Noise Floor Music: Music

|:| acoustic |:| electronic |:| remixes |:|

Title: Heat (The Hyper–Stereo Drum Mix)
Time: 4:14
Musical Score: pending
Date: 11 January 2010

With enough low–end to move furniture, Heat rides the melodic billow of a didgeridoo, while suffusing the listener in a primal, urban–inspired rhythm.

Minimal (or, as Glass says, “music with repetitive structures”) deep, and ambient, Heat is based on a melodic vocabulary educed from variations of both e and a natural minor keys. The slowly–evolving chaotic, noise–based coda represents the gradual madness one can suffer at the perennial overexposure to 100°+ (F) weather.

Title: Ten Years Late
Time: 3:20
Musical score: PDF
Date: 4 December 2009

Centered largely around inversions of E, A, and B minor chords, Ten Years Late marries elements of “post–rock” (heavily reverberated, ambient guitars), electronica (deep, groove–based drum backing tracks), and jazz (fast, rhythmic phrasing). It's a through–composed piece (which is a signature of my approach to composition) that leads into an electronic percussion section awash in deep, rhythmic, and sometimes syncopated, rhythms — reminiscent perhaps of Scotland's Boards of Canada. The percussive exit is delicately balanced by the four–measure guitar phrases, guiding the listener into the coda.

Title: x0x0x0 (Original Mix)
Time: 4:46
Musical score: PDF
Date: 17 December 2009

Stylistically, x0x0x0 is both glitch electronic and minimalist. Its harmonic form relies entirely on short, 32nd note–length audio samples, while the pacing and rhythm are an amalgam of simple and complex repetitive structures.

Conceptually, it is a piece that blends the old with the new. The melody sung on the “ah” musical syllable is extracted from medieval Gregorian chant, while the harmonic structure is formed by present–day effects and processing.

Structurally, there is much at play: syncopation, silence, instrumentation, and rhythm. Instead of employing chords to shape a half cadence, I use glitch–based triplets and syncopation to simulate a pending resolution, only to return to an ostinato that alludes to the introductory material.

The guitars counter the textures of the voice and the vocal–based samples, essentially adding harmonic color.

The strange walking rhythm of the 7/8 time signature is deliberately emphasized by the clicks and pops endemic to digital audio editing. These “imperfections” are heightened in the equalization stage of the final mix to accent the contrapuntal device at play in the melody.

Aside from the guitars, each sound in x0x0x0 is a processed manipulation of nine 1–second vocal samples provided by NY–based performer JC Cassis.

The original title for this piece was 0x0x0x, which represents three empty value hex numbers. (The three refers to the triplets in the break section.) However, since this piece was composed of many reverse–based sounds, I inverted the order. Hence the title x0x0x0.

Title: Waiting (Preview Mix)
Time: 3:08
Musical score: PDF

Hypnotic, haunting, and trance–inducing, Waiting was originally written for soprano, tenor, piano, and electronics. This arrangement puts the piece in a dark, down tempo, and almost r & b, world.

[Artwork: The Fear of Art (Electronic Mix) Cover]

Title: The Fear of Art (Part Human, Part Machine Mix)
Time: 2:27
Musical score: PDF

A syncopated, beat–mad, electronic remix of the original.

Title: My Only Witness
Time: 4:00
Musical score: PDF

The dark and haunting meets the drum groovy.

Title: The Dedication (Remix)
Time: 2:49

A diametrically–opposed remix of the original piano four hands arrangement, this remix is laden with a syncopated downtempo groove and full distorted guitar.

Title: Always There
Time: 5:45
Musical score: PDF

Written and recorded in the summer of 2007, Always There is a mix of electronica and a string quartet. (Imagine Boards of Canada meets Arvo Pärt.) File under minimal neo–classical electronica.

Title: Sub (Room 101 Deep Bass Mix)
Time: 6:51
Artwork: Cindy Yates

Referred to as "4:00 AM music," Sub was written to appease the DJ in me. It's complete with an intro for BPM setup, hooks for looping, and a climax, and fits nicely within a dance club playlist, or on an iPod as you ride bike, ride the train, or climb a mountain. File under "house," "tech house"...or 4:00 AM music.

Title: Don't Stop (Preview Mix)
Time: 4:00
iPhone Ringtone: edit
iPhone Ringtone: excerpt

Beat–alicious, downtempo, jazzified ambience in 5/4.

Title: Wait Until The Crash

Here's a cross between the upper spectrum of tech–house and the lower span of progressive house. About this, Madonna might say, "you can dance." Remixed three times in as many years.

Title: The Dedication
Time: 3:13
Performers: Mari Suzuki (primo) and Terence Boyer (secondo)
Musical score: PDF

Written for two players, The Dedication is a solemn classical piano composition in the minimalist style. This recording features Mari's and Terence's slow, somber interpretation. The following features Mari's and Vasu's much different rendition.

Title: The Dedication
Time: 2:45
Performers: Mari Suzuki (primo) and Vasudevan Panicker (secondo)
Musical score: PDF

This version is faster, more percussive, and louder than Mari's and Terence's, featured above.

Title: Conversations With You
Musical score: PDF

An audio interpretation of a dream with a genius.

Title: The Fear of Art
Musical score: PDF

The fear of art is that paralyzing emotion artists encounter at some point in their lifetime when making their art. Some of us encounter it more often than others.

[Artwork: Cold Makes Sadder/Dynamica Cover]

Title: Cold Makes Sadder
Musical score: PDF
Time: 3:06

Wistful in melody, this song rides a simple melancholic theme. Of the many re–recordings since 1996, this version is the most true to form, capturing the "feel" of the original 4–track cassette recording.

Title: Dynamica
Time: 1:41
Musical score: PDF

This evolved version of the analog, reel–to–reel demo was moved into the digital realm in late 2005, and is ripe with delay and electronic synths. It's the first of five guitar movements.

Title: Dynamica (demo)
Time: 1:06

Bathed in a multi–part melody of five Spanish guitars, this is an excerpt of a 20–minute, analog, 8–track recording intended to be broken up into five guitar movements.

Title: Nude (The Noise Floor Music Rebuild) [piano version]
(29 June 2008)
Original Artist: Radiohead
Time: 4:09
Musical Score: PDF
Download: 160 KBPS MP3

This is the original piano arrangement/remix submitted to the Radiohead Remix competition in late April 2008.

Title: Nude (The Noise Floor Music Rebuild) [guitar version]
(1 July 2008)
Original Artist: Radiohead
Time: 3:58
Musical Score: PDF
Download: 160 KBPS MP3

This is a counterpoint arrangement for guitar.

Title: English Was Spoken (The Noise Floor Music Reconstruction)
Time: 4:02
Date: 13 December 2006
Composer: Nick Hasty
Arrangement: Nick Hasty and Roy Vanegas
Remix and Edit: Roy Vanegas

Driven by a menacing, rock–inspired drum track, English Was Spoken is minimalist electronica, awash in lush, synthesized string harmonies.

Reconstruction 5: Bed–Stuy Overlap Mix

| 2 January 2008 | 42.18 | 192 MP3 | 58.3 MB |
Hi–resolution artwork

Between Kate and Naomi: Uusitalo
Kites (Monza Remix): Angel
Good People (feat Darren Barret): Marko Militano
Mucky Star: Elektrochemie
I Like It (Dean Coleman's Dirty By Design Dub): Narcotic Thrust
Very Important People (François K Dub): Gus Gus
Damage (feat Tracey Thorn) [The Buick Projekt Remix]: Tiefschwarz
Mooger Fooger: Bermuda Triangle
Stars: Invisible Inc

Reconstruction 4: Arizona Mix

| 19 July 2005 | 26.45 | 320 MP3 | 61.4 MB |

Break In At Apartment 205: Theorem vs Swayzak
Sandcastles (Filtered Re–Edit): Peter Heller
Making It Whistle (Album Mix): Thomas Fehlmann
She's Cult: Noise Floor Music
Separate Digits: Markus Guentner

Reconstruction 3: Rome Mix

| 16 January 2005 | 17.58 | 320 MP3 | 41.2 MB |

Rue The Whirl: Boards of Canada
Where Do We Go From Here (X–ecutioner's Remix): Filter
La Goutte D'Or: St. Germain
The Boy Is Mine (A Cappella): Brandy & Monica
Le Grand Dome: Biosphere

Reconstruction 2: New York Mix

| 16 January 2005 | 22.05 | 320 MP3 | 50.6 MB |

A Private Interlude: Groove Armada (looped)
Troy (The Phoenix From The Flame) [Andi Durrant Remix]: Sinéad O'Connor
A Private Interlude: Groove Armada (continued)
Cafe de Flore: Doctor Rockit
Manteca (The Funky Lowlives Remix): Dizzy Gillespie

Reconstruction 1

8 July 2004, CD

Lazy (Peace Division Mix)/Dream On: X–Press 2/Depeche Mode
Cause You're Right On Time: Limelife
Tango Forte: Dublex Inc
Tríptico: Gotan Project
Tríptico (Peter Kruder Mix): Gotan Project
Intensify (Peace Division Mix): Way Out West
Kindness Kind (Delikate Impostors Remix): Björk
Upset Words : Marko Militano
Stealth (Nubreed Remix): Way Out West
Artificial Heart : Sasha
Forge : Bedrock
Alarm Call (Potage Du Jour)/Lazy: Björk/X–Press 2