A Thousand Ages

Breaking with the usual guitar and banjo duet approach, this tune includes a couple low synth parts. I've also been experimenting a lot lately with poly-rhythms and overlapping time signatures, looking for surprises and interesting intersections of beats and phrases, and although some of that stuff has come out too abstract for what I like to do with this podcast there is a touch of that here towards the end.

The binaural beat is 18Hz, so once again good for some active listening and this tune can also stand a little higher volume than I recommend for the more mellow, sleepy tunes.

I see the last episode, Boatman, was something like four plus months ago. Sorry about that - I've had a bunch of tunes that I started writing for the podcast but which evolved into other projects, so the delay was not from a lack of activity but from too much activity going off in other directions. But it has all gone towards a full length acoustic-ambient release I hope to have out soon, and I think everyone who likes the Binaural Banjo will like that, too.

Thanks as always for your patience and for listening!

As usual, with embedded artwork:

A Thousand Ages

The Boatman

First off, I should say that this tune is pretty dark and noisy. On the one hand, I think it makes some interesting changes from the kind of music I generally post. On the other, I tend to think of the Binaural Banjo as an outlet for my more melodic and light offerings and this tune just doesn't go there. Not for lack of trying - part of the delay in getting a tune up here is the fact that everything I produce lately turns out dark, regardless of how it starts out.

But for all that I like the tune, and it may be relaxing enough in its own way. It comes with a 2Hz binaural beat, which is way down in the mix (the droning you hear is ebowed banjo, not the binaural beat track). At low volume and with headphones it makes an interesting trip.

Next time will be something lighter, I promise.

The Boatman (with embedded artwork!)

Sunstroke

I mentioned in my last post about the end of the lossless site that I was working on a lot of new ideas, and of course true to form here I am posting an episode that doesn't really incorporate any of them. But I got stuck on this new wave psychedelic guitar riff a couple weeks ago and decided to see how well I could mix it into a Binaural Banjo tune.

There are some new things in here, actually. I've been wanting to work a rhythm section into more of what I do, which may not be the best choice for this podcast overall but for this tune I think it sounds okay. Because it's a bit more of a pop song and could stand to be listened to at regular volume I included a 30Hz binaural beat that should work with more active listening.

The only thing to watch out for is the high droney parts, which have a kind of delay that I couldn't get rid of. It doesn't take away too much, but maybe should have reduced the gain a bit. Of course you're all welcome to comment.

Includes artwork!

Sunstroke

Lossless Site Offline

For multiple reasons I have decided to no longer maintain my own domain, so the lossless site is no longer available as of today.

I do have every intention of maintaining this podcast indefinitely. From what I read online there does seem to be some doubt about the future of Feedburner and possibly podcasting in general, but we'll have to work through those issues as they arise. At the very least this blog will remain as the front page, regardless of how the music content gets syndicated.

And since I'm posting general info and updates, I know it's been pretty quiet here lately but I had some other musical commitments that I had to fulfill. All good fun but time consuming. That's done with now, and I'm in the studio working hard on a bunch of new tunes and new ideas. So stay tuned and thanks as always for hanging in there!