TUNE

#10. RUDELING ARRIVES is the tenth and final track for TUNE.  It lives deep in the intersection of music and sound design where things squeak, sproing, splat and whirr. The story is about a character named Rudeling. Here’s how I described him to Scot: Rudeling is a personable fellow, very polite, but cannot keep himself from overdoing nearly everything and that frustrates him. He’s also quite scattered. Rudeling almost always overdresses. 

In RUDELING ARRIVES he’s wearing a tuxedo to a pool party, not to be funny or to make a statement, but just because it made him feel sharp and spiffy when he was getting dressed. Once at the party, he also overdoes it.  It occurs in the music from 1:48 to 2:43, the slowed down section (I call it the “Underwater section).

Rudeling gets the idea to strap 15lb dumbbells to his feet, and maybe flippers, and then steps off the edge of the pool, fully dressed into the deep end.  He’s practicing walking underwater on the pool floor while holding his breath.

One other thing, not actually in this tune might give you some insight into Rudeling’s character. He’s born to privilege, yet he dreams of being an average Joe. But he keeps forgetting how to do it.  For example, at dinner, if a woman stands up to leave the table, he jumps to his feet, and clicks his heels. Then remembers that this isn’t a contemporary gesture, so he sits back down, a bit embarrassed.  But he invariably forgets the lesson and does the same thing as soon as she comes back to the table. I picture Rudeling as perhaps 50% Cary Grant, 50% John Candy.

* * *

RUDELING ARRIVES is the tenth and final track released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released solely by means of Social Media, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks starting on January 23, 2011, a new track including a new Scot Howard illustration, has been released here and on http://MylesMarlow.com

There’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAERNfSscBw  Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project, http://DigitalButterfly.com

#9. THE CREEP has three named parts.. The first is “Stumbling in the Dark with Marge.” The second is “Stumble Then Freeze” and the final one is “The Creep.”

”Stumbling in the Dark with Marge” began with its title. I was thinking about how pizzicato strings could be the musical cousin to the painter’s technique of pointillism. Which led to the title as a textual rhythmic nod to “Sunday in the Park with George.” In “Stumbling” I wanted to play with extra beats, stressing normally unstressed beats and have generally a lot of lurching and angularity.

It moves into “Stumble and Freeze” which is about things you hear, or imagine you hear, when it gets dark, really dark. But then even this resolves … into “The Creep.” Thank goodness, or maybe not? I just can’t imagine a better illustration for all of this than what Scot Howard came up with.

The actual Creep theme came to me while I was testing out a new reverb plugin. I ultimately got rid of the reverb, but I kept the theme.

* * *

THE CREEP is the ninth of ten tracks released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album TUNE by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album ever to be released solely by means of Social Media only, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, is released here and on http://MylesMarlow.com

But there’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends, link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi66DLbDwwE

The tenth and final track is called RUDELING ARRIVES and will be released here next Monday, March 28, 2011. Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project, http://DigitalButterfly.com

#8. DISTURBALON has a darker and denser presence than the other pieces in TUNE. I imagined it as a cold war era, industrial landscape, a place that no longer saw much of the sun. It uses a full orchestra, but most of the melodic writing is for the lower range players, the bassoon, cellos, French horns and trombones.

This was one of the first illustrations that Scot Howard did for TUNE.  When I saw it, it confirmed he was the ideal artist for the project.  At one of our early meetings I told him a minimal amount of background, but he sure got it and captured my music in color, shadow and attitude.   

I’ve looked for but haven’t found any feral cats in DISTURBALON. They must be slinking in the shadows, hiding well out of sight.

* * *

DISTURBALON is the eighth of ten tracks released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released solely by means of Social Media only, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, will be released here and on http://MylesMarlow.com

There’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: DISTURBALON has a darker and denser core than the other pieces in TUNE. I imagined it as a cold war era, industrial landscape, a place that no longer saw much of the sun. It uses a full orchestra, but most of the melodic writing is for the lower range players, the bassoon, cellos, French horns and trombones.

This was one of the first illustrations that Scot Howard did for TUNE.  When I saw it, it confirmed he was the ideal artist for the project.  At one of our early meetings I told him a minimal amount of background, but he sure got it and captured my music in color, shadow and attitude.   

I’ve looked for but haven’t found any feral cats in DISTURBALON. They must be slinking in the shadows, hiding well out of sight.

* * *

DISTURBALON is the eighth of ten tracks released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released solely by means of Social Media only, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, will be released here and on http://MylesMarlow.com

There’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqc9SDCJ6oY The ninth track will be released here next Monday, March 21, 2011

Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project, http://DigitalButterfly.com

#7. ELF PARADE in Trampoline Town is about bouncing, echoes, and objects in mirrors that are closer than they appear. 

It takes place on Elvennacht, a holiday that happens every few centuries on the last Friday of February.  We don’t know how they celebrated it the last time,  but this year, elves from all over the world appeared in the woods surrounding Trampoline Town and waited for it to close for the night. Once the park was locked up, the elves went in.

Elves do what they call a Parade. It’s a very confusing sight for the few human eyes that have seen it. The elves wear anything from fine costumes to rags. Physical laws are suspended. Gravity is applied randomly.  Even the size of the elves changes from very, very tiny to gargantuan and back.

* * *

ELF PARADE IN TRAMPOLINE TOWN is the seventh of ten tracks released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released completely, and solely by means of Social Media only, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, will be released here and on http://MylesMarlow.com

There’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq5QdUXQMDk The eighth track will be released here next Monday, March 14, 2011

Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project,http://DigitalButterfly.com

#6. SKYGLIDER 4000 was the music I wrote while thinking about flying in a glider over New Zealand’s incredible and varied countryside with a video camera.  Perhaps I wrote the music because I wasn’t in New Zealand. And I didn’t have a glider or a video camera. But I did have a piano, and a big pile of percussion instruments to bang on.

Of the 10 pieces in TUNE, this one has the highest altitude and point of view. The music comes from just below the clouds. The first week’s track, CRUISE CONTROL was pretty squarely at street level. RENDERED SKINNY’s perspective was from the rooftop. CHOPPERS IN LOW was above any houses but well below the clouds. And SKYGLIDER now looks down from about 3000 feet.

Originally, I called this TIGHTROPE, but I got stuck. I try to pay attention to the stories and titles that belong to the music and until I imagine the story right, the music often doesn’t develop. From the beginning, I knew this one was not taking place on the ground, but up in the air. I liked the title, TIGHTROPE and I very much liked the musical implications of balance and wobble and showmanship. But I only had a few lines written when I came up with that title. The problem was it was the Right Title for the Wrong Story.

I was disappointed because I really did want to write that TIGHTROPE music, but I also wanted to use my theme. I had been looking at it from 20-30 feet in the air, when it really needed to be higher. Usually, by the time I figure these things out, the music comes fairly quickly. But I had one last false start. I thought my high-flying vehicle might be a magical one, like Harry Potter’s broom. But that didn’t work either, since that also wanted a different style of music, one that was lighter and twistier. What was needed was to be much higher. 3000 feet. Soaring on thermals. The title, SKYGLIDER 4000 came moments after this realization. And I wrote, recorded, and mixed the music in three days.

* * *

SKYGLIDER 4000  is the sixth of ten tracks released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released completely, and solely by means of Social Media only, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, will be released here and on http://MylesMarlow.com

There’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX4MIh1aI2Y The seventh  track will be released here next Monday, March 7, 2011

Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project, http://DigitalButterfly.com

(c) 2011, Myles Marlow, All Rights Reserved

#5. CHOPPERS IN LOW is an orchestral piece now, but it wasn’t always.  It was originally written for a computer game that was dropped and it was scored for synthesizers and bass. I liked the music, Candice didn’t, which is not the way things usually work.  Candice has quite broad tastes with musical styles.  The problem here was the H-word.  She has a loathing for anything that even appears to resemble a harpsichord.  And she’s rather intolerant on this point.

 It took me a while to figure out why she had such a reaction, I assumed it was the tone of the harpsichord that she didn’t like.  It turns out that wasn’t the problem, it was the volume that was the problem, or rather the harpsichord’s inability to modify its loudness – everything is always at the same intensity.  You hit the keys soft or you hit them hard, it doesn’t matter, it all comes out the same, it doesn’t change.  When the piano was invented in the early 18th century, that it could play both soft and loud was a real big deal, that’s why it’s even called a piano, short for “piano-forte” which means “soft, loud.”

Knowing this, it’s pretty easy for me to stay clear of the hated harpsichord. And the truth is I’m not a big fan myself, so it’s not a particularly odious restriction.  And I had stayed clear (I thought) since I was using a synth patch I’d modified myself for the sound I wanted. And it certainly was not a harpsichord.

But on hearing CHOPPERS, Candice shook her head and just muttered, “Harpsichord.”

I assured her it was not a harpsichord, I looked for the patch that I’d customized to prove it, but I had renamed it so many times after modifying it, I couldn’t put my hands on it.  I kept looking, and I did ultimately find it.  The name of the patch was Phatclav and then I realized that the “Clav” part of the name was probably a reference to a clavinet.  An instrument related to the clavichord, and yes, also related to the  harpsichord family of volume-disabled instruments . Doh!

By this time I was really hating on that sound too!  So I ripped out all the synthesizer parts and left only the bass. I re-arranged everything for orchestral instruments.  No synths, no harpsichords, no clavinets.  The only part I kept was the bass. But by now, I was starting to not like that damned bass part much either.  I ended up dumping it and rewriting that one too.  So now nothing is left of the original, except the title and the core tune.

The idea behind CHOPPERS IN LOW was to play with the Whup-Whup-Whup sound of a helicopter as a rhythmic bass device.  I pictured a squadron of five or six helicopters racing somewhere that’s just a little too far, and hoping to get there before its too late to provide support.

 A couple of years ago I became friends with a Navy commander who was in charge of a helicopter unit.  I checked with him as I worked on CHOPPERS IN LOW, to make sure I wasn’t making up my knowledge of helicopters.  I mainly wanted to verify that the speed of the rotors was constant, regardless of how fast or slow you were moving.  In the music, once the choppers take off, the tempo does not change,  Perhaps this was why I subconsciously chose an instrument that couldn’t vary its volume, because the chopper doesn’t vary the speed of its blades.  As my Commander friend explained to me, RPM is kept relatively constant; they refer to it as 100%RPM.  Helicopter speed is changed by increasing the pitch of the spinning blades, so they’ll bite into more of the air.  Direction is changed by tilting the disc made by the spinning rotors in the direction you want to travel.  Thanks, Chris!


* * *

 CHOPPERS IN LOW is the fifth of ten tracks released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released completely, and solely by means of Social Media only, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, will be released here.

There’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuJBD2ujj78 The sixth  track will be released here next Monday, February 28, 2011

Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project, http://DigitalButterfly.com

(c) 2011, Myles Marlow, All Rights Reserved

Thanks for listening! Please take a second and send us an email at MylesMarlow@gmail.com and we’ll keep you updated on the new happenings as well as upcoming free releases.  Thanks.

 - Myles

#4. FERAL CAT DANCE is a valentine, perhaps not your Hallmark moment, but a valentine in its own rite. Call me a romantic, but FERAL CAT DANCE is a celebration of life and love. Like humans, cats have a fine and ever-changing line between the sounds of love and the sounds of fighting. And these are definitely feral cats, in a world that owes little to humans.  My own valentine, Candice, has always liked this tune, and this one’s for her. 

From the beginning I knew that FERAL CAT DANCE was generally about cats in an alley.  I pictured a tribe of them with a precisely defined but evolving hierarchy. But I wasn’t sure if was about mating or fighting. 

One of the problems was it didn’t have a title.   That’s not exactly true.  It had a series of titles, all of which were quite unsatisfactory.  The first title when it was a just a guitar and clarinet sketch was PEEKING AT NAUGHTY PARTS.  Don’t ask me why, that’s just how it came out.  By the time it was 70- 80% written, it was getting closer with DANCE OF THE UNSPAYED TOMCATS. Clunky and certainly didn’t roll off the tongue, but the idea was close.  It didn’t become FERAL CAT DANCE until it was almost finished. It was a huge relief to finally know its name. For some reason it’s vey difficult to finish a piece that has no name.

While writing FCB I pictured the cats dancing in a city alley, in lighting reminiscent of a late 50’s West Side Story alley with long, harsh shadows.  In FERAL CAT DANCE there are no humans anywhere, not even in the background.  It’s a world populated by cats and I suppose a rat or two.  Cats make up all the rules. Dancing, slinking, preening, posturing, watching.  Cats running their cat world.

The instrumentation has no brass and no lower strings. At the time, I’d been doing things with a lot of both.  So I wanted to solve this one without using either.  I also wanted to use a guitar and a synthesizer. The final orchestration includes two synths, a drum set, orchestral percussion (xylophone, celesta, gong), violins, a woodwind ensemble (piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, and of course, bassoon). And a classical guitar played very close to the bridge, almost snapping at the strings.  It’s for the cats, after all.

* * *

FERAL CAT DANCE is the fourth of ten tracks released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released completely, and solely by means of Social Media only, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, will be released here.

There’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuJBD2ujj78 The fifth  track will be released here next Monday, February 21, 2011

Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project, http://DigitalButterfly.com

(c) 2011, Myles Marlow, All Rights Reserved

 —Myles

#3. Rendered Skinny is a shorty, coming in at just a little over 2 minutes of music. I came up with the title for RENDERED SKINNY before I had any idea what the music would be like.  But I knew what the scene looked and felt like, so I hoped the music would come fairly quickly.  Fortunately it did. 

I love Scot’s illustration for this. Quirky and odd. A factory with fatties on the left. Skinnies emerging on the right.  Feral cat on the roof keeping an eye on things.  

A few months ago, I played RENDERED SKINNY for some musicians that I sometimes  workshop new material with.  They’re a sounding board that often points to things I’ve missed.  When you’re composing and producing something you’ve heard 49 gazillion times, your brain can fill in parts that no one else but you hears. (“Ooops, I forgot to put in the drums. I’ve been filling in those drum parts in my head for the last week, but I guess I should actually record them.”)

After playing it, one of the guys said, “Love it, now you just need to finish it. Add another minute or two, and then clean it up, you got some pretty noticeably clams in there.” I wasn’t too worried about either fixing the clams or extending the piece.  That is until I actually started. Clean it up?  How clean should RENDERED SKINNY be, I wondered?  And what parts do I even clean up? There’s a dirtiness or corrosion embedded in the root of all this.  Behind those cheerful colors, I have no idea what is happening inside that factory, but I’d like to know.  Or maybe I don’t want to know. 

So I put the tune away for a couple of months and then listened to it with fresh ears. Hearing it then, I felt my initial instincts were probably right. I didn’t want to clean it up or change its length. So I opted to leave all the warts. Consider yourself warned.

* * *

It’s the third of ten tracks released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released completely, and solely by means of Social Media only, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, will be released here.

There’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Vh6FENNrU

The fourth track will be released at here next Monday, February 14, 2011.

Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project, http://DigitalButterfly.com

(c) 2011, Myles Marlow, All Rights Reserved

Thanks for listening! Please take a second and send us an email at MylesMarlow@gmail.com and we’ll keep you updated on the new happenings as well as upcoming free releases.  Thanks.

 - Myles

#2. Double Gypsy  is the second of ten tracks being released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released completely, and solely by means of Social Media only, with no physical, digital, or buyable product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, will be released here.

DOUBLE GYPSY  is a dance, a performance.  I picture it with a stage that’s a bit too small.  Or maybe the stage is the right size, but the dancers and musicians are a little overly enthusiastic.

With some music I think in terms of a story or a sequence of events where something happens.  With DOUBLE GYPSY, it’s a moment in time, a snapshot of these performers and their little stage.  The instrumentation is quirky and feels like they made the best of an eclectic assortment of orchestral players, percussionists and drummers, along with a quartet (violin, guitar, trumpet, and clarinet) that enjoys passing the tune back and forth.

In the first draft it was a wink to a mid-century French cafe. It was focused on three instruments: accordion, guitar and a violin with the accordion being the central focus.  But as I developed it, I realized the tune wasn’t about a time period or a place as much as it was about quirky instruments with quirky players, moving on and off that little stage. I pulled back on the accordion more and more until I finally pulled it out entirely.   The accordion can be a quite bossy instrument.  In many ways this tune still has an accordion soul, so I wasn’t real satisfied by ditching it.  If I’m thinking about it, I often hear it arranged for solo accordion in my head. But I wanted the other instruments to be competing and posturing with each other. So it was hello clarinet, goodbye accordion.

DOUBLE GYPSY is the second oldest piece in TUNE. I wrote it about 2-1/2 years ago. It was one of the first pieces I wrote where I particularly wanted to blend different synths with an orchestra with guitars and with various percussion. So there’s clarinet, synth, guitar, oboe, trumpet, violin, double bass, xylophone, drums, percussion and of course a tuba. No wonder the stage seems so small.

* * *

There’s nothing to buy here, so if you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and link to it on your web pages. We appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK6rX2thnXI

All 10 tracks of TUNE will be released, in this format, — one per week, every Monday. The third track will be released at MylesMarlow.com   next Monday. February 7, 2011.

Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project, http://DigitalButterfly.com

(c) 2011, Myles Marlow, All Rights Reserved

CRUISE CONTROL

#1. Cruise Control is the first of ten tracks being released on YouTube and Tumblr for the album, TUNE, by composer Myles Marlow. TUNE is the first album to be released completely, and solely, by means of Social Media only, with no physical, buy-able product. Every Monday for ten weeks, a subsequent track, including a new Scot Howard illustration, will be released here.

Cruise Control takes place in a beach town. Where muscle cars, antique vehicles and hand-built, dunebuggylike contraptions have a nightly parade down the Strip. The Strip is a noisy five blocks filled with bars, clubs, and live bands. People are milling about on the sidewalk and carelessly walking in the street.

They drift in and out of the various clubs. And as the club doors open and shut whatever music is inside blasts outside and mingles with all the music of the neighboring bars and car radios. Jazz on top of banjos on top of electronica.

This is how I thought of CRUISE CONTROL while composing: one tune that could chaotically encompass jazz bands, with electronica, with Motown horn lines, with banjos and with even, yes, tree frogs.

For a clickable tour, check out the Description section on YouTube, or pick one of these:
    (0:30) where the bar band is joined by some nylon-string guitars
    (1:18) where a processed harp meets the happy chorus of treefrogs
    (1:30) where a bit of a Deliverance-styled banjo finds its way to the party
    (1:57) where synths and electronica is muscling in, and
    (2:13) where the Motown-style horn line takes charge , and
    (2:53) when all the doors open, and everyone tries to play nice.

CRUISE CONTROL initially was the 3rd track of TUNE. But since it’s the closest to completion I made it the first for the Social Media release. And yes, it’s free for listening and sharing, but not for other media uses. TUNE currently only exists within the realm of Social Media.

If you enjoy it, please share it with your friends and put it on your web pages. I really appreciate the support. Here’s a link to cut and paste for the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK5HAU24csg

* * *

All 10 tracks of TUNE will be released, in this format, — one per week, every Monday. The second track will be released next Monday. January 31, 2011.

Illustration by Scot Howard, The Digital Butterfly Project, DigitalButterfly.com

(c) 2011, Myles Marlow, All Rights Reserved