All Night Song and the Remix in detail
All Night Song is the last track on my 2011 release Digerati. The song itself was probably written somewhere around 2006. It was only the second song that I had tried to write combining the elements of jazz, electronica, and industrial, and I was at the very beginning stages of feeling my way through this new concept. The song is a little over 8 minutes long, and the way in which the listener experiences the song is in two broad gestures. The first 5 minutes is the body of the song, and the last 3 minutes is a kind of extended outro. The way Devin and I were working at this particular time I was that I would play all the instruments on the track (drum programming, bass, keyboards, guitar), as well as orchestrate and arrange until I felt the track was complete. Then Devin would mix and add additional production and sound design. Because this is such an early collaborative effort, his fingerprint is especially prevalent on this composition. It is also noteworthy to mention that Devin also plays electric bass on the track. All Night Song was not my favorite song in this early group of compositions. However, one of the things that I really like about it is when it goes into the last three minutes of outro and the overdriven guitar and keyboard are involved in an extended question and answer conversation. The song really goes off into space. Devin did all the cool production that is happening under that conversation. I noticed that, like some of my favorite music, this was the only part of Digerati where I could put on the headphones and the music took me to imaginary places. You know, where you’re creating an imaginary story to someone else’s music and it becomes yours. The kind of thing that is so easy to do with a band …say like…Pink Floyd. That was really cool. I think it is because Devin was so involved in that particular section of the song, that I was able to distance myself from it, and listen to it differently. That is also why when I asked Devin what tune he liked best on Digerati, he would always say All Night Song. So five years or so later when I brought up the idea of remixing a tune from Digerati, I didn’t really need to ask which song he wanted to do.
All Night Song the Remix
The All Night Song Remix is an epic Drum N’ Bass style reinterpretation of the original composition. The most notable differences being the more uptempo style, and new bass line propel the song forward and establish a nice groove for Devin to intersperse many of his signature production techniques. These techniques include, the original drum part is subject to all kinds of glitch, reverse, and stop time effects. Drops punctuate the song and at several times bring the composition to a grinding halt just to quickly accelerate right back to it’s frenetic pace. Both harmonic and melodic elements are subject to extensive stutter edits.The endings of harmonic and melodic phrases are treated with long swoops and swashes that trail off into oblivion and break apart in as many ways as you could possibly imagine. The original keyboard solo remains intact and is propelled ahead nicely with the new uptempo treatment. The dreamy distorted guitar gestures are still featured towards the end of the piece, although they bend and morph like stretched metal as they fade and break apart. There is much to like about this remix. It’s energy, creativity, special effects, and all the motion in the stereo field give the listener an experience that is especially fun in an isolated headspace. So plug in, put on some headphones on, and enjoy the ride.