August No.1: A Musical Composition
Posted on August 14, 2021 Posted by John Scalzi 29 Comments
Here’s something I’ve worked on over the last couple of days, as I fiddled about with my new musical equipment. Since it’s the the first composition I completed this month, I’m calling it “August No. 1”; guess what I’ll call subsequent compositions if I manage any additional one this month. This one is a vaguely 80-ish electronic instrumental, and it’s a combination of samples, programmed drums and keyboard parts I did myself. I made it echoey and drone-y because I kind of like echoey and drone-y.
For you music nerds, it’s in A minor and it’s at 120 beats a minute, mostly because that’s the default tempo of the DAW I used, and I didn’t bother to change it out this time.
Enjoy!
— JS
I like it.
This would be great for a video game
That’s great! You just need to get Bowie to come up with some lyrics and… oh… never mind.
Um. The beginning reminds me of the backing for the chorus for Neal Simon’s “America”. It works very well.
This brings back a lot of memories for this ‘89 Gaul
So you smoked weed and did acid and shrooms in the 70s and 80s too I see. ;-)
So will next year’s August compositions be called “The Re-Augusting”?
I’d be kinda surprised to hear that John did weed, acid, or shrooms in the ’70s, considering that he turned 10 in 1979.
Hmmm…didn’t actually look up his age….could been parental influence?
I loved Flock Of Seagulls!!!
This is right my alley.
Good beat, great to dance to.
I like it! it’s much more music-y than any of the things I’ve made so far. mostly I just whack a bunch of keys on the keyboard and make things sound as weird as possible…
I like it. You have a fabulous future in music even if it takes a back seat to your writing career.
MIAMI VICE!
I love you, by which I mean I love your writing, but the time it took me to hit the pause button was about all of that I wanted. Now get off your own lawn!
(no, wait, sorry, I’ll go now :) )
Sounds very ’80s new-wavey at the start. Then you start adding keyboard pings that, in some cases, sound like ’80s keyboard guys like Jan Hammer (Of Miami Vice fame) or Jean-michel Jarre… And a few that sounded distinctly ’90s.
Overall, 8/10. I could totally see somebody putting a bass guitar and some angsty vocals on top of this and calling it a Joy Division tribute song!
That’s not bad, I like it! Like a previous comment said, I was also a bit of a fan of Flock of Seagulls.
Hey – if you’re willing to get really experimental: export it to MIDI, mail or link me a copy, and I’ll convert it and play it in Lord of the Rings Online and make a video! We can see what happens!
I like it. It sounds good. You did a good job. I hope to hear more.
Really fun to listen to. Bouncy, but with a slightly intense, urgent undertone. Well done.
hmmm… could be theme for MIAMI VICE 2043 if we include a Disney-themed pitfight amongst starving refugees from Texas in midst a drowned dystopia future after tides rise and beachfront condos fall… and the world watches as COVID OMEGA slaughters anyone over 30YO…
120 beats a minute? Good for CPR! (Says the EMT)
That’s cool! I like music like this. If you make a full CD of similar stuff, I’d probably buy it.
Nice! Yes, I’m musically trained: 1st soprano, guitar, and horribly rusty on piano.
Could be just the thing to have running while reading one of Somtow Sucharitkul’s Mall World stories.
This is nice, has that electronica type vibe going which I really like.
Thanks for sharing
I like it! More, please ;-)
I like it!
I saw “John Scalzi” and “No. 1” and for a hot second, my brain did a riff where I heard a James Brown-ish intro.
“I’d like to know…are you ready for some SUPER DYNAMITE 80’s MUSIC!
“Introducing the WORLD’S GREATEST BLOGGER…
“MR. WHATEVER…
“THE HARDEST WORKING MAN IN SCIENCE FICTION…
“JOHN SCALZI NUMBER ONE! NUMBER ONE AUTHOR BROTHER JOHN SCALLLLZI!”
Listening to August 1, while gazing at the Sunset from yesterday’s post… Feels like racing through the field until I’m out of breath, collapsing to the ground, gazing at the sky, feeling the air return to my lungs, sans the stress… Thank you… Mind if I put it on a loop? Need it.
Very nice. Needs vocals by Bernard Sumner…