Jazz about nothing

This is me returning to an old and familiar format, being that, house music mixed with a Jazz vibe. This is definitely the style that I feel more comfortable and the most pleasuring one for me.
In my opinion this two styles really make a perfect combination, the energy of house music, with its simple beats some hit hats and bass, put together with Jazz music, being that trumpets, sax or piano, just makes me light feeling.


 
I don’t know if it is the deepness or soul of the house music or the improvisation of the “doing what you feel” of the Jazz vibe that makes this mixture so especial to me but the fact is that I feel very comfortable when creating this type of sound.
“Jazz about nothing”  is a music that invokes some very positive feelings and definitely brings some good memories from my young days when venturing trough the dance music world.

My first contact with this style of music was at a friend’s house. He was showing me is record collection and immediately one of its records called my attention. It was an old vinyl record with only two tracks, one on each side.
The record was poorly wrapped in a white paper cover and had written at hand in big black letters just the words “made in New Jersey”.
I removed the record from its packaged and put it on my friend’s turntable. As soon as the record started playing I knew that I was being presented with something deeply life changing, at least for me, it was like my musical sensibility had been slapped causing the elimination of musical barriers I didn’t know that existed.

This slap in the face moment was a turning point for me and a big inspiration for my future as an amateur music producer. Obviously there were other genres and styles of music that influenced my musical preferences and tastes but this Jersey house music vibe really caused a great impression and marked my musical life forever.

“Jazz about nothing” is a reflection of those influences; this music is marked by Jersey vibes like the deepness of the house beat accompanied by the funky repetitive bass and complemented by the jazzy vibe of the immersive trumpet riffs.
Summarizing this music is pure house music, at least as I imagine pure house music should sound.

Hope You enjoy.

The "French touch"

French House is a term that defines a genre of house music, one of my favorite genres and a very popular style particularly in the 1990s and 2000s.

This form of Euro Disco is known by its heavy reliance on filter and phaser effects and also by the use of late 1970s and early 1980s American or European disco sounds, loops or samples.

Daft Punk and Cassius

Daft Punk, Cassius and Etienne de Crécy are just some of the few French Artists’ that inspired a whole generation with this exceptional genre of house music.
Music’s like “Le patron est devenu fou !” and “Prix Choc” from the Etienne de Crécy Super Discount album and “Around the World” and "Revolution 909" of the Daft Punk Homework album are some good examples of what the “French touch “ is capable of and were responsible for the success of the genre throughout the dance clubs all around the world.

The “neu-disco” is a term that is commonly used to indentify this music genre, as the “French touch”- But what is French House?

French house consists of three main music styles, the space disco sound, Euro Disco and also the influences of the deep American House music with special emphasis on funky repetitive sound vibes.

This particular mixture of sounds was the inspiration that I used when creating the “Lost in France” track. This music relies on the use of retro sounds, samples and loops. It has a disco and space vibe with a small touch of funky bass.

In the end this music brings me some great memories and was one of the most pleasuring productions I’ve done so far.

Hope You enjoy. 

Music from a vision

Creating music from a vision and interpreting it to reality is nearly impossible, and that was how "technology" was born, messing around with various layers trying to execute my vision and failing miserably. This seems to be a common aspect in all my productions. Normally I have an idea and start working on it. By default I begin my focus on creating the base line of the music winch can be the beat the bass or the melody.

Sometimes I struggle on this part and it´s easy to distract from my path and divert on a different route. 

This is where things start to get messy, when experimenting and creating sounds and loops that fit with the music vibe it’s easy to find one that immediately transforms in another idea and distracts me from my main objective.

That was exactly what happened with “technology”, at first I was looking for a progressive house vibe but after finding the bass I decided to see how it sounded in a slower tempo, so I reduce the music speed from the initial 125 bpm to 110 bpm, mixed the bass with a synth sound and there it was a completely different result of what was initially intended. 

After this there was no way back and I just let myself go and continued working on this new vision.

“technology” is a electronic music that as a French vibe to it, again the futuristic cyber-punk feeling is there although in a more timid presence. 

Strong on melody this music is filled with synth loops and piano and flute reefs, complemented by strings to give more depth, this gives this music a Dream vibe that is masked by a Breackbeat drum loop that modernizes the music without disrupting its personality. 

In the end I found that I've created something original and good to the point I needed to share with the world.

Hope You enjoy.

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.

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.

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.