Tag Archives: Rhodes

Musitronic

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Recently I stumbled across an archive of a late night Keston and Westdal jam session buried in a dark, moldy and neglected sub-folder. I looped two bars and put a fade at the end, but otherwise left it untouched. It consists of bass guitar (Nils Westdal), a breakbeat, and myself on Wurlitzer Electric Piano. More specifically a Wurlitzer Electric Piano packaged by Musitronic for use as a student model. I picked this one up in the mid-90’s for a couple hundred dollars. I don’t use it that much since I prefer the sound of the Rhodes, but I think this particular recording is a nice example of the Wurly sound.

Musitronic

Everything Sounds Better Backwards

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Those of you with a discerning ear might recognize this phrase of reversed Rhodes electric piano from a recent Keston and Westdal release. Here it has no processing other than being reversed. Sometimes I wonder what attracts me to reversed sounds. They are strange, but somehow familiar. We have become accustomed to hearing things backwards in music and film. The intent is usually to unnerve the listener or sound disturbing or bizarre. I hear reversed sounds as beautiful and symmetrical counterparts to the forward versions.

As far as I know, reversed sound does not happen naturally. Yet it is something that has been technologically possible since the very first sound recordings were made in the late eighteen hundreds. Thomas Edison may have been one of the first people to hear sound in reverse. He noted that when music is played backwards, “the song is still melodious in many cases, and some of the strains are sweet and novel, but altogether different from the song reproduced in the right way”. Everything sounds better backwards.

Backwards Rhodes

Travel Glide

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Here’s a snippet from a piece I started composing on March 28, 2007. I don’t remember exactly how I created the sounds other than the instruments that I used (Rhodes and Korg MS2000) and some of the processing applied (too many to name), therefore I don’t have a lot to say about this piece, other than:

1. It’s unfinished
2. It uses a variety of processing
3. I don’t know why I called it “Travel Glide”
4. There is no obvious significance between the image and the composition

Travel Glide

Zhiguly

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I stumbled across this gem, that was recorded during a jam session between myself on Rhodes, Nils Westdal on bass, and Kyle Herskovitz (DJ Zenrock) on turntables. This session happened more than four years ago on March 11, 2004.

I couldn’t stop myself from messing about with it until I got this simple 0:22 second arrangement. I automated a filter on the Rhodes as well as running it through an amp modeling plugin and then topped it off with a touch of ping pong delay.

The main thing that attracted me to this archive was the skillful turntablism of Mr. Herskovitz. I have been fortunate to work with him off an on for more than a decade. Kyle is the most talented, creative and dedicated DJ and turntablist I have ever heard or worked with, so I have included a solo snippet of his track from this session so you can hear some of his magic on its own.

By the way, the photo is from a video installation we produced. It was performed during a show at the convention center in Minneapolis on a co-bill with Keston and Westdal and Zenrock last year.

Zhiguly

Zhiguly Scratch

Rhodes Wah Wah

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Today I was digging through my recording archives and came across a nice example of me running my Rhodes through a wah wah pedal with a little overdrive on it. So not being one to leave well enough alone, I sequenced the recording into a short phrase at 90 bpm.

I started by pitching a couple of the chords to create a progression, then added some delay and reverb to give it a nice cinematic ambiance. Perhaps I’ll build a track out it at some point. It reminds me of something from the soundtrack for the Fantastic Planet. By the way, the image is a photo of one of my Rhodes electric pianos. I own three of these very special instruments. Two of them I use for live performances, while the suitcase model in the photo stays put in my studio.

Rhodes Wah Wah