Hoof music: Recent Episodes
Hoof
Wrong-wired brain. Playful child. Renaissance man.
Support by Andrew Rayel, Cosmic Gate, Stoneface & Terminal, Artento Divini, Patrick Dreama, Frank Watson, Alex John, DJ Bluefire, Rubster, Victor Lobanov, Dj Feel, Druce, Simon McCann, Jesus Sifres and Dj Okkie.
This was fun! Yesterday would have been "Urban Pulse", I did keep some of the early hip-hop vibe in this track. I also did a reasonable amount of sampling. The vocals are from old radio plays. I split the voices from the background music or noise with Lalal.ai and enhanced the quality of the vocals with the free podcast.adobe.com site. And after that I played a little with some of the new features I now can use in Logic (because of using the M2Pro chips).The suggestion of the text and soundscape is that this is really about something. War, fascism, something, something, to be free!It is mostly suggestion. And mostly a sonic adventure, which is the theme for Tuesdays.
First in a series of multichannel creations. Original soundtracks for imaginary movies, for which there will also be artwork, posters and a trailer. Also alternate mixes remixes and edits, to be released and added to the posters as QR coded material.
This track should be titled "Chase the Sun", but I decided on numeric system for this month of daily music. The vocal is from a pack called "emo vocals", it does have some kind of punk aesthetic I think. And the rest is the cross-over hodgepodge I tend to make when I am associating freely with whatever comes to mind. This piece of music also has potential to be worked on after this pretty hefty month is over.
Most of the #MusicEveryday series tracks are based on harmony, melody and are nice to most ears. On a tense Tuesday, it is allowed to be a little uneasy. Hear the blazing sun. See the sounds distort by the rising heat of the desert. What are those people up to? And are they even people?
A little trip through Death Valley, or somewhere else where you can hear the tension.
This track started as - #MusicEveryday July 13, I decided to use it in the upcoming trailer for a movie adaptation I am working on. That is why it has a new title and new artwork!
I meant to make some kind of horror movie soundtrack thing, so I wrote a creepy text about the voice in your head, that tells you you are bad and all. Again via Speechelo, I had it spoken by ai. When repitching the intonation and the cadence, it seemed like a good idea to use a loop. And then it became a minimal tech house track. Or something like that.
There is also tension every time the beat stops and you are waiting to start dancing again. Hands in the air, you know the drill. Again another sound in the #MusicEveryday series. SO much fun..
Because I was creating new designs for different tracks, I also have to update the mix on some. Listening back and hearing old mistakes and knowledge that was missing at the time. So this is an updated version of an earlier track with the same name.
The full version ot the remix that could only be submitted as a one minute Instagram video. This is the whole thing, not just the part where the brass comes in.
Derived from the track "Bicker", this is a new take on that. New production, changed voices, added parts. Still a strange chimera of different sounds and genres. But those acoustic guitars did make into mainstream dance music after 2014.
After recording a fairly old school bluesy sounding track, we concluded it had a kind of american feel. And some cinematic potential. So the next version was much more cinematic. For the third version we found found a vocal on splice.com that fitted really well. Suddenly there was a story!
So a video that reflects that was next (https://vimeo.com/334734070). So here is 6 minutes of buildup, melancholic singing, booming sounds, subtle percussion, strings, a lot of guitar and.. crickets.
Last sunday an old friend came by (@neems_nl). He used to be guitarist in a band we played in, so that should bring a different taste to the electronic sound you will normally expect (though I always try to introduce "different" instruments or sounds in the mix).
After some dead ends, we just started to improvise. I laid down a simple drum track and some bass. He played parts on his acoustic guitar, we put it through digital amps and effects, sliced, looped and added some extra parts (hello choir!). We bounced ideas off each other, and the result is a track that brings a smile to our faces.
Also the result is that we will be doing this every month, not shying away from doing vocal tracks as well. It was great fun, let's hope you can hear that. For now it is kind of "digital punk". No plan, no ambitions, but ready to make some noise!
OUT NOW! Available on all platforms for downloading or streaming.
Named after the daughter of Ruud, this is an uplifting track with an old school trance feel, so emotional chords and melodie, but still a lot of dancing!
This is the Original Mix, with plenty of room for the dj to blend it in the set and a nice long break.
This is our version of the track by Broken Ego. A club mix that is true to the original track, but now ready for the club. The clubs that do appreciate a bit of guitar in there. And vocals as well. Check out the original versions and alternate mixes, as well other great remixes by other producers!
OUT NOW! Check out the full release at https://echozone.bandcamp.com/album/this-time-im-over-you
To celebrate my birthday, love and dancing, this track mashes together all kinds of music to make you move. Thanks everybody for the birthday wishes. It was the best birthday I can remember (and I got plenty of them).
Follow the links for a free download!
There is a genre of electronic dance music that brings forth cool stuff. Alive and kicking, releasing wonderful music all over the place. This wonderful track by Project Ich, with singer Mick L Angelo is a great example of that.
The label asked us kindly to add a remix to the international rooster of artists, and the track kind of stuck, and it really is a nice addition to the catalogue.
Here is the full remix of Jon Sines' Fall featuring Calum Venice.
https://splice.com/Hoof/fall-hoof-remix
The Extended Version of this happy blend of uplifting summery sounds, with a hint of disco, a break that enters some deep house territory of yesteryear and a second break that could be mistaken for a piece of trap.
This mix is a little more suited for the club, but you can still dance to it on the beach or just drive around in the sun.
(Here is the Original Mix: https://soundcloud.com/hoof/hoof-witnessday-originalmix)
A happy blend of uplifting summery sounds, with a hint of disco, a break that enters the deep house territory of yesteryear and a second break that could be mistaken for a piece of trap.
Just something to make you dance on the beach or just drive around in the sun.
(And here is the Extend Mix: https://soundcloud.com/hoof/hoof-witnessday-extendedmix)
My remix for the competition to make the great song Wer sind wir by Loewenhertz better. Or at least different.
Glad we got to be part of this release!
A one day production with a break that just materialized and was beautiful. With a new mix on Christmas Eve 2016.
There was an excellent deal on UVI's Digital Synsations (for free, via the wonderful KVR newsletter), which has my first synth, more or less, the Yamaha SY77. That is where the first 'house' tracks were made, 25 years ago.
Of course I did not have a classic singer at hand in those days, that is the sound of the excellent Vocalise that was recently added to the tools. And a kick like this was unthinkable back then.
While playing with a nostalgic soundpack, I suddenly found myself creating an eighties type of track. And a couple of hours later I was even singing to it so it became a song!
Thanks to Psychique and James Dymond (@ Sonic Academy), I made my first Psy Trance track. Here it is. From banging bass to Chicago house, including stuttered vocals, the first track that got signed under the Hoof moniker.
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Composition & production: Ruud van Wijngaarden & Lique Angel Mastering: Arjan Rietvink Release: January 27 on Destinesia Records. (High quality wav download for whoever gets this private link)
On a given thursday I heard a so-so remix of this great forbidden pleasure by AC/DC. And spent some time to create one myself. As with all the tracks I upload with a sketched cover, it is just fun in between other undertakings. But I can imagine this getting a live audience jumping around and singing along in a nice 140 bpm trance set.
I found a multitrack soundalike cover version of this song on Song Galaxy, to have some material to work with. There does exist a live recording of AC/DC performing this song, that has been used for remixes, but that takes ages to get to fit an electronic beat. This sounds very much alike, and it's just for good fun..
Just spending a friday and saturday stamping my feet with my headphones on fire.
A tune I made five years ago, upon listening, I thought it was not bad at all! I think it is important to acknowledge the past. This has a nice atmosphere and I would not mind making something like this currently. Of course it would be different, and I have a better grasp on mixing, mastering, arrangement. But this was something from the heart, I feel the enthusiasm I felt when I made it.
I have listened to my father's classical lp's all my early years. After discovering Jean-Michel Jarre I imagined that classical music could be combined with synthesizers and beats. But looking at the studio he had, this looked like a dream that would take a lot of time and money.
Well.. That proved to be true. But these days there is a studio right under my fingertips. A MIDI-keyboard within reach, and a lot of ideas and desires in my head.
Somehow I suddenly had the 'Mondschein Sonate' in my head and decided this was a great piece to mangle in modern electronics and beats.
I took the piano piece as a starting point and wrote all other parts from scratch. So all additional string parts (and of course the bouncing bases) can not be blamed on poor old Beethoven. And asking him for permission is beyond impossible (he is dead, and was deaf at the time).
I had so much fun making this. It might not be the last track that is inspired by dead composers.
16th of october I listen to this track in my car and I freak out, gently, but deep enough to get my hands on this track as soon as I was near my hardware.. I almost can't believe I thought it was finished earlier. Oh well, there was a lot of hard work in it, but in hindsight it sounded weak. Tonight I did a new mix and replaced it here. After doing lots of other things and attending quite a few gigs (and speaking to some dj's and producers) I heard that it was missing some edge, some punch. So I tried to make it better.
And waking up the next day, I again started fiddling knobs, tweaking stuff and what have you. Think it is now even punchier and, well. We'll see..
Tonight I was remixing the first track I put on Soundcloud, it was great. The first time I discovered I had a studio, right there under my hands, resulted in the original track 'US'.
Originally made in 2012, it now sounded like I was stumbling in a dim-lit cardboard box back then. I had to lift the lid and open up the windows. Dust off the old instruments, and shine a new light on something that has become stronger over the past few years.
US is still here, and it feels better than ever. I kept most of the original spirit, but it feels way stronger and deeper, with all that I have learned since then.
I originally made this track in Garageband, today I have so much more tools in my hands. But what matters most: I still know what I was feeling when I was trying to make the best of it, back then. And it only grew stronger.
I was playing around a couple of days with this track. I have forbidden myself to use a piano on this one. I wanted to focus on rhythm. I also wanted a female voice in there. I found her at Soundiron. Francesca Genco is now part of my instruments and can be heard in this.
And here's the precious video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCOoBvo_huc