specific gravity




track: 68

recorded: 20180101-20180103

duration 10:34

type: pureambient



this song was conceived and executed in a very short time, and it was originally meant as a modern tribute / copy (only in a VERY loose sense!) of a Bindlestiff live classic "Pacific Gravity". That track was a performance staple for the band Bindlestiff, in the mid 1990s, and it was a rare configuration for us - Bryan Helm providing a simple, 3 note bass line, that was then looped, and then on top of that, Bryan and I would improvise ambient keyboards, each using our own synthesizer - his was a korg, mine, a yamaha DX7S - normally, I played energy bow guitar or guitar, or even guitar and synth - but in the case of "Pacific Gravity" - we just played keyboards only - which gave it a unique and wonderful sound. the average live take of it would run as long as 20 minutes, and a fantastical mood would evolve around those simple bass notes. You can hear a really good version of it on the 1994 album "live" which you will find on the Bandcamp Bindlestiff pages.

So - for this 2018 tribute to that 1994-1995 piece, i began by creating a sort of bass part - quite simple, which I then looped manually - I didn't use any kind of looper, but i just manually adjusted the notes in their loop, until they looped the way I wanted them to. Then I started adding pieces of synthesizer, and using more man-made loops, very quickly built up this song, which isn't as much improvised as "Pacific Gravity" would have been, but, I use loops, man-made non-looped loops, to achieve a similar, quiet, reflective mood - and I think it's come out extraordinarily well, given that I literally spent just a few hours, creating and completing it - it just appeared, almost fully formed, almost as fast as I could record.

and that's where I have got to at the moment - as of 20180120 - this is the state of Garage Band - and the last year, and I am including the last three pieces here, which were completed in 2018 - it was an amazing year, and if you listen to the tracks spanning 2017 to the present - it's just unbelievable how many different - wildly different - musical styles I've been able to create and emulate with this amazing musical stage - Garage Band has become one of my favourite environments, in which to make music - I really love it now.

more to come in 2018 - I should think so, perhaps, not at such a rate that I end up 35 tracks behind, as I have just caught up the last 35 tracks - so I won't want to repeat that next year. so hopefully - when I go to create something new, instead of moving right on to the next idea, I will actually publish each one, so that I don't end up with a most-of-a-year backlog. I have actually cleared that backlog during the past week, and I could not be more pleased - the mixing and mastering has gone really well - and an amazing amount of very interesting music - has suddenly joined this Garage Band eternal album - a week ago, it had just 29 tracks - and now, a week later - it has 68 - and that is quite extraordinary in itself. I hope you enjoy some of them...I sure did enjoy making them - it was a brilliant experience.