Posts Tagged ‘drum and bass’

Old Tracks: Why I Hate Dante

Posted 10 Jun 2009 — by karl
Category Music

Through my adolescence I became fascinated with the works of Dante Aligheri.  I read the Inferno a couple times in high school out of my own interest, and I continued to read it in my college years.   I have read multiple translations and have become somewhat of an Inferno scholar by doing so.

Spending as much time as I did reading the book, it became a natural source of inspiration for me.  Unfortunately, this inspiration came about in the form of terrible recurring nightmares about Hell, damnation, and the Devil.  A day came in about 2001, when I was just getting into music production, that I was able to focus all of this emotion into a song that I called “Why I Hate Dante”.  I finished the song in an afternoon, and I don’t remember doing much of it.  Looking back, creating the song was somewhat of a mystical experience for me.

This song remains to be some of my best work.  It has a strong trip-hop groove that evolves throughout the song until it finally reaches critical mass and turns into a thrilling drill and bass monster.  This is one of my longer works but I guarantee the tension justifies the entire length of the track.

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3_02

Posted 03 May 2009 — by karl
Category Music

This techy drum and bass track started, I think, with the rave stabs you hear through most of the song.  I felt the dub delay on them at about 0:53 really explored the space of the track in an interesting way, and the track built itself out from there.

All that space made things a little empty without something extra to push this along.  The “call and response” basslines in the second part add some much needed lightheartedness to the track, accentuating the rave influence and contrasting the general darkness of the production.

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Old Tracks: Turbulence

Posted 23 Apr 2009 — by karl
Category Music

Today, I’m resurrecting an old track from the archives that’s been a secret favorite of mine.  “Turbulence” is somewhat different from the majority of sounds I produce – I think it fits in with contemporary American drum and bass a little better than some other work(i.e. “Things You’ll Need to Know“). 

When I made it, I wanted the focus of “Turbulence” to be the keyboards in the background.  The bassline that rolls through the whole track holds the whole track together, and the keyboards add tension until the big grinding synth comes in in the middle. 

The name “Turbulence” came from the helicopter and airplane sound FX laced throughout the track, which add an incredible amount of atmosphere.  Generally I don’t use a lot of sound effects in production, but in this case, I knew they belonged from the beginning.  I think it was one of the first elements I put in. 

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2_11

Posted 20 Mar 2009 — by karl
Category Music

I wanted to create an atmospheric drum and bass track in the vein of LTJ Bukem’s work. This one took a while to churn out, but in the end i think it was worth it.  Listen close for the minimal drum break variations.  I consider them very important to the livelihood of this track.

Creepy note – this random beat’s ID number 2_11 happens to be the same as the running time on it – 2:11.  You can insert your own meaning/conspiracy theories about that.

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2_06

Posted 01 Feb 2009 — by karl
Category Music

I’m so excited for you to listen to this new track.  To me, it seems very similar to another drum & bass track I’ve done – “Things You’ll Need to Know”(You can listen to this song at my MySpace page, or the Soundclick page.  Links on the right).  The combination of agressive and sublime styles seems to work so well in many kinds of electronic music like d&b and hardhouse.

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1_13

Posted 21 Dec 2008 — by karl
Category Music

Last one before the new year is some pumped up, acidic drum and bass to get you ready for the biggest party of the year.

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Lunik – Weather(Karl D mix)

Posted 19 Nov 2008 — by karl
Category Music

Years ago, I entered a remix contest for the band Lunik.  For those of you who don’t know, Lunik is a Swiss pop/trip hop(a la Cardigans) band featuring the lovely Jaël as the lead singer.  She has also done a couple tracks with Canadian group Delerium.

Lunik held the contest to promote their new album “Weather”.  The objective was to remix the title track from the album.

I entered the following to the contest.  I felt the tune was perfect for a dnb/trip hop treatment, but I needed to slow it way down to match the tempo I had in mind.  You may find the timestretching of the samples sounds obviously “fragmented” in some places because of this.

Sadly, I didn’t win the contest.  Either it was because I was American or they just plain didn’t like it.  I still feel it’s some of my best work.  I’ll let you make up your own mind.

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Lunik – Weather(Karl D Mix)

1_03

Posted 09 Oct 2008 — by karl
Category Music

Just a little bite.  Minimal, techy d&b.

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