Emperor Tritone - StaticNomad

Jazetal greetings.

Not seen your name before on here.

Hard exactly to say why jazz and metal are supposed not to work. Maybe because musicians from those worlds are seen as very different, though I guess long before you had metal, jazz was the scene in which to be somewhat outrageous and take lots of drugs and alcohol etc. Though not one in which you had an ugly, unartistic mess of tattoos (that seems to be pretty much every genre of music and area of society these days).

But it's very rare that you get a jazz instrument (other than drums or bass guitar, obviously) in a metal band. Here I've got distorted Rhodes in my metal as well as an evil synth horn. So, two jazz-related instruments mixed in with the metal. You don't really get much heavy, distorted guitar in a jazz setting. Or metal kits smashing cymbals and doing furious double kick work (also here). So, aside from jazz-metal being rare, it seems that you hardly ever get the different components entering each other's musical worlds. Though I do know of a proper metal band whose lead instrument really is piano (not distorted). A very good piano player too.

One exception would be some of the more avant garde modern noisy jazz bands in which they have atonal screeching sax playing and so on (not my kind of thing). But they rarely have any heavy guitar. It's more "freaky jazz" than jazz-metal but still heading towards the more extreme side of things.

Yes, the dissonances are kind of fun and there's a big emphasis in here on the tritone (or flattened fith), hence the title. I'm mostly about trying to find beautiful sets of notes as I try to keep everything melodic. But, when you get it right, there can be a certain beauty in dissonance and weirdness. I find it helps if you make it groovy.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and I'm glad the track never got boring.

I'd rather be bad than bland.

OK, you dirty old animated rat.

Greetings.

Unexpectedly good is always a good thing, I think. Probably better than predictably good. You've got to be a little nervous if you hear "hey, it's jazz-metal" as that stands a good chance of being fairly awful.

I have no idea if jazz-metal is a subculture. Most probably not and I doubt it will catch on.

I wonder what sort of clothing jazz metallers would wear. Maybe a combo of swinging 20s smart clothing and more modern black leather, tattoos (not that they're clothing) and long hair etc. Hard to say, really.

Rhodes is perhaps the star of the early portion of this track (along with clean, grooving guitar). And then the metal guitars take over in the middle. But I also combine distorted Rhodes with the guitars (and synth horn) at various points. Sometimes disortion, wah and other delays on the Rhodes just to crunch it up a bit more.

I'm pretty sure there also isn't much Rhodes metal. That instrument and that genre never seem to go together (except here).

Thanks for your thoughts.

If you would like to hear another unusual recent metal track from me, check out Valvedriven here:

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/163181

Hi. The intro before the Rhodes and cymbals arrive on 0:21 is just one evolving synth instrument, no sitar. I think it's also just one note. I automate a control to make the sound change and open up to become brighter (and remind you of a sitar). Yes, good for ambient meditation music.

Flutes are not used in many of my tracks, just 3 or 4 that I can think of right now. Yes, usually in the background though in Fly Yes Land No they are lead somewhere around 9 mins (flute metal). The Ozrics have more lead flute as they had an actual flute player (who I've hung out with a few times).

"vocoded voice" around 1:19 is filtered EQ swept violin, a sound have used in many tracks eg A Little Bit Of Infinity, The Bigger The Fatter The Better, Right Place Wrong Century etc.

Yes, synth horn at 2:55 has a very evil sound and I automate the effects (and MOD wheel) to make it more aggressive.

No, not quite the same sequences during the heavy sections as the riffs change quite a bit. MrWolf thought the metal section was very different, as if I had another heavy track that I just stuck inbetween two jazz sections. The metal section still had the emphasis on the tritone but the basslines do change as well.

I knew you'd like the jazz and also thought you wouldn't know what to say about the metal because you don't really know about that genre. Yes, hopefully better than most of the metal on the site. Probably a bit more unusual.

Rhodes playing at the end is maybe too short but it seems to flow comfortably. And I am trying to make shorter tracks these days. I hope you noticed that there is quite a bit of distorted Rhodes in heavy sections eg 3:04 and also 7:41. And there's a wah effect somtimes on the Rhodes.

Good luck with your monosynth.

I would like to collaborate with people but most of all in person, not online, so that we can share the experience and talk about ideas and not have to exchange emails. And so that I know who I am dealing with as I have had many collaboration disappointments. So I don't really look to collaborate online with people though I suppose I am still open to the idea. Maybe I will think of something to suggest to you. I could perhaps send you the start of a track that I am really having trouble taking any further to see if you could add anything I like (probably). Some good playing might then inspire some good playing from me.

Just an idea.

OK. Doesn't really matter.

Thanks. I try hard to make interesting music that I've never heard made before.

It's perhaps just a few synth touches (eg the very first intro sound) that give this a slightly futuristic feel. Otherwise, I guess there's a lot of old roots jazz and blues (and metal, to some extent) in here.

Good to hear you liked the mix as well. I think most of the sounds are fairly clear though I'm sure it could be beter still.

My only extremely minor disagreement is regardig your 'heavy rock' term. I'd say this contains extremeley heavy rock ie metal. No big deal.

Thanks again.

Yo.

Yeah, I guess a bit less psychedelic - perhaps just a different type of psych vibe rather than my more usual beautiful, funky psych stuff. Darker and weirder this time though I never like to go too weird. Gotta keep it melodic and groovy.

I was really planning to disagree with you about the blues thing but I've listened more since your comment and thought hard about it and now partly agree. There is some cool blues playing from guitar (comes naturally to me) but I still hear the Rhodes as being much more jazzy. I have no idea how to play jazz or any other style as I'm a self-taught feel player who doesn't read music or really know any music theory. Give me a good swing groove and I can play in a jazzy way, otherwise I won't/can't.

I like the "jewelry" term. I guess my use of effects and stuff is a bit like jewelry. Hopefully effective and not just pretty adornments with no susbstance underneath.

" I just like it when people break the rules"

That's pretty much my aim with every track. I'm only really interested in creating something new that I can't hear anywhere else. Even if it's not brilliant, I can still be proud of its ambition and intent to do something different.

2:55 is where the big, evil synth horn sound comes in. I think that's what inspired the metal in this as that is a big, badass sound and just screamed "metal" to me. Well, that and the emphasis on the tritone (flattened fifth) in many parts of the track. See - I do know a tiny bit of music theory ie a few note names (oh, and major and minor scales, that's it).

No cello at 2:55. See my reply to Evisma about that so that I don't have to type it again. The new instrument is not gong too well, which is a shame (most expensive instrument I've ever bought but it does look nice) but hopefully it'll come alive when I get a bow. Only subtle cello in this track and it sounds more like double bass (as it's plucked).

" theremin sounding instrument" is a string part plus filtering and delays. Pretty evil and just playing the main horn theme. Haunting stuff. Also returns in the penultimate track section though Evisma didn't like it.

" definite ending, which we don't hear all the time from you."

Hey, you know that my tracks have definite endings. I still haven't done a fadeout. They don't have endings at all on Looperman when they're over 11 mins. But I almost always put a link up to the full thing elsewhere.

Yes, I think the mix on this pretty good. A rather beautiful-looking waveform (and you can clearly see where the metal is). I'm not quite sure why it looks like that but there seems to be some real balance in sounds or something. People who know more about the technicalities of audio might be able to explain it to me.

Take care and glad you like the jazetal.

Hi.

Yes, more dark swinging stuff could be just what the world needs. Maybe it will improve us as a species and encourage the aliens to finally make first contact with us:

"Hey, we were just waiting for you to make some really cool, dark swinging jazz metal before we accepted you into our universal club. Congratulations".

Jazz and metal are hard things to successfully combine and I'm not sure I've heard many people even try. Some that I have heard has been on the bizarre, weird, avant garde experimental side of things. But my music is nothing like that. There is one group that does really creative metal on top of a fast, swinging bass and drums platform. But their style is nothing like this one. It's also not bizarre, weird or avant garde.

They're called Diablo Swing Orchestra and their album The Butcher's Ballroom is well worth checking out.

I love that synth horn sound and find it quite evil. But a good type of evil, if that makes sense. So, the mischievous, playful devil rather than the nasty brutal one.

Thanks for you thoughts. I have no idea if I will make more jazz metal but it'll probably happen sometime. Many more genre crossovers to work on before then.

Here's a recent creative, very alternative metal track I made in honour of Looperman's Valvedriver. It's called Valvedriven:

http://www.looperman.com/tracks/detail/163181

Jazzy greetings with a sprinkling of metal on top.

Yes, first few minutes, once the groove kicks in are a laidback, cool swinging stuff that I find very inspirational to play instruments to. My favourite thing about all the clean/undistorted guitar in the track is that it's a single 11 minute take that I then chopped up and moved around a great deal to get what I wanted. There was no need to add any other clean guitar parts as everything required was in those 11 mins.

Understated bass is the synth bass that gets much more powerful in the heavier parts. Very little bass guitar in the heavy sections - just one synth bass sound plus a few bass guitar fills at certain points.

I love that synth horn sound and it really said "pure wailing evil" to me so inspired the freaky, heavy vibe.

"is the heavy part maintaining the spirit of the initial part?"

I like to think it is. The track title is a reference to the tritone (or flattened fifth) note that has a very dark and evil sound, especially when played like this. You can hear it in many parts of the track, including the first Rhodes chord. There's an emphasis on it in the heavy sections too.

"Only the gods can answer."

And me.

I certainly didn't come up with the heavy stuff as a separate track and then stuck it inbetween the cool, swinging jazz sections. No: the metal drums are also almost all swung grooves, just like the jazzier, quieter drum kits. And it's the same synth bass sound heavy and quiet and the wailing strings can be heard both heavy and quiet. It's really all one track so I hope it doesn't sound like something heavy and unrelated in the middle. Once I get properly heavy, I do go off into various different riffs that sound quite unconnected to the rolling jazz. But that's just me exploring more and more riffs.

Bass at 6:41. When working on that, I thought of you and that you would like it. It's funkier than everything else so that's probably why it stands out to you.

7:31-8:19 is the return to the big emphasis on the tritone. So, that section is me doing metal in a chilled, jazzy way and with no guitar. I thought of adding it but it didn't seem necessary. Rhodes is nicely distorted there. And there's some groovy bass guitar underneath. See also 3:04 for distorted Rhodes.

Yes, more jazz than metal. That's because I'm better at playing chillout cool groove stuff than metal. And also rapid metal riffs don't take very long. Cool chillout groove playing lasts longer so that's why it has a longer running time in the track.

Thanks for your thoughts and glad you liked most of my jazetal (jazz metal).