bavab bavab *** fire petals in the sky ***
1. the toy - this is a perfect beginning for our album.
the toy-gone-psycho was played using the circuit-bent keyboard
of scott & georgia's (our il corral flatmates) and was made during
one of our circuit-bending workshops.
2. bicycle kitchen - this piece went through three remakes
before it came out as it is now.
it is a keyboard and vox piece. we played it live on a few occasions,
but had to record it from scratch with all newly improvised and scored music.
it is a tribute to the bicycle kitchen.
>>> as they sat alone / as if they'd always known / traffic fell away and they flew
/ the street and the sidewalk / opened up to them / together <<< ***
... averting catastrophe can only take care of so much ... ***
<<< all the dreams are real / as we make what we feel / from the raw we perceive
/ forging backbones made of steel / generating enough will / to overcome
/ to still believe >>>
3. bubble gum circuit - this piece is a mix between fluffy beats made in Reaktor,
with circuit-bent toys and mixer feedback.
4. the rat song - the first bavab bavab song ever recorded.
this piece was painstaking made in max/MSP, and we stayed up
night after night making a new max patch for each individual section.
stane likes how christie says "black metal" in the lyrics. that makes him happy.
this song is about our neighborhood at the time, about the details of it, an
d the way it felt and breathed and how time moved.
it is about many many things all at once...
<<< at the black metal gates / looking out to alley way
/ two pairs of shoes hang on the line / rustling of can scavengers
/ birdsong & traffic / new graffiti on the freeway sign / just you and the rats
/ creep between the wharehouse stacks / curve scuffed slat stones
hide the silent crimes / just you and the rats / creep between the warehouse stacks
/ and scrounge for left out leftovers ... {{{ the moon teeth reflect
/ in the still asphalt pools / as darkness moves into brisk dawn
/ the dumpster caress of bottles & clutter / under duress faces light
/ what a night }}} ... <<< at the black metal gates / looking in to alleyway
/ two eyes latch on the prize in the cage / nimble fingers catch
/ birdsong . traffic / new graffiti tagged / some divine sign >>>
5. supple step observed - this is a concept piece, a multi-layered process piece.
for the first layer we cut and paste music with scissors and glue from scores
by everyone from beethoven to webern. after we made a collage,
we inserted the notes into a staff on the computer, and that is the piano part you hear.
we then composed parts for bass clarinet, violin, and trumpet (which we later took out)
based on the piano part. we then took a vader song and cut up really short clips
and added these "hits" into the right places, then made some beats in reaktor
using the random generator on the "newscool patch," and placed these
in the correct places; once we did that christie did some vocal improv over all this
and we improvised on found percussion and ran it through a distortion pedal.
finally, we took a few samples we had taken from hanging a c1000 mic
over a drum kit during a death metal show, and spliced a few of these
in between parts. it took six months to make this 1 minute song.
6. between - an ill-fated halloween ringtone (wouldn't you love this on your cell?)
7. love ether - one of the few songs we play live. this was played live at zero-point
with some "post-production" beats added in. our good friend dustin (actuary)
making noise on top of our pop experiment.
<<< and everyone knows which way the grass grows / how are we defying gravity
/ its all little shows the baggage you coax / out of your psyche
leaves you high & dry /// and then there are those who find no repose
/ the war is fought inside / what do you suppose is the antidote
/ what you needs already here / already here >>>
8. birds of prey - ring ring
9. music from the b'nyfxctdg planet
this piece was for an installation of an alien solar system - soundwalk 2008
STANE'S COMMENTS: - this song is revolutionary for me for three reasons.
1. Because I made it entirely in Max/MSP (using samples),
Before this I had never made a song entirely in Max before.
2. I created a new structure in which to write music, which is not based on
any known structure I had been taught, where the program decides when
and where things happen, not me. By this I mean I made a sequencer
that does not function by the same rules as say, Pro Tools.
Although it does have a sort of CABCABCABC structure to it,
everytime the computer plays the piece, it sounds different.
3. It was also my most Zen piece, because I did not strive to create anything,
I just spent a little time on it everyday, programming without any goal in mind.
In this way, I think it was appropriate for the installation it was used for,
because the assignment called for a song written on another planet by aliens.
This composing technique is alien for me, because I usually have the end in mind,
and painstakingly try to create my vision. Samples were all taken from
live concerts recording during 2002-2004 from the lighting booth
at the ROD music hall at CalArts.
10. oh home in shadows - this is the same concept as on the supple step observed.
we cut and pasted the piano part, but also cut and pasted christie's vocal part as well.
then we took samples from those two elements, and
cut them up to make beats for the song.
this was released on macro-eden records compilation of 45 second songs.
11. sirenstatic - STANE'S COMMENTS : The next three songs were created the same way.
As I had mentioned before, I had put a c1000 mic over a drum kit during a death metal concert.
I filled up a whole zip disk full of these samples on my Roland SP-808.
I used the internal sequencer to make sort of "songs" out of these samples.
I also took samples of a dying Ampex tape machine that made noisy sounds,
and used these in the songs as well. During shows, I would play these songs
and Christie and I would improvise over them, sometimes using the Ampex.
That is also what we did on the recording here; we played them
into the room at Zero-Point and ran around our loft singing and smashing things.
12. screaming gorge
13. electrical storm - this piece was created in the same way as the previous two,
but also utilizes a technique invented by steve reich called "phasing"
in which two of the exact same samples are looped together,
except one is a tiny bit shorter, creating new rhythms for the duration of the piece.
14. improv #137 - this was an improvised piece played live with Frank Moore
sitting three feet in front of us. truly inspiring. we used all the noise ammunition
we had at the time for this one. a fourteen stop delay patch in max/MSP
( will explain in more depth at another time), a complex delay patch on my sampler,
samples from me beating on metal through mixer feedback, samples of metal bands,
kaoss Pad, and other gear. christie was singing, screaming, chanting,
and playing a Yamaha DX-21.
1. the toy - this is a perfect beginning for our album.
the toy-gone-psycho was played using the circuit-bent keyboard
of scott & georgia's (our il corral flatmates) and was made during
one of our circuit-bending workshops.
2. bicycle kitchen - this piece went through three remakes
before it came out as it is now.
it is a keyboard and vox piece. we played it live on a few occasions,
but had to record it from scratch with all newly improvised and scored music.
it is a tribute to the bicycle kitchen.
>>> as they sat alone / as if they'd always known / traffic fell away and they flew
/ the street and the sidewalk / opened up to them / together <<< ***
... averting catastrophe can only take care of so much ... ***
<<< all the dreams are real / as we make what we feel / from the raw we perceive
/ forging backbones made of steel / generating enough will / to overcome
/ to still believe >>>
3. bubble gum circuit - this piece is a mix between fluffy beats made in Reaktor,
with circuit-bent toys and mixer feedback.
4. the rat song - the first bavab bavab song ever recorded.
this piece was painstaking made in max/MSP, and we stayed up
night after night making a new max patch for each individual section.
stane likes how christie says "black metal" in the lyrics. that makes him happy.
this song is about our neighborhood at the time, about the details of it, an
d the way it felt and breathed and how time moved.
it is about many many things all at once...
<<< at the black metal gates / looking out to alley way
/ two pairs of shoes hang on the line / rustling of can scavengers
/ birdsong & traffic / new graffiti on the freeway sign / just you and the rats
/ creep between the wharehouse stacks / curve scuffed slat stones
hide the silent crimes / just you and the rats / creep between the warehouse stacks
/ and scrounge for left out leftovers ... {{{ the moon teeth reflect
/ in the still asphalt pools / as darkness moves into brisk dawn
/ the dumpster caress of bottles & clutter / under duress faces light
/ what a night }}} ... <<< at the black metal gates / looking in to alleyway
/ two eyes latch on the prize in the cage / nimble fingers catch
/ birdsong . traffic / new graffiti tagged / some divine sign >>>
5. supple step observed - this is a concept piece, a multi-layered process piece.
for the first layer we cut and paste music with scissors and glue from scores
by everyone from beethoven to webern. after we made a collage,
we inserted the notes into a staff on the computer, and that is the piano part you hear.
we then composed parts for bass clarinet, violin, and trumpet (which we later took out)
based on the piano part. we then took a vader song and cut up really short clips
and added these "hits" into the right places, then made some beats in reaktor
using the random generator on the "newscool patch," and placed these
in the correct places; once we did that christie did some vocal improv over all this
and we improvised on found percussion and ran it through a distortion pedal.
finally, we took a few samples we had taken from hanging a c1000 mic
over a drum kit during a death metal show, and spliced a few of these
in between parts. it took six months to make this 1 minute song.
6. between - an ill-fated halloween ringtone (wouldn't you love this on your cell?)
7. love ether - one of the few songs we play live. this was played live at zero-point
with some "post-production" beats added in. our good friend dustin (actuary)
making noise on top of our pop experiment.
<<< and everyone knows which way the grass grows / how are we defying gravity
/ its all little shows the baggage you coax / out of your psyche
leaves you high & dry /// and then there are those who find no repose
/ the war is fought inside / what do you suppose is the antidote
/ what you needs already here / already here >>>
8. birds of prey - ring ring
9. music from the b'nyfxctdg planet
this piece was for an installation of an alien solar system - soundwalk 2008
STANE'S COMMENTS: - this song is revolutionary for me for three reasons.
1. Because I made it entirely in Max/MSP (using samples),
Before this I had never made a song entirely in Max before.
2. I created a new structure in which to write music, which is not based on
any known structure I had been taught, where the program decides when
and where things happen, not me. By this I mean I made a sequencer
that does not function by the same rules as say, Pro Tools.
Although it does have a sort of CABCABCABC structure to it,
everytime the computer plays the piece, it sounds different.
3. It was also my most Zen piece, because I did not strive to create anything,
I just spent a little time on it everyday, programming without any goal in mind.
In this way, I think it was appropriate for the installation it was used for,
because the assignment called for a song written on another planet by aliens.
This composing technique is alien for me, because I usually have the end in mind,
and painstakingly try to create my vision. Samples were all taken from
live concerts recording during 2002-2004 from the lighting booth
at the ROD music hall at CalArts.
10. oh home in shadows - this is the same concept as on the supple step observed.
we cut and pasted the piano part, but also cut and pasted christie's vocal part as well.
then we took samples from those two elements, and
cut them up to make beats for the song.
this was released on macro-eden records compilation of 45 second songs.
11. sirenstatic - STANE'S COMMENTS : The next three songs were created the same way.
As I had mentioned before, I had put a c1000 mic over a drum kit during a death metal concert.
I filled up a whole zip disk full of these samples on my Roland SP-808.
I used the internal sequencer to make sort of "songs" out of these samples.
I also took samples of a dying Ampex tape machine that made noisy sounds,
and used these in the songs as well. During shows, I would play these songs
and Christie and I would improvise over them, sometimes using the Ampex.
That is also what we did on the recording here; we played them
into the room at Zero-Point and ran around our loft singing and smashing things.
12. screaming gorge
13. electrical storm - this piece was created in the same way as the previous two,
but also utilizes a technique invented by steve reich called "phasing"
in which two of the exact same samples are looped together,
except one is a tiny bit shorter, creating new rhythms for the duration of the piece.
14. improv #137 - this was an improvised piece played live with Frank Moore
sitting three feet in front of us. truly inspiring. we used all the noise ammunition
we had at the time for this one. a fourteen stop delay patch in max/MSP
( will explain in more depth at another time), a complex delay patch on my sampler,
samples from me beating on metal through mixer feedback, samples of metal bands,
kaoss Pad, and other gear. christie was singing, screaming, chanting,
and playing a Yamaha DX-21.
back