Sorting it Out

I've been compiling my in progress tracks over the last couple days, as part of my mental preparations for shaping a new release (or new releases). I actually have a lot more than I thought. Roughly 12-14 tracks that are written and just need some fixing, editing, mixing, and so on (a few of these have been released in some for over at Em411.com). Another 3-4 tracks that are well on their way but need some additional composition, plus the same finishing work needed by the other tracks. And another handful of fragments (4-8 bar loops mostly) that have potential, or the seed of an idea, but haven't found a direction yet. I'm thinking I should polish off a few of these and sort the wheat form the chaff, at which point I'm well on my way to having a significant release together.

I'm also thinking of taking a new approach to writing more material. Take my exisitng tracks, strip out the sequencing, and work with the existing sounds to create new songs. i've done this before (it was the genesis of my Pushpin Revolution EP, as well as a handful of tracks that were salvaged from failed songs along the way). That would give me a few more songs beyond what I already have in progress, plus it would give me the luxury of having a bigger pool of material from which to extract the cream of the crop. Also, increased sonic coherency. Right now, these tracks are pretty much all over the map in terms of instruments used, amount of reverb, overall sonic signature, etc.

I've still got a long way to go, but I'm farther along than I thought.

Groundwork

I'm trying to finish off a single right now, because it's been way too long since I released anything. I guess that's not entirely true, since Perestroika was somewhat recent. But I don't feel like I've had a real "project" to focus on in my music. All ideas, no follow through. So I'm trying to bring a pair of songs to completion in the near future, for D.iscontent.

I've got one song that I think of as the B-side, that came together really quickly and I'm really happy with. The mix is jiving, it's got mood, it's a really fun track that's about 90% there. The track I've been thinking of as the A-side though...it's been kicking around for ages, and returning to it, I've found that I'm needing to drastically rethink it. The melodies are solid, some of the sounds are good, but it doesn't mesh. Everything is competing, arrangement and mix -wise.

I did some work on it last week, stripping everything away and reconfiguring the sounds. Replacing a synth with a piano, reigning in the super-compressed distorted drum track...then forgot to save and crashed my music software. So I left it alone for a while, but I think I'll go back and try to recreate what I was doing. It's tedious work, but it was yielding results. And if it means I can get some new music online again, it'll all be worth it.

This is all jsut a ramp up to my next real project though. Still ahven't nailed down the details, though I figure I've got about half the material written that I'll need. It's either going to be a full length album, or a pair of EPs. At least that's the idea at this point in time. We'll see what happens as it shapes up.