stuart Maconie for BBC radio 6.

    Below are some hyperlinks I provided that helped support my points and comparisons.

    1. In Conversation with Arca – Glamcult
    2. Arca Discusses New Album “KiCk i” – Pitchfork
    3. Cover Story: Arca Finds Xen – The Fader
    4. Through Her Music, Arca Evokes Nostalgia to Reimagine Queer Freedom – Remezcla
    5. What Makes Arca’s Production So Unique? – Broken English Production via Youtube
    6. How To Make Synths Like Arca – Anton Producer via Youtube
    7. How to Produce like Arca – MASSI via Youtube
    8. Arca interviewed by BBC 6 Music on Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone – RippedSlit via Youtube
    9. Arca’s Track “Riquiqui” – Arca via Youtube
    10. Arca’s Track “Nonbinary” – Arca via Youtube
    11. Charli XCX’s Track “So I”- Charli XCX via Youtube

  • WEEK 1 – MINI ARTIST/PRODUCER STATEMENT

    Interested in many different styles and trying to infuse them in some way for different projects rather than one massive project.

    As a producer/songwriter, which I want to develop my skills in and pursue as a career hopefully, I’m still trying to figure out what I’m most passionate as I like making lots of different styles of music. I like to write different styles of Metal and Heavy sounding music like Metalcore, Deathcore, Hardcore, Black, Doom and lots of Noise rock and Screamo styles so I would want to eventually develop more ideas with noise and heavy and dissonant guitar riffs with fast double pedal drums and screamed/fry vocals.

    I also love making shoe gaze riffs on guitar with lots of effects and weird sounds in the song that I find appealing. I also love the sound of Industrial style drumming, percussion and effects, mainly Nine Inch Nails, and wanna create more distorted and warped sounds like that as a back bone to my songs.

    But in contrast I really like electronic music of different styles, like House, EDM, Dubstep and Trance and Ambient synths sounds, and really love adding reverbs to my synths, experimenting with odd self programmed drum beats and love adding some effects like arpeggiator and beat repeater aswell as chopping things up in my melodies to make them more crazy and unique rather than standard straight forward EDM melodies.

    I definitely want to experiment with things like sampling and more effects and processing, with things like heavier effects and more modulated sounds, found sounds that are mainly industrial or percussive while recording things like rain and adding it to pieces. Breakbeats and Microbeats I’m interested in also, and trying to mix/produce better for both Band and Solo electronic work, and produce better sounds from DAW and Plug ins.

    I like the sound of really clever and insane production styles of bands like 100 gecs but I also really adore the heavy processed sound of bands like Knocked Loose and Angelmaker, and even love the clean cut perfection sound of Electronic music like Skrillex, Daft Punk, Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada. I really look to influence of producers like Trent Reznor, A.G. Cook, Machine Girl and Steve Albini.

    I have listed below artists which personally grab me more and more as I listen to their work and personally inspire me and I want to create similar works in a similar style that they have made.

    • Knocked loose
    • Angelmaker
    • Speed
    • Turnstile
    • Meshuggah
    • Parkway drive
    • Nirvana
    • Converge
    • Skrillex
    • Daft punk
    • Aphex twin
    • Boards of canada
    • 100 gecs
    • Machine girl
    • Julie
    • My bloody valentine
    • Slowdive
    • Nine Inch Nails
    • Chat pile
    • Death Grips

    Below are some hyperlinks to interviews I found of artists talking about their style

    1. Tech Talk with Trent Reznor – The NIN hotline
    2. Nine Inch Nails break down their most iconic tracks – GQ via Youtube
    3. A.G. Cook: The future of pop – Metal Magazine
    4. A. G. Cook Breaks Down His Vocal Processing Techniques – Tape Notes Podcast via Youtube
    5. Industrial Strength: Machine Girl’s Chaos Blend – Antidote mag via Antidote Radio
    6. Machine Girl: Method to the Madness – Ruminate via Youtube
    7. My interview with Steve Albini on his Recording Techniques – Bobby Owsinski Music Production Blog
    8. Steve Albini, on the making of Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ album – Underground Inc via Youtube