Spare Time by Carl Brown
Well!
It's been quite some time. After a horrendous period of not making music since 2011, (brought on by going to China / working too much / not having a good laptop / odd lethargy) I finally kicked back into gear in late 2015, in a flurry of creativity, creating all the "September" tracks and more within a month. If I could have continued at that rate of productivity, I'd be a happy man. Productivity and creativity are so odd and unknowable, most of us are captives to their fickle ebbs and flows. On top of the "celestial" rise and fall of these phenomena, we are subjected to all manner of "earthly" disruptions - hard drive failures, no spare time, illness, relationships, moving house, and so on and so on. It's a wonder anyone gets into the zone with all the life whizzing past. On top of all this, it sometimes seems the universe cruelly impregnates us with our most creative phases right at the very moment when actually creating anything is just not possible. And of course, the equally frustrating polar state, having tons of time, no issues to speak of, a nice setup and headphones, and.... the creativity of a cold chip.
Time, as I say, rolled by in its tedious unrelenting fashion, punctuated by spinning colourful life switches and brain confounding experiences and dull job changes and hellish arguments and madly joyous celebrations and painful loss. I continued to be at least a little bit creative, here and there, and after moving to Hungary quickly reeled off "PLUPS"- a fun exercise in purposefully not polishing things, a focus on speed and completion. I also lovingly laboured at "Música Cafuné"- a concept piece I had dreamt up and started way back in that September. At the same time I worked on various other bits and bobs, some of which slowly evolved into what I could see as an album proper (this one) the rest being aimless twaddle or one off oddities.
I'd have no doubt continued the journey (or lack of) that perhaps many creative folk might be familiar with (open project, listen, think what needs to be done, attempt to start doing so, realise it's not right or it's too much work for right now, close project til next month) if it weren't for two events. One - having to prepare for a gig in Sheffield, the deadline forcing me to render out and complete what I could. And two - my laptop dying shortly after said gig, with many project files, being lost, but crucially not the wavs for that gig (yes, I back up, it's complicated, I use crazy music software which has a hard enough time opening the files with all the correct samples and VST paths). These events enabled a final push. Some of the tracks are recordings from that night, edited a bit, solos added here and there.
Let's have a look at some of these here tracks:
1. Feeling Weird
Based around a recording out of my window of a drunk/crazy guy on Magdalen Street, Norwich. Woozy chords were played on a day when I felt as fuzzy and unreal and spaced as it's possible to be without physically fading out of existence.
2. September Rush
A fully formed festival of pumping kicks, skittering breaks, majestic chords, and other happenings. There's a video I put together here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDju54CzNFk&t=17s
3. September Initiate
So called as it was the first thing I'd made in years. The sound quality isn't great, because I was so excited that whilst rendering a version out I had forgotten the little bugs of my software and so was left with an incomplete piece
4. September Quacid
So called because it's acid that's not quite good enough. At least I'm honest.
5. Furious LaForge
An exercise in frantic distorted breaks, wubbing bass wobs, and prickly percussion.
6. Citric (Live at The Night Kitchen, Sheffield)
This one probably hung around the longest in my "to finish" collection, evolving from something totally different. It's a kind of sequel to "Milky", or it just uses the same solo synth and riffs, is what I actually mean.
7. Dave Drums (Live at The Night Kitchen, Sheffield)
I had all kinds of ideas for this one, it would have evolved way past this point.
8. Eyes (Live at The Night Kitchen, Sheffield)
You can tell this is live- the structure, dynamics, and even BPM are all over the place.
9. Bust (Live at The Night Kitchen, Sheffield)
Deals with all kinds of wordless feelings through flat drum n bass and fake guitar solos over desperately meandering chords. EDIT: AS OF 5 MINUTES AGO NOW WITH BONUS ALBUM FINISHING CELEBRATORY FUN DUB REGGAE!
10. Life Loop 243
Made exclusively on train journeys from Gyõr to Budapest.
11. Caju Amigo (Live at The Night Kitchen, Sheffield)
Originally the track "Cachaça" from Música Cafuné was a drum n bass number. I then got rid of the electronic elements in favour of the purity, enabling the EP to emerge. For the live show I thought "oh yeah, I can bring back those elements!". It's dead silly.
12. Brugs
OK yeah I made this for PLUPS, but it was never really happy there with all its downtempo colleagues.
13. RAVE UK (Live at The Night Kitchen, Sheffield)
That's Mike from the UK comedy "Spaced", and some fireworks, and lots of "bass & acid, rave & hardcore, stabs & kickdrums, peace & love"
14. Crepuscular Lepidopteran Metamorphoses
This one was orphaned way back in 2011. It is an evolution of "Crepuscular Lepidopteran Amble" from "In Sectum" way back in 2009. It didn't make it in time for "Time Release" and no other projects emerged for it to be part of since then. Poor little guy, you're home and safe now.
Right, that's it. Time for some more life then.
