SONG: “Across the Night” (To download: right-click & “Save As”)
ARTIST: grant. Yes, me again.
SOURCE: The post “Virtual Mars mission – 500 days in a box,” 12 Nov 2007.
ABSTRACT: Let me get this out of the way: Yes, I’m a week late. Thanksgiving plus working out how this Reaper thing worked out* plus general procrastination, uh, being stalked by ninjas kept me from my duties. I feel some kind of penance is in order. Perhaps two songs for December.
*I haven’t gotten this software down yet, but man, is it worth the exploration.
At any rate, I thought there was something both poignant and insane about preparing for a trip across the vastness of space by locking oneself in a tiny box for a year and a half. I know Trent Reznor and David Bowie have already had their time together, but doesn’t that situation seem like halfway between “Ashes to Ashes” and The Downward Spiral? Somehow for me that translated to a Spiders-from-Mars tremolo bass and a drum loop replicating a Psychedelic Furs chorus, but whatever. A claustrophobic song filled with yearning and plans for something that might not even work out once they’re done. So it goes. So I attempted to create. For some reason, I couldn’t get any real space jargon to fit into the lyrics – I’m not sure why. On the other hand, I’ve fallen in love with this effect that came with Reaper called the “ozzifier.” The ringing noise, by the way, is a toy piano with a reverse echo on it, and the bass is actually a classical guitar shifted down an octave. I hope you enjoy the song.