Best Of
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Track 1: Cascade This is a rare track in that it ended up just how I'd envisioned it from the outset. All I wanted to do was build a richly-layered tune around a simple dance beat, and it went together in a single afternoon. From the album I Don't Dance. Track 2: Don't Go There What started out as a dance track morphed into a jazz tune, one that's of a very different kind for me—a bit more traditional than my typical stuff. You'll either get it or you won't. And from what I've been hearing, some folks definitely get it. From the album Wasn't Me. Track 3: Move It or Lose It What started out as a bit of a joke called "Body Parts" turned into a potent dance number with killer bass that shakes my floor. About 50-50 mine and commercial stuff, it works really well played really loud. It's also got lyrics—such as they are—as well as some pretty freaky synthetic backing vocals I created. From the album I Don't Dance. Track 4: One Hundred With my first big serious ambient piece, the feeling I was after was that of driving on a long, straight, empty highway at night, passing nebulous memories drifting by in the distance. You can get some idea by watching the video I made. From the album Green Magic. Track 5: Patent Pending Here's a piece that may be a bit of a challenge to get into. Comprised mostly of commercial loops, with some of my homegrown percussion thrown in for good measure, it's an exercise in juxtaposing slightly awkward sounds to see how far I can push things before they break. From the album Harder Faster Stranger. Track 6: Planned Entropy This piece of pure techno emerged out of an experiment to see if I could create a track made solely from percussion. As per usual, the tune took a hard right turn along the way and became something entirely different. From the album Harder Faster Stranger. Track 7: Quarter To A slow jazz fusion thing, "Quarter To" benefits from "Now I Get It" in that most everything is original; the only items I didn't fully render are a few drum licks and the electric piano chords. I'd originally wanted to make it sax-driven, but I didn't even get three notes into it when I bailed and switched to piano, my comfort zone for the time being. That's when I hit upon a simple melody with a vague town hall clock chime vibe, which fit the mood perfectly. From the album Quarter To. Track 8: Rebecca Beginning with a synth pad best described as cheerful melancholy, this exercise in ambience gradually deepens and expands before drifting off into space. From the album Green Magic. Track 9: Something Somewhere After sitting around for half a year collecting dust, this neglected track—originally intended to be a vocal piece—morphed into a simple bit of techno-trance. It's about a 50-50 mix of commercial loops and my own sounds. From the album Harder Faster Stranger. Track 10: Spacetime A mellow quasi-dance tune, "Spacetime" is dedicated to the late Stephen Hawking, who contributed the vocals—obviously without his (or anyone else's) permission, although I doubt anyone would come after me for pinching four words from a two-hour lecture. Unlike Hawking, it's simple and predictable. From the album Brain Churn. Track 11: Spring Dance I needed to make some music to celebrate the coming of Spring. So here's a nice chillout nu-disco tune that came out much better than expected. Plus, it's all mine—drums, melody, chord progressions, the whole shebang. From the album I Don't Dance. Track 12: The River Upbeat yet ethereal, "The River" is one of those tracks that seems to meander on forever, the kind of tune you can leave on repeat all afternoon—something to be said for simple compositions with no bridges and/or key changes. Overall 90% original, the rhythm track is all mine, assembled from individual drumbeats and percussion hits. From the album Harder Faster Stranger. Track 13: Maybe Later Take an original bass line, add some semi-original drums and electric piano riffs, toss in a couple of stock loops, and stir until well-blended. Then sit back and sip slowly. By the way, the bass carries the melody on this one, so if you're listening to it on your phone, fuhgeddaboudit. Also note that my band isn't the world's best, so if you notice the occasional missed drumbeat or slightly off note, you're not imagining things—I enjoy working in little flaws to make the music sound more "real"; it's actually much easier to make "perfect" music. From the album Quarter To. Track 14: Drum Addict Yes, been there, done that, several times. But I can't resist piling on drum samples, and each time I do it, I try to make it more aesthetically pleasing. This one is leavened by a joyous synth melody. One of the very last tracks I created. Track 15: Oblivion, Part 1 (excerpt) Here's the most "musical" (read: "listenable") portion of the epic concept album Oblivion.
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With almost 90 tracks online, and admittedly very few that may be worth listening to, here's a collection of tunes that don't suck (IMO),
just to save you from having to slog through all of my crap.