Variation

Variation

Deth Spiders Land Tuesday January 24, 2012

DWNLD DETH SPIDERS FOR FREE

DETH SPIDERS RELEASED!!!

Deth Spiders is an instrumental soundtrack album by hip-hop/electronic composer, Azrael Encarnacion. Recorded in a two week period in October 2010, the music was used, as intended, for Kelvin Uffre's experimental motion picture, Egg Sack Lee. The film, which is a visual foray of lights and movement as captured and later re-shot off of Uffre's Blackberry cellphone, was edited to the music, rather than having the music scored to the film. Both lucid and built upon improvisational approaches, Deth Spiders and Egg Sack Lee incorporate distortion, over-layering, and the use of edited vocal recordings. The film was completed in the Fall of 2011.

Upon being asked to compose the soundtrack to Egg Sack Lee, Encarnacion who had been eager to work on "beat-less" music, had quickly put together one or two samples and sent them to Uffre. And although the latter had responded positively to the songs, time began to pass and the project seemed to drift towards the pace of losing momentum. This continued on up until October 2010 when the two got together and decided to set a deadline in an attempt to inspire productivity. They agreed that Encarnacion should in fact, work for a week on multiple compositions, and without having yet viewed the film, whatever he produced in those 7 days would thus become the soundtrack to Egg Sack Lee. By the end of the week Encarnacion accumulated 9 songs, however he asked for 2 more days, and replaced one of the compositions and with this, the film's score had been recorded. Naming the album Deth Spiders, rather than Egg Sack Lee, Encarnacion's song titles similarly do not reference the film.

The approach to Deth Spiders was mercilessly improvisational, no piece of music had been written or rehearsed. Very few loops were used, and even these were surrounded by free takes of improvised sound. All first takes were kept, Encarnacion would rather begin an entire new track than fuss over "searching" for the right sound, tone, rhythm, etc. The very limited use of beats and drums on Deth Spiders was due to the need to loosen the songs from their tempo, which always remain present but without a percussive aid, could become a bit more abstracted. In addition to the abstraction of tempo, melody has been purposely minimal, resulting in long drones and underlying, subdued textures of noise. Due to time constriction and the fact that most of the songs were created back to back (some within minutes of one another), most of the same instruments and effects were used, thus by-producing a limited lexicon of sound for the album.

After the completion of Deth Spiders, Encarnacion and Uffre quickly teamed up once again for the soundtrack to CUIDATE, the second installation of Uffre's Blackberry series. This time, Encarnacion sat in the producer's seat mainly, editing and arranging Uffre's noise recordings. The two have since planned a full collaboration project which would seize efforts to combine Encarnacion's hip-hop/electronica background with Uffre's Alternative/Punk-rock past to create something neither artist has delved into before individually.

The Sociopath Network

Deth Spiders

Video for Cambrian Dive For Me and You

Robert Dume of Briefcase Productions is working on a video for Cambrian Dive. This is one earnest, hard-working artist and it has been an absolute pleasure to stand before the camera that stands before his vision.

September 13, 2011 - I'm Still Down

It was September 1996. I was a freshman in high school. Bill Clinton was the president, again. Michael Jordan was playing basketball and there was no facebook, or even myspace. My friends and I were outside. I can't remember if it had rained all day or the drops began in the evening but by the time Niesha walked up the block on that night, Friday the 13th, rain was definitely falling. It should've added drama to the news she and her wet eyes delivered to us. 2Pac died. But it didn't.

We were jerks, not the guys you come to with news of celebrity death. We laughed at her. She cursed us out for saying he got what he deserved for dissing the East Coast. I didn't know that come December I would be purchasing Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory on cassette tape from The Wiz; I didn't know that by the next summer I'd be listening to nothing but Pac and West Coast "gangsta rap". Neither could I imagine being enthralled online, reading conspiracy theories about 2Pac's supposed faked death. I had no idea, that I would eventually become curious enough to start writing my own rhymes while listening to Made Niggaz and Death Around the Corner. On that September evening, I was just confused as to why Niesha cared so much. I wasn't a fan of Pac's while he was alive but that's only because I barely listened to music back then, high school was the catalyst for my need to listen to lyrics and beats--hip-hop was the style of expression that reached me the fastest, 2Pac was the first who was most loudest and most clear.

I chose to remix these 2 songs because I knew I could do something new to them. But whatever I created for both Hellrazor and Only Fear of Death has been pulled through the well of inspiration that has long since been influenced by the original artist. Mr. Shakur in part, created these remixes himself. My interpretations are a peephole through which you can understand how I perceive 2Pac's music. Much of the reason I chose 2 songs that were released posthumously was because all his living material is as it should be, its definitive material--And I could only perceive them as they are. I don't want to hear or create remixes for Hit 'em Up, Dear Mama, or Ambitionz Az a Ridah. And even though R U Still Down? (in my opinion) was the only organic posthumous album, it still houses material 2Pac, for one reason or another, decided wasn't ready to surface. This uncertainty almost invites experimentation.

Still, these two songs exhibit with great strengths two major facets of 2Pac's style, Passion and Contemplation. I couldn't help but rap along while remixing these songs -- the electricity of HLLRZR is an energy that seems so real and honest that one wonders what the sessions for this recording were like. Its as if each lyric is in the middle of kinesis, exploding into the microphone, not seeming to come from a human being who is stationed and limited in a booth but angrily running and storming through thought after thought, fighting with every breath. NLY FR F DTH, on the other hand, is dark and introverted, very comfortable but eerie. Its almost like listening to thoughts not meant to be shared. I held on to these prime impressions as I remixed each song. I hope the result is something refreshing yet natural to the essence of Pac. May you rest in peace and shine on, crazy diamond. I dedicate these songs to September 13, 1996 and my homegirl Niesha.

-Azrael Encarnacion