Faff’s Scrapbook.ep

This record is a collection of tracks I made from the start of 2019 to the end of 2021. They all exist completely independent of each other. My intention while working on music during this time was to create a time capsule/memory album for me to remind myself of my moments with. I had a lot of different experiences and substantially changed during this time. The early tracks were made by a completely different person than the person typing this. Of the 6 tracks on this EP, only one of them was made with the knowledge that it would be put together with the others and released as one cohesive article.

I wanted to make music again after abandoning it for 3 years. One of these tracks marks the turning point where a projected pipe dream of determined mastery was cracked through by what the speaker cone did when piano roll blocks were placed intuitively for the first time. 

In this .ep, I present:

THE CONCEPT

In its disjointedness, this music has presented itself to me as a scrapbook. It is rough around the edges, vague in its sentiment, and has more of an emotional than abstract association. While brainstorming for visual ideas to package these tracks in, I spat a bunch of words into a GAN and the words might be useful for you to get a sense of the general themes:

“synthesizer drum machine back catalogue emotional syneasthesia-inducing dance music” “vibrant energy synthesiser music record” “faffing about analogue synth music maker colour-changing light experiment” “bedroom studio acid bass sentimental rave artisan” “braindance analogue synthesiser data catalogue metaphysical music” “psychedelic synthesiser contemplation heartfelt breakbeat lullabies” “reaction diffusion rephlex records melancholic analogue music journal” “cerebral rave chromatic anthem dirge synth memories” “tr-808 analogue rave cerebral music energy ritual”

There is a dualistic nature to this EP, as it is a highly organised arrangement of totally disparate tracks. They are all (except one) built inside a DAW, but largely featuring live performance recordings of analogue hardware. The recordings are then processed after the fact. Layers on layers of humanity and machine, analogue and digital, specificity and ambiguity. All of the tracks are also subjectively experienceable pieces of music, but they sit in an objective folder structure on my laptop. Each one also was ignited by a unique occasion, but absorbs new meanings and connotations as time flows through and around them. These polarised paradoxes are key to the idea of this EP. Even to have a concept EP assembled from standalone tracks without any uniting concept is an example of the intertwining of opposites. Visuals associated are DAW architecture, poorly managed cables in thrown-together bedroom studio, piles of photographs printed out, computer folder structure, MIDI information in piano roll/automation envelopes, synthesiser encoders and pots.

Buy it:)!!

Special thanks and love go to Weefween, Robert and Chloe