hit things!

Im Juli gabe es den spannenden VicFirth Aufruf, deren Schlagmaterial mal auf allem Möglichen, jedoch nicht auf Drums, Cymbals oder Percussion auszutesten (#vfHitThings). Herausgekommen ist auf meiner Seite dabei der

„Night Shot“ with a (non amplified) lapsteel, a cup of legos, a paper-octopus, acid powder and some nice sticks: 1x Heritage Brush for the tabel, 1x Heritage Brush played by feet, a T2 Cartwheel Mallet and a thick Corpsmaster Chop Out Stick

– the idea behind this clip was the oldschool beatbox from the seventies that was not able to copy a human drummer, but established a new form of rhythmical aesthetic and provided the possibility to easily change the sounds of a pattern.

– the sound shift from the hitten mallet (warm & muffled sound) to the louder brush (more hi-frequencies and mids) seems also like a typical klischee from the DJ culture: continously building a track to its core and then having the possibility to either morph into a breakdown or to a sudden end.
I chose the second option: after a nice chord on hold, a finger roll (thank you, Benny Greb for this idea!) forces attention for the final reverb bomb with the paper fish.

– as a tribute to Acid House I used the „Zitronensäure“ as a muffling pad for the brush’s metal end…

– a plastic cup full of lego can sound like an analog e-snare and – when spilt – like a backspin of a turntable (in this case it works like a fill-in).
legos for patterns! (instead of pattern lego)

– when the little metal cover of the lapsteel is hit with the rubberball of the Corps Master stick I get a sound with only little attack, that reminds me of the fantastic TR-808 bongos.

– my feet also played some notes. The left foot was fixing the brush position, the right foot was hitting the wires on a newspaper.

PS. no animals were harmed!

Zuvor hatte ich tagsüber ein Idee aufgenommen und direkt elektronisch nach Übersee übermittelt. Dieser 1st take with a skateboard, one Heritage Brush and a T2 Mallet kam aber wohl zu unmotiviert rüber – aber auch dazu gab einen ordentlichen Referenz-Überbau im Hintergrund…

– nice ambient sounds (kids playing, european championchip soccer match) instead of electronic textures or an additional playback

– the skateboard is a perfect substitue for a loop machine with the wheels behaving like one-shot samples that can be cut rhythmically (and a little reference to the legendary Propellerhead Track „360 degrees“ that the begins with a halfpipe sound loop).

– to imitate an electronic handclap we usually play a flam with a sidestick and a rim-hit (as learned from Mr. Questlove). In this fragile sound setting the clap is realized with the telescope end of a Heritage Brush grazing a T2 mallet before hitting the deck).

– part two of this 15 second song is a little tribute to the typical breakbeats, and again a reference to sampling gear: the reversed sound.

Schlagwörter: #vfHitThings, vic firth