Radio Contact No. 2

Hey

Here it is, the secon Radio Contact show. The show is still roughly me doing an improvisational set. Until I have more time and a clearer idea of the show's program, I'll have to put this up. But soon, and I mean soon, there'll be a guest, a artist of the month segment and a discussion on various artistic works, be it literature, film or music...

In this set, I used two delay pedals, one on the organ and the other on my vox. I would describe this sound as drone organ music in the dark...and I'll leave it at that. Here's the set list:

1. Petatonic Scale Jam

2. Don't Follow the Light

3. Improv Jam

4. Howl

Have a listen and tell me what you think.

Also, if you'd like to send any requests or artists would like to hear on the show, write a comment and let me know.

Radio Contact No. 1

Hey everyone.

Here it is, the very first ever Radio Contact show. This is a pretty rough rendering of what should come in the future. This is primarly a live improvisational set by me. That's about it. In future shows there will be guests and all sorts of neat stuff, so watch out for that. I'm still pretty busy right now with planning for school, my job and running errands. I'm trying to put in as much time into this blog as possible. Weekends and late nights...

I'm still trying to find my sound, in terms of production and all that. I think I might have ditched the whole lo-fi, four track, rusted tape reverb sound. I might just go for a more sparse recording style, like Eat Darkness.

Anyways, here's the improvised live show set list:

1. The Dub Song

2. Take It Back (Floating)

3. The Cello Song (Minor)

4. The Hazy Song (The End)

There you go. Enjoy. I'm alway sup for some feedback as well...

Vandals

Shazam!

Here's a new edition to the darker/more hopeful stuff ive been doing. It's in the same theme and concept as Eat Darknesss and Eyes Lashed/Tunnels. I wanted this song to sound like the soundtrack to a horror movie with teeange ideals and stuff. Like Donnie Darko or the Teenage Apocalyspe Trilogy by Gregg Araki. Like being the teenager is the end of the world. Once again, the song is laced with reverb. It's about the tribe called Vandals that almost overtook the Roman empire. The idea that a group of meek warriors with no rules or boundaries can actually destroy one of the most powerful societies in the world. That's the whole teenage existence, testing limits and bending the mainstream ideology.

This is also my first attempt at a true pop song.

Picture this:

A young man is on the verge of self-discovery. He is told that a portal will open from his future and that this portal will collaspe with his present and as a result, destroy everything. This is scheduled to happen on prom night. He travels into the future and destroys his future-self and returns back to the present, assuming that all will be corrected. But on prom night, while the Vandals (a pop group in the same likes as the Supremes) play their smash hit 'Lead Me On' the portal invevitably opens. This vortex sucks everything into it, making the future collide with the present and thus causing a chain reaction in all dimensions to converge of become on. All existence ceases to exist and the unviverse begans all over again............

This was the kind of movie that the song would have accompanied. Teenage appocalyspe.

Here are the lyrics:

You are the vandal of these mean streets

The ghost in the corner dancing to hearbeats

His bones do show outside his own skin

Exposing himself as a skeletal being

You said 'it'll be the end of it all'

You said ' not until the end of the world'

Will he see his zombie girl

Teenage wolf had a love of his own

The scars on her back do always show

But the streets still 'em like vandals...

You had to grow up in this place

He's says not until, until the end of it all

Do you treat 'em like vandals? (on these means streets)

Do you treat 'em like vandals? (on these means streets)

Do you treat 'em like vandals? (on these means streets)

Do you treat 'em like vandals? (on these means streets)

Do you treat 'em like vandals? (on these means streets)

Do you treat 'em like vandals? (on these means streets)

Long live the Vandals!

Lost Recordings of A Mysterious Sea Traveller

Shazam! (proceeded with puffs of smoke and lightning)

Picture this:

A man is suddenly given the news that he has terminal cancer. He is given approximately 6 months to a year to live. With the knowledge of his emminent death, he spends all of his funds on a sailboat, food, supplies and clothing. He sets off on a 6 month-year journey around the world, crossing both the atlantic and pacific oceans. He brings along with him a guitar and a 4 track recorder.

He burns all his belongings and gives the rest of his money to friends and family. He leaves nothing behind and on a cold Sunday morning at 5 am in the morning, he sets his sails and embarks on his journey of self-discovery. Along the way to mystical lands, sacred tombs and temples, majestic natures and wildlifes, he records all he feels and all he sees onto the four track recorder. His audio letters are sparse, using nothing but his voice, the guitar and found pieces of metal objects. His life is one of solitude.

He spends his days fishing for food, or at other times, stopping by the shore and trying exotic foods of Africa, India and Southeast Asia. His journey is a roadtrip, a roadtrip across the vast Earth. His beard grows long, his skin darkens to the rays of the sun, his ribs press against his body. He slowly becomes at peace with the world around and within him.

Everday he sits at the corner of his ship awaiting the sun to sink into the sea. He closes his eyes along with the sun and he feels the rays soak his body. The sea smells of fish and ocean mist. The echo of waves crashing against his boat signal the rise of the tide. He is ready, he is calm. His 4 track recorder indents the sound frequencies of the waves, the sun and his voice....He closes his eyes as the sun submerges into the deep blue sea...

His recordings are found years later. The tapes are encapsulated within plastic bags with labels marked, India, Australia, Perth...Chile, Sao Paulo, SeaGulls and Sunsets. The recordings are rustic and bare. The tapes have been warped and cutup by the sea, they are undoubetly low quality. The sound of sea waves cloak all the tapes in a distorted blur. His voice is weezy, the guitar is old but finely picked. At times he seems to be going out his mind and at others, his voice is deep with melancholy. He sings of birds, memories of his past life, wildlife, the sea, the sun, the sky and the vastness of his loneliness.

I hereby present to you one of his songs...It was found in the tape labled Blue Bell Signal Birds....this is the third "track", it is entitled Chromatic At The End Of Day.

......picture that and listen......

Eyes Lashed/Tunnels and Eat Darkness

Goodnight

Here's a new song. I recorded it two days ago. Soaked in reverb. I changed the whole tone and mood from the other "summer" songs. This one's a bit darker. I wanted to create this kind of world-ending vibe. I had this image of the world ending, it's all dark and stormy but this one guy is still just surfing off into the ocean. That's the whole image behind it. The song's subject matter is more about really late nights where you cant sleep. I was going to call it tunnels, like subways. Because me and my brother would sneak out at nights and eat at this great Korean place called Owl Minerva. Pork bone soup, it's amazing. And we'd get there by subway, but on the way back it'd be too late for the trains so we'd take an hour long walk back home. This song's about the feeling I get when i stay up late. Like there's no one else. The city is asleep but the world is awake. Shit is happening all over. It's about isolation, the idea of solitude.

In terms of recording, I've been heavily influenced by Grouper and her muddy echo-y recording style. Simple. Lots of layers. I tried to find ghost sounds and stuff.

Eat Darkness is another song in the same darker mood. It's about conquering your fear. Like seeing the black, almost oil -like texture of a lake on a hot summer's day. You want to escape the heat, but you know you'll be met by blistering cold water. And the water is so dark you cant see anything. Eat Darkness is about taking the unknown and devouring it, just taking the fear and making it fear you. Both these songs are really hopeful, even though they might not sound like it. It's about conquering fears. It's about late nights, the ocean, subways, my brother and the idea of being able to jump into the lake...

I have a picture to illustrate the mood I wanted.

Long live the late nights....

Mirage

Shazam!

I just finished this new song. It's about rich white girls. Pool side girls, do nothing all day but look pretty. Mirages, mirrors, poolside girls....You get the point

Have a listen

Long live poolside girls!

Shazam!

I'll be posting some new stuff sooner or later. I just haven't gotten around to it. My internet and computer are screwing up everything. Damn you technology! I've been experimenting with my delay pedal and getting some really cool sounds. So I think I might record a whole session where I play songs which are centered around the pedal and reverb and delay. I'll try and get that up soon. The idea is to get a radio show going. Maybe bi-weekly I'll put some stuff on. Could be songs, artists I like, conversations, ambient sutff, I dont really know yet. But I'm pretty excited aobut what might come out. So watch out for this new radio blog thing.

I'm starting my job next week, so that may mean fewer and fewer post but I'll try and make the best of it....I see alot of sleepless nights ahead. I feel kind of high or something when I cant sleep, or when I stay up really late. Like i turn into a creature or something. It's fucked up.

I'm renting as many alien movies as I can. Encounters of the third kind, mission to mars, contact, the twilight zone series. And the Dark Knight 2 by Frank Miller is awesome. People really hate the art in that, but I think it kind of has a new-wave, punk , pop art feel to it. The whole blog, music, radio thing may slow down and only be active on weekends, but ill try and make the most of it. Everything's in the air for now, in terms of this blog. I'll probably work on it over the weekends, or days off.

Long live the weekends!

Lavurn