PRIME Series FALLOUT

Had heard of the game FALLOUT. Seems to have been around forever, but I never bothered to look into it at all.  I think I only noticed the series as it came up on the starting advertisement when I went to watch TV via my Firestick.  

The description seemed interesting. And that was about it for deciding to watch it. The first episode then pulled me in.

"Ned Flanders in the Apocalypse" sums up one of the characters. After watching it all, it has given me a few things to think about, and having seen things been privatized for "shareholder value"  don't see it as too far fetched at all.  Especially with the size of the US Military Budget, getting a slice of that pie is  irresistible for the worse kind.

I will get back to watching HOUSE on Netflix again after this diversion, but after seeing most of the first 2 seasons now, it isn't as new and refreshing as it was initially.  

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Headphones & Earbuds: Thoughts 2024

 

I did an X post on the huge number of earbuds lost at JR stations in Japan and it may have been the most liked and shared thing I have ever put on that hell site.  I assume many have had the problem, but were unaware of the extent of the problem. So something that isn't incredibly trivial (e.g. How dark do you like your toast?) CAN get more than 10 views. 

This comic contains that info and other recent thoughts on headphones and earbuds.  

Open earbuds are "THE NEW THING" at the moment. In one sense, it means selling another set to everyone, but it really depends what your life style is.   If I am not listening to what is going on around me, I am likely to get run into by one of the many bicycles racing on the footpath while walking around outside where I live now. A slight step to the left as you walk along to miss something on the footpath and you are likely to get hit.  The chance of that when I lived in Sydney Australia was zero.  

So open while walking around outside, then noise cancelling or closed back to ride a train, visit a shopping center or cafe.

Even open earbuds for just sitting in the lounge room, where my wife  will start talking about something, and I need to be present, is a good idea.

Update: 2024/4/24

Since writing this comic, I have bought SHOKZ OpenFit, wireless headphones too. And used them for about a week. They do sound great, better than the 1/10 priced Resolve, but I have to use them with my phone's music player.

The first time I went for a walk with them to the shops and back, when I went to take off my mask, the right one briefly disappeared under a seat in our entrance hall. So glad I was home when that happened.  Some black cotton thread has since stopped that from happening twice! Don't know how often the thread will need replacing though or the failure mode.

I wear glasses, so that puts a bit more pressure on them, and they do get a bit uncomfortable on the top of my Tragus.  

They have touch controls to stop/play/ next song back/forward (that you can change in the App), and I find the double tap for stop/ play is detected right about 50% of the time. The sound I use them with gets completely drowned out in the local supermarket.  

If SHOKZ had a wired OpenFit, that would be better for me. That they can get knocked off your ear is a worry, even if less likely than for an Airpod.

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Japanese Musical Instrument Industry. A Brits view 1987

 

In 1987 was invited to have dinner by Ike Ueno (Roland Marketing English speaking musician) with a visiting Brit, Hugh Ashton. This guy was writing a magazine article. The above is it, and I'm the Australian mentioned on the second page. I have no memory if that is what I said or not, or if I was being miss quoted.

I met Hugh again a year or so later when he had moved to Japan and was living in our city Hamamatsu. He must have visited my Roland office. Think he may have been an English teacher at the time. What I do clearly remember is him saying:

 "It must be difficult for an Australian to live in Japan, you don't have any Culture".  

Had Brits say and imply something like that forever, as there were a few expats going to school in Australia as a kid.  

I discovered yesterday Hugh spent 30 years in Japan, has written Sherlock Holmes and other novels, before returning to Old Blighty. From his own Amazon Bio:

Hugh Ashton was born in the UK in 1956, and after graduation from university worked in the technology industry around Cambridge (the first personal computer he used was Sir Clive Sinclair’s personal TRS-80) until 1988, when a long-standing interest in the country took him to Japan.

There he worked for a Japanese company producing documentation for electronic instruments and high-end professional audio equipment, helped to set up the infrastructure for Japan’s first public Internet service provider, worked for major international finance houses, and worked on various writing projects, including interviewing figures in the business and scientific fields, and creating advertorial reports for Japanese corporations to be reprinted in international business magazines.

Along the way, he met and married Yoshiko, and also gained certificates in tea ceremony and iaidō (the art of drawing a sword quickly).

In 2008, he wrote and self-published his first published novel, Beneath Gray Skies, an alternative history in which the American Civil War was never fought, and the independent Confederacy forms an alliance with the German National Socialist party. This was followed by At the Sharpe End, a techno-financial-thriller set in Japan at the time of the Lehman’s crash, and Red Wheels Turning, which re-introduced Brian Finch-Malloy, the hero of Beneath Gray Skies, referred to by one reviewer as “a 1920s James Bond”.

In 2012, Inknbeans Press of California published his first collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures, Tales from the Deed Box of John H. Watson M.D., which was swiftly followed by many other volumes of Holmes’ adventures, hailed by Sherlockians round the world as being true to the style and the spirit of the originals by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Inknbeans also published Tales of Old Japanese and other books by Ashton, including the Sherlock Ferret series of detective adventures for children. He and Yoshiko returned to the UK in 2016 for family reasons, where they now live in the Midlands cathedral city of Lichfield.

He continues to write Sherlock Holmes stories, as well as various other fiction and non-fiction projects, including documentation for forensic software, and editing and layout work on a freelance basis, in between studying for an MSc in forensic psychological studies with the Open University.

He must have worked for Yamaha as a writer.

Many UK and American writers stories about Japan are to make their home audience feel better or superior. I remember clearly in the 1990s telling my Japanese bosses that the foreign press was saying how they were all saying the Japanese Economic Boom is Over, and being told they were just jealous of Japans success. In that case the foreign press was correct and the boom was truly over, but in many other cases they were not wrong of their assessment of Foreign journalists.

I will let you judge if you think any of his article above is condescending or not...

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"LATE STAGE" Life, 2024/4/10

A cartoon on being semi retired, not working fulltime any more, and the things in life you want to do, and those you need to do. I wrote "you" there, but it really just means "me".

I have been doing one of these Just Thinking... comics again everyday for the last week or two.  Even did two on making them, combined here:

A comic on whatever random, incomplete thought I may have just had that morning. But this one about the making of is something have been thinking about for a long time.  

I did a lot of these during the covid years,  some were 3 or more panel strips, others just this single panel. I have bought and used BLAMBOT fonts, I have also looked at his info about lettering comics and his book, but mostly do my own thing, inspired by memes, euro-comics and manga. His lettering comics book seems so American Comic only to me. I guess this is partly as I  never read any American comics growing up, and only see them as a minor arm of the art.  The first comic I ever really read was translated manga THE GHOST IN THE SHELL, then some collected volumes of SPAWN I bought during business trips to America in the 1990s.  Memes, a photo with some text slapped on it, has become a significant format, but I want to do things a bit differently. 

I do these for myself and expect my format will evolve more. Time Capsules for my future self. I may be able to take it somewhere interesting, but may just stop again and try something completely different. It isn't like I have an audience to consider.

Suzume was the TV movie of the week last week, and I recorded it to a BLURAY RECORDER. I useful gadget to have, that I didn't have to buy, as I was given this older model last year.  

Like all this directors movies, it is a Supernatural teenage romance. But the thing that really stuck me, is how beautiful and detailed it makes mundane scenes. Kyoto Animation does the same thing.  Inspiring.

I previously blogged about catching up on stuff I never saw, or never had the opportunity to see.  I am currently watching HOUSE, at one time the most popular TV drama in America.  The first season was really good and I found each episode just really flew past.  The character HOUSE is inspired by SHERLOCK HOLMES, and they are kind of a who done it, except with obscure diseases and medical conditions, so it isn't as if a viewer can guess who done it.  I am on to season 2 now, and some things seem to have changed. Not sure if this is for the better, but still more interesting than most other TV for me at the moment. At least for one hour an evening.

No idea why I never watched it before, and know it was on TV in Sydney when I was there. I guess I just didn't have the time to watch any more hours of TV than I did watch.

A pocket full of music & a coffee is joyous...

You know it to be true 

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Breakfast at GUSTO 2024/4/4

Felt like having unlimited coffee, a hotcake and a boiled egg for breakfast so rushed off to catch the 9:29AM train to the local Mall after getting some 1990 PINK SAPPHIRE tracks onto my X1 mp3 player this morning.

There are regulars at my local GUSTO, and I briefly introduced my self and chatted with one I have always seen there. As above.  I assume he is there every morning, but the most I have been is once a week for a few consecutive weeks. The place is quiet and great value, but I prefer to be at home most of the time.

I was first living in Japan 1987 to 2001, but have no memory of PINK SAPPHIRE's 1990 debut track P.S. I LOVE YOU. It rocks. Even though I bought the CD single of just as rocking LINDBERG'S 今すぐKiss Me earlier that year.  It is just hit and miss what music is around that you notice. So last week in the eclectic Village Vanguard store I come across DJ和 MY-ROCK MIX of J-Rock with 33 tracks.  I recognized some, so bought it.  It is like a DJ mix, with no break between tracks, and just the best bit of each, maybe half.  This CD introduced me to Pink Sapphire and a few other J-rock bands I hadn't known.

Shame to read that the Pink Sapphire guitarist, Taka, died of breast cancer end of 2023, aged 56.  

I am on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, Mastodon and Facebook. That is way to many, except Instagram, Bluesky and Mastodon get 0 interaction for me so looking at them at all is becoming less frequent. They are easy to ignore.

Twitter makes it easy to follow a lot of people, and work out which are actually worth following and maybe interact with. There are many non Japanese in Japan that, apparently, know far more about Japan than Japanese do. Experts on everything, all the time.  I only know about things related to me in my own 19 years here.   So...

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Catching Up On Life, Framing it with Things That are Important To Me.

I have been catching up with stuff that had past me by, or I looked at but didn't get back to finishing over the years. Movies, TV Series and other things. Posted about a few already, like SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and DR.STRANGLELOVE. Or I posted about them from  a different POV in one of my comics.

Another is the works of Mamaru Nagano:

Much of this catching up is that career, family and work meant I had other things to do.  Life just gets in the way of things you wanted to do or try. 

I had my first overseas trip, visiting Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong in my early 20s. Many in the group I was in were in their 70s, and their first or second trip after they had retired. There are lots of steps in many of the main places to visit there, and some couldn't manage them. I guess travel was not important to them when they were younger.

I "retired" (actually more semi retired), 5 years ago during the process of selling our house in Sydney Australia we had lived in for 18 years. 

On getting back to Japan, after feathering our nests to be comfortable, meant we then had the time to go back and do the things that are important to us. But I have done my travelling already. Lived and worked for decades in both Japan and Australia. Contracted in a few different fields in my technical career, and started freelance illustration. Been to America all over as well as Canada, Germany, France, England, Scotland & New Zealand. It isn't overseas travel I need to do now.

In the last 4 years of "retirement in Japan", I've written and recorded songs, an album or two, done a few comic books, done animated music videos, made my art, gone to see others art,  and made miniatures and sculpted. Have been framing my life with the things that are important to me.

So when do you, and about what, will you catch up on  "life"?

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DEEP SPACE 9 : My 30 years to Complete

 

Another thing I finally caught up with today. Changing countries 3 times and "life", got in the way of doing somethings. I had seen Season 1 & 2 in Japan in the 1990s. Like ST:TNG and EVANGELION, it was on at 2AM on a Wednesday morning, so I used to record episodes to VHS tape.  

About 5 years ago I almost bought the DS9 Complete Box set at JB-HIFI in Chatswood, Sydney. They were not unreasonably priced. Don't remember now why I didn't, except maybe that with all the free to air digital TV channels and the PVR I had, it was difficult to watch the programs I auto recorded each day/ week as it was. I had plenty to watch if I wanted to waste some time. Had the Sci-Fi channel and 7MATE with all those car shows.  For example Sci-Fi had Stargate Atlantis, which I had never see, with several consecutive episodes on each day.  I had my PVR automatically recording all these, so I could watch them later. I had to make the time to watch, then delete episodes so the massive 6TB HD wouldn't fill.  

A few months back I finished all of VOYAGER on Netflix too.  I don't remember when I got to see the first episodes of that, but must have been the same way via VHS tape.  I have no memory how many seasons of any of these shows were shown.  It wasn't prime time TV in Japan.

Seeing DS9 & Voyager earlier would have helped with getting some of the things PICARD Seasons 1 to 3 had in it, I guess.

I took the approach  of watching DS9 in 82 hours.

The episodes that focus on the core story. Except I would still say some of these aren't really core, even if they are nice character studies. Quite a commitment. I watched an episode, or 1.5 episodes a night for many weeks, then the last 6 all today.

In the 1990s,  I manage to see BABLYON5, all 5 seasons, via swapping Japanese music CDs for VHS tapes of episodes taken from the Satellite feed before the advertisements were inserted with a guy in Louisiana USA. A friend of a friend.  Didn't get the opportunity to do something similar with the Star Trek shows.  

As the comic says, sitting here typing this, I am struck that it took 30years to see it all. Finally, thanks to my wife getting a NetFlix subscription, and not having anything she wanted to watch. 

Deep Space 9 was a very different Star Trek, that had discarded some of the creators rules for its world. It was better for doing that.  

Compared to Babylon5, which was written by the focused creator for the last seasons, DS9 was all over the place. Some stories were so random. Some were completely amazing, such as things involving  Section31. 

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The Great Designer MARCELLO GANDINI has passed at 85

 

MARCELLO GANDINI's Lancia Stratos HF and Lamborghini Countach were designs that truly inspired me in 1970.

He, more than any other car stylist, left a lasting impression. I never knew him, but one that made me sad knowing he had past.

My HEAVY METAL GARAGE Comic references his designs more than once 

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DUNE PT2 TOHO Cinema first session 2024/3/15

 

I go to the Cinema about once a year, and seeing DUNE PT2 in the first session maybe it for this year. 

I saw DUNE, before they knew it would be PT1, in the same Toho Cinema on its release in one of the smaller screens in the cinema complex in Kuzuha Hirakata Osaka, my closest Mall. It was, maybe, the first time I thought the sound was painfully loud at the cinema, and I was sure the sound was breaking up during the loudest drums and action scenes then. 

For part 2, it was on the biggest screen with Dolby ATMOS sound. And for the first screening on release on a Friday morning, a work day, there was a fair turn out. Maybe 40 people.

It was the standard English release with Japanese subtitles, but they had kept the English subtitles too for all the Fremen language spoken. Good for me.

Three hours is a long time for a movie to me, and it was only the end of a movie. It looks and sounds amazing, but I was physically exhausted when I got home. I guess that is what most people are paying for. The sound was loud, but it wasn't too loud.  

You get charged an extra 100円 per ticket to get the ATMOS sound installed with the biggest screen. That seems excessive to me. DOLBY is getting really obnoxious with their licensing. ATMOS adds ceiling speakers to their previous surround sound system. It also has a more sophisticated way of moving a sound around the cinema space. I noticed this time entering the theatre, the ceiling speakers all had green illumination around them. Guessing that is used to explain what the extra money is for. I don't remember that being the case last time I went. Luckily they turn off the illumination when the movie starts! 

I read the novel in the later 1970s, probably after finishing High School before University started. It was the first time in many years I didn't have something I had to do instead. A friends sister had a huge SF paperback collection, and I must have been loaned DUNE, as well as many STAINLESS STEEL RAT  and other books.  I can't say I'm a fan of the story of Dune's mostly evil, rich families, religious orders and zealots "inspired" by middle eastern oil, Arab tribes and global corporations.  

It isn't a fun experience like Star Wars but I had to see this latest part, and is worth a trip to a wonderful cinema for the spectacle.

I am a fan of the unofficial Spice Diver Fan Edit of David Lynch's Dune, DUNE REDUX ,  that corrects many issues with the original versions released, and have watched it several time. 

I see that as "more complete" than Dune Pt1 & Pt2 released so far. AND it has STING and Captain Picard in it!

So there will now be DUNE PT3, to continue the story, again, maybe in another 2 years.  I will probably see that in the cinema too. But I expect I will enjoy DUNE PT2 on DVD at home more. I did for DUNE PT1.

I got out of the cinema at 12:30PM. That is normally too late to be able to get a table in any of the many restaurants at Kuzuha Mall.  There are ques outside waiting for free tables from about 11:30AM. But a few months ago a new "American Burger" styled place, BURGERLION opened. The name comes from a JOJO character named more like LEEON, than a big cat.

Had looked at going there shortly after it had opened with my daughter and youngest son, but the prices and sizes of the dishes were a shock.  1,450円 for a burger and chips (when McDonalds is just next door) is really expensive, and my sister in law had told me "Japanese aren't going to pay that for an American style Burger".   Not being an American, makes it a place to I would try once or twice. 

So unsurprisingly, I found BURGERLION mostly empty, with only 2 other tables taken, now 3 and a bit months after it opened. Empty, and that was fine by me, so I got a Pulled Pork Burger. They all come with tasty chips. The Hamburger must be almost 3 times the size of a Big Mac and was good, but messy to eat. They give you a brown waxed paper thing to put it in and you eat it out of that. 

The places biggest problem is you MUST order with your smartphone by scanning the QR code to get the menu to place your order.  This strategy would save the capital expenditure to have tablets at each table like most other restaurants do now, but it was slow and didn't work for me first time, and I had to call a waitress for help. I just got 3 deserts as the only menu items!  She restarted the App and it then worked.  What a massively bad user experience. I expect this place will be closed and gone soon. Way better places have closed and gone in the Mall, and I don't see  BURGERLION as a real option. Wouldn't have enough rich Americans to support it. 

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Mangaka Akira Toriyama Passes at 68

Seen a lot of (young, mostly comic related) peoples posts on social media about how significant Toriyama was to them on his passing. My take is a little different...

The Dragon Ball Anime was on TV when our oldest son was growing up in the 90s and I thought it was just violet rubbish. The Dr. Slump I saw was of course kids stuff.

A few years ago, the owner of a model shop I visited told me about Toriyama's FINEMOLDS Caricatured military figures and that was the first time I noticed his name, and connection to Dragon Ball and other stuff.

The School Holidays early last year had the SANDLAND movie at the cinema, and I noticed as it, as it seemed to have come out of nowhere. I looked into why that was. Did a one page comic on it.

After that and finding out about his history, I decided to track down a few cheap second hand books of his in Japan here. Did not look down the DRAGON QUEST game artwork rabbit hole though, just his comic work. So many books, but I just got the first couple of collected issues to see what they were all about.

So I ended up reading his one volume SANDLAND, his earlier Dr. Slump and the first 2 books, a complete story, of Dragon Ball, that wasn't anything like the Anime I remember. I appreciate his big head little body style, as that has been a significant style in caricature since the 17 century in Europe or so, and something I also do. Dragon Ball was much better than I imaged it could be, even if for 14 year old boys.

Dr. Slump with its gags may have been his best work, and he had an amazing way with vehicles and machines. He looks like he influenced my work without even knowing directly about him for the longest time. 

68 is way too young. Did he work far too hard in his popular years? Just a day after the voice actress of Chiba Marako-chan died at 63. And with the death of the neighbor in the last weeks really gives this 65 year old something to contemplate. 

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A Death in the Street in Silence

 

I have floor to ceiling glass doors in the studio here, leading to a balcony over looking our street corner. Our second story location, on a rather large pedestal the way the land is terraced means I can also see out to Osaka down the valley. 

I imagine other views, such as the quick water colors above, but this is a very different story.

Can hear ambulances every so often, and sometimes one comes into our area, a couple of streets either side of us.  There are many elderly here, and mostly I can catch a glimpse of an Ambulance going up the next street away, between the houses. Also many small delivery vans, many to our house as my sister-in-law was rather involved with Mercari, and as I can't hear the front door bell ring from my second story studio, I rely on hearing the vans come into our street, then looking out the window to see if they stop out the front of our place.  It is my job to handle deliveries here, but checking for that can show other things you didn't expect..   

I can see in plain sight from the balcony window the house on the far corner. We live so close, but not a direct neighbor, so don't really know them.  My sister in law had spoken a few times with the wife over the years as she was her housing group leader, not our housing group, a year or so ago, before we came back to Japan. They have a daughter in her twenties. The wife always drove the family car, and each afternoon when she came home from work,  I could hear the cars unusual reversing alarm as she backed it into the narrow carport. She had gotten a new car in the last few months. She could park that car much faster than I could, was something I thought often. 

A couple of weeks ago, before midday on a wet Sunday, an Ambulance stopped outside that far corner house. Siren stopped, but red lights flashing. The women (just around 50, young for this area) that lived there had been at that morning community meeting my wife attended, and had briefly chatted with. She seemed fine, always friendly, but maybe a little tired. I met her myself at a community meeting a couple of months ago. Struck me as young and community minded.

We saw her carried on a stretcher into the Ambulance. She must have been home alone, husband and daughter out, when she called for the Ambulance.  

I have been taken off to emergency twice myself in the last 10 years, once for Kidney Stones and another for Anemia when I collapsed,  so I don't see an Ambulance as automatically meaning a life and death situation. Just you can't get to the hospital on your own. They will probably be fine....

Three days ago was the first time I had ever seen her husband about. That seemed unusual. There was also a small gray van, from a funeral parlor, parked outside the home. Day after that I saw a Priest enter the home in the evening, when I went outside to bring shopping in from the car when my wife came home. 

Yesterday morning a small gray van parked outside our place with his warning indicators flashing. Expected it was a delivery van, as sister-in-law was expecting a delivery and so she went outside, and the gentleman in the van got out and apologized as he was just here for a short time for part of the funeral proceedings. 

A short time later 2 cars parked in our street and 4 or so people went into the house on the corner. Must have been her and her husbands parents.  A larger gray van arrived, and the gentleman from the one outside our house went in too. The family members formed a kind of line between the house entrance and the bigger van, and the 2 gentlemen brought out a body in a white bag on a stretcher and put it into the back of the larger van. There was much bowing and the vans drove off.

It all happened in 10 days. From a young active community member, to gone.

As she was a part of the community committee, we will hear officially something about her soon, and why she is no longer on the committee.  

Sad.  You never know how long anyone has.  

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New BRIGHT POP ART EDM shirt designs (Anime like)

We have updated our Zazzle Store with new BRIGHT EDM shirt designs based on the latest EDM Single Cover artwork. Felt inspired.

In our store, if you look at ALL PRODUCTS,  you will see the latest designs. They shirt and options can be customized.

And others

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TAKASHI MURAKAMI MONONOKE KYOTO Exhibition 2024/2/27

 

This 6 month exhibition at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Art Museum started a week ago. The continuous rain here had kept me away till yesterday. Very glad I got to it.

Takashi Murakami, now 62 years old, has been an artist for 30+ years, but I only heard about his SUPERFLAT about 10 years ago. I may have seen it and a brief interview with him in some TV arts program.  A week or so before we left Australia for Kyoto end of 2019, Murakami had a Yokai themed exhibition in Sydney I had wanted to go to, but due to final moving issues, and possibly rain, I didn't get to it.

But I didn't miss out as in the foyer, they had the 2 Murakami Oni that were in that Sydney Exhibition.

So it took some time to finally see his works "in the flesh". SUPERFLAT really caught my attention all those years ago. A current "pop art" inspired by the worlds of Japanese manga and anime. 

There were 6 large rooms and each had an explanation like this "manga". In English and Japanese.

A great exhibition. Also worth following up on his SUPERFLAT themes yourself. 

I think I was inspired by SUPERFLAT and his Mr.Dob character the first time I saw it. It just "click" with me. He says "Mr.DOB" is from slang word "dobojite" (meaning why?). I had never head that word, and asked my wife, and she said it sounds like a word made up by a child, but she could guess what it meant, but it isn't "Japanaese slang" that anyone would know or have used. 

When I go to an exhibition like this, one of the reasons is that I am hoping for it to inspire me in my own work.  More so now, since I retired from my technical career.  And I think I can see Murakami did, even before this exhibit. Or was that inspired by the same sources Murakami was?

It gets difficult to tell! If I look at my IN THE NEXT DIMENSION comic I can see a few influences

and I am okay with that. 

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Experiment in Melodic Techno: EDM Bob?

Not so sure it is Melodic Techno, but that was the style I have been listening to, and applied through my own limitations. The long version of our Melodic Techno experiment, EDM Bob?  Like a Street Cat Named "Bob",  The Superflat "Dob" or Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder saying "Bob".

An earlier short version I used in this YouTube short:

In Murakami's SUPERFLAT, he has named his many characters Mr.Dob. Mine above are my own in his style, but are they too close to Dob?  Hence the question, "is this too Bob?".  But the mouth is from another cartoon character, and aren't those ears kind of Mickey Mouse?  You can take SUPERFLAT to also mean "shallow" in the way HELLO KITTY is, and the Nursery rhyme level melodic complexity of EDM feels like it fits to me, hence the "Dob" <-> EDM connection to me. I must also say I LIKE Superflat and Melodic Techno.

The Reaper Project of the track:

I had been setting up and finding EDM sounds for my own music since investigating Cassians's GREAT SOUTHERN LAND Remix. 

I put together a MS-20mini drum sound collection early on.  The Korg really is a versatile synth for very electronic sounds, but there are tricks, such as knowing how the external signal processor can be used for overdrive.

My first attempts at making the standard drum patterns were really dull though, and I found velocity manipulation of the hi-hats vital to give a simple four on the floor pattern life and movement.  Using tracks by KENSHO, Pyra and Cassian as reference lead me to the stylistic patterns their tracks use. No intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, verse, chorus, ending here.  More slow build, release, hard verse, then ending, to fit into a different track in a DJ set.

A TSHIRT of a similar EDM POPART design is here

The rising sine wave tone in this was made in Audacity, in the chirp generator, as it allows you to set start and end frequencies and a duration.  

Most of the other tones and the melodic bits were played on the MS-20 while manipulating the VCF cutoff. Seems appropriate. I must say I am more influenced by Jean Michel Jarre's OXYGENE for the background sweeps and bloops than anything I heard in Techno though. Same for the panning of the swoops across the sound stage.  Now, OXYGENE is a melodic and technical wonder kind, and that kind of melodic and thematic development isn't part of Melodic Techno from what I have seen. I feel my melodies should go more places than they do, for now though, so maybe for the extended mix. Extended mixes are also part of the DJ, dance scene, so doing that is fine.  I could also say, my techno track here is kind of a REALLY STRIPPED DOWN variation of OXYGENE  at 124BPM, and made really really simple with the Melodic Techno "cliche" things in it. The Rise, The Drop, Snare Build and the long verses which change from no hi-hats, to with hi-hats, to with a snare to handclaps or whatever. 

I expect I will use this almost 5minute track as the sound track to a Car Illustration Sample Video as I haven't made one of those recently. A change from the more metal sound of some of my other videos. 

There is an interesting effect with musically compositionally simple tracks like this. As they don't "musically resolve" at any time, to anything, so there is never any "that is finished" feeling with them. I can have this track on repeat for hours and it doesn't get monotonous, even if not a whole lot happens in it, it is still changing.  Almost EASY LISTENING music!  

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