The Harriers mp3 feed

The Blind

Jacob Turcotte — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:34:16 +0000

Listen to "The Blind":

Alternative content

download "The Blind"

Borealis

Jacob Turcotte — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:58:45 +0000

Listen to "Borealis":

Alternative content

download "Borealis"

Synesthesia

Jacob Turcotte — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 19:43:13 +0000

Listen to "Synesthesia":

Alternative content

download "Synesthesia"

No Hell

Jacob Turcotte — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:39:10 +0000

"What happened to you?" said the congregation.

Unk shook his head vaguely. He could think of no apt condensation of his adventures for the obviously ritual mood. Something great was plainly expected of him. He was not up to greatness. He exhaled noisily, letting the congregation know that he was sorry to fail them with his colorlessness. "I was the victim of a series of accidents," he said. He shrugged. "As are we all," he said.

The cheering and dancing began again.

Unk was hustled aboard the fire engine, and driven on it to the door of the church.

Redwine pointed amiably to an unfurled wooden scroll over the door. Incised in the scroll and gilded were these words:

I WAS A VICTIM OF A SERIES OF ACCIDENTS, AS ARE WE ALL.

Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan

Alternative content

download "No Hell"

Bottom Feeder Blues

Jacob Turcotte — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:31:42 +0000

My headboard (Rusty broken)

Your blue eyes (Burn the dark)

Something in the shapes you're making

Starts a fire in my head

Alternative content

download "Bottom Feeder Blues"

Summer Bummer

Jacob Turcotte — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:59:43 +0000

This is a cover of a great song by Boston-based band The Big Big Bucks. It was written by Joe McHue and The Big Big Bucks - the original version will be available on their debut album Crucial Schmooze this fall.

Alternative content

download "Summer Bummer"

Systems

Jacob Turcotte — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:41:59 +0000

He said that men wish to be serious but they do not understand how to be so. Between their acts and their ceremonies lies the world and in this world the storms blow and the trees twist in the wind and all the animals that God has made go to and fro yet this world men do not see. They see the acts of their own hands or they see that which they name and call out to one another but the world between is invisible to them.

-The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy

Is that acoustic guitar hiding behind that synthesizer? It must be hiding well.

Alternative content

download "Systems"

Focus/Debt

Jacob Turcotte — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:14:54 +0000

It rained for weeks and the rain soaked into everything, including this recording:

Alternative content

download "Focus/Debt"

click to enlarge

I Love You

Jacob Turcotte — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:44:45 +0000

Here is a new version of an older song, much improved. This song's structure lends itself very easily to live performance using loops, but I wanted to try to create a recording that was less loop dependent.

Alternative content

download "I Love You"

Here's a spectrogram of the third verse of "I Love You." (click to enlarge)

The Whims

Jacob Turcotte — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:57:57 +0000

We're all so saturated with media that we've become mostly desensitized to creativity; most creative thought is not unique enough to soak in to most of us. We're like sponges in a waterfall, which is why my biggest fear when making music is to write a "My Sweet Lord" and plagiarize unintentionally. But how much of what I've heard is remembered subconsciously, or worse, claimed as my own unconsciously? Inventive or iterative?

Alternative content

download "The Whims"

"Lightning in my lung" is the cold, aldrenal jolt only truly remembered under emotional stress, arching through your conductive nerves outward from your chest - inspired by an poignant but uncredited "Chinese poem" on the radio that I have not been able to find the source of, and for all I know was made up by its (unnamed) reciter:

I'm struck
by the lightning
of seeing you
after you're gone

source

Here is an ultrasound of "The Whims" in the iWomb (click to enlarge):

Delusions

Jacob Turcotte — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:57:04 +0000

I've always thought that music was the most rewarding and accessible art form. People can and do talk about it without feeling out of their depth; it's so ubiquitous. You can listen to a three-and-a-half minute song dozens upon dozens of times, discovering and gaining more from it on each play. Striking a good balance between density and subtlety is the most difficult thing.

Like some kind of brain-wine, a piece of music can ferment and improve in the time spent playing and thinking about it and with the memories attached to that time, until with all but the most transcendent works, the time spent playing and thinking about it becomes too long, the associations too strong, the song too old a vintage and spoiled and worn out and contaminated.

When I mix (or anyone mixes) a song, I have to listen to it dozens of times, and get to the point at which there is nothing more I can gain from it. Obsession over the smallest things overshadows the big picture permanently, and it becomes impossible to actually hear what's happening. How many miniscule decisions must be made?

Alternative content

download "Delusions"

A portrait of "Delusions:"