Books have trailers. It’s true, I’m not making this up.
This particular book, Effie Perine, by Buzzy Jackson is a page-turning hard boiled mystery, dipped in film noir. It’s dark and gritty and a little bizarre and if you’ve got a spare dollar in your couch cushions you can download this on your Kindle or iPad or phone or [placeholder reserved for as yet un-invented device]. You won’t regret it.
Music by StarsNYC, Video by the incredible Gmake
“A young couple, laughing, crest the top of a hill and look down into what they expected to be a beautiful meadow. The laughter stops. The meadow is scorched beyond recognition. A radiating pattern of charred earth and brush emanates from a central, still smoldering pit.”
Or, possibly:
“A man, disheveled, tip-toes downstairs to the fridge expecting to find his daughter’s leftover birthday cake. Instead, he discovers the head of Flight Attendant Barbie sitting on a plate, surrounded by cake crumbs. A crudely hand-written note taped to the front of the plate reads: ‘you lose’”
Either way-something that was supposed to be awesome has gone horribly not-awesome.
I’ve got something of a crush on found object percussion. Is that a thing? Well, I’m not sure what it’s called exactly. I record things like scraping rocks, ripping paper, zippers, ice cubes in glasses etc.. Then I tweak them to make them sound either exactly like the thing they are, or nothing. I added the glockenspiel because who doesn’t like a little glock with their rocks?
Backwards guitars, strings, 6/8 time signature… You already know what it is: A woman, slow motion – flowing hair and gown – her delicate, bejeweled hand caressing the curves of a sleek automobile while a dashing man in a tuxedo peers approvingly over the top of his martini… Well, I suppose it could also have been a taco bell commercial showing a fajita being covered by some new awesomesauce. Either way, definitely slow-mo. This is the uncut version. (rhythm track is field recordings of water glasses and torn paper).
The way I picture it, this is either a dream sequence in a Fassbinder movie or maybe a hallucination segment in a Darren Aranofsky film. The bummer is that neither of these guys has called me. However, that didn’t stop me from making it anyway. In reality, this was a proof of concept for myself. I wanted to turn some found samples I had made into loops and sprinkle on some glitchy ambience to make something tasty. It’s like a disturbing little slice of pie in that way.
The fabulous author, Buzzy Jackson asked me to create a theme for her weekly podcast Required Reading. The only direction I remember was that it was supposed to sound nothing like something B.J. Leiderman might have done. I had previously recorded the basis for a groove with a fuzzed out bass guitar and I thought: “B.J. would really hate this..”
Agency sample. They were looking for a ‘busy, technical’ piece for a ‘gritty’ spot. I started working on this and ended up getting carried away with the drum and synth programming. The best part was patching the noisy bit in the trusty old Nord Modular.
This one actually didn’t end up getting used for the final piece but I’m including it here since I think it came out quite well. It was for a documentary about young Nepalese girls being sold into slavery by their parents. Heavy panning of instruments as it was intended for a centered voice over track. The final bit of film featured one of the girls singing a Capella so the key of the piece was determined by this to make for a seamless transition.
This soundtrack was for a video case-study showing the relationship between a large life insurer and a consulting actuarial accounting firm . It was a short animated piece – actually a sort of mini-action film – regarding strategic application of risk modelling and streamlining of business processes. It ended up making a lot more sense than I just explained.
Final mix of a soundtrack for a short documentary piece. Completed August 2011 with 10×10 films.