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Tight Like a Fist


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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.
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Song Stats
Hits: 1140
Comments: 9
Fans: 6
Plays: 120
Downloads: 61
Votes: 4
Uploaded: Dec 19, 2006 - 05:54:11 PM
Last Updated: Dec 19, 2006 - 05:54:11 PM Last Played: Sep 09, 2009 - 03:02:51 PM
Song License
Creative Commons License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial

Creative Commons

Song Actions
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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
Comments
perceptualvortex said 1068 days ago (December 19th, 2006)
I played it loudly
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.
Check out my latest song called Machine Man (w Beastie Boys)
illuminati said 1068 days ago (December 19th, 2006)
Thanks PV
Thanks for checking out this anachronism, and thanks for your kind words.
Check out my latest song called Vainglorious
Feter said 1068 days ago (December 20th, 2006)
Unique ...!
ye ..loud and dramatic ... very strange cinematic
images ...thanks for sharing it here !!

ktb said 1068 days ago (December 20th, 2006)
lots of depth
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 :-)
Check out my latest song called off the deck (w/Z293)
_nderscore said 1067 days ago (December 20th, 2006)
nice to go back a decade.
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
Check out my latest song called glyd
composerclark said 1061 days ago (December 26th, 2006)
Infectious
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!
Check out my latest song called Scarlet Nightfall
Henke said 1042 days ago (January 14th, 2007)
A great listen
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...
Check out my latest song called Heading for Alpha Centauri (mj space race 2009)
kingkrispy said 1016 days ago (February 9th, 2007)
Awesome
Wow, that was awesome. Great synth work. Not much else to say about that...
five_extra_arms said 841 days ago (August 3rd, 2007)
My Portostudio Must Be Broken
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
Check out my latest song called Michael Pool
Artist Info
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Name: Matt
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Other songs I've contributed to: 5/25/06: Neverland, a collaboration with Ledebutant as The Orbiting Former synth player for the late 80s, early 90s alternative rock band New London. Since its dissolution, I've done a few solo projects and work... [see more]

Check out some of my other songs:

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