Sometime ago I went to this Brian Eno “concert” that entailed him sitting in a really comfortable chair on stage, next to a rack of playback gear, playing various tracks, and then talking about music and related ideas. Not what I expected, but fantastic. At some time, he mentioned this idea, which resonated with me, about having a plan, or direction, regardless of where you end up. Another idea, which also feels valuable, from Daniel Lanois, is that of starting with something beautiful.

So, with this mix, I very much wanted to create a “DIY-experimental-music-ensemble-on-stage” vibe; recording a bunch of instruments, in addition to folding in some beautiful ccmixter source, and mixing it as if recorded on a faux stage.

While cut, copy, pasting, mixing, and arranging, the melodies and harmonic movement of the vocals and high bass parts just seemed to assert themselves in what I thought was a beautiful way, so I decided to go there instead (especially the Broken vox, which I was originally processing for texture).

When I finally got around to mixing, it was far from what I originally intended. I abandoned the faux stage recording idea, and explored instead an approach not totally antithetical to the original intent - more Broken Social Scene - Bandwich-ish (very recommended, BTW).

There are also some sample packs are in separate uploads.