| # |
Name (Length)
Size |
Download Links |
Comments |
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| 154 |
The Road To Hell (A
Public Works Project) (8:39) 74K |
|
I knew soon into this
project that the title would be
reflective of a chain gang - the drum
rythm alone made that quite clear. But
the ultimate shape didn't become clear
until an episode of a TV show - The West
Wing, I think it was - in which an
action, carried out with the best of
intentions, goes horribly awry. Giving
our public servants the benefit of the
doubt - something I don't often do (I'm
too cynical for that), the best that can
be said is that they are paving the road
to Hell with good intentions, fixing
problem "X" without considering
the impact on situation "Y".
For example, when the Australian banking
sector was deregulated, it increased the
level of competition between the banks,
promising to lower fees and charges.
Sounds wonderful. But the real effect was
to give free reign to the owners of the
bank, the shareholders, whose first,
last, and only objective is profit. The
notion of customer service goes out the
window, except insofar as it affects
those profit margins. This inevitably
leads to higher fees, branch closures,
and all the other negatives that have
since been experienced since. An action
undertaken with the best of intentions...
but look at the consequences. This piece
attempts to capture both sides of the
situation - the hardworking policymakers,
changing things to fit their own
political ideologies - with the best of
intents - and the hardworking common man
whose life becomes just a little harder
as a result. Multiply this by hundreds of
thousands of public servants, and the
true shape of how we got into the mess
we're in becomes aparrant. This piece
sounds just as good on the SB-Live as it
did on the Awe-32. |
| 155 |
  Lifting Spirits (5:07)
56K |
 |
A fairly standard upbeat
tune, the annual "hope for tomorrow",
"let's feel good about what might
happen next" tune. Much of the
melody of this piece is submerged when
played through the SB-Live, but all the
parts are there, and there are no
instrumentation problems, so this should
be a relatively easy remix. |
| 156 |
Touch The Sky With
Gossamer Wings (4:48) 52K |
|
I've always had a lot of
respect for test pilots, astronauts, and
the like - people who risk their lives to
do something that in the extreme long
term wll have great benefits for all of
us. With the loss of the space shuttle
Challanger, this piece came into sharp
focus. There is no inherant deficiency in
this tune to explain why it's not amongst
my favorites; it's just not quite as good
as too many others, musically. This needs
only a very slight remix to work on the
SB-Live. |
| 157 |
The Question Of The
Answer (3:58) 80K |
|
Inductive reasoning
attempts to take the facts and deduce the
question that they answer. In other
words, it asks "What is the Question
of this Answer?" Again, there is
nothing wrong with this piece to keep it
out of the favorites list - it's just
that there are others that are better. It
doesn't quite work on the SB-Live, and
will require a careful remix to work on
the newer soundcard. |
| 158 |
Circular Reasoning (4:10)
53K |
|
The problem with deductive
reasoning - the most common variety of
logic - is that it is based on
assumptions, and if you aren't careful,
all you will end up proving are that the
assumptions are valid since you've
assumed they are! This is circular
reasonong. (For some reason I had
patterns of thought and logic on my mind
while working on this and the previous
piece). Some of the instrumentation
choices in this piece work better on the
SB-Live than they did on the Awe-32;
others far worse. With a substantial
reworking, this could end up suiting the
new soundcard even better than the one
with which it was composed. |
| 159 |
Refrain (4:48)
68K |
|
Definitly progressive rock.
A refrain is a recurring phrase or line;
in this case, that phrase is musical in
nature, though it is expressed in a
variety of different ways. Some of the
instrumentation choices don't work on the
SB-Live; but this shouldn't take too much
work to salvage. |
| 160 |
Walking With
Spirits (9:03) 93K |
|
This was inspired by the
movie "Spirited Away". It's a
portrait of someone who walks more in the
spiritual world than in the mundane; they
see not the squalor in which people live,
being too busy appreciating the fortitude
with which they bear their burdons. Some
of the instrumentation choices detract
from the piece when played through the SB-Live,
but the potential is still there. Not
even the bass piano problem can
completely bury this piece. |
| 161 |
Solid State (5:14)
99K |
|
I'm not entirely sure where
the inspiration for this piece of
progressive rock came from. This has some
serious instrumentation and balance
problems on the SB-Live. There was a time
- and not all that long before it was
composed - when this would have gone
straight into the favorites list. |
| 162 |
Alchemy (5:58)
110K |
|
This owes a lot to Fluid
Dynamics, but is a little more rock in
nature and less easy-listening. While it
sounds just magic on the Awe-32, it has
serious sound-balance and instrumentation
problems on the SB-Live. |
| 163 |
Positive Reaction (5:50)
76K |
|
Another mid-tempo, upbeat
piece of pop-rock. This has sound-balance
problems and instrumentation issues on
the SB-Live, in particular the tubular
bells and the french horns. But it sounds
great on the Awe-32. |
