Crack My Pitch Up

http://split-notes.eom/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.citvoftheasleep.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://iuricaielic.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 - SPENDLIKY

Music: M. G.

Lyrics: Pavel Marek

Recorded: Uvnitf, 6. - 8. 2005
Voice: Pesak
Guitar: Bob
Cello: Jirka

Drums, Keyboards: M. G.

Tuning: 8edo

Spendliky

Plechovka se leskne ve svetle
Pomalu ji zvedam nad hlavu
Opatrne... vys...jeste vys...
Stoji'm na spickdch
Opatrne... vys...jeste vys...
Ruku vytdhnu
Opatrne... vys...jeste vys...

A potom... vysypu spendliky na
zem

Padaji do tmy

Z vysky padaji a jemne cinkaji o
zem

A dalsi den uplynul, dalsi den

The can glitters in the light
Tm slowly raising it above my
head

Carefully... higher... higher still...
Tm 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. FLAG YG - KELT

Music: M. G., 1990
Lyric: Hynek Cap, 2007

Recorded: Uvnitr, 1990, 2007, 2008
Vocal: Hynek Cap,

Pesak

Virtual Bodhran, Celtic Harp, Double Bass & Tambourine: M. G.
Tuning: 7edo

Kelt

Tak jsem by! Kelt
A ted' jsem Slovan
Mam svoji smutnou dusi

So / used to be a Celt
And now I'm a Slav
It's my sad soul I have.

Thank you for listening!

Split Notes Microtonal Netlabel

http://split-notes.com

Mastering by Tony Dubshot

Crack My Pitch Up is a free album under a Creative Commons
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