Split Notes Microtonal Netlabel presents Various Artists - Crack My Pitch Up http://split-notes.com http://split-notes.com/spnt003.php ------------------------------------- 01. JACKY LIGON – PHIENCE FICTIONS Description: This piece uses meters based on the Fibonacci numbers 13, 21, 34 and 55. The microtunings are inspired by the Golden Horograms invented by Erv Wilson. Microtunings: 13 Tone Phi-MOS with generator of 1.618034 (833.090 cents) and a non-octave period of 2.178458 (1347.968 cents). The relationship between the generator and period of this microtuning is the ratio phi. 121.546, 243.092, 318.212, 439.758, 561.305, 636.424, 757.971, 833.090, 954.637, 1076.183, 1151.302, 1272.849, 1347.968 23 Tone Double-Spiral Phi-Cluster Microtuning. 6.774, 10.960, 17.733, 28.693, 46.427, 75.120, 121.546, 196.666, 318.212, 514.878, 833.090, 1347.968, 2181.059, 2695.937, 3014.149, 3210.815, 3332.361, 3407.481, 3453.907, 3482.601, 3500.334, 3511.294, 3518.067   02. SCRATCHY DUBPLATE CREW – ELECTRO HARMONIX DUB Scratchy Dubplate Crew is actually Tony Dubshot (see SPNT002, Tony Dubshot - Omega Dub) in a different mood. The tune is called Electro Harmonix Dub because one of the drum rhythms is taken from an ancient EH rhythm box, but the bassline is in fact a reincarnation of the 'Chase Vampire' riddim. This riddim was originally created by Jamaican dancehall producer Antonio Gilbert in 1987 and it was versioned by bigger names such as Donovan Germain, King Jammy and Black Scorpio. It was also used by Norman Cook in his 'Vampire mix' of I left my wallet in El Segundo by A Tribe Called Quest. The original riddim has been retuned to 5-tet but to be honest there's not a lot of stuff going on harmonically, because basically Electro Harmonix Dub is about catching vampires and then dubbing them to shreds. Tony Dubshot is a dub scientist, not a composer, and he actually thinks of retuning 12-tet themes as a harmonic dub 'effect' that can be used to.. well.. tear the harmonic expectations of an audience to shreds. And since minimalism is usually a good thing in dub, Tony prefers 5-tet and 7-tet for this procedure. For more related sounds, released under inventive monikers such as Baldhead Voodoo Plan, The Black Exorcist, Boomski, D.E.A.D. etc. go to www.dubbhism.com. Here you'll find all music released on Tony's Dubbhism netlabel. 03. CITY OF THE ASLEEP - L IS FOR LUGUBRIOUS I wrote ‘L is for Lugubrious’ using the same "technology" that I used on my first microtonal album, ‘Map of an Internal Landscape’: Cubase SL3 on an old Pentium IV PC, mostly using the Native Instruments FM7 for all the non-percussive sounds, a cheap old drum-sample library for the percussion, and a variety of freeware VST effects downloaded from www.gersic.com. I've since replaced this setup with a newer and more flexible Mac-based setup, and this song is the last microtonal song written on the old setup. The song is in 20-EDO, aka 20-tone equal temperament, an under-rated and often overlooked metatuning of which I've grown quite fond. 20-EDO looks "bad" from an "approximation of Just Intonation" standpoint, but somehow it manages to defy the odds and sounds quite pleasant. Every 4 steps of 20-EDO is a step of 5-EDO, so 20 can be thought of as 4 sets of 5-EDO interwoven in degrees of 20-EDO. The scale used in this song is simply two of those sets of 5-EDO: out of every 4 notes of 20-EDO, this scale skips the 2nd and 3rd note, making for a 10-note scale. It's called the ‘Blackwood Decatonic’ scale, and it's totally NUTS! It behaves very much like a diatonic scale, except that the circle of fifths closes at 5 fifths, instead of the usual 12. So, there are actually two fully-closed circles of fifths in this scale, instead of one partial circle of 7 fifths like in the diatonic scale, meaning you can go up or down by a fifth as many times as you want and you'll just keep repeating the same five notes. Only if you move by a major or minor third can you get at the "other" five notes--the thirds are the "bridge" between the two disconnected circles of fifths. All the notes in the odd circle have a minor third in the even circle, and all the notes in the even circle of a major third in the odd circle. There's no "real" tonic implied in the structure of this scale, since it "looks the same" no matter what chord you're on, but you can "force" a tonic by using some approximations to traditional chord progressions. Of course, you can also create an unending cascade of cadences that never resolves, too! However, I didn't approach this song as a "demonstration" of the idiosyncrasies of the Blackwood Decatonic scale; rather, I wanted to show off the "mood" of 20-EDO, which I describe as "dystopian tropicality". I picture robot palm trees under a red sky, on the shores of a murky green sea...anyone who played ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ on the Sega CD will know what I'm talking about. City of the Asleep has several albums online at www.cityoftheasleep.com 04. PARAGON - CORAL GARDEN This song has many would-be conflicting factors, such as simultaneous fast and slow parts and many layers of dis-joined melodies. However the point of the song is to use micro-tuning and an alternative beat theory to make it all deceptively easy to listen to. Almost as if it were written in a pentatonic scale and 3 drums, though it uses a full 7-tone scale and over 12 drums. The next to last verse contains 9-note chords and many other parts contain 8-note chords, with up to 5 melodies occurring at once. The scale used is a tempered version of the 7-tone scale 1/1, 12/11, 11/9, 4/3, 22/15, 18/11, 11/6, 2/1 is specially designed so any combination of notes creates a fairly consonant chord (thus no music theory is needed to help composers avoid "sour" chords). This scale system, which I call the ‘Infinity Scale’ also uses (and it formed from) an alternating circle of 5ths including highly im-perfect 5ths like 50/33 and 22/15 which feel much more relaxed than you would expect. Note that our resident rebel-tuning/composition expert Igliashon AKA "City of The Asleep" found many of those fifths for me. The beat completely avoids putting any snares or kicks on the beat, thus making the beat "rotate infinitely". Each drum is has its hits on beat intervals that don't mirror the last 3 intervals between the last 3 times that drum was hit, resulting in a constant "tense/un-tensing" of each drum where one drum's timing tensity/speed becomes stronger while another drum's becomes weaker. The overall result is designed to be a series of emotions "should" conflict but don't: quickness, intense amount of layering with bright "aggressive" brass lines, tons of drums...all designed to trick you into feeling relaxed, as if floating quickly over a giant coral reef. Which is likely the exact opposite mood of what many would expect such techniques to do or what they "should" do in standard theory. Each melody was composed separately based solely on emotion and not any music theory/"chord planning" and then simply thrown together...again something I'd never dare to try in 12TET in fear of sounding like a highly random/untrained musician, but felt I could with this "sour-spot-less" scale. Prepare for a dangerously relaxing experience... :-D   05. SEVISH – BURNING PINE Recently there has been a buzz about the Bohlen-Pierce scale, a set of musical pitches which match up to odd-numbered members of the harmonic series. It sounds far from the all too familiar 12-tone equal scale which approximates both odd-and-even-numbered harmonics. I’ve composed Bohlen-Pierce music in the past for its alien, xenharmonic mystique. I’ve used it in dubstep to capture its sparse nature and I’ve used it in chillout music for its parallel-universe serenity. Burning Pine is a restless and forever-changing composition, because sometimes I find it interesting to work like that. It has elements of electro and breakbeat, plus some slow jazziness. At the time I was frequently drinking and thinking about tea. This music reminded me of a smoky tasting black tea called lapsang souchong. The tea gets its flavour from being dried over burning pine wood.   06. MICRODUB – LIVE WIRE Microdub is the name of a project by Jurica Jelic (fretless guitar and composition) and Tony Dubshot (drums and special fx). Jurica's official website is at http://juricajelic.org and Tony Dubshot can be found at http://www.dubbhism.com 07. JACKY LIGON – SEVEN DIAMONDS Description: A piece that explores unusual metrical structures and the sounds of 7-limit just intonation. Microtunings: 7 Tone Septimal Trivalent. The fourth rotation of this tuning is Kraig Grady's Centaur. 9/8, 7/6, 21/16, 3/2, 27/16, 7/4, 2/1 And its inversion: 8/7, 32/27, 4/3, 32/21, 12/7, 16/9, 2/1 08. CARLO SERAFINI – CHAMELEONS IN THE SUN ‘Chameleons In The Sun’ features ‘Carlos Gamma’ tuning system. It was composed playing an isomorphic keyboard: the Opal Chameleon. The guitars are Spectrasonics Omnisphere's sounds. You can find more of Carlo’s music on his website, http://seraph.it/ 09. FLAO YG – ŠPENDLÍKY Music: M. G. Lyrics: Pavel Marek Recorded: Uvnitř, 6. - 8. 2005 Voice: Pešák Guitar: Bob Cello: Jirka Drums, Keyboards: M. G. Tuning: 8edo Original lyrics: Plechovka se leskne ve světle Pomalu ji zvedám nad hlavu Opatrně... výš... ještě výš... Stojím na špičkách Opatrně... výš... ještě výš... Ruku vytáhnu Opatrně... výš... ještě výš... A potom... vysypu špendlíky na zem Padají do tmy Z výšky padají a jemně cinkají o zem A další den uplynul, další den English translation: The can glitters in the light I'm slowly raising it above my head Carefully... higher... higher still... I'm standing on tiptoe Carefully... higher... higher still... I stretch my arm Carefully... higher... higher still... And then... I spill the pins on the floor They're falling into darkness From high above they're falling and clinking gently against the floor And another day's over, another day.   10. CAMERON BOBRO – VERA, IT’S TIME YOU TOOK YOUR ROMANS ON A HOLIDAY ‘Vera it's time you took your Romans on a holiday’, Cameron Bobro analog and digital synths, vocals and clarinet. The tuning is 17 irregular tones in a stretched octave. I cooked up the tuning by feel in the hotel after doing a show in Nantong, China. Can't remember the associations for the tuning, probably I was thinking about food. The tune kind of wrote itself, very convenient. 11. CARLO SERAFINI – RIBBOMAN AND THE MANIACS ‘RibboMan And The Maniacs’ features a tuning system by X.J.Scott called ‘Septimal Heaven’. The lead sound was played with a ribbon controller controlling a Nord G2.   12. FATURE – BUTTERFLY RAPPORT Butterfly Rapport was inspired by my two daughters. I've tried to keep things simple and flowing for a more ambient approach, with the main focus being on the harp type note pattern going up and down like the smooth motion of a butterfly's wings and the elegant lead sound, which would be the rapport. I experimented with a few different tunings, but in the end the ‘Badings’ scale suited the mysterious theme perfectly. This track will appear on my album "Choice by Definition" to be released on Faturenet Recordings late 2010. More of Fature’s music can be heard at http://fature.tumblr.com/  13. FLAO YG – KELT Music: M. G., 1990 Lyric: Hynek Čáp, 2007 Recorded: Uvnitř, 1990, 2007, 2008 Vocal: Hynek Čáp, Pešák Virtual Bodhrán, Celtic Harp, Double Bass & Tambourine: M. G. Tuning: 7edo Original lyrics: Tak jsem byl Kelt A teď jsem Slovan Mám svoji smutnou duši English translation: So I used to be a Celt And now I'm a Slav It's my sad soul I have.   ------------------------------------- Thank you for listening! Mastering by Tony Dubshot Crack My Pitch Up is a free album under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license You are free: • to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: • Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). • Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. • No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. 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