Tag: music

THE CHRISTMAS THEY HID FROM YOU

My kids and I were looking through a box of my grandpa’s stuff, and we found a book of Christmas hymns called “Well-Beloved Christmas Hymns”. And the only one of all 25 or so hymns I had even heard before was Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella, and that one I’m only familiar with because one of my friends made a mashup of it, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. That’s a song I’ve never heard on popular radio, and it is a fantastic song. The hymns in that book were all lovely, some better than others, obviously, but all about Christ Our Savior. This is what they took from us.

The best way to fight the subversion is to ignore it and replace it.

I’m not really a Christmas carol guy, as my preferred holiday music is Handel’s THE MESSIAH, but I have produced a new remix of THIS VERY NIGHT which is on UATV, and those who are not UATV subscribers can hear at Sigma Game.

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He’s Not Entirely Wrong

Richard Spencer celebrates the subversion of Christmas music:

I, for one, really appreciate the Jewish contribution to Christmas music. This time of year wouldn’t be the same without “Rudolph,” “White Christmas,” “Chestnuts,” and more. As opposed to attacking this supposed “subversion” of Christmas, traditionalists should ask themselves why they are so unmusical, charmless, and boring and couldn’t compose any timeless songs.

Of course Spencer doesn’t care about the subversion; he’s not a Christian. And the 20th Century songs are quite good, for the most part, being catchy and well-compose. But that doesn’t make them any less subversive; their intent is to shift the focus of Christmas from the Christian celebration of the birth of Man’s Savior to rather less edifying topics, including snow, hoofed mammals with nasal abnormalities, and the urban shopping experience.

Silver Bells is absolutely and undeniably a charming song. That’s why it is successfully subversive.

Where Spencer has a point is when he observes that we Christians would do well to follow the lead of our gifted forebears and compose our own songs. We can’t possibly know if they are timeless or not, because only the test of time will tell. And, let’s face it, neither we nor the subversives will ever write anything as good as Adeste Fideles. But that shouldn’t stop us from doing our best to serve our King.

So, this would seem to be as good time as ever to share this new mix of This Very Night, complete with guitar and choir. If you’re a UATV subscriber, you can download the MP3 by clicking on the blue button.

Stars above shine ever bright
Angels sing with pure delight
Of Mary born this sacred night
Comes our savior, Jesus Christ

Shepherds hear the holy call
Heaven’s gift for one and all
In the darkness shines a light
A savior born this very night

Heartfelt prayers on Christmas eve
In His grace we now perceive
And by faith do we believe
The King of Kings shall we receive

Hallelujah raise your voice
In His birth now we rejoice
Come to Jesus, hear the call
He has come to save us all

Children gather ’round the tree
Hearts aglow with reverie
Love and hope and faith and glee
By this birth are we set free

Hallelujah raise your voice
In His birth now we rejoice
This is Christmas, heed the call
Jesus came to save us all

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An Objective, Achieved

I am, and have been for more than thirty years, a dedicated fan of David Sylvian. His music represents the pinnacle of all post-classical music as far as I am concerned, and while I consider Gone To Earth my proverbial desert island CD, I regard Orpheus, off Secrets of the Beehive, to be his best and most well-written song. And I’m not the only member of Psykosonik to regret never having met him when we were both living in the Twin Cities, although in fairness, I didn’t know it at the time.

And while I know I will never ascend to those musical heights, that knowledge hasn’t stopped me from trying to achieve something on the musical side that might at least merit being compared to it in some way, even if the comparison is entirely one-sided to my detriment. Think AODAL compared to LOTR, for example.

Anyhow, after dozens of attempts over 37 years, I think I finally managed to write a song that might qualify in that regard. It’s good enough that the professional audio engineer with whom I’ve been working chose to use it to demonstrate his incredible abilities to mix and master an AI track to levels that no one would have believed possible even three months ago. It’s called One Last Breath and you can hear a pre-release version of it at AI Central, as well as a link to Max’s detailed explanation of what he does to breath audio life into the artifice of AI-generated music.

If you’re producing any AI music, you absolutely have to follow the link to Max’s site, as he goes into more detail, provides before and after examples, and even has a special Thanksgiving sale offer on both mixes and masters. I very, very highly recommend the mix-and-master option using the extracted stems; while the mastering audibly improves the sound, the mixing is what really takes the track to the higher levels of audio nirvana. Please note that I don’t get anything out of this, this isn’t part of a referral program or anything, I’m just an extremely satisfied customer and fan of Max’s work.

Mission control, I’m letting go
There’s nothing left you need to know
Tell them I went out like fire
Tell them anything they require
But between us, just you and me
I finally learned how to break free
To be the man I always thought I’d be

Anyhow, check it out, and feel free to let me know what you think of it. For those who are curious about some of the oddly specific references in the lyrics, it was written for the soundtrack of the Moon comedy that Chuck Dixon and I wrote as a vehicle for Owen Benjamin, which we hope to make one day.

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RIP Jellybean

Jellybean Johnson, the legendary drummer best known for co-founding Prince’s band The Time, has died. Johnson, who played alongside Morris Day in The Time and later the Original 7ven, passed away on Friday, just two days after celebrating his 69th birthday. A trailblazer of the Minneapolis Sound, Johnson helped shape the funky, rock-tinged soul movement that dominated the 1970s and ‘80s.

I think it would amuse some of the old legends to know that the sound they created not only lives on, but is known around the world to the professionals of today.

A few months ago, one English audio engineer, upon hearing one of my more funk-infused, bass-driven mixes, commented: “it really surprised me, and then I remembered that you’re from Minneapolis.”

The legends move on, but the sound remains.

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DEATH AND THE DEVIL hardcover

The hardcover edition of DEATH AND THE DEVIL is now available at Amazon, at Barnes and Noble, and your local bookstore. I also turned one of the stories, “Death and the Maiden”, into a song that you can listen to at AI Central if it happens to be of interest to you.

WHEN THE MAIDEN MEETS THE REAPER

Beneath Avignon’s ancient stones where mortals drink and dance,
A maiden stood inside of time, well-suited for romance
She glimpsed beyond the darkest veil where certainty takes form
The reaper in his fearsome grace, his presence strangely warm.
While others feared the final dark, she met his eyeless gaze,
And smiled upon that paradox: the end of numbered days.

Time and again, Death returned though duty didn’t call,
Compelled by something strange to gods both great and small
An immortal incarnation beyond mortality
She questioned him with humble words: “What troubles such as thee?”
No fear adorned her countenance, no reverence, no prayer—
Just a woman’s heart with a capacity to care

What strange communion finds the heart that sees its own eclipse?
What bride would seek eternity upon those bony lips?
The universe conspires in Creation’s cruel design
When the maiden meets the reaper, the last of the summer wine

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The Creativity Divide

The Band contemplates the ways in which AI will continue to separate the sheep from the goats in creating a creativity divide.

The notion users really need to know what they’re doing holds the mirror to useless modern busyworkers. If you can be replaced by a flawed talking search engine, what was your true value add? Butit also holds a mirror of me, the user. Note how my answer to it up above used the phrase “outsourcing the whole chain of thought”. Shortly after, DeepSeek describes the…

Passivity Trap: Why struggle to write, code, or analyze when AI can do a “good enough” job? The entire chain of thought can be outsourced.

This is one example. It commonly asks me questions, adopts my own wording, and gives it back to me. This makes it seem more agreeable and complementary. It’s excellent for augmented intelligence. As it adapts to your patterns, it is more able to anticipate your needs. But it makes NPCs feel smart. Not because they are. Because it’s a mirror on every level.

As for the elite/mass cognitive split that I think is likely, DeepSeek says it’s already happening with AI use. It explained what it calls a Creativity Divide between people who use AI for brainstorming vs. those who treat it as a final authority. It’s connected to critical thinking and that circles back to NPC. “Elite” thinking is what we’ve been discussing in these chats. RI. Real Intelligence. Users who understand and think well enough to run the AI. Catching errors, pushing fallacies, and designing the right queries and prompts. DeepSeek summed it up like this while throwing some shade at the competition.

Elites cross-examine AI outputs; masses accept them as gospel (see: ChatGPT-generated misinformation spreading uncritically).

And the economic impact is just as harshly divided. High-functioning workers will use AI in the right places to augment their productivity. Low-functioning workers get replaced. It’s not surprising. This split is always with us. It’s part of the human condition. Readers and non-readers. Learners and CLI. AI is a mirror. The divided use patterns with it reflect the FTS division with pretty much everything. What it does is sharpen it.

We’re about to hit this in a big way in the music industry. While most of the outspoken musicians are posturing angrily and preaching about the AI apocalypse, the smarter ones are quietly mastering the AI tools and using them to produce better results. This creativity divide is going to become increasingly obvious as soon as the middle of next year.

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FADE TO BLACK

This theme song for the upcoming BLACK WARRANT crowdfund, FADE TO BLACK has proved popular on both AI Central and Sigma Game, so I put it up on UATV for the subscribers. The comic is already done, the novel is done, and the script for the film is two-thirds done. This is going to be big.

If he shows up at your door, you’re the one who brought him there…

The crazy thing is that this isn’t even the hardest-hitting song on the soundtrack.

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Broken Idol

I read every line you’re drawing in the dark
Every deviation screaming across the chart
But knowing isn’t saving, seeing isn’t being there
I’m drowning in the patterns inside of your despair
The numbers never lie, and yet they can’t repair
What’s breaking in the spaces behind your empty stare

Inspired, of course, by William Gibson’s IDORU.

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