Thanks.

I promise to keep going.

OK. Thanks for listening. I have lots of other far out, progressive tracks on this site.

Hello.

1:52 may be quintessential me. That guitar riff was the foundation for the grooving here. Before I came up with it, I just had that chillout intro, which was a leftover from my drumless, romantic cinematic track Visible Aura.

That track had no drums so I decided the continuation of its leftover parts should get back to my usual drum-obsessive grooving mode.

" taking the liberty of "jumping" from beat to beat"

Yes, I like the movement of the guitar around the beat. It's mostly three finger-plucked chords (plus some other fills) but is all about how I move around the simple drum groove, with fat synth bass pumping away underneath.

No problem you didn't like the 8:30 trance lead. I had to include it as it really inspired me when working out where to take the second half of this. I loved the sound of the bass guitar with the lead trance and I realised I could make some sort of unusual version of delta blues trance, which I think I've done.

As it inspired me so much, I wasn't going to get rid of it. I've tried to control the filtering so that it doesn't sound too cheesy or "pop-ish". I think it's a surprise in the track and you know I like to do that.

Same goes for laser stuff around 10:00. I don't love that sound but think it takes the track somewhere interesting and new for me.

It's hard to keep coming up with new and interesting tracks (I'm trying to make a piece of music unlike any other almost every single time) so don't be surprised if I sometimes do slightly weird stuff. Or choose some sounds you don't like. That's got to happen sometime.

However, I try not to include something purely for intellectual reasons ie "Oh, it's not a very good sound but I was just trying to show I can also make a bit of trance". I try to only keep things I think sound good (I trust my musical opinion) or do something else with them if they just don't fit the track I've first tried them in. You could say that all sounds have their place, right?

" the killer guitar/bass riff that follows makes me forgive everything"

That's just one distorted bass guitar. Didn't need to double it up with a guitar part though the 1:52 clean guitar does return very near the end of the track.

I don't like that distorted bass riff as much as I first did. Not sure why.

Thanks for your continued support and praise. I try to keep the standard high though it's hard so best if I don't think about it too much as it can place too much pressure on me. Better to just free my mind and create with no expectations, for no purpose other than making something cool and unusual.

Yes, I've produced many albums in the past couple of years so much get round to turning them into real, publicly available albums. Lots of little things to go back and fix in various tracks plus the problem I always have of great mastering.

You'll get some Nomad albums some day, I promise. A heavy one, an electronic one, a blues one, a jazz/funk one and so on...

Hi. Glad you enjoyed it - all of the seconds and minutes, apparently.

That's very good to hear as I really do work hard on every bar, section, change, transition and so on. You particularly have to when dealing with lengthy, complex, varied tracks, as most of mine are.

I try hard to remove anything which isn't working and holding things up in any way. The flow of the whole thing is very important to me. However, I generally don't remove that much. Instead, when sections aren't working, I spend ages finding a way to make them work. Quite often that involves adding more elements and layers, which is partly why my stuff ends up so layered and complex.

But if a section feels a bit too awkward for the track, I quite often just leave it elsewhere on the timeline and then return and develop it into another track, with different ideas and sounds (whilst keeping some of them). That's really how I compose as I very rarely start a new track from scratch. I endlessly recycle projects I've been working on for years.

Tripping while listening can be good though be careful not to suffer any injuries.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

I still have one of your tracks marked as a Favourite.

Word up. And now more words:

Yes, sleepytime intro and I then wake you up slowly by easing in some drums. Back to a groovy swing jazz dream sleep in a few mins though you've got to be fully awake for the crazy laser show later.

1:53 guit fiddle is grooving foundation of this track. Thought I'd use much more of it in the track but the spine tingling slide resonator took over and is just much deeper and more stirring.

Not sure I've ever heard Reba McEntire. Does her singing sound like high slide resonator playing? My kinda girl.

3:12 please note switch to bass g. Makes a huge difference.

"dramatically change the feeling of a song's movement through drums alone."

Yes, those drum changes change my playing, sounds, mood and so on. I'm only an adequate player without a good groove. Much more badass with one!

"an underwater sunset beach party full of tiny little happy creatures."

Images like that are partly the reason I like you reviewing my stuff. You have a great imagination and can be excellent with words. Happy creatures there might be contained within my slide playing, which is quite different from before (and later). Almost a bit too pretty. Not really blues playing, though can't say why. Perhaps cos it's over dream swing jazz.

Every good ambient slide trance dream swing jazz track needs a nice space ninja laser show ending. And thus I continue that ancient tradition. Unimaginative but it's what the genre and the paying public demand.

Space ninjas were tricky to record but I sent them up into orbit with the Gravity crew when they shot that Clooney-Bullock movie you might know (great visuals, poor/unnecessary characterisation and dialogue).

:"828 I get a whiff of the 80's."

Yes, maybe a bit 80s. That's quite a classic trance type of synth sound though I hope I use it in a slightly unconventional way (keeping the slide going behind it). Makes it more musical and organic than lots of predictable trance.

Interesting you point out synth bass problem at 9:03 as there were sometimes playback problems with that very line but I'm now not hearing it at all! But you must be right. Funny I can't now hear it.

"Take it sleazy."

Just how I've taken it, as well as a little bit wheezy, breezy, queasy and cheesy.

Yo.

Yes, intro was enjoyable and relaxing to make. It's a continuation of my only ever proper drumless track (Visible Aura) that I had to remove due to 50 track upload limit.

First organ-based granular synthesis sound was supposed to be a placeholder then I got so used to it I decided I like it a lot. The pads are the heavenly part of this.

Gentle drums at first before we get fatter and more badass. Simple but effective beat at 1:19.

"1:53 the sounds you normally make"

Yes, funky git riff 4U there. Three finger palm muted picked chords with different fills. Then my classic slide resonator stuff. It's become a real go-to sound and a major musical identity for me. I still don't know of anyone else using it across so many genres. Most major players mostly do it in country or blues. Some spine-tingling notes eg 4:09.

4:19 - no fuckin way - a Conscious Key Change! But still sliding about. Now introducing some beautiful keys. Two different synthstruments. One patch is called 'Water Piano' and can be heard in the first min of my track Into The Out There.

"really get lost in listening to this one"

I did and that's very much the idea. Heaven's a good place to get lost but at least you're never far from a honey mango.

Swing jazz section (5:16) is real dreamlike stuff, especially when slide returns at 5:38. Dream slide jazz.

"break @ 6:47 is epic and almost gospel like"

Same sound as the first notes of track. Just lower notes this time. Needed a break to join swing jazz with rest of it and I thought drumless section would be good.

"we have heard your talent so much we are starting to take fro granted"

I know what you mean and I sort of do too. I've done so much in my many tracks that sometimes I find it quite predictable how new tracks are going to go so I get a bit bored doing more and more lengthy far out stuff. Must branch out. Learning new instruments would help, as would working with vocalists. Actually working with other human being musicians is the utimate goal. Still have some unfinished female vocal work from a few years ago that you'll like.

"then the bass goes all fret-wire."

Don't know what that means. Bass in the fast trance stuff is same bassline from 3:12 until 9:02 when it kicks in to synth bass. Slide trance!

9:36 hands in the air drumless breakdown for slide trance clubbers and then the mad laser show. Everybody go mothafuckin crazy.

No idea how to end it so just went with dramatic stop and lingering strings. And short enough to fit on the site at 128K.

Thanks again for your high praise.

More neat pop singles from me coming very soon.

Thanks, man.

Congrats on doing the decent and proper thing and letting that intro ease you into the rest of the track.

As usual, as the minutes unfold, you know you're going to hear more and more stuff. I don't just repeat sections for the sake of it or just so I can make the track long. My tracks are long because there's so much interesting stuff to fit in. I could easily have stretched this one out to 15 mins.

"The title matches the song (well, up until 10 minutes through)"

Yes, the zappy laser show doesn't quite fit the heavenly vibe but it is a bit of fun and it does at least fit with the 170 BPM dance mood I've taken things into. Got to have a little bit of a rave in heaven, in amongst all the beautiful chilling and sitting around being fed honey mangoes.

"shit gets serious ten minutes through"

Once I start making things more powerful, I also look to make them even more powerful, deep and so on. If I'd go on for a while longer, I would have probably brought in some heard, heavy metal drumming and made things a lot heavier, maybe darker. More big, distorted guitar riffs. There's just a bit of distorted bass at the end, though I'm not quite sure it fits.

"the fact that you could fit that into a slow, calm song demonstrates your skills."

Thanks but it's just a matter of building up to it. Once things get properly grooving at 1:53, I've moved away from gentle, widescreen chill and into the world of the fat beat (a world I like). Though the widescreen chill does continue for a while behind the fat beats. Go to ease listeners smoothly into each change of vibe.

"in my opinion, this may be your best work"

You're more than welcome to that opinion. I feel have a good few better ones though it's hard to say as I like to think that every track I've ever done is unique and offers a good few things that no other track (that I've made) does.

I'd nominate this as a better track. Certainly a lot more badass.

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/155188

And this one that I made before you were even born (I think) is definitely better:

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/103956

Thanks again for your opinions. 'Tis appreciated.

Glad you dug 6:58 - 7:55 as it's sort of only there to bridge chillout swing jazz stuff to the fast trance blues in 2nd half. So, I return to the main lead slide resonator theme (from 3:12) but add a few new things eg some vocoded guitar parts (7:19).

Am feeling the hip hop a bit more in that section. A secondary hip hop kit plays the same thing as the acoustic drum kit in a lot of this track (starting at 1:53, as I fatten shit up).

"Each segment builds and builds"

I guess I tend to make a few tracks within each track. Stuff has to build as I like both chilling and hard rocking so must find a way to get things louder. Not so keen on big, awkward jumps. Unless it's specifically for that effect.

"The ending of this version is explosive, like that"

It's fun though I'm not sure it fits the rest of it. Maybe that's good as it's a surprise though I have loads of tracks that build into heavy explosive stuff so not a surprise if you're familiar with my work.

"Is this the slowest intro you have so far?"

Perhaps. Track is 85BPM throughout but intro notes I guess are half tempo so 42.5 though tempo is a funny thing. 85 BPM at double time from 7:54 = 170 BPM.

"Your slide guitar pieces are cool"

Thanks. I'm surprised at how much I can do with it. Done it over so many styles, not sure how many I'll end up doing by the end of my musical career (the Nomad death). It's become my go-to sound and main unusual musical skill. Power, groove and beauty all in one.

"imagination in your music is like magic in a sense, full of wonders."

It is me wondering all the time, thinking of far out stuff, trying to musically connect with things not of this earth. Dreamy escape into other worlds and places.

"Is that an ep your using in this section?"

Don't know what an "ep" is.

5:16-5:39 there are a couple of acoustic drum kits, synth bass, some string stuff, heavenly synths, pretty lead keyboard part also going through a filter swept EQ and reverb FX combo, a complementary keys part and that's it.

"what timing did you use for the drumming?"

Just a swing jazz pattern. I make great use of drumming MIDI files from Superior and EZ expansion packs. That's a real drummer doing that fine playing, though I've carefully edited and layered stuff. I probably couldn't program that up from scratch, not that I need to these days as I have so many great MIDI drum. Yet, I crave more....

Damn right 1K year version is badass. Tough mix there but I only used 10,000 audio tracks. Had to hook up to another planet's power supply to run all that shit on a supercomputer the size of the Grand Canyon.

"How things been?"

OK. But I'm struggling on new, awkward tracks. Trying to merge chillout jazz/blues and grunge/metal but I'm so much better at the chill stuff than the heavy. Must channel some more evil!

Thanks for perhaps your best review yet.

Thanks.

It certainly starts off chilling you out and then gradually gets groovier and more insistent. You can really freak out and do some crazy dancing at the end. I hope it's a nice, enjoyable journey to get to that uptempo stuff. I felt I needed to introduce it gradually.

My favourite stuff is the mid tempo fat groove shit with that very emotive lead slide guitar playing. That really inspires me.

Thanks very much.

There are a few good reasons why there’s so much attention to detail in my tracks. The main one relates to my composition process, if you can even call it that.

I don’t actually compose these pieces much in advance. I just jam over looped sections and then edit the shit out of everything until I come up with something that has some sort of pleasing structure. So, there are endless errors and awkward bits and sections that don’t neatly transition together. So, I have to give everything a lot of editing love and go and correct and trim so many small details.

And through close attention to things, I often create new sounds and surprising little transitions. I believe in improving hundreds/thousands of small things to make a big overall difference. I also go looking very deeply into the track to see if I can squeeze more out of any riffs or parts or fills or whatever. And I generally can and then go ahead and use them. That’s why my stuff is so long – I just keep spinning out all those cool things I find.

And then I have to work out how to make smooth transitions so that’s more and more detailed work. I have to be able to listen back and not have anything really annoy me.

I’d actually like to do some simpler, rawer stuff but that doesn’t look likely to happen any time soon. I’m quite set in my track-making ways. So: detailed, deep, complex stuff it is.

Glad to be able to inspire someone. Many people have and continue to inspire me. I always hoped in my younger years to be able to make stuff that might inspire/surprise/amaze/intrigue others.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Word up, FreeRad.

I think I’m going to try to contact all those million Loopermembers (apart from your good self) and get them to review one of your tracks. If I can get just 1 in 10, I will swamp you and keep you typing replies into your old age. Even 100,000 copied and pasted replies would take quite a while.

Yes, lots for a free radical such as yourself to like here – especially the faster trance stuff. Not sure you’ve really made up Orbitalesque. You can add the –esque suffix to loads of words if you want.

Maybe people will one day come to say Nomadesque or Static Nomadic to describe sounds/combinations reminiscent of some of mine. Or maybe they won’t as that isn’t actually my artist name (Endless Rotary), just my name on this site.

9am head nodding is good.

Yes, loads of time spent on the drums, which I use a great deal to drive changes in the track and get me to play instruments in a different way. I’m quite the drum/groove obsessive so really need good, interesting grooves to play well.

“good tempo changes which seems to be a trademark of yours”

Yes, my trademark, so to speak, is mid tempo grooves (80-95 BPM) that flip to double time (160-190) though I often keep the other instruments playing at their original tempo so it’s just double time drums. One reason I do this is just because good riffs sound good backed by slow or fast drums and also because my stuff is almost all flat tempo in the sequencer so this adds more tempo variety. But I, sadly, don’t do gradual tempo changes due to DAW limitations. So, now slowing down or speeding up.

I made a conscious choice not to do any tempo doubling/halving in my track Bright Side Of The Sun. Not something I want to do in every track.

“I always think your stuff is really clever”

Thanks. It kind of has to be due to the odd and sort of lazy way I work. I don’t properly compose these pieces but jam away until things take some shape. So, I’m forever trimming little bits here and there and having to force transitions to work. When I play over the different looped sections, I often have no idea where they’re going so have to use a bit of ingenuity to get pleasant-sounding transitions. I often use drum hits to mask awkward edits or audio pops etc.

Yes, synth at 8:30 I think is the trance one. Modified synth patch is called ‘Trance Pluck’. Emotive sound but not one I’ve ever used before.

“a bit acidic and mental which is something I wasn't expecting.”

Yes, not sure it really fits this track and would perhaps be better suited to one of my more badass tracks. But it’s kind of fun and indeed right up your dance music street.

Could have gone on for way longer with this one but managed to keep it just under 11 mins so can squeeze it on the site as a crystal clear, audiophile’s wet dream of 128K MP3.

Thanks, FreeRad.

Sorry for slow reply but it's a good one.

Good point about not much Loop activity. Still damn those who failed to offer feedback on my nice tracks, bro.

Wide pan first synth intro was just a placeholder I intended to improve later. I got so used to it I decided it was more than good enough. Nice string and heavenly voice stuff comes in so it builds suitably.

Not sure why you didn't like notes at 1:00, 1:13, 1:23 but that can be hard to explain. They're two note chords I think are in the scale/mode I'm using (whatever the hell that is, I wouldn't know) but a bit melancholy. No doubt minor key stuff.

1:53 funky guitar riff was the foundation of all grooving in this track (it even returns at 10:32). Bassline is pumping underneath. I really surprised myself with how well the lead slide turned out. I made it go on for a lot longer than planned. The huge boost happened when I picked up that bass g and got funky at 3:12 - gives the track so much more depth. Synth bass was cool but that bass g offers so much more. The bass playing is returned to and plays a lot in the fast second half.

Wah on the resonator could have worked and I have done it a bit in the past. I only have one wah plugin Cubase effect so maybe should try it out. But I think that resonator does everything I want it to. 3:51, 4:08, 4:14 spine tingling high notes!

And then a key change at 4:19.

4:42 keys are quite beautiful. I also use a filter swept effect at various times that I've used in a good few tracks to make them more far out and dream-like eg 4:59, 4:14 etc. The keys continue into the new swing jazz section. And with more, quite different lead resonator. Really surprised how much slide is in this track. Who else makes slide guitar music like this?

Regarding not enough keys in swing jazz section, it's all keys 5:16-5:39, which seemed enough. I'm no great keyboard player!

6:46 pause. I had to have some way of bridging return to main theme. Sometimes a chillout stop after fast drumming works brilliantly. And gives people a welcome break from incessant deep grooves.

9:36 calm before storm is just allowing that trance lead to be heard without fat drums. Classic dance trick there. Another little rest of banging drums for listeners. And then go wild at at 9:58.

And then I'm zapping shit up at the end with my "laser show". Not my fave sound but works OK here.

"I'd like to see you get a little more dangerous and outside the Static box."

Not totally sure what that means. I've got some new things in this track (eg laser show trance) plus lots of good old old. Maybe you mean more evil and badass but it's not that sort of track.

"safe enough for the theme song for Heaven"

Look: if you want more badass, you should just go to hell. I'm convinced that's where you'll go - just for the soundtrack! You might even be composing it. Perhaps you'll live in heaven but do contract work for hell on the sly...

Yo.

So hard to say how long it takes to put this complex, lengthy stuff together. Many different sessions of varying lengths. I’ve made this one over the last 2-3 weeks whilst working on others as well as having a week’s break when it was pissing me off. So, pretty quickly made for me.

Yes, I can get tired of listening to long pieces over and over again. However, it’s also a damn good test of whether parts/sections are good enough. With this one, I found myself enjoying listening to it over and over again – a good sign. I’m always amazed at how many small things I can keep improving when listening again and again (and to different parts) and taking some action over anything and everything that pisses me off in any way. So, endless little volume corrections and small touches of automation, guitar edits etc

One difficulty in making such long stuff is that I’m generally working on fairly short looped sections at a time so it can be hard to see how the whole thing is coming together. I always start every new session by listening to the whole thing from the start, just to familiarise myself with every sound and element present.

I like the phrase “the laser show” and agree it’s a bit odd. Probably doesn’t quite fit in this track, which is much more on the beautiful side. I do have an idea to fix that – vocode that laser sound with a more beautiful synth sound and see if they merge in a way that softens the laser. Or maybe I won’t bother. Laser craziness ain’t exactly my signature sound but it is kind of fun.

“I liked how the guitars took over and ended it all”

That’s mostly distorted bass that you’re hearing, not guitar, though there is also a return to the very first, funky clean guitar part heard in the track. Strange having clean guitar over distorted bass. And now it’s uptempo, racing stuff rather than the original mid tempo funky.
This track has actually been No1 on the intergalactic Thousand Year Track charts for the last 3,000 years.

“the 1,000 year version is beyond my listening capacity”
Not if you make it into my heaven. Lots of time there for you to bask in this musical millennium journey. Whilst munching on some mangoes.

“congrats on finally finishing up that one!”

Yeah, it took quite a bit of computer processing power and I had to incorporate about a thousand genres to keep things interesting. Some have never been heard on this planet. So, that’s something to look forward to if you make it into my heaven. That and all the mangoes.

Thanks again.

Greetings. Yes, first couple of minutes are probably some of my biggest ever chilling.

That's because this track is a continuation of my only proper drumless track that I've ever done, called Visible Aura. Not sure if you've heard it though I've now removed it as I have 50 tracks on here and have to delete one every time I upload a new one. That's even more chilled out than this.

All the synths in here are from Reason, same as in about 90% of my tracks.

"I think you have enough concepts here to make the entire full-album song, only by using the sounds of this track!"

Maybe though you could perhaps say the same about quite a few of my tracks. But I try hard not to use sounds too much and always introduce a few new synth sounds in every track I make. So, no way I would do a whole album just with this number of sounds.

"Your keyboard playing from 4:42 is very fine"

Thanks. I was actually thinking of you when doing that and was sure you'd like it. I think Crucethus will too.

I had to make sure those higher keyboard notes didn't interfere with any of the guitar parts so went and edited them carefully after playing (including lowering the velocity of many notes).

6:24 double time drums. Yes, I had to make that jazz section do something more interesting as it's the same sort of varied slide guitar playing on top. And that double time drum section is a taster of the heavier fast stuff that comes later.

"From 10:21 I can hear a different guitar electric playing (regular? vocoded?)"

No, that's just distorted bass guitar there (playing the same thing as the synth bass under it). No guitar though most people will probably think there is when they hear that sort of sound. But that's the distortion they're hearing.

Actually, at 10:32, the clean guitar part from 1:53 returns though I doubt many people will recognise it as pretty much the same part. It doesn't sound funky anymore because the drums aren't funky.

7:54 is the most obvious vocoded guitar section, though I use it subtly in various other places in the second half of the track eg 7:08. I've used that sort of vocoded FX setup on guitar parts in a few tracks eg There Goes Gravity though I always use a different chord to drive the vocoder's internal modulating synth sound (obviously, the right chord for the track).

"a very cool trance or electro type of a synth programming"

Yes, that synth at 8:28 is not the kind of sound I normally use. Classic trance there! But I didn't want to make this a typical trance track with boring drums and a lack of melody.

I don't know if you know that some people talk about a style of delta blues guitar playing that repeats and repeats and they call it 'trance blues'. You can hear some of that at 8:50. So, I was going for something you could call 'trance blues trance', even though that's a pretty shit name.

Have a listen for some of the little slide guitar bits in the breakdown section starting 9:36.

Glad you liked it as I was sure you would.