Category: News

Another lightly edited and excerpted email exchange. I should have posted this one first; ahh, welp…

2023 April 12 – From: Howie – To: Cory

Subject: picked out FX for buckaroo bonanza

might perform them tonight.  i’d forgotten i added this cool
little extra sample that really makes it.  i don’t remember if the last
version you heard had the “yeah, yeah!” in it but it rules.  anyway.  2
more songs of FX (buckaroo, ice/disappear), then doing some vocal sample
performances into the computer, then mix/master!  we’re pretty close to
being able to hear the whole record and i’m really excited about that,
because i don’t know what it’s going to sound or feel like to hear all
these different tracks in one go.  -h

2023 April 12 – From: Cory – To: Howie

I don’t think so on the “yeah, yeah!” but a little sprinkle of sample is always tasty! Love them extra touches, Uncle Grabby! 

It’s crazy how quickly this record came together, at least from the outside! Obviously a lot of time and work goes into it, but this kind of music seems less gnarly than something with full drums and winding arrangements. And 27 sax-trax. 

Spring is here and it’s beautiful outside and my head is full of fluid! 

2023 April 12

it’s been fairly quick-ish?  not as quick as a New Synth Record, but a lot quicker than a guitar record.  i think the 404mkII arrived about a year ago (i ordered it when it came out in oct/nov ’21, but there were production delays).  and it took a while to kind of learn and come up with a workflow.  or it felt like it did…  but i had the first 5 songs done by christmas, because over the break i set up and did a bunch of guitar parts for songs 6-10.

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Here’s a lightly edited and excerpted email I had with Cory during the recording of Frog On The King’s Head.

2023 April 23 – From: Howie – To: Cory

going to be listening to a version of the full album for the ** first
time ** tomorrow!  4 songs are missing vocals, that’s next, but i’m
super psyched to hear it all as a piece.  i think my first sequence is
pretty good, too.  “farewell my lovely” is the beat i keep coming back
to.  -h

2023 April 24 – From: Cory – To: Howie

So psyched for you my dude! I love that we have Chandler represented on this birch, let me know how you feel after

2023 April 24 – From: Howie – To: Cory

i feel awesome, i have no idea what this **is** (not that it matters) but i dig it.

i’m ready to read at least one more chandler this summer, not sure which, but i’ll just grab one and go for it. probably the earliest one i haven’t read, i guess.

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I did three videos for songs from Frog On The King’s Head on the MFR YouTube channel, walking through the individual samples and patterns on the SP-404 mkII sampler.

We did two podcasts covering Frog On The King’s Head; grab them from your podcast platform here, or directly below.

I don’t know much at this point, but if you arrived here looking for Rob’s music, I wanted to make it as easy as possible to hear.

Calla Lily (digital re-issue) by The Golden Age
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I built a small passive mixer into this old Glad container to pair with the modded LepLoop.

The mixer, along with the LepLoop modifications, lets me mix the LepLoop’s four signals left and right, two and two, in any combination. This is perfect for recording with the SP-404 mkII for further arranging and processing.

The container also stores patch cables and the passive CV breakout box, which is still in progress.

Modded LepLoop + CV breakout + mixer + 404mkII is a powerhouse. I can bang out weirdo minimal electro jams forever.

We covered “Continuing Worlds” on The Long Play Listening Party. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts, or on YouTube below.

I wanted to capture something that’s happening in my brain, at the intersection of the 404 samplers and my “Jam My Wave” guitar demos. I’m doing something new, made possible by learning the 404 and sample-based music generally, that no one would guess from just hearing the end results.

As I listen to “Jam My wave” guitar demos and work on melodies, I’m making progress not by singing nonsense or jamming like I typically would, but by listening to the guitar and imagining what kind of vocals would sound interesting or make a good call and response with the instrumental. It’s almost like, or is like, thinking about what kind of sample is needed next in sample-based music-making, and I wouldn’t be doing it if not for the 404s.

In some spots I’ve actually written the vocals, with notes/intervals and scratch lyrics. In other places I just have ideas like “Be inspired by Thom Yorke here” or “Fit the vocal into the space between the 4th chord and the downbeat of the next progression.”

This changed way of listening and writing is why I bought the 404SX in the first place, not knowing if I’d actually finish any music with it. I hoped it would change my ears in interesting ways, putting new tools in the mental toolkit. I’m happy that both the new ears and actual 404 music are happening.

Been a while since I updated, but it’s not for nothing going on; too much, rather! Many things. All of the things.

• “Frog On The King’s Head,” my first record on the 404mkII, keeps rolling along. Five songs are essentially done save for little mix tweaks, and in the past few weeks I’ve finished three more instrumentals. (It’s a 10-song record.) It’ll be out of order but I’m excited to share it so I think I’ll release it about as soon as it’s ready, mid- to late summer
• In February Daniel G (Hypermortal, L.U.V.C.R.A.F., etc.) and I were talking and spontaneously decided to make a house record. It… is not going to sound anything like a house record. It’s weird progressive synth music with otherworldly vocals and a few guitars. We’re having a blast, though, using the back-and-forth process Nate and I used for “Orbital Debris”
• Anywaves keeps sending tracks, and I keep mastering them :)
• I’m working on a Drone Space Nine record in VCV Rack, inspired by the first DS9 but starting from scratch and building the space station sounds to my exact specs

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I’ve updated the data visualizations with our latest releases, plus some enhancements.

As we approach twenty years in the independent label game, we have as much music coming out as ever. I wish I had a way to embed this as an interactive visualization, because in Power BI where I created this you can hover to get actual artists and album titles.

One thing you *can* see, in the rainbow of artists, is Night Mode; the salmon pink that starts in 2016 and dominates 2019 – present.

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