Wellcome to THE WEB's tasty audio electronics!

On this blogspot page you can find all my electronic music tracks from the clips i present on my YouTube channel - or Albums/EPs from single tracks you might have heard on Soundcloud
For every album/EP/single there is a post, with some descriptions of the making of, a track listing and links/infos about download. most of the stuff is free...
contact: gronku(at)hispeed.ch

Have fun, you're wellcome!
THE WEB

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

THE WEB - Five / Three (2013-2017)

End 2013/beginning 2014 i did the two tracks Five and Three, then as my back troubles started again and needed another OP in March 2014 there was a long break where i didn't produce new tracks on my own (but two collab tracks, one with Cat - Jeff / STEREOSLUGS & THE WEB, and one With Richard aka DZ - Andromeda / THE WEB vs. DZ)

Finally, one morning in April 2015, it hit me again... I was out on my terrace having a coffee, it was still quite dark, but the birds had started to sing. On the rooftop, just above my head, sat a blackbird and did his morning singing. It was lovely, loud and clear. I decided to record some of it and use it for a new track, wrapping the lovely singing of the blackbird in a nice envelope of synth patterns to go with it. I decided to go on with the ideas put forward in the preceding Five and Three tracks: synth patterns that go with different metrics on the /8 grid and nice dubby synth pads or stabs. basic grid is 4/4, but here's a 3/16 line, combining with a 5/16 line (repeating 10/4) for the bass, a 16/8 line, a dubby pad that repeats 5/1, filtered effect lines that repeat 3/1 and 10/4, and 5/8 stabs repeating 5/1 ...was quite a challenge to set the changes (adding or subtracting an element) at the right points where things meet up...but in the end it all fit together forming a nice chilled tune at 131 bpm.

With blackbird i decided to continue the series that started with Five and Three, and let it grow to an E.P. or even an album.

The next one followed end of July 2015, when i had the spontaneous idea of doing something similar as with blackbird: using a sampled sound line to accompany with music. But this time it wasn't a bird singing. It was the sound of two 'Hilti' chipping hammers i had recorded in autumn 2014 when they insulated my terrace and had to chip off the old asphalt covering. This time i went with rather conventional patterns going to 4/4. Tied to go with a tribalistic powerful rhythm and adding some nice slightly funky synthlines that give it a deep but yet bright mood that fits summer parties :-) First i thought about "deconstruction" as track title but as it is rather a good mood track and, with it's lush funkyness, has some influence of detroit techno in it too, i finally called it D-construction.

One month later End of July 2015, i felt like doing something inspired by detroit techno again, something that would melt my style and the style of the preceding tracks of the series with the funkyness of good old detroit techno. And so, this track Winterthur-Detroit has connections to blackbird - there's a pitched down sample of a nightingale in it, to D-construction - slightly funky beat and same percussion element slightly tweaked, and the Five/Three concept - here it is the bassline that goes to Seven/16, and that dubby synth once again...

In the months to come, the creativity with making music faded... Whenever i had the time and sat on the computer playing around with sounds and beats, no ideas for a track really hit me, and i stared at the screen... So i decided to take a break. Then suddenly, it was already summer 2016, i got inspired when i was listening to the German audio book of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. There's this scene where the Guide describes the features of our universe and as i always found that was brilliant i thought hey let's try and use this for a spacey track. Just use a sound sample and go from there, like i did with the singing blackbird and the chipping hammers... I put the sample on an empty sheet and fitted the BPM to the tempo of the repeated synth sounds in the background of the spoken words. I cut out the word Universum, slowed it down an put a lot of effects on it to create some kind of backbone loop. Then i added beats, synth pads and patterns one by one, trying to give it some kind of 'lost in space' mood.

Again it took a long time until i was in the mood to work on a track. One day in spring 2017 i was playing around with the sound sample of the blackbird singing just for fun, i remembered i saw a docu once about humpback whales and it was mentioned that if you would speed up their singing it would resemble singing birds. So i wondered if i slowed down the singing of the blackbird, would that resemble a singing whale? I found that when i slowed it and reversed it it sounded strange at least - dark and spooky. Quite cool. So i decided to use it for another track. I went with powerful beats and some percussive elements, a bassline and some dubby pads - the spooky background sample does the rest. I called it darkbird, and for the video i created some kind of dark version of the blackbird clip.

In July 2017, when i was msgin with my friend Julian Vas from Mexico, aka Egrojj, Flatch, on Soundcloud, he suggested doing a remix of one of my tracks. I had done remixes for his tracks earlier and i was happy he would return the favour. He chose darkbird and i was very excited and looking forward to what he would come up with. Only a few days later he sent me his mix - a really really cool techno remix. A perfect track to close the series.





Click on title below to listen to the track on Soundcloud

-----------------------------------
THE WEB - Five / Three
1. Five........................7:43
2. Three......................10:56
3. blackbird...................7:16
4. D-Construction..............8:45
5. Winterthur-Detroit..........8:07
6. Universum...................7:44
7. darkbird....................7:14
8. darkbird
   Flatch Hardtechytrance Mix..8:22
-----------------------------------
BRICO - not available, 2013-2017

Click to download THE WEB - Five / Three  (Mediafire)




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Sunday, February 1, 2015

YT Collabs 2014: DZ and Cyrus Sink

THE WEB vs DZ - Andromeda

End of January 2014 one of my friends on YouTube, Richard from the Netherlands (aka DZ), had uploaded a clip with a new track and asked in the comments if anyone was up for a collab. As i always liked his synth work and thought it would be cool to do a collab with him i sent him a message. He then sent me back a few samples of cool synth lines that he had whipped up for me to work with - "a sort of lofi synthwork which misses the drums and effects and something to glue it all together".
I chopped them and put them on an empty sheet to play around with them and was waiting for a good idea... I was kind of stuck as the layers already had lots of character. I added a few sounds and was looking for some basic drum patterns that could fit it, but still had no idea how to glue it together, so i just left it for a while...a very long while... Then, it was beginning of May 2014, i was watching "Andromeda" -  the 1971 sci-fi movie, directed by Robert Wise, of Michael Crichton's novel "The Andromeda Strain" - it hit me: this was the thing i was looking for, the glue for the collab track. I ripped a few voice samples from the movie and started to work with the patterns i already prepared, added a lot of stuff and arranged it to a fat big long tune. I was in a real flow and stuffed it to the max.
For the video it was clear that i had to use footage from the movie...i treated it with some special imboss and colour effects to give it an artsy minimalistic touch that contrasts the rich track.

click to listen and download "THE WEB vs DZ - Andromeda" on Soundcloud

WATCH AND LISTEN





Cyrus Sink feat. THE WEB & CXXXVI - 11th Hour
REST IN PEACE, FRIEND!

Also in January 2014, my friend Cyrus Sink sent me the soundmaterial of his original track called "11th Hour" for another trio collab with Cat. As with our predecing collabs in 2012/2013 the idea was i do a remix of the music and Cat adds a female vocal on it. The style of the track is Hip Hop, with very cool spoken word like male vocals of Cyrus. As i'm not used to this style at all i had no idea of how i could remix it and blend with my sounds and styles...i had the idea to get inspiration from the big Swiss band Yello, as Cyrus vocals reminded me on Dieter Meier, but just like Andromeda, i got stuck and the track was waiting in my library for a long time...
During Summer Cyrus mentioned in a personal message that he had a hard time with chemotherapy as he had been diagnosed with cancer.... and in Autumn, i didn't hear something new on Youtube for a while from his channel, a friend of him on YT sent me a message and told me he had passed two weeks ago - what a shock!! It's very depressing - such a great musician and nice young person had to go so early. Far too early!
And i still had the material of our collab in my library. So i decided to go to work and make it a tribute to him. I didn't change much, did only some effects on the strings, reworked the drums and added some effects, then mixed it down together with Cat's vocals on the chorus. For the video i used shots from the pumpkin lights festival in Rudolfingen that i had visited together with Cat in November 2014.
We hope you like our musicvideo, Cyrus! Rest In Peace, good friend!


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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The Egrojj Remixes - DAST Net Recordings (2012/2013)

In October 2012 Stas Dauer from DAST Net Recordings asked me if i'd like to remix one or two tracks from Julian Vas aka Egrojj (or Flatch), an artist from Mexico City that would have his first release on DAST. I liked the tracks and felt it was an honour for me they let me put my hands on them. They were included in the release "Egrojj - The Untold Tales Remixes" (DAST069); Leslie Von Dees provided a cool remix for it too.
Dr. Griffin did a marvellous video to my Untold Tales remix (cut). The Second Virus remix still lacks a proper video...will find something some day to fix this ;-)


In November 2013 when i had more or less recovered from my back OP i found an email from Julian in my inbox. He said he was going to release a new EP on DAST and would like me to do a remix of one of the tracks. He sent me the three tracks he did to choose. I listened to them and it was clear i wanted to work with "Gambling". I wrote back that i did my choice and Julian said that was cool, but if it would be possible to also take my hands on "sick er", a track he together with another artist called Eduard Colin - he'd really love to hear a WEB remix of that one too. How could i say no.

For Gambling i wanted to stay as close to the original as possible but enhance it with dubby chords to add an extra taste to it so i rebuilt the original with the samples he provided me, slightly treated some of the sounds with fx and then added some deep chords and mid chords stabs which i built up with opening filters, and finally added a variated high squeezed and filtered line of them. I also edited a video clip with colour treated footage of the classic "Casino Royale" movie to upload the track on YT. For the sick er it was more difficult to find a proper way as the track is quite special, with its deep tricky bassline and dry bass drum. I decided to treat the bassline with filters to squeeze out a melody that i enhanced with the different sounds and effects along. There was a percussion line that i reduced to a glitchy rhythm pattern which slowly builds from a thin tick to thicker percussive scratches. Although i found it turned out a proper remix, i wasn't really sure if the result met the expectations of Julian, but he feedbacked me that it was just great and that Eudard loved it too. I sent the track to my friend Dr. Griffin and he provided a really cool crazy clip for the slightly cut track.



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Monday, January 26, 2015

THE WEB - Five / Three - singles

In summer 2013 i had an emergency OP on my back, as a disc pressed on a whole bundle of nerves... i had suffered from pain in the lower back and down the legs for a long time and it got worse and worse, but none of the docs and physios i had seen suggested to have a closer look at my back and the nerves, and in the end i almost lost my bladder nerves...Phew...I went through a long time with two OPs, a rehab, a recovery, a relapse, another OP where they screwed my back together with titan, and another recovery until, finally, in autumn 2014 things got normal again ...apart from a few nerves in my foot that i probably lost forever. During all these months i could not sit for longer times and as i use to work on tracks in a flow, the whole day long till late night or early morning i couldn't really produce new music. I still managed to keep up my uploading of videoclips on YT though.

However, when things seemed good again at the end of 2013 i managed to work on a new track. I was experimenting with synth patterns going to the five on a 4/4 grid, hence the title of the track, "Five". Another element i was using is a dubby synth that i stumbled upon...i was always looking out for it but couldn't identify it in my instrument library till then. Beginning of 2014, inspired by "Five" i did another track, this time going to explore the "Three". I'm very pleased with the results, i see it as a further development in my music.

For the videoclips, i used five colour/fx styles on some footage i shot in Appenzell and on the mountain Hoher Kasten for "Five", and three different ways of using the same timelapse footage i shot around my home in Winterthur for "Three".

Click to listen and download "Five" on Soundcloud
Click to listen and download "Three" on Soundcloud



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