This week's #ThisDealInHistory is one of a couple clips that we've pulled from our Dec 1, 2007 concert at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY.
It starts out with some sort of 1970's "futuristic"-sounding jam (think "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind"). As I listened to this, I thought mostly of giant tape-reel computers and storage warehouses full of computer punch cards... until around 2:15 when things seem to take a turn for the darker (perhaps the computers are taking over society?).
I've always been a fan of keyboard tones that lean towards the "pure"; basic waves (sine, saw) or sounds that don't have a lot of schmutz (yiddish for "dirt" or, in this case, needless effects and shininess) on them. Of course, those of you who have listened to tND for a while will know that I do reach for the big shiny sounds when the situation calls for it, but i'm always sucked in by a pure wave. This opening jam features one such basic synth wave as the main melody (of course, with a schmutzy filter pad in the background!).
At 3:20 we speed it up but check out how Dan, who has been intensifying his performance of this repeated 16th-note bass line since the beginning of the clip, is also slowly but surely amping up and opening up the bass sound until it has morphed from regular bass into some glitchy monster from 3:45 onwards. I swear it sometimes sounds like the dude is playing a TB-303, but it's all fingers and strings.
Darren must have called "Deep Sun", because we launch into it at 5:05 without any audible trigger. Cool tom-tom break starting around 5:45, which he uses to great effect to lead us into the main head at 6:45.
The main synth melody of "Deep Sun" is another good example of a "pure" synth tone - in this case two saw waves in sync and not much else...
As the jam begins I quickly dive in and out of a little delay pedal workout (8:00 - 8:22), only to give way to some more big bass sounds. I'm making an effort to not clutter up the jam with a bunch of chords, preferring to stick to one keyboard at a time and lay down some unison melody lines. It's a neat effect - pretty sparse, letting the bass and drums come to the fore.
Another example of a pure synth tone at 10:36 - in this case it's the Juno 106 with a modified version of the "VL Tone" sound, which is basically a one-oscillator square wave.
I'm definitely committed to the non-chordal approach for this jam because at 11:45 i return to the lone keyboard playing a single-note melody that sounds like one of those old 1970's cheap European units that i used to find in every pawnshop.
Dan's bass has been chugging along the whole time, but at 12:13 he takes it to a new level with some crazy filter work that, to me, is the sonic equivalent of an evil robot clawing across my face with giant metallic nails.
Interesting sounds at 12:55 - only two lines going on (one filtered bass up high, one weird-sounding synth), but it takes up a lot of sonic real estate. I also love the entry of the big fat synth line at 13:37 - it starts down low and never strays too high, thereby staying out of the way of that percolating synth line up top.
We're clearly giving hand signals (and no audible trigger cue) because we all change scene/key together at 14:45 back into the "Deep Sun Reprise", with a little bit of audience participation at 15:00 and 15:07 before taking it home. -Jamie
