in november of this year i recorded a song called "funky afternoon". i was quite happy with it, and felt it would be fun to remix it. using only the last 45 seconds of the song, i slowed it down and changed most of the instrumentation and effects.

the result was "slow fish 1", which certainly bears little resemblance to the original. feeling there was more to explore, i remixed the remix...which eventually resulted in five different remixes. #'s 1 through 4 sound similar enough to be recognized as coming from the same source but hopefully different enough from each other to keep the listener engaged.

however, for #5 i wanted to see if i could make a totally new song from the parts i had on hand. it's much more conventional perhaps, than the first four, which sound more like some of brian eno's mid-period instrumental work, "music for films" in particular. eno has always been a huge influence on me.

an interesting technique i used on several of these remixes: when i would open the song to start remixing, i would change ALL the instruments (keyboards became horns, basslines became percussion, etc.) BEFORE listening to the results. this type of chance method is of course a very eno thing to do. then i would listen to what was presented to me, keep some of it,change parts that didn't work, and continue to fiddle with settings and effects until the piece was "finished".

i have no idea where the phrase "slow fish" came from. i have had some great success lately taking photographs of koi fish in various locations. i find their beautiful colors and graceful movement very soothing and calming.

m. karo
california
dec. 07, 2009

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews