music production

ReCurve – the E.T.

120 BPM Electro- House

Recurve has some of my favorite melodic work; the beginning took a little bit of time to sort out; but I think its pretty unique (in terms of melodic structure) and once the bass kicks in; the sound design adds a dynamism that builds on the initial melody allowing it to go in and out. I owe all of this melodic structure stuff to Noah, who seems to constantly remind me of motifs and returning back to the original ideas and sounds from the beginning of the track. I feel like this is a constantly evolving relationship between the end and beginning that is definitive of good taoist philosophy.

EROS Part 3

Track 5 – Recurve

This track takes a more somber tone to the exploration of the universe through sound; a lot of this work speaks to the loneliness of space, but simultaneously the thrill of adventure. We constantly go a little further from safety to heroically explore the cosmos in spite of our inevitable extinction.

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Shield Wall – the E.T.

77BPM | D#

Shield Wall is the first Drum and Bass Track! I am pretty excited for how it came out, but I think the end is pretty chaotic; sometimes its a challenge to keep the organization as I move through a track and I wonder if this one wasn’t a little disorganized towards the end. However, I love the beginning and think that the melody is well thought out and purposed for the track; which has been my focus with the whole EROS PART 3 album; movement towards more cohesive structures and organizations within the writing of the music is a good way to grow in the musical ability to self-reference.

Anyways, the bass is heavily modulated as usual; but this is one of my first tracks with Synplant, which has a fairly powerful AI engine for sound design. I spent a few hours at the beginning hunting for bass sounds and the result is what you hear at about bar 17 in the track, or about 00:30.

EROS PART 3

Track 6 – Shield Wall

This is part 6 of the EROS compilation; it has a certain unique flavor of DNB that is mostly about the bass synthesis. I have a couple more tracks to go, but we are getting towards the end of the music I’ve finished; at most, there could be 5 more tracks; but most likely, there will be two, maybe 3.

I spent some good time crafting the music video as well. Check it out…

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Sardukaur Enlightenment – the E.T.

This is a track I wrote over the last 5 or 6 months. It includes most the my favorite sounds that I have ever made; there is one specifically that comes in around the first drop that feels like a robot moving out of orbit if you were somehow outside of a space station around planet Earth. All of the sounds have a lot of processing involved and it has become quite a fun process to adventure through the different possibilities with low frequency sounds.

The music video came together pretty well. I loved the idea of Sardukaur training and initiation rituals so the name for this track came from a lot of recent sound design missions converging together. The graphic from a dune inspired graphic from chat GPT combined with some image processing and music visualization with magic and viola. I like how its kind of similar to an 80s cartoon. There’s a kind of journey in the music video. The track itself is meant to be pretty dark and the idea is that no matter how far our technology advances, humans will always resort to war as some kind of way to advance ourselves.

Sardukaur Enlightenment Music Video

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Robo Trash – the E.T.

EROS Part 3 – Track 3
ROBO TRASH

This is the Electro House adventure of a robot named T that travels through space to collect metal debris from the Exosphere, avoiding satellites and various supersonic frequencies to clean the passageways between Earth and Outer Space. This robot has a very spritely personality and enjoys also clearing the sound waves for other objects to pass more peacefully through the turbulence of the outer layers of atmosphere of planet Earth. T is also a big fan of the Sun and enjoys testing the gravitational pull at the edge of the solar winds.

This track has been out on Spotify for a little while, but I consider it to be a part of the EROS 3 music because the music has come in a sort of wave. This track specifically felt like a big breakthrough for my sound and I enjoyed the idea of playing it live quite a bit; it definitely has the potential to be mixed with other house tracks.

Bass Sound Design

My focus has been centered around the low end of the frequency spectrum for a long time now; I just love making womps and wobbles. When I get a chance to play live more; I am going to do a lot of experimentation with speakers and producing solid and fun waves that emanate from the lower spectrum.

ROBO Trash Music Video

I’ve been having a great time making these music videos and pushing the magic software to its limits. I am going to most likely start during some custom color corrections using code, but for now, the algorithms available in magic are pretty cool!

Robo Trash on Youtube
Robo Trash on X
Robo Trash on FACEBOOK

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Pure_Spice dune spice extraction inspired cover art by Artiphoria.ai

Pure Spice – the E.T.

Pure_Spice
dune spice extraction inspired cover art by Artiphoria.ai

This electro house track has been in the works for more than 6 months; I started with the vocal chops and got the original idea for the melody. The bass sound design was created as a compliment to the vocals, but its does take over a bit in the drop which I like a lot. It took a lot of working and reprocessing to get the bass to where it sits now. Phaseplant was very helpful with this process. There is a background atmosphere that I love as well that peaks in the middle of the track; it created a very mysterious vibe for the rest of the sounds to punch through.

Track 2 of EROS p3

Drums, and Bass House Beats w Vocal Chops

The drum beat is a fairly typical house combination; at the end of the track I do a little bass switch up that I think is fun and suits the temp change in the track. It becomes more of a half-time trap track about halfway through the album. This is one of the first pieces of music that I would describe as a journey. I think I have gotten to that point with a lot of the tracks of this album. I hope you like it!

The Visuals and Cover Art

I am really happy with the software that I use for the visualizations; it has a very unique distortion engine that is fun to apply to effects; I can see it becoming a very useful tool in the future of both live production and visualizations for music. The cover art was generated by prompting artiphoria.ai and edited using Befunky.com.

Pure Spice Music Video

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Twitch – the E.T.

In the not too distant future; one of the last human survivors on Earth, Liz, arrives on Mars to find that robotic lifeforms have previously conquered and settled the desert wastelands. Though not originating from Earth; the robot knows of Liz and her journey and proceeds to test for neurological robotic hardware that may be present in Liz’s brain. Liz performs her own testing on the sentience of the robot and find something fascinatingly familar about the robots behavior…. this is their conversation.

EROS Part 3

Track 1 – Twitch

This is the first track of the new EROS album that I am releasing over the next week. I’m still finishing the music; going as fast as I can here. It doesn’t help when I completely rewrite a track on the day of release; which I did with the track yesterday, but hey, can’t rush quality!

This track is very influenced by DAFT PUNK, Deadmau5, and MR. Oizo. I like the repetition of it and I think it has some potential for the club; it slaps I think! The drums are mixed well and the beginning could easily be looped to have a lighter and more playful beginning to the track; it’s kinda glitchy.

I made the cover art with Dall-E aka CHAT GPT; and the music video with Magic Music Visualizer, which I think I may play shows with someday! I used BeFunky to change the exposure and add text to make it a bit more cinematic. It would be very fun to have some randomized visuals going that sync with the beat.

I’ve uploaded the video to both Twitter and Youtube in an effort to decentralized the music and also to get the platforms to talk to each other more. Copyright is going to be a big issue in the future and I am doing my best to position myself to own all of my own rights to my music; my heart goes out to TSwift, Motley Crue (did I spell that right?), and any other artists that have lost rights to their creative endeavors; that’s messed up.

Follow my channel on Youtube!

Here’s the video on X if you prefer:

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Cover art for the E.T.'s Helios' Haven (by chat GPTs Dall-E)

Helios’ Haven – the E.T.

I wrote a track this morning and used my most recent drone footage to make a music video. I think it turned out nicely; it’s definitely some of my most ambient work so far. I’ve been doing a lot of research on the Heliosphere recently and this footage seemed to also match the tone of the music I created; I have been trying for months to make more “chill music” very unsuccessfully. I have lots of new electro because of this effort 😉

Eros Part 3

comes out in two days! And tomorrow night, I will play an EROS show at East Wind Roseville; I am really excited about it!

details about Helios’ Haven:

This media is a tribute to the awesome power of the Sun; pretty cool that we have such a thing, in my opinion.

The drone footage focuses on the American River and “No Hands Bridge”, which to my understanding is the tallest bridge in the western half of the United States. It is monumental and also a really great hike that I highly recommend.

I’ve included a link to the download and cover art. You can stream the music video on X or on Youtube as you please 🙂

Helios’ Haven Music Video

Helios’ Haven Cover Art (thanks to Chat GPT)

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the E.T. – Suppression

the E.T. - Suppression

My latest track is out now via YouTube and elliottelford.com. This is very influenced by the recent events with Elon Musk (Go Fuck Yourself Bob Iger), as well as my generation’s (the millennials and Z’s) conquest for a better world. I hope it gets you excited about the release of Grōk, AI, and the cosmic future of humanity.

I spent a little while on this one, mostly on the mix. The sound design process has been pretty consistently expansive for me lately, and I keep fine tuning the frequencies of the sounds that I truly LOVE to make. I am not super impressed with the AI music making software yet, but I also remind myself that highly technical tools, such a RIFT, or PhasePlant are undoubtedly made with AI precursor softwares (which are human oriented). I can’t recommend these two plug-ins enough. They are top of the line and I really love and appreciate the products.

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Noer the Boy’s Futuristic Sci-Fi Bass Album Review:

A Forlorn Hope

Noer the Boy is at the helm of a new generation of pioneers exploring the frequency spectrum through abstract bass music. His beats crush with punishing distortion and his music seethes with melodic and harmonic intricacies that will being your dance moves to the next level. From his background in marching band, choir, and video editing; Noah grew a fascination with kinetic beats, industrial sounds, and the unrestricted freedom of computer sound creation.

Noah is 27 (August 3rd, 1993) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Noah was born and raised in Appleton, which is about an hour and a half from Milwaukee on the northern end of Lake Winnebago. Noah studied music and band in high school playing the French horn, which is pretty damn cool and also became a drum major for his high school, Appleton East.

Noah is a member of DJ Shadow’s imprint Liquid Amber, Los Angeles collective Courteous Family, and Noisia’s DIVISION, Noer the Boy has also released music on Mass Appeal, VISION, Alpha Pup, and Orange Milk Records. Noer teamed up with Shadow to co-produce ‘Horror Show’ featuring Danny Brown and tour Europe following the release of his debut album ‘Mechanism’. His sounds have grabbed the attention of bass music figureheads G Jones, EPROM, Machinedrum, Ivy Lab, and the Low End Theory club night in LA.

Noah seems to be in a solid space, even with the impact of CoronaVirus in 2020. Pretty awesome considering he now makes a living off making music, sound design tutorials and sample packs, and has an awesome Patreon where you can get exclusives of all his newly released tracks, as well as deeper packages to help music creators augment their productions. He works hard for it and his sound reflects that.

I’ve been lucky enough to take lessons from Noah for about the last year and a half and we’ve been drilling down into mix engineering, deeper sound design, and modular synthesis. Noah is really a wiz at music, so make sure you follow him because he will definitely be releasing new music. He’s recently started to make heavily synthesized house music, or electro, which I have to say I am ecstatic about. Electro-House is my favorite kind of music.

I interviewed Noah about A Forlorn Hope, in an effort to get a better understanding of his music creation process, and what this latest album means to him. I loved the album, especially Shapeshifter, Nebula, Exile, and Rule of two. The whole album certainly deserves a listen on some high quality speakers! (your car is probably not loud enough). Check out the Q and A with Noah below and leave a comment if you feel inclined:

Interview with Noer the Boy

Q1. Elliot: “I personally love all of your music. But this album seems special. I think it hits harder than most and that the sound design is pioneering. What kinds of processes and techniques do you use to make your sounds and mix stand out so much? What kind of special sauces do you use to create such a punishing sound?”

A1. Noertheboy: “Don’t underestimate the power of layering. A few simple sounds or effect chains can combine to form something that appears much more complex than it really is. Treat sound design as building with lego bricks – maybe the instructions are useful but also maybe you want to experiment instead.”

Q2. Elliot: “A Forlorn Hope has some of my favorite tunes on it. But I think that the title track is special and its kind of the motif of the album. Its fat. What inspired you to create that track, and the sounds that are in it?”

A2. Noertheboy: “Without giving too much away, Forlorn Hope is about a doomed journey to the edge of the known universe. ‘Forlorn Hope’  was originally named ‘Event Horizon’, but after watching the 90s film by the same title I didn’t want people to think I made the record about that movie.”

Q3. Elliot: “My favorite track is Nebula, I’m not sure why, but I just love the cohesion of the track and the melody that persists and finds an apex near the ending. What are your favorite parts of the album, and why?”

A3. Noertheboy: “It’s impossible for me to pick a favorite from my album. Each album track is my favorite for a different reason. If I don’t feel 100% like it’s my favorite song made so far, it doesn’t make it on the record.”

Q4: Elliot: “How did you come up with the theme and storyline behind the album? Its pretty cool. It reminds me of a combination of Lost in Space, Dune, or maybe the Abyss.”

A4. Noertheboy: “‘Forlorn Hope’ itself is a term for a group of soldiers tasked with a leading mission, usually a suicidal mission where casualties are high. That combined with my love of deep space SCI-FI films have influenced me a great deal. The Alien series, Interstellar, War of the Worlds, 2001: A Space Odyssey – movies like those have shaped a lot of my sonic identity. The world that ‘Forlorn Hope’ exists in is also the same world that my first album ‘Mechanism’ takes place in. I’m a big fan of concept records.”

Q5. Elliot: “You said on your instagram that writing this album has been particularly Cathartic for you. In what ways have you grown personally and professionally from writing A Forlorn Hope?”

A5. Noertheboy: “I only start write an album when I have something new to say and new tools to showcase. So a lot of growth has to happen to get to that place. And the album writing process itself is transformative. Writing a few songs will undoubtably inspire me to write more and that process leads to rapid growth and breakthroughs that might come much slower if not for writing a cohesive LP.”

Q6. Elliot: “How long did you album take?”

A6. Noertheboy: “The process took a little under a year and a half.”

Q7. Elliot: “How long have you been writing music? What was your first show like?”

A7. Noertheboy: “I’ve been writing music as Noer the Boy for going on 8 years, but music has been an integral part of my life ever since I can remember. My first show was a house party in college and I remember playing hella Pretty Lights, rap music, and Skrillex mashups IIRC. Shoutout my old music homies Kaelin and Alec for playing with me at that first show!”

Q8. Elliot: “You’re pretty good at writing music, Noah. But why do you make it? What’s your primary inspiration. (or 2, or 3)”

A8. Noertheboy: “Music put simply is my everything. It’s what I know. I’d make music if nobody listened.”

Q9. Elliot: “Is there anything else about the album that you want people to know? Maybe you can comment on how you feel about it being finished and out there in the wild to have a life of its own?”

A9. Noertheboy: “Shirts and vinyl copies are in the works! Big thanks to everyone listening and sharing the record, I really appreciate it.”

Q10: “Any last notes? Any coronavirus advice?”

A10. Noertheboy: “Take the stay at home orders seriously so we can get back to enjoying live music.”

That’s it for the interview, feel free to comment on anything and make sure to check out this very avant-garde production from Noer the Boy – A Forlorn Hope.

Noer the Boy (live)

You can buy the Forlorn Hope album on Bandcamp to help support Noah in his journey. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and of course, on Facebook.

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