As part of my recent/current efforts to get more involved in tech stuff outside of work, I went along to the inaugural Hack Night Dublin.
There, amidst the pleasant combination of banter, beer and pizza, I cobbled together a little browser-based puzzle/maze game.
…which you can play here
(…also part of this “get involved” drive is using GitHub.)
Obviously huge room for improvement/development. Will hopefully find time to have a crack at it over the coming weeks.
Posted in game
Albums:
3. Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE [Spotify link]
2. Grimes - Visions [Spotify link]
1. The Raveonesttes - Observator [Spotify link]
Tracks:
3. Grimes – ‘Genesis’
2. Japandroids – ‘The House That Heaven Built’
1. Frank Ocean – ‘Pyramids’
Posted in listenings
Tagged Frank Ocean, Grimes, Japandroids, Raveonettes, The Raveonettes
Like the last Castaway, this was also a piece that came about during an RPM Challenge.
In this case, it was February 2009. I spent the first few days recording improvisations with various instruments. Later, I’d examine these, pick out bits I thought had potential and work them into songs – by writing things based on them or even directly sampling the improvised parts.
On this particular day (the 5th, I believe), I was tinkering with an electric guitar. I decided to resurrect one of my old Sonic Youth-esque tunings (F#F#C#C#BB – previously mentioned here) and see what happened.
I came up with two riff-based things I liked. In the secondary stage, I created song structures for them both and did “proper” recordings of them, with two guitar tracks and a bass track each.
The second of the two pieces eventually got lyrics, drums, some extra noise slathered on – and ended up being track two on the resulting album, I Am Doing This To Hurt You.
The first one went no further. It was left like this:
Given how reasonably serious and straight-faced the album ended up, it’s quite clear why this wasn’t going to find a place on it. It’s utterly ridiculous! The main riff is, frankly, quite obnoxious. It even has a shoehorned-in key-change! I don’t think I even attempted to put any words to it. Even know I can’t see how any vocal could possibly work.
Still though, there’s something about it I still like. It has a sort of circus-y feel to it or something. Actually, when I was naming the scratch recordings I’d made of those riffs, I had it in my mind to name this piece ‘Fun Fun Fun’, not the other one. I kept on meaning to swap them, too, but never got around to it.
Anyway. That’s it!
Again, if you want to do anything with it, it’s there under a Creative Commons licence.