hello.music — No Reason (At All)

hello.musicNot a whole lot has changed since I put the song down a few weeks ago to focus on last month’s EP. But posting it again will provide a space to discuss what I have in mind going forward.

After hearing two songs by 90s Britpop group The Stone Roses, I was inspired to figure out how to record tracks that would be played in reverse in the mix. Reversing tracks is by far nothing new in recorded music with electronic composers, tape loop specialists and producers like George Martin and John Leckie having done it for at least five decades. So while I never found evidence to verify my listening, the song “Don’t Stop” on their first record seems to be an instrumental reversal of the previous song “Waterfall.”

It is also not the first time I have played around with it, but it just took me until now to learn how to do it in the software I’ve been using. Turns out, unlike the days of splicing and seamlessly assembling analog tape, in Live its pretty damned easy…embarrassingly so.

You will hear some backwards playing tracks in the background here and also some incidental guitar noise. Still lots of work on it, but here is where I left it last night.

No Reason (At All) v2b

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/NoReasonAtAll_v2b.mp3]

UPDATE 9\25: I’ve done some more mixing and retracked some guitars that were rushed and out of sync. Still want to rethink the piano part in the middle, add some drums and vocals as well. Anyone know a good female singer with a wispy voice?

No Reason (At All) v2d
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/NoReasonAtAll_v2d.mp3]

UPDATE FROM GREG 9\26: Here is some work I’ve been doing on this tune… mostly just brainstorming, but maybe there are some tidbits that can be incorporated into the final track:

March version.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_greg/No_Reason_drums_v1.mp3]

March Version with vocal melody and way too much ear piercing distortion- be careful!!!

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_greg/No_Reason_drums_v2.mp3]

Electro version.
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_greg/No_Reason_Electro.mp3]