Monday, November 14, 2011

Pick Me Apart!

One of the fascinating blogs that I have been following for a while now is Bobby Owsinski's Big Picture Blog.  This wonderful site is devoted to all things related to music production, and one of the real gems that can be found here - at least on ocassion - are some deconstructed mixes of some classic tunes.  You can find here takes of Mick Jagger's vocals from the Rolling Stones' classic Brown Sugar, never-before-heard (by too many people) outtakes of Beatles sessions, vocal-only parts of Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, and a host of other wonderful, illuminating pieces.  The whole site is like an continuous online Classic Albums trip.  Check it out.

Mr Owsinski, himself an accomplished musician and producer, has inspired me to chuck up my own version of the isolated tracks song.  Here's the link to Sweet Execution, featuring isolated vocals and drums.

This tune came together very quickly, with all of the writing and recording for the 'band' done in an afternoon.  The vocals were all completed in three takes for each part (that is, three attempts at each of the parts for verse, verse double, chorus, chorus double, outro and outro double), excepting the chorus harmony which was done in one take, with the third take of each track being the final version used.  Vocals took around half and hour.

For the vocals sound I used TRacks clipping, the awesome Jack Joseph Puig vocals compression, and TRacks EQ, all recorded with a lovely Rhode SM6 microphone.  The vocals for the chorus were tweaked just a little with Da Tube distortion.  The vocals at the outro were sweetened with just a touch of CSR Hall reverb.

The drum track is a sequence of Addictive Drums samples cut up by moi.

It's possible to hear a little background noise at times, but as this is all done with a bit of DIY, fuck cleaning that shit up!!!

I hope you get something out of it.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

ATTAXAS Music

Since I have had a fair amount of sedentary time to myself the last week, and have been quite frustrated by my lack of 'proper' mobility, my angst and boredom have fuelled the creative process.  Blah blah blah - I have written a new little ditty.

You can check out the latest ATTAXAS song here.  It's called Sweet Execution, and it goes something like this...

Don't be afraid of following on twitter @attaxas.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The Pitfalls of General Anaesthesia

Ok, so I had the operation on Friday.  Today being Tuesday, it's now four days after the procedure and I still don't feel quite right.  Swaying between restlessness and exhaustion, I have acute soreness and tightness on my left (!) side, and I'm fluctuating between states of relaxation and tension.  I feel weird, and it feels like it was the anaesthetic that did it.  It's a very strange sensation seeing the fluid being pushed down through the IV and feeling yourself fall under...  And then wake up.  UFO abductees refer to this as 'missing time', that is, having the sensation or awareness that a period of time has passed, but having no break or 'bump' in consciousness.  This is something I find a little bit scary.  But, it's a little peak into the future, a trial-run of what death will be like, perhaps.  It's that fade to nothing - except later we wake up and remember the before.

Here are a couple of little images from the day of the operation.
Not long after waking, kids going nuts in the room, and I feel very strange...

Before the clean-up and redressing.

The surgeon assisting assured me beforehand that they would be mindful of the ink!

By the way, the hospital that I stayed at, Cabrini Brighton, was awesome.  Thank you to the excellent staff.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Operation Forty Fixit

Today is the day of my surgery.  Right elbow arthroscope to remove floating masses and exploratory surgery to  remove a mass of something in my left wrist.  Something of a 40th birthday present to myself.  I am not in the least bit nervous, just very excited about having had some pesky problems resolved, and really looking forward to being able to concentrate on getting my body back on track for some serious training.  Last night was pretty rough, however, as our rotten beautiful 19 month old son was very restless, and after a couple of failed attempts to settle him in his cot my wife brought him in to bed with us at christ o'clock.  Usually works a treat, but for some reason he was like a cut snake in a sack - my back and balls must've had targets drawn on as they were l'objectif principal militaire of his petit pieds!  (Just as I am writing this the little swine has come running out of the bedroom and given me a huge hug and a gorgeous smile - I will not fall for this type of emotional blackmail!)

Behold, the back- and ball-kicker extraordinaire.

 Oh yeah, I turned 40 last week!  Had a blast too!  My mum came down from Canberra for a couple of weeks to participate in the celebrations, and also to take the time to hang out with her grandkids that she doesn't see enough - and so that my wife and I could have the chance to party together (rather than the tag-team socialising that is the norm these days).  Last Wednesday, on the day of my birthday, the family went out for a delicious feast of Korean food.  Then, on the Friday, it was grown-ups only at the pub for a session of celebratory drinking/feasting/catch-ups.  My better half looked stunning - how good is it to hang out together?  I've pretty much forgotten what it's like...  Wonderful to see so many friends that I haven't seen in a while - and I was totally surprised and flattered at the present that people pitched-in for, too!  Thanks!  (As is always the way, there were too many people that I didn't get a chance to speak to - my apologies, it was not intentional.)  Saturday, and it was a special time for my wife and I to hang out, just the two of us, booked in to one of Melbourne's best restaurants (Ginger Boy), and a night in one of Melbourne's best hotels (The Adelphi).  Lucky me!  I spent time in the company of a beautiful woman, indulged in some fine wine, fine food, and had a king-sized bed to flop in to - heaven!

And now? Back to life, back to reality...