Here’s one I played a lot with my homey Karl. We would generally open with this one, the lyrics being nothing but a well timed, big smile from both of us. Worked as a pretty good dirty jam to just get the crowd funked up enough to know where things were heading. This is an early demo I made of this running through a bit of rack fx courtesy the studio quad. This one is labeled Pictures of Clouds cause that’s the tape it came from.
I walked outside yesterday and Mr. Blau was right there. Good times! Download: Pictures Of Clouds – 23 – B23 (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Untitled b17 Artist: Noggin Album: Side B Date: 2010
Here’s some house jam I recorded to cassette tape one night in Anacortes with the MS-2000 hooked up. That is pretty neat little synth. The one I got for dirt cheap from the pawn shop has been mounted into what looks like was once a amp head. So it’s a self contained unit with a carrying handle now, instead of a rackless-rack synth. Fits the amp head perfectly, props to the person who did the modification.
Bonus mildly related lulz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXLnnDKqvMg Download: noggin-b17 (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Nonchalant Love (guitar version) Artist: Plug / Noggin Album: Sober October Demos Date: 2009
Not really sure if you’d call this a remix or an original…the original idea was definitely to remix/remake/cover some random ass track from Mark’s friends in England. All we had was a 7″ record with 4 tracks on it to go from. Max and I got commissioned to do this track. I originally laid down all the basics, melody, beats, etc, hoping that he would just be able to drone/jam out over it if I left it open enough (a pretty winning formula for us, really). Well Max kind of went MIA for a time and so this pretty much stayed in the studio. Until the one time we were supposed to actually perform it, at which point we proceeded to annihilate (read, literally blow the tweeters out of) the speaker system with the absolute first noise we made…we were into feedback and high frequency stuff at the time. I’ve never heard of a blown tweeter before, but kids, it can be done with enough feedback and amplifiers.
The point it, this track never really manifested itself as a Plug ‘remix’ or ‘cover’, and instead gestated in the sampler up until my autumn excursions into garage-tapedom. It has since spawned 2 other mildly related tracks, mainly sharing elements of the drums. Download: nonchalant-guit (right click and choose ‘save as’)
More EPS noodlings from the Red House studio. This one features a break from a Violent Femmes record I picked up for like 25 cents from the Red Door. Jealousy ensued over that record but whatever it’s ok, and it def had this one great break on it. Dig how the sample interpolation just destroys the sound. Download: Noggin Etc – 15 – Track15 (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Track 07 Artist: Pictures of Clouds Album: Pictures of Clouds Date: 2010
Another classic from the whirlwind-Pictures-of-Clouds-ambient-album-post-Whidbey-Island-recording-sessions-with-Elena. Seriously, from ‘let’s make an album’ to ‘damn near complete’ album just a few hours later, this was a magical time in the Red House studio. I attribute much of this to the 3rd member, whose only instrument during the session was good vibes. Plus The Young Master absolutely killing it on the keyboards on this one. Major impromptu props.
MPC+Ion to cassette tape. Download: 07 – Pictures Of Clouds – Tapedeck07 (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Spookane Artist: Pizza party Album: demos Release Date: 2010
Request!
This is from some Pizza Party sessions rocking a 1986 Ensoniq workstation synthesizer. Well, sort of, the original demo was kind of jammy, so I bounced down the constituent parts, edited, and added vocals this afternoon. Here’s hoping you dig.
ps. The mix/master slider on this one was set to -4. Download: Pizza Party – Spookane (right click and choose ‘save as’)
In honor of the newly resurrected Ensoniq EPS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM2o0W5Y0pI), here is more dirty tape from the Red House. This one features Karl Blau doing dubstep.
The cool thing about the EPS, is that the LFOs are key dependent…you can hit a key, get the LFO going, then alter the LFO, hit another key, and as long as you hold down both notes, you can hear both LFOs going independently. I don’t know another synth/sampler that does that. So anyway, this was a two man, 10 finger collaboration. Download: RedHouseGreenHouse – Untitled 11 (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Another Pause for Herb Artist: Pizza Party ft. DJ Noggin Album: Side B Release Date: 2010
From the Pizza Party sessions.
This is an impromptu beat juggle that happened during a Pizza Party recording session. I dedicated an entire wall to Herb Alpert in my last house, and so we had tons of these records floating around, and doubles of many of them. This track is appropriate because I just reinstated the Herb Alpert wall at my new house.
For those that don’t know, beat juggling is where you have two copies of the same record on both of your turntables. You cue them both up at the same point, start one, then at the end of your ‘loop’, start the other. While that is happening, you silence the other one, and rewind it. Do this back and forth and you can keep this loop going for infinity. It gets tricky, especially if your records are old and beat up and prone to skip (guess what, my Herb Alpert records, culled from trashbins and garage sale barrel-bottoms, are not in the best shape). Download: Pizza Party – Another pause for Herb (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Last spring I started doing remixes by reworking others’ tunes through a vintage Nintendo running MidiNES. This results in endless fun and a new appreciation for dealing with limitations…the NES can only make 5 sounds at any given time, and only 3 of those are melodic.
This is a remix I have done for a guy called Sure Dread from the DubRoom. Sure Dread, I would like to commend you on your excellent work.
This song is by Sure Dread, I have done this remix out of respect and admiration for his work.
I also have to give props to Rocky for helping tweak this shiznit in the basement w/ me. Download: Natty Know (Noggin Natty Circuit Mix) (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: You Keep the Beats (Plug Cover) Artist: Pizza Party Album: 4 covers Release Date: 2009
More Anacortes Red House tomfoolery. This one features a stunning vocal track from the super-player that Robby, one part of the amorphous Pizza Party collective.
Our good ‘mate’ Mark, a right English ‘bloke’, commissioned these pieces with unfulfilled promises of pizza and soda bread (ok that was fulfilled). We were happy to do it. This is one cover of 4 songs off an ep by an English group called Plug…not to be confused with another English artist called Plug (who has actually been a great inspiration to me).
You keep the beats, I’ll keep the money.
Hip Hop nu-skool baby. Download: Pizza Party – You Keep the Beats (Plug Cover) (right click and choose ‘save as’)
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