Nur Ein XVII Round Five - Novel

[BenKrieger]

Novel by Rattlebox

Snare: contact mic, tapping on laptop
Rhythm: contact mics on metal bowl, light bulb, aluminum foil through distortion pedal
Field Recording: M & A Krieger during a card game

Spoiler

I actually don't think this is a well-written song, and of all the songs I've submitted so far it's the least melodically developed, but it's all I have time for this week. It has a nice atmosphere. The pedal steel guitars are also a field recording that I had on file previously. The sample of my daughters is from a "sample bank" that I use for my sound collage project. All the other samples were made for this song.

It’s a novel with everything
It’s got a night where it blew apart
A time bomb restless heart
And a man’s mistake

It’s a novel with everything
It’s got a lawyer just for the kids
It’s got everything we said and did
On dark display

I keep turning the pages
Hoping everything will be alright
But it’s crumbling before my eyes
And I’m waiting for the final chapter

It’s a novel with everything
It’s got the greatest love I’ve ever known
It’s got a letter left outside my home
With no kiss goodbye

All the damage and all the sting
All the promises dead and done
All the feelings left behind the sun
As the moon flew by

I keep turning the pages
Hoping everything will be alright
But it’s crumbling before my eyes
And I’m waiting for the final chapter

Amazing, shitty, and chill
Amazing, shitty, and chill

[gizo]

Novel, by Stacking Theory

Liner notes:

Spoiler

This is a song about human progress.

The verses are built on power drill (left) and impact driver (right) chords, with a wooden ruler plucking the repetitive bass and melody lines
The chorus is an electric jigsaw chord to the right, and a blowtorch on the left, and a crystal wine glass up the guts. You may also notice a percussive stiff broom sweeping on concrete
The bridge drops in some brief hits of a tape measure returning to its home, and a heavily effected electric hedge trimmer
A shaken spray can slips in and out of the transitions

I allowed myself the luxury of some drums and my voice (both of which I would be happy to argue are not musical)

a body that isn’t moving will not start to move
and one already in motion will not slow down
without the force which was absent from my heart
as I expand on Galileo and Descartes

with such a novel idea
I stand on the shoulders of giants
lets make this very clear
my work is nothing without those who came before

when measuring one thing there is no absolute
the speed of light is a constant, it’s so resolute
there is no force keeping my feet on this earth
and we’re expanding on Isaac’s body of work

with such a novel idea
I stand on the shoulders of giants
lets make this very clear
my work is nothing without those who came before

I look at everything
discoveries made
and things that cannot be measured
I bring them together
and I know that strings have a theory
and I built on what was there

with such a novel idea
I stand on the shoulders of giants
lets make this very clear
my work is nothing without those who came before

novel is nothing
nothing is novel
novel

[vowlvom]

Novel by Vom Vorton

linerz

lyrics: it's been a rough few years, okay

samples: the main keyboard and bass sounds that drive the whole song were made using a kontakt instrument that I built out of samples from a 'dramatic reading' of part of Anne of Green Gables, found on the free audiobook website Librivox (see here). I thought it would be fun to sample from a novel (see title) and this is my favourite novel I've read so far this year, I enjoyed escaping to Prince Edward Island which seemed to make a good fit for the lyrical theme. Anyway, I cut out 88 different syllables from various different actors reading the lines and assigned one to each piano key, and looped them all. I passed this to a vocoder to force pitch onto the samples and the result is this cool wobbly synth, I really like the results!

Those sounds are hopefully "integral" enough, but in case that was too obtuse a take on the challenge, I also created a rhythm out of book sounds (also using Anne of Green Gables, for consistency) and that crops up throughout the song.

“at least you've got plenty to write about”
you tell me with a grin
I feel tears pricking at my eyes
fight to keep them in

I’ll take contented apathy over page after page of misery
creative angst? thanks, but no thanks

it’s been a rotten decade
full of broken hearts and crumbling walls
“the only way is up”, you say
but I don’t have much hope at all
if something would go right for me
that would be a novelty

At least I've got plenty to read about
escape into a book
left my phone within eyesight
time for a quick look…

I try to clear my thoughts but they stay blurry at the edges
if I get angry, will that help?

we're rotten and decayed
full of disease and isolation
“time to level up”, you say
a rousing call for a fascist nation
compassion and honesty?
that would be a novelty

(I’m losing hope, I’m off my game
I think the whole world feels the same
I can’t see how we’ll turn it around
it’s hard not to let it get you down)

underpaid and overheating
doomed to history repeating
just a little good news for a change
that would be novel

[thelowestbitter]

Liner and sample info

Spoiler

Challenge samples: recorded myself making a gin and tonic and sliced sounds out of it to use as the main percussion track - you can hear ice being dropped in the glass, the bottle being uncapped, the fizz of the tonic. It's not my main sample, but I also recorded someone playing bagpipes, since I consider bagpipes to be "non-musical", and chopped a short bit out of that into Simpler in Ableton - the opening synth sound is that bagpipe sample pitched down an octave. I was planning to use this as the keyboard sound all through the song but there was too much ambient noise so I just used it to open and close the song.

Lyrically, this is about watching Billie Eilish's Glastonbury performance on the television and not getting it at all. I'm fine with not liking certain types of music, but this was the first time I can remember really not understanding the appeal of something, and feeling like one of those old guys who says "well music was better in my day". I feel like this year I've made less of an effort to listen to new music and I'm worried I'm losing my interest in and passion for music, or at least the new stuff. So basically it's another song where I moan about getting old.

am I supposed to be having fun?
I'm afraid that the novelty is gone
nothing new under the sun
I know, it's the children who are wrong
feeling uncomfortably numb
there's a wall I can't get over
nothing new under the sun
nothing new to be discovered

is this how it works?
mosquito tone in reverse
I hear a buzz that you don't hear,
and I'm scared it'll only get worse
is this what I am?
a bitter old man
I try to see what they all see,
and I'm not sure that I can

am I supposed to be having fun?
I'm afraid that the novelty is gone
nothing new under the sun
I know, it's the children who are wrong
feeling uncomfortably numb
there's a wall I can't get over
nothing new under the sun
nothing new to be discovered

(nothing new to be discovered, nothing new under the sun)
I try to see what they all see,
and I'm not sure that I can
(nothing new new new new new under the sun)
I hear a buzz that you don't hear,
and I'm scared it'll only get worse
(nothing new under the sun, nothing new to be discovered, be discovered)
I try to see what they all see,
and I'm not sure that I can

am I supposed to be having fun?
I'm afraid that the novelty is gone
nothing new under the sun
I know, it's the children who are wrong
feeling uncomfortably numb
there's a wall I can't get over
nothing new under the sun
nothing new to be discovered

[governingdynamics]

NOVEL
by
The Alleviators

Spoiler

Sample info:
The organ/bells/synth playing through most of the song is a multisample synth made with Iris 2 (using the spectral noise shaping procedure here: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/sound- ... ris-2.html) and fed midi data. The samples were:
Two separate samples of a beer bottle being struck by a fork (one with an empty bottle, one with some water)
One sample of air being blown in the beer bottle
public domain sample of a car horn

The bass is also a multisample spectral noise synth. that one:
Two different microwave beeping sounds
Beka's Keurig brewing a cup o' joe

Other than that there are some more traditional/recognizable samples:
Snare: keys being slapped on a countertop
Kick: stomping through my hallway
Infernal buzzing sound: public domain recording of bees, tuned and run through various effects
Kid voices: Beka's daughter Robin, vocoded, reversed and otherwise altered
Chill ambience: cicadas and crickets courtesy of Houston TX

<Verse 1:>
Been waiting all day
Laying dreams on a page
That no one else will read
And I say
Why do I do this, why can’t I face
There’s not enough time to leave so much to waste
And not much to show, no

<Chorus 1:>
But I could try
To make something that’s never been
If I get it right
Maybe I’ll be worth something

<Verse 2:>
Been blurring my eyes
Trying to synthesize
From echoes, symphonies

But I hear
That buzz in my head
To run it again
Because even if no one is listening

<Chorus 2:>
I could I try
To make something that’s never been
No reason why
‘Til there’s nothing left to give
And if I die
At least there’ll be traces of me
Left behind
To fill the pages between

<Bridge:>
And isn't that novel, isn't that funny?
The twist in the ending, you never saw coming
You try and you try, and the irony’s rife
But maybe,
That novelty saves your life

<Chorus 3:>
So I will try
To make something that’s never been
Oceans, mountains
Worlds that only I could bring to life
You will find traces of me
In every line
And in the pages between

[Lunkhead]

"Novel"
by Lunkhead

Spoiler

Obviously most of my samples are just of our cat. The "shaker" is me moving a scoop in his (clean) litter box.

Remember that summer we worked so hard
Building a spaceship in our backyard
I made you a helmet with room for your ears
We flew to the moon and took rocks for souvenirs

But time moves so quickly for you my friend
We may part soon but I’ll see you again

If I wrote a novel it would be about you
And all the adventures that we’ve been through
I’d fill every line with words so fine
So you could live on long after we’re gone

In our new time machine we went to the Jurassic
You ate a butterfly, man, that was classic
Then we saw the pyramids and the Parthenon
Wondered where the civilized people have gone?

Spoiler

Egyptians and Greeks held cats in very high regard

But life goes by quickly for you my friend
We may part soon but I’ll see you again

If I wrote a novel it would be about you
And all the adventures that we’ve been through
I’d fill every line with words so fine
So you could live on long after we’re gone

Of course I’m being silly imagining all that
You’re not a person, you’re just a cat
Still we’ve had such good times together
I wouldn’t trade a minute for a map to any treasure

But time moves so quickly for you my friend
We may part soon but I’ll see you again

If I wrote a novel it would be about you
And all the adventures that we’ve been through
I’d fill every line with words so fine
So you could live on long after we’re gone

[Lunkhead]

"Novel"
by Moss Palace

Spoiler

Samples!
Garage door opening loop going basically the whole time
Drums are made from noises Erin made with a Scotch tape dispenser
Some percussion noises are Erin scribbling with a pencil, some are her erasing
There's also Erin striking a match mixed in there
The bass "synth" is a sample put into a granular synth engine and played as a synth
In the bridge, we used some audio we got from Pepper Jane during the guest round that we didn't use then, of her whispering some of the lyrics from that song, which we imagined as lines from this song's narrator's novel

I should have burned it
Or never done it
I wasn’t sure of the protocol
I signed your copy
You looked right through me
Or was I even there at all

Wish I had known how to stop
I could have torn that novel up

You think you know me
You don’t really know me
You think you know me so well
You think you know me
You don’t really know me
You think you know me so well

I wrote my heart out
In every sentence
But I maintain my privacy
So don’t assume that
Because you read it
it was my secret diary

Wish I had known when to stop
I could have torn that novel up

You think you know me
You don’t really know me
You think you know me so well
You think you know me
You don’t really know me
You think you know me so well

You think you know me
You don’t really know me
You think you know me so well
You think you know me
You don’t really know me
You think you know me so well

You think you know me
You don’t really know me
You think you know me so well

[glennny]

Novel
by Cavedwellers
Truth-vocals, lyrics, music
glennny- Field recordings, acoustic guitar, slide guitar

Spoiler

We used field recordings I made going around the Tesla Fremont factory:
Kick- A mostly empty used oil barrel
Snare-Compressed Dry Air gun and a bin of dead battery cells
HH- a small crowbar
other clanks- 2 other crowbars
Bass- Rubber band across plastic Tupperware
Keys- rim of glasses wet
other noises: tops of forklift stops (big metal cylinder gives a tone when you tap the top)
Bell sound: Model X empty motor bell jar

Jack Dorsey was right about succinctness
Words words words can just pile on
If you know the score then less is more
If you don’t then you lose what’s won
You gave me a novel
When I needed one line
To pull me out of this abyss
And make me a partner in crime
You gave me a novel
With chapter and verse
And when it was over with
I couldn’t remember what came first

There’s something sour in self-indulgence
And we all indulge ourselves from time to time
But you, my friend, you surely tend
To recidivistic crime
You gave me a novel
When I needed one line
To pull me out of this abyss
And make me a partner in crime
You gave me a novel
With chapter and verse
And when it was over with
I couldn’t remember what came first

Blessings should be counted, to be sure
You don’t leave voicemails anymore

You gave me a novel
When I needed one line
To pull me out of this abyss
And make me a partner in crime
You gave me a novel
With chapter and verse
And when it was over with
I couldn’t remember what came first

[mo]

Elks of the Economy

Spoiler

Samples: typewriter, fountain pen writing, paper sounds, book dropped on table (multiple), espresso machine, drinking espresso, dog drinking water, and owl hooting. All of these are used naturally in the song as sonic elements, and outside of the owl hoots, one of the book drops, and the carriage return sound on the typewriter, are field recordings made for this song. On top of that, a book drop sample and the fountain pen writing samples were also put in Iris 2 to create a synth instrument that is adding the bass synth sounds peppered throughout the song. The owl hoots were also put into a granular synth to create the main synth sound

Open the cover and there you are
My hero my shooting star
A blinding light that takes my breath away
We meet in the middle of chapter two
It seems like I was written for you
A cup of coffee and quiet tones
A few hours later i’m walking home

I told you this story a thousand times
It never gets old, I love each and every line
This is the history of you and me
I might not tell it truthfully
Words on the page keep time in a bottle
Our love story as a novel

What seems idyllic is fantasy
It holds no attraction for me
We traveled to exotic places
We passed through all the phases
There were good times and bad
Good times and bad
Every one a memory that we were glad to have

I told you this story a thousand times
It never gets old, I love each and every line

There are nights I awake, drenched in sweat
Remembering when we weren’t yet
We never touched
Our eyes never met

We fell in love through joy and strife
Learning each other and making a life
This is the history of you me
Though I might not tell it truthfully

I told you this story a thousand times
It never gets old, I love each and every line
Words on the page keep time in a bottle
Our love story as a novel