Broken Beat Jazz Funk

I’m too busy to produce any new sounds today, so here’s a track off Keston and Westdal’s second release, Truth is Stranger, for your listening pleasure. My best estimation is that we produced this track back in 2004, but the album wasn’t released until we partnered with Unearthed Music in March, 2007. The track’s name, 128 Dirty, is an example of one of those working titles that doesn’t go away. We must have used up all our creativity on producing the track and had nothing left to name the damn thing. You can preview all of the tracks on this album on the releases page at Unearthed Music, or just click on the image or title to go to the page specifically for Truth is Stranger.

128 Dirty

Large Clay Ocarina

This large clay ocarina was a gift from my friend Jerry who purchased it from his friend Barry who used to craft them and then sell them at Camden Market in London. This recording is from 2003 and was used on an experimental improvisational piece I worked on with Dr. David Means during my Music Technology studies at Metropolitan State University. I originally ran the sound through all sorts of processing including delay and reverb, but here I’ll include it in its original state. You can still hear some room ambiance, and a curious high frequency overtone created by the hardened clay resonating.

Large Clay Ocarina

Signal to Noise Magazine

Keston and Westdal’s latest release, One Day to Save All Life (ODTSAL), has been reviewed in Signal to Noise, The Journal of Improvised and Experimental Music. This review from “The most respected journal of experimental, improvised and otherwise interesting music” (DustyGroove.com) is the highest praise yet for the release. Please visit Unearthed Music to read the review.

Unearthed Music makes full-length 128kbps MP3 previews of every track in their catalog available on their website. So, in light of the review I am including one of my favorite tracks from ODTSAL, Electric Sheep, as today’s sound on AudioCookbook.org. If you like what you hear consider purchasing music from our independent and artist owned label. Why? Because without your support we and others like us would not be able to continue providing you with the music you love. And what kind of world would that be?

Electric Sheep

 

ACB August 2008 Sample Pack

Today, freesound.org approved the ACB August 2008 sample pack. This sample pack is comprised of sounds found on AudioCookbook.org that were posted during the month of August, 2008 in the Share Remix Adapt category. My goal is to package these sample packs on freesound.org once a month so you have access to high quality versions of the sounds on ACB.

Each sound is uncompressed and available through freesound.org in it’s original .wav format for free download and use in non-commercial works (I will most often grant permission for commercial use if you contact me in advance). If you make use of these samples please consider donating to ACB using the paypal link in the sidebar.

Piano Mallet Bass

The sample I included in the Piano Mallet Loop has been used in three pieces that I know of so far and are all linked somewhere on AudioCookbook.org. So tonight I am presenting another example of using a mallet to produce sound with a piano instead of using the traditional keyboard that we are familiar with. The mallet I used to get this sound was the steel handle of a socket wrench with some thick rubber bands wrapped around one end. I bounced the rubber bands of a few of the strings in the lower register and got this simple bass melody.

Piano Mallet Bass

Here are the pieces that used Piano Mallet Loop. All of them are very nice. A big thanks to tacitdynamite, Fourstones, and small.cat for sharing their compositions.

Little Ditty #1 (tacitdynamite)

Mississippi (Founders Mix)

Red (small.cat)