Welcome to the Nodcast: A podcast so boring it doesn’t even have an RSS feed.

Nodcast 1: A Reading From Truman Capote (Ogg Vorbis)
Nodcast 1: A Reading From Truman Capote (MP3)

I really wanted to get this down on the hard drive… and I didn’t realise how bad the piano recording was until I had got to singing. So i just gave up and didn’t bother correcting any of the (obvious) flaws in the levels. It isn’t pretty, I tell you.

Scatterbrain - Ogg Vorbis
Scatterbrain - MP3

Everything I record these days seems to have a ringing noise at the high end… anyone have any ideas how to fix this problem?

Well, I got the itch tonight and had to relieve it. The result is the following song, a very rough demo type thing. Before posting, however, I have to express thanks to the people whose work enabled this:

• Ubuntu, the best operating system for me, bar none. Seriously, try it out, see if you like it.
• Hydrogen, a wonderful little drum machine. One of my favourite applications.
• Ardour, a digital audio workstation. Free, open-souce, and I’m pretty sure I’m only using about 1% of its functionality. Is better for me than Audacity was ;)

With no further ado (as none is needed) I present the song as both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis.

Ghetto (OV)
Ghetto (MP3)

This work is licensed as per:

As some of you already know, the Amarok team is building the next version of their music playing software with the QT toolset. That is to say, it should compile well as a cross-platform application (instead of just for Linux and other Unix variants).

Some of you may also know that I think Amarok is one of the better reasons to switch to Ubuntu, but let’s be honest here, it’d be nice not to have to. And from what I’ve seen, the digital music playback segment on Windows is dominated by iTunes (and oh my word, how iTunes sucks) and WinAmp (show its age really badly). Amarok 2, on the other hand, does everything iTunes and WinAmp do with music, and does it better and easier and — you have to realise that for an open source application this is major news — has a beautiful user interface to boot.

The above is a screenshot of Amarok 2 on Windows. Please do be aware that’s not the finished product.

But I’m still excited. Soon I can stop using WinAmp at work. Finally.

Again with the Notion, and again with the staying up well past any sort of bedtime. But this little ditty is the result, and for once I quite like what I’ve made.

Chroma (MP3)

Tell me what you think, peoples.

Despite saying I was going to bed, I didn’t, and this small piece resulted.

Patterns 3

This is what come of being unable to compose, you know, real music.

Courtesy of Notion and the fact that I can, you know, do stuff with it, however limited that stuff might actually be due to my own shortcomings, here’s a little song:

The White Wall 0.1

Edit: a cup of Starbucks coffee, a cigar, and a few hours later, this:

The White Wall 0.2

This is what I have so far:

The Palm of Your Breath

It’s… alright.

I have recorded yet another rough demo. It’s called “The Red Wall”, inspired by General Fitzwallace and his tragic death in Israel. Maybe some of you will know what I’m talking about, but for those of you who don’t, here’s a song.

The Red Wall (OGG Vorbis)
The Red Wall (MP3)

Here are the words:

This is your first day.
This is your last day.
Hidden in tear gas,
buried in scattered glass.
Terror in pipe bombs.
Nails in the brick walls.
People like strewn dice
over a concrete lawn.

Will you remember all of this?
Appalling fall, the tender kiss
of flame and pain and bliss
of being spread over the wall.
The red wall, the red wall, the red wall.

It was your first breath,
or was it your last breath?
In amneosis,
screaming to let them know
that you have arrived here.
Why are you crying?
You’re supposed to be happy,
you’re supposed to be happy here.

Is it all you remember,
the red wall?

I had something I wanted to put here, but I don’t remember what it is anymore. Where’s my head at, anyhow. In any case, here are some brand new old recordings of the rough kind. They’re all MP3s, pardon me for not also posting OGG Vorbis.

Everything: a sort of acoustic balad type thing going on here. Recorded with only one crappy mic in a basement somewhere.

February: the subject matter is sort of ironic and not as topical as it could be, but we’ll let that go seeing how I wrote it last year, not this.

Nothing: insane ramblings. Not sure what I was doing here.

Rattle and Hum: this is what happens when I decide I am a Goo Goo Dolls/Barenaked Ladies hybrid tribute band.

Back in the Day: this is what happens when Jars of Clay inhabits me and I have delusions of Hasseltine.

Enjoy!