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Tight Like a Fist by illuminati [Email]

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SONG STATS:
Hits: 795
Comments: 9
Votes: 4
Plays: 109
Last Played: Sep 22, 2008 - 03:38:02 PM
Downloads: 38
Fans: 6
Uploaded: Dec 19, 2006 - 05:54:11 PM
Last Updated: Dec 19, 2006 - 05:54:11 PM
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Keywords:
illuminati (25)
Description:
The first of the six songs on my Dragonfly Dance EP from 1996. I decided to post some of my older work in an effort to consolidate my music somewhat.

After the breakup of my band, New London, I went back to college to get my teaching license. While finishing my coursework, I completed work on a batch of songs, rented an Adat for mastering, and had cassettes made at a local duplication house. Then I gave them away to friends and family. I know some of the tracks even garnered a bit of airplay on radio stations in California and in Boston. Nothing like the hype behind New London, but that wasn't important. For the most part, though, this was a vanity project, designed to get me to actually finish some songs.

The first track is called Tight Like a Fist, and it might be my favorite of the bunch. Please remember that this was done at home using a Portastudio to mix and one outboard effect rack that responded to midi program changes. My sequencer was a wacky entry level Opcode product called EZ Vision that I got to know pretty well that ran on my trusty piece of junk Mac Performa 6214. I love Macs, but this machine was always an underperformer.
Ah, the days when you had to play everything! Every note, every drum part, every non-diegetic sound had to be placed and ordered. I think back even further to a time when all I had was a Radio Shack dual cassette stereo, my Casio CZ-1000 and a Roland TR-505 drum machine. You had to be damn creative to get music out of that simple rig. I recollect tricking the drum machine into driving the keyboards to get some sequencer like effects. I still have a copy of the first song I wrote with that setup. But I digress. Tight Like a Fist is a song in three parts. It should be played loudly. I hope you like it. View it as an antique found in the MacJams vaults.

Hardware:
Alesis ADAT, Midiverb II, Roland Alpha Juno 2, Ensoniq SQ-2, Casio CZ-1000, Roland TR-505, Roland MC-202, Tascam Portastudio

Software:
Opcode EZ-Vision
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I played it loudly &mdash 12/19/06 - 06:15:07 PM
Nice and clean... especially considering you're using traditional equipment ('traditional' meaning 'last millenium'). Funny, early in the 90's I came *this* close to spending all I had plus a lot more to set up a commercial recording studio (the Adat made me think of it, since I almost bought one). Considering how recording has changed in the last decade, I'm so glad I didn't! Anyway, great results from using last century's technology. This sounds like some high energy excitement.

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Thanks PV &mdash 12/19/06 - 10:04:38 PM
Thanks for checking out this anachronism, and thanks for your kind words.

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Unique ...! &mdash 12/20/06 - 04:40:23 AM
ye ..loud and dramatic ... very strange cinematic
images ...thanks for sharing it here !!


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lots of depth &mdash 12/20/06 - 11:58:42 AM
and a warm fuzzy edge to it as well. I don't know if its the technology but this plays amazingly well from my tiny speakers. Matt, this is one cool track, Excellent synth work, and master nads on the production!
I was an Opcode guy for many years. neat program. love the verb :-)

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nice to go back a decade. &mdash 12/20/06 - 04:41:31 PM
there aren't nearly enough emotive synth tunes around these days.. the minor keys paint a depressive/intellectual sound reminiscent of The Cure (at least back in the day). thanks for sharing this-hope to hear more from the project

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Infectious &mdash 12/26/06 - 04:15:02 PM
Great energy here, and sophisticated sequencing; definitely feels like great dance music. I love the way sections end, and you think it's over, but then you surprise us and keep going. Which is good, because that's exactly what I want it to do!

Reading the instrument list is a blast from the past. I still have a lot of that stuff hanging around... not sure what to do with it. One the one hand, I never use it anymore, but on the other, if I ever want to play an old file, I kind of need that stuff. It's gradally all dying, though...

Anyway, great to hear your work, and I look forward to more!

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A great listen &mdash 01/14/07 - 01:01:13 PM
any century ;-) Fav'd and DL'd, so thanks. I think I will collect all the songs from this EP if you don't mind...

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Awesome &mdash 02/09/07 - 09:19:28 PM
Wow, that was awesome. Great synth work. Not much else to say about that...

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My Portostudio Must Be Broken &mdash 08/03/07 - 04:28:06 PM
It never sounded as good as yours!

This is a really great track, Matt. I struggled with Opcode's Studio Vision Pro and never had much luck on my beige G3.

I downloaded this song. It really works in my head.

Thanks for sharing!

Bob

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