Sunday 22 April 2012

Inspirations and references

Inspiration is something that doesn’t grow on trees and is not a thing that you can buy at a convenience store. Inspiration is something that grows from a feeling a sensation a memory, when your happy or sad, when you look at the sea or out of your apartment window.
Inspiration is in fact everywhere and you just have to let yourself go and let it command your actions.
That was exactly what I’ve did in “normal days”, I’ve just picked some random sounds and went with the flow.

This track as several distinct but very important musical references and not all directly linked to the electronic music genre.
There’s still some references to artists like Air or Archive, that refer to a more electronic sound but for this production I’ve used mainly as inspiration the sounds of bands like Pink Floyd and Supertramp.
I know it may sound weird, and it may look difficult to understand how this two amazing rock bands can inspire a electronic production, but I didn’t create a Pink Floyd or a Super Tramp music with beat, instead I used the feelings that those bands invoke on me to create an original production that may, as it does to me, give the feeling of déjà vu.

Supertramp and Pink Floyd

Despite all the music references and inspirations this music still has its own identity and it is by its own right a good track.
“normal days” is a very melodic track that tries to push the boundaries of rock and electronic music to their limit, without compromising the inspiration and with the intention of universally link this two amazing but nevertheless different genres of music.

Hope You enjoy.


Monday 16 April 2012

House Technology - Part one

I feel the best way to review any music is to explain a little bit about their construction and what were the inspirations that lead to the final product.

For example, for the music “regardless of what you say”, I’ve got my inspiration on the classic House music sounds, the strong beat with 4 tempo Snare and Hit Hat accompanied by a funky Bass, simple but effective. I especially like the Bass sound that changes the music completely and sets the tone to the rest of the track.

After the first break a new sound is introduced. I’ve struggle on this part of the music and for a short time I almost give up on her. I’ve tried everything, Synths, Bass, Voice, Piano, Guitar and nothing worked. But then I remember, a very important rule that is – Keep it simple.
Almost by accident I found a Saxophone sample that with some simple twist, Distortion and echo effect, really workout perfectly.
This is very common on my productions, I try so hard to make an original sound that sometimes things get complicated and sometimes I forget this simple rule.

In the end in order to give this music some finishing quality touches, I’ve added some minor transition effects to smoothly connect the different parts of the music and also some Rhodes sounds that gave this music some personality.
And this is what “regardless of what you say” is, a simple music with strong beat and great melody.

Hope You enjoy.


Thursday 12 April 2012

Jazz, no question about it

On this production I've decided to go for a more traditional house vibe with a simple beat and some soft Jazz elements.
This translated in a more danceable music that despite at the beginning sounding somewhat a more commercial still manages to maintain its own unique identity. 

“Jazz” is by its own right a good track, simple beat, nice tunes and great melody. These three rules are the base foundations and serve as a guide for the rest of the creative process of the music 
The sounds and samples included on this music are all introduced in a slow and very smooth way into the track, this creates a very harmonic feeling were all sounds seem to blend perfectly.

There’s a sound that stands out from all other and that is the trumpet riff. This riff was introduced in order to give that Jazzy vibe that I so much like.
This sound gives that originality touch and at the same time helps to create a slower tempo illusion that helps to blend all the other sounds together.

I had some difficulty on finding a bass line that fitted with this music and at the last minute I’ve changed it completely and decided to mix two different basses that gave this music a somewhat funky feel.

And last but not list, so there is no doubt about the title of this track, you can ear throughout most part of the music a male voice continuously saying “Jazz”. Just by curiosity, after the beat this was the first sound to be included on the music.

Hope You enjoy.



Tuesday 10 April 2012

Velvet - original House music

“Velvet is the most commercial approach I’ve done so far to the electronic music genre. As inspiration I used the memories of the long nights spent at the Lisbon “Kremlin” dance club listening to the amazing music sets performed by the Portuguese “DJ Vibe”.

DJ Vibe performing
Those were some fantastic days. The years between the late 90th and 2005 were in my opinion one of the most fantastic and artistically productive eras to the electronic music genre.
Dance music was the thing and the electronic music bands started to flourish and get popular.
Bands like Prodigy, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Leftfield and so many others could be listen in almost every place and not only in dance clubs. It was usual to listen on the radio some wonderful house music mixing sets by the most famous Dj’s in the world.

With that in mind I began this creation by setting a Bass line, nothing fancy, just a regular Bass with a small twist in the end of the riff set winch elevates the bass note a few notes up. The drum beat is actually made out of two different riffs, the first one that can be heard right at the start of the music has a funky vibe that with the help of the equalizer had the bass reduced to the minimum in order to create a low-end stereo speaker effect.
The other drum beat is a simple four tempo beat that was used to give a more powerful feeling to the beat of the music.
The most important sounds of this music are the Synth, in total there are two main ones that have a crescendo sharp filter effect that is used throughout the most part of the music. This effect really gives some dynamic vibe to the track and is also used as a build up memento after the big break in the music.
Another sound that deserves to be mention is the jazzy piano riff that gives this music an original touch and also helps to break the monotony of the track.

About the title, you may ask why the name velvet? For some reason, that I cannot explain, this music reminds me of an old movie entitle “Blue Velvet”, so as an homage to one of the most wonderful and at the same time disturbing movie created by the master mind “David Lynch”, I’ve decided to call this music “Velvet”.

Hope You enjoy.





Sunday 8 April 2012

Small sense - no boundaries music

“small sense”, is until now the most ambitious music I have produced so far. I really can’t categorize this peace and that is mainly due to the fact that it was produced without any compromise.

Again you can see the Massive Attack influences, mainly on the dark and sad vibe that is sense throughout the entire music.
The music begins with a Blade Runner synth type of sound, winch gives a kind of eighties vibe immediately followed by a very immersive bass line reminiscent of the music “Angel” from the 1998 Massive Attack acclaimed album, “Mezzanine”. The beat is very simple but that exist only in this music to give the slow tempo that was initially desire for this production.

A second synth is used, and again that futuristic cyber punk feeling is present giving this music a unique personality.
Throughout the music several FX are used in order to give a more dynamic structure to the music, one of those effects is a police radio communication that with the help of a delay and distortion effect gives the music an original touch.
Trip hop, electronica or even downtempo labels may be used to define the music genre and I accept them all. But in the end the final product was achieve without rules or boundaries winch resulted in “small sense”.

Hope You enjoy.




Benevolence - A chillout music

“Benevolence” is a mix of Trip Hop and Jazz that combined makes a very powerful and unexpected result.

When I was making this music I really didn’t have something particular in mind and I just allowed myself to go with the flow. The only thing I was certain was that this music would have a more chill out approach.
I started with the beat winch I’ve got my inspiration on artists like Massive Attack, Portishead or even Thievery Corporation.
Then came the Bass selection, also a very important peace in this music, nothing fancy just a simple bass with some echo and delay effects that unexpectedly made a perfect match with the beat and gave the impression that they were meant to play together all the time.
The third and I believe the most important peace on this music is the trumpet riff, used in this music to give that jazz vibe, tuned with some distortion and delay effects to give a jazzier club sound.


This chill out music is, of all the productions I have made so far, one of my favorites and one that I’m really proud.

Hope You enjoy.






Mundo Louco - House of the 90th

The Halfgame was founded on October 15, 2010. For a long time I've been experimenting on music production and found myself with a substantial music library.
This was the best way I found in order to share those creations with the world.
"Mundo Louco" was one of my first productions. My inspiration was the vibe of the late 90th when House Music was the thing.
This progressive house music is based on 3 simple rules, simplicity, soft melody and harmony, there is also some small soul and disco vibe that was so popular at that time.
The long music break that culminates with a rising effect transports the music to an explosion of sounds that was kind of a mandatory thing on this type of music and was very popular at dance clubs.
The beat as an African vibe to it and I believe it complements, along with the bass, the music perfectly.

Hope you enjoy, and see you soon.




 
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