I am now one eighth of the way through Saturday Sounds! 5 tracks in a row, some are better than others, but I don’t actively hate any of them. I think forcing myself to work fast is, while not dismissing my doubts, at least allows me to keep them in check from paralyzing myself. I’m not immersed in any one of these tracks long enough for depression, anxiety, fear, and dread (Deimos!) to take over. They are still there, of course, but are currently incapable of bullying me.

This track was at least inspired by its namesake’s brother, Phobos (“Fear”, where we get the modern word “phobia” from). As you may recall I considered taking a mulligan this last week when I finished “Inconnu” because I felt a wee bit tapped out and was overall not super satisfied with that track. But ideas eventually came, but they came late, and then a bit of panic (wow, the Greek gods are ALL OVER our names for emotional states, aren’t they?) set in, because as I also have mentioned, I’ve got restricted availability next week and am planning to take a mulligan this week.

Once the ideas were down, knitting it into something cohesive settled into something more approaching dread, which is why I eventually named this track after the Greek god of dread (and also sometimes of panic!). Given the restricted time I had to work on this, I’m pretty pleased with it. That modulation from G minor into the B♭ relative major with the airy sounds in the first breakdown is a little weird, and very contrary to frenzy of the overall theme, but maybe we need a respite from the dread to understand it better?

I had VERY little time to mix this over air. I literally listened to it for the first time on the studio monitors 90 minutes before I wrote this sentence. While writing this sentence, I am 57 minutes from the publish deadline for a Saturday Sounds track. Fortunately, it didn’t sound awful on the first pass. I’m starting to get a pretty good feel on what the difference in sound is between the HD25s and the studio monitors will be, which mostly means that most of the time I spent futzing with a track over the monitors is getting a sense of the very low end. I tweaked a few things to make that sub-bass pop a little more. The mix is still VERY far from perfect, but not bad for a rush job. There’s some mid-range harshness I’d like to buff out, but time is an iron-clad bitch. But overall, I think this track has some promise.

I hope you enjoy it! Constructive feedback, either good or negative, is always welcome.

[DJ Wankery: 137 bpm, G minor (6A)]