New Music From Me: “8/13/22 (They Were Not Aware They Had Become Ghosts)”
Posted on August 13, 2022 Posted by John Scalzi 15 Comments

More fiddling about with my DAW and musical equipment. This one is noisy and saturated and the drums have more echo on them than is perhaps wise, but I kinda like it, which is why I’m sharing it. I suspect this is may be an early draft of something else (which is to say I’m thinking about whether or not I can put some lyrics to it), but in the meantime, here, enjoy.
— JS
That is super cool! I can hear that playing as-is during the credits of a blockbuster SF movie!
It sounds to me like the kind of travel music you’d get in a thriller, in a good way.
Definitely Depeche Mode-ian.
Nice, John! A lovely 80s Goth / Cure vibe to it. Agree that the echo is pushing it a bit, & would benefit from a proper studio mix. A big thumbs up from this former audio engineer.
…Someone’s been listening to Public Image Ltd!
@Mike Depeche Mode was my first impression as well. That must make it official.
Cool. I was just about to type, sounds like a distinct Depeche Mode vibe… but I see I’m late to that party!
You forgot to gate the reverb.
Hooah!
As someone who came up with music from the 80s, this slots nicely in with music I’m fond of from the era.
Is the cover art AI-generated, homemade, or from someone on the internet, out of curiosity?
Lovely. I get the sense we listened to a lot of the same music in the 90s.
Also, there is no such thing as too much reverb on drums. Just ask Dr. Avalanche.
I didn’t expect to but I actually quite like it. I thought it was going to be experimental and wierd but it’s got a good beat.
Enjoyed that. I’d be putting a fretless bass part into it, personally.
2-for-2. I’ve heard far worse from long-standing professional groups.