Slow & Low

A little experiment based on FK's big slowdown Slowing is giving space to the expression, it lets the brain time to enjoy the groove in a much better way. We're going on the same tracks as Trip Hop in the 90's... The sound gets thicker and heavier it adds a dramatic perception of what's going on. The fun part is that it makes the tracks harder to recognize, even the bots don't get it. This said here is the experience. I first tried it on traktor as the pitch is very wide and after 3/4 tracks I realized some tracks became really interesting and some not so much but most of all 2 decks wasn't enough as time was getting stretched, room and space were made available. So I made myself a stack of 100 songs and tested them in many different ways and combinations and then switched to Live on a 4 decks set up. It soon appeared I was working on 4 mixed mixes like a 4 layers combination giving each one its own range of eq's and levels. This was opening new possibilities for construction for breaks and associations. The grooves got more complex by adding or taking out a layer or by changing it along the way with a new track. The work on tuning was very interesting too as you can pitch up a song when it's slowed a lot so layers are in tune as much as it can be. What makes this a special experience consists in an obvious statement : if you switch from 100/105 to 120bpm directly the resilience of your brain makes it almost impossible to appreciate, it goes too fast. Like in diving in deep water you need decompression stages. So I made it going slower during the first track (diving) and faster and faster during the whole last track (surfacing from 105 to 120) in a long enough period of time (around 9mn).