t a k k i m e d i a
Oddities and Curiousities
There are some recordings I've done that even I consider to be "odd".
A few of these tracks were things I did when I first built busybox and was still learning how to record professionally.
From around 1988 on I was listening to a lot of industrial music (like WZBC's No Commercial Potential every fucking night).
The other side of the coin is my tendency to re-record songs. Like as many as seven or eight times, with different forms, arrangements, and instruments.
(Normally, one would have two or three: sketchpad, demo, final.) But like a dog returneth to his vomit, I keep coming back to old songs and re-recording them.
Weird Shit
Screwing around in a room full of gear is the most fun you can have with your pants on. The fact that my board, deck, rack, and keys are now contained within a laptop doesn't matter a bit. But I digress. Fucking around is good praxis, and when you're all alone in the studio there's no one around to see you faceplant. So you try using the freight elevator shaft as a reverb chamber, or play keyboard sequences with drum samples instead of piano, or use the tape sends of the board as submasters during mixing. You try the Glyn Johns three-mic setup on drums, then you mic everything individually, then you go back to three mics.
There's that mutant surf rock thing again.
Eight tracks of just vocals. I wanted to do a Bobby McFerrin thing and failed horribly. It was fun to do, though.
This happened while I was fronting an indie pop band (Hunger Moon). I just need catharsis sometimes.
Musiqué concrete with drum machine and sampler.
I put together two sequences I'd dumped to tape: one is a Mirage vocal sample, the other is Juno-106. Brought them into a DAW and added drums and bass.
All that desktop synth stuff I was doing in 1982-3 resulted in just a few actual songs. This is one of them.
A very early multitrack tape experiment, syncing the Oberheim DX to the Tascam 38 and triggering the Mirage's onboard sequencer.
The Thoughts of Chairman Takki (2018)
A more recent recording, using tapes and samples I'd unearthed for the Allston Street cd, plus "Germs" (1990) and "Do You Bleed for Your Art?" (1985).
Obsessive tendencies
I've enjoyed the luxury of having the means of production for a long time, and I produce prodigious amounts of dog vomit.
A very early sketch of the song, just a keyboard sequence over a 2 bar beat.
Another sketch, with vocals and an intro.
Still another iteration, this time with an arranged drum machine part.
The 1989 version from the Byzantium tape.
The 2016 version of Sirens, from the Allston Street CD.
The original porch sketch, recorded on a Walkman Pro.
The drum machine demo version.
The acoustic version.
Hunger Moon - You Don't (1989)
The first Hunger Moon version.
Hunger Moon - You Don't (1990)
The second Hunger Moon version.
Karlo Takki - You Don't (2018)
The 2018 Allston Street version. Is there value in revisiting a song after 30 years? You tell me.
The drum machine demo version of Untimely Death. That Farfisa line before the chorus lay forgotten until 2016.
A version of the song I wrote for The Dark, but bass and drum machine. I'm thinking of re-recording this.
The Prison Etudes
I taught piano and music theory when I was in prison. The etudes were for beginning to intermediate players.
