A New Start (long and happy)

After analysing Autechre's Bike, I started experimenting with both rhythmic swirly pads and sustaining interest over a longer piece of music.  This is the result.  (It admittedly came out more Orbital than Autechre, but hey, I'm happy.)  How did I do?

https://soundcloud.com/zoeblade/a-new-start

Really nice track, the sounds have quite a physical quality to them. Agree with the Orbital comparison.

Right tune Zoe. Definitely accomplished your goal. The production is on point.

Good way to start a day which will be filled with diminishing returns.

Nice balance, sound design and progression :) The pads are definitely early Autechrean. Good work Zoe 

Thank you!

Nice!

if autechre rides a bike, maybe this track rides inline skates. nice lush pads. it definitely shows that you spent time considering how to build and release tension from early autechre tracks. They do it so well, don't they? Nice work.

Heh, I think others here also mentioned it was too happy for their liking.  That's fine, we can have different preferences.  I was going for that kind of a vibe, so if you don't like it for that reason, then I'd say that's a success.

I saw a review of a book once, complaining that it wasn't a pack of sausages.  That's not really anyone's fault, hehe...

It's actually kinda interesting how independent music with artistic integrity is often depressing, while more commercially successful and accessible music is often happy...  Perhaps because most people prefer being uplifted by entertainment to being depressed by it?  (After all, Inception was more popular than The Prestige, and it explicitly stated its ethos of a positive emotion trumping a negative one each time.)  But that's a whole other thread in itself, or more likely several.  You could make some quite interesting works by coming up with rarer combinations.

And yes, Autechre are very good at making 5-10 minute single-section tracks that sustain interest throughout, so they were pretty good to study for this.  I wonder if I added different sections into the mix, if I could make it last even longer, combining dance and pop elements together more...

Ooh, now that's more interesting...  Yes, I should work a lot more on taking the listener on a journey, especially of emotions, throughout the track, and more nuanced ones at that.  Thank you, that's really useful.