text: MacJams.com - Song: Alpha Knock (W/Le Debutante) by michael2
  This is a song that LeDebutante originally posted on the sorely overlooked Workbench. I downloaded it and did a re-mix of it. It's a really pretty long instrumental thing, and i didn't want to try adding any extra instrumentation, so i basically ran it through an army of filtering and now it's a little glitchy thing. Sounds mellow and industrious at the same time (if that makes sense). Thanks for letting me play with this Le Debutante..
  Uploaded: Dec 03, 2007 - 07:47:36 PM
  Last Updated: Dec 03, 2007 - 07:47:36 PM Last Played: Oct 14, 2019 - 08:49:22 PM
  heavenly (5), space (234)
  iTunes, Gleetlab 2.2, GB3, Audacity
  said 4335 days ago (December 3rd, 2007)
  get this to play
  michael2 said 4335 days ago (December 3rd, 2007)
  working fine for me (w/safari)
  Vic Holman said 4335 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  the effects here...
  remind of those crazy synths from early 70's records that now sit in my basement. kinda nice revisit.
  still trying to figure where to go with your workbench piece. I've worked on it & tricked it up quite a bit, still not sure where I'm going with it yet.
  michael2 said 4335 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  vic. you should burn this to a CD and stick it in your basement with those records :)
  take your time with that other track. i was just listening to it yesterday and debating doing a real vocal track.
  said 4335 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  Its playing now
  and sounds fantastic
  this is going into my ambient playlist
  thanks for giving this a second try. really glad you like (you know i respect your work immensely - and i like listening to it as well).
  echoroom said 4335 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  this is soothing but discordant, like there's something rotten in toyland. Lovely little piece.
  Currently working my way thru your album Michael, and really impressed - the vox and guitar on track one are killer!
  Michael has got an album?????
  it's free. please take it, i have no use for it myself.
  http://www.macjams.com/forum/viewtopic.php?forum=4;showtopic=108149
  thanks. glad you gave this one a listen. stoked you took the album.
  ledebutant said 4334 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  Oh Michael, you're my hero! What you did with this is absolutely perfect and adds exactly what the song needed, some more interest and depth and dimension and the ever-important cool parts. I love the fact that you've brought in all these wonderful sounds, yet kept everything very musical and dreamy. I've used this music to put myself to sleep for a long time (it works really well) and I'm glad to hear that I'll still be able to use it as a lullaby. (The old version is totally getting ditched from the iPod now!)
  When I wrote the original song, I was thinking of a house, mine in particular, and how all these families had lived there before me and had lives in my living room, and how families will live there after me and would have lives there, too, and how I know none of these people, yet they are/will be intimately connected to my home and how that's kind of strange. So, I had originally planned to put lots of snippets of voices like the part where I say, "come inside," and say la la la in the song, but never finished that. In light of what my intent was with the song, I think the time-shifting effects you used, as well as the sounds that evoke the future, fit really nicely with my original concept, even though you didn't know about it when you were working, so that's very cool.
  I'm very, very grateful that you did this and incredibly thrilled with the results. A few people, including me have tried adding additional instruments or beats to this and haven't managed to come up with anything we liked and I think your choice was perfect, to add effects and gleetchlab sound and to rearrange the end. I really think you made incredibly intelligent decisions and made this about 80 million percent better, so thank you!
  michael2 said 4334 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  i'm so glad that you like it. i had a lot of fun playing with this. it's so fun for me to do collabs as there are so many things that aren't really in my vocabulary, and it's nice to play with. almost like going to a foreign country and hanging out with someone who knows a little english, and I know a little of what they speak. in the end we both learn some more and have a great time together.
  i put the original link for the song in the submit form, but it doesn't seem to have put it in the post anywhere, so I'm glad you put it down below. have fun on your vacation.
  drakonis said 4334 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  GleetchLedeb
  This does have an eerie "I got on this merry go round, and found myself stuck here behind the looking-glass" dreamy quality... very very cool. Is this the imagery of the old man, reflecting on his childhood, with the blips in the hospital room slowly fading to flatline? :-)
  is a very interesting take on this. now that you say that, i can totally hear the kick drum as a heartbeat. or it could be a child being born; a little confused but curious and happy. thanks for listening Drak.
  said 4334 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  Thanks Drak for reminding me
  I had forget to leave a comment.... One more pice to cool me done with.
  Love this one:D 10's from me. Bro
  U sure must had some fun doing this.. Cheers
  thanks for the comment. really glad you enjoyed this. trying to get Le Debutante to send me her original vocals so I can drop them in and see what happens.
  I think most of what's usable from the original vocals is here, michael. I didn't do much. I just improvised in a single take and kept what worked. which was very little. I'd always intended to do more, but never did because I couldn't get the music to turn into anything better.
  Of course, now you're tempting me.
  there's vocals in there? i must have been in the zone, I don't know what was happening (obviously). :)
  Here's a link to the Workbench for people who don't know what that is, since Bryn just posted over there that he hadn't heard of it before.
  http://www.macjams.com/artist/Workbench
  Reinholt56 said 4334 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  Ooh wow.........
  Blown away, blown away, blown away.....
  Great treatment. Sounds as thought you're DJ'ing your way through the piece, improvising as you go.
  Through a haize of purple smoke it's like totally cool man!! Or is that looking out through purple glasses at cool smoke?? Same effect..Same effect....Same effect.
  glad you like. and you are pretty much right on the money as far as improvising as I went along. i set up the software, loaded the track, hit record and that's what you're hearing. wouldn't have been near as cool without Le Debutante's pretty little gem to work from.
  davisamerica said 4334 days ago (December 4th, 2007)
  this is such a sweet collab folks......exceedingly wonderful!
  michael2 said 4333 days ago (December 5th, 2007)
  really glad that you dug this one. i have a lot of fun playing with other peoples stuff.
  bud said 4333 days ago (December 5th, 2007)
  really great production - kinda Boards of Canada meets Looper at Eno's house. This is one long piece I never wanted to end.
  Lisa - you're to be commended for supplying great grist for Michael's mill. I feel so bad that I haven't done the workbench thing yet. That'll have to change.
  i love Boards of Canada, like really love them. Eno as well; and Lisa supplied the Looper part. Thanks for listening to my remix.
  spitlogic said 4333 days ago (December 6th, 2007)
  The mix of the reverse, that drum rhythm, and the occasional childhood laughter brings about a curious vibe. This is a well made piece (though I haven't heard the original). Interesting work here.
  michael2 said 4332 days ago (December 6th, 2007)
  glad you gave it a listen. lisa's original made this one very easy for me.
  guitapick said 4333 days ago (December 6th, 2007)
  ...incredible. Instant download.
  I love Lisa's theme of houses, present and past. I have often thought of the same thing in my house. Especially when I first bought and gutted/renovated it. Stood in the rooms, lights off, bare wall frames, moon through the window.
  Great, great interpretation of the picture, Michael...excellent work. Very moving...
  thanks guitapick
  so glad that you liked my version. i loved the song the first time i heard it, and since Lisa was so kind as to post it for sharing, I thought i would have a go at it. didn't know about Lisa's vision for the song but just kind of improvised. to me it sounds a lot like some of the japanese experimental ambient laptop music that appeals to me very much. thanks for listening.
  dolby said 4332 days ago (December 7th, 2007)
  I started playing this without reading the notes and thought "What the....it's a rip off!!! Where did he get that from? I know that!" etc etc
  Then I realised I'd listed to this once on the Workbench and it must have stuck. It's one of those classic little motif's that just gets into your brain and stays.......forever.....
  michael2 said 4331 days ago (December 7th, 2007)
  that's awesome. not that i don't rip off anything. yeah, the first time I heard this on the Workbench it got stuck in my head. Lisa did a really great job. thanks for listening.
  Enrique Gil said 4331 days ago (December 7th, 2007)
  Beautiful music and mixes of sounds. The only complaint is the original beep was a little too loud for the music and I had to reduce the volume more than i would have liked it. Very nice. Thank you.
  for listening, i'm glad you liked. i'll have to give it a listen and see which beep you mean. the car horn sound? or an electronic sound? thanks again.