Title: Ay Ay! Artist: DJ Noggin Album: Unrequieted (b-side) Date: 1997
Well I was young and trying my damndest to make some music on our POS computer. Working with nothing but the random alert sounds Bobby had given me for this ancient macintosh and a pretty basic sound editor, this cut up proto-rave tune manifested itself.
This is probably my very first attempt at production entirely based in the computer. Download: Noggin – ay ay!(1997) (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Au Cafe Artist: Noggin Album: Every Early Experiment Date: 1997
This is one of my earliest attempts at deep house. Samples ripped from all sorts of various sources, most notably a French Canadian girl I found on irc to lend her vocals (where you at “Lady”?).
I always really liked this song, and it was kind of hard to pull off live, as half the keyboard was devoted to loops and the other half was me playing the string section live. All the jerks who I used to play live with who had serious superiority conflicts cause they used ‘real’ samplers hated this. Yea well guess what your ‘noise jams’ weren’t even that noisy and they were more like suck-fests…at least I could tell that they had no grasp over the equipment and were just making that crap to get a cool pass. Here comes my 15 year old ass like ‘hey guys check out this house track i made’ and all i get is ‘house!?! what a loser’. Small town life, what can you say?
Still a favorite. Forget the haters. Download: Noggin – 10 Au Cafe (Vers1-early Experiment) (right click and choose ‘save as’)
One of my earliest Buzz tracks – pretty basic experimentation with melody and the built-in Buzz synths. Some of the most ‘tracker-style’ stuff I ever did (cheesy).
These piano and string samples would find their way into many a production following this early experiment. Download: 2sides (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Havana (version 2) Artist: Noggin Album: Every Early Experiment Date: 1997
Trippier, more sunday vibe remix of this track.
This is all s20 again, with samples made in TS-404 and also I believe that acid line is just ripped straight out of some mod I used to jam. All live. Yes that’s a nin reference at the beginning. Download: Noggin-05-Havana2-Early-Experiment.mp3 (right click and choose ‘save as’)
More noise jam from the Nueget days. If I recall correct, I actually wrote this one. This is with Patrick on bass and of course Steve on drums. There’s another version with multi-tracked guitar that will get uploaded at some point. Download: Nueget – White Rainbow (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Bottlecap Blues Artist: CNCTR Album: Classic Trash Date: 1997
You could consider this an early experiment into just how far you could take a tracker / sampler. Somehow I got it into my head that I could record an entire track using nothing but the sounds of a ice tea bottle cap that I had. Got some sounds into cool edit, trimmed up and into Buzz, and this materialised pretty smoothly after that. Some of the samples are slapping the bottlecap, popping the lid in and out, dropping it, sliding it, and of course the bass drum which is not a bottlecap at all.
I chose this one to come next because it actually sounds good immediately following the last one. Download: bottlecap (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Havana (version 1) Artist: CNCTR aka Noggin Album: Every Early Experiment Date: 1997
DIRTY BREAKS JAH
Along the same lines as the GaGeAsSeBr things, my live sets had to consist of looped phrases that I played back on the fly….this is pre-tempo sync too folks to it’s all flowing straight from the fingers (I actually prefer this). Anyway this is a banger I threw together for no other purpose than to have pure dirt coming out the speakers when I played live.
Named Havana cause somehow I was really into Cuban cigars when I was in high school.
This is pretty much all S-20 played live with loops from different things, namely TS-404 which was a pretty great pre-vst softsynth groovebox thing. Download: Noggin – 04 Havana1 (Early Experiment) (right click and choose ‘save as’)
And now for something completely different.
Once I got the hang of Buzz, THIS is the track I had been hearing in my head for years and wanted to get out. It’s a bad 303-emulation run through some pretty digital distortion and then a lot of fun with a new-found power – filter automation.
The rumor is that the one techno-friendly club around town got hold of this (thanks Brian) and it went over pretty well on a loud soundsystem. I was not nearly old enough to verify this by actually going to any club, but it’s a nice thought.
Title: Another World Artist: CNCTR Album: Phase Date: 1997
Here’s some bubblegum techno-pop from 1997.
This was the first track I ever finished and released using what would be become my main sound production tool, Jeskola Buzz. Seems appropriate to use a ‘first’ for this, the first post of this daunting endeavor. A little hesitant because it’s so different from most of my other stuff, but twice this week people have brought this track up and said they liked it, so just giving the people what they want.
This track was also my first international release, as it was released on a New Zealand comp ‘Self Unbound’ shortly after I shared it.
It’s crazy when I think about making this track, because I was just so new to producing using a computer, and these new concepts of ‘patterns’ and ‘loops’ completely blew my mind. I think this track actually grew entirely out of my amazement with another friend who had made a little beat that was based on a two-pattern (8 beats) loop…thanks for the inspiration Cliff.
Also, this track ignited my love affair with my favorite synth of all time, Geonik’s PrimiFun.
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