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An unearthly obelisk was found deep in the Sahara

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#1

I love storytelling. Music is meant to take you on a journey but my aim here was to take that a little further and really construct enough of an environment and storyline to take you somewhere but leave enough unsaid so your imagination could fill in the gaps. It’s dance music, but cinematic i guess?

I used a lot of foley instead of traditional sounds and worked in sequences of ‘events’ with in the arrangement whilst still trying to keep the whole thing musical with a solid progression.

I had a lot of fun sound designing all the instrumentation for this one, I don’t think i used a single conventional drum sound and instead reached for sounds and instruments found in the region of the track and started doing weird things like layering orchestral timpani’s with 808s to get the bottom end to feel just right.

Would love to know where this track takes you in your mind and if you feel like I achieved my aims! If there’s any questions about the sounds, mix or arrangement hit me.

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#2

I really like the sense of foreboding and tension in the track and the way it plays into the overall narrative. Cool concept too! I have wondered about using story telling as a means of coming up with new ideas or maybe novel arrangement but seems like you have fully embraced it in all aspects of this track. How did you plan out the ‘events’?

#3

Thanks @Loz_Pirate !

I didn’t actually plan them out at the start. First thing I focused on was sound selection for kit and lead sound based in that region and and using those to get down a main musical theme I was happy with, in this case its the hook section when the drums really kick in.

Once I had that, all the main elements of the track were there so next step was thinking about it in terms of a good traditional dance arrangement (intro, hook A, break, build, hook A, hook B, outro) and because there is a natural contrast and dynamics you want to create in these sections to make them effective that started to fill in the gaps of what might be happening in each part.

A lot of my inspiration comes from books and film so now that I could hear the vibe I just kinda ran with my imagination and let it play out in my head about what might be happening to establish the scene in the intro, developing it in the break and concluding it at the end.

I honestly never know exactly where a song is going when I start but I always make sure it’s first underpinned by something great musically and then just go with the flow!

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#4

That Timapni and 808 combo is brillaint. I love the atmosphere you’ve created with the track!

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#5

Thanks @Oblong! Conventional wisdom usually says don’t layer things in your sub region but in this case I think it paid off :boom:

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#6

@Oblong @faisal_pirate completely agree - that timpani 808 combo is a stoke of genius. Sounds cavernous yet hard hitting all at once.

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