Zing-Man Electronique
A varied collection of tracks, mainly for film, TV, video games, and CD-ROMs, from a time when music making technology was rapidly changing. I wrote, produced, tracked, mixed, and mastered all of the material here, and played all of the instruments except where noted. Many of these ideas have been subsequently further developed and/or reused, and others will be eventually.
Layers 1994
Soundtrack to an animated short film. I wrote, scored, mixed and mastered it in less than a week, and it was an early example of a successful track made purely from a midi orchestration. The first section is in 6/4, a good slow spooky groove. The last half is pure cartoon music.
I've had the basic riff for a long time. The key is E minor and the chord is built on open 5ths. This song is an extrapolation of the riff along a certain fractal form. The time signature and number of bars in a phrase both vary in a way that sounds unpredictable but is really systematic. There are seven levels. Each one begins introducing a new instrument. Each section ends in a bar that has more beats than any bar so far in the tune. Even though this song is short, it feels perfect at a minute and a half.
Silly Little Ditty 1995
This was a cue for an early Shockwave interactive cartoon. The gag was to drop a piano on the guy's head as he walked along. C major.
Foam Finger Dance 1996
One of a set of five spots I did for Coca-Cola when I was at Radical Media. Another was the national anthem played ballpark organ style, and the third was other was a walk-on cue, basically a slow funk bass and drums. Two had no music. The lead guitar is really me playing a wind synthesizer.
Orange Grass Stomp 1995
Another Radical Media commission, this one for a CD-ROM soundtrack. Mark Hofschneider sat in on guitar. We did the whole thing in one day; it was the first track that came out of my home studio to integrate midi and audio sources.
Monkey Funk (Demo) 1995
A jazz idea rendered on the sequencer, centered on a funk groove in Cm, full of 4thsy voicings. The chorus goes into C major, and alternating to C# and back. Good rhythm section sequences, nice meolody too.
Mongus (Demo) 1996
More sequencer jazz. It's basically a blues with some altered chords at the 2-5 part; I don't remember precisely what they are. I like the groove and the clav. The buzzy analog synth in the head and the solo is me on midi wind instrument. This one became a flip|Hippo song.
Niner (Demo) 1996
The basic structure is two rhodes playing similar patterns that phase. One plays 8 bars of 8/9 while the other plays 9 bars of 8/8. The 9th bar is together in 9/8. From this emerges a 9 bar pattern. The pattern is repeated 9 times. The key is E minor, moving to a major key for the bridge. The melody sound very sweet to me, and kind of sad. It's voiced in 3rds and all very rolling. I really like this song alot.
Futbol Anthem A 1996
This was originally for an interactive, and this version here was pasted together out of short cues. The rhythm section is slamming'. Just a one bar loop. Lots of K2000 instruments. The lead is all stacked 4ths. Very cool harmonies.
This mini suite is adapeted from a short film soundtrack I did at ITP. The first part where the Monkey King swings from tree to tree in the forest. The second part is where the Monkey King is swimming underwater and discovers something.
