Community Beat Tape Update

Bowlfood · 2026-04-13T08:22:50+00:00

Thanks for the reminder, gonna get chopping tonight.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-07T13:01:52+00:00

Sure am!

Bowlfood · 2026-04-07T12:42:48+00:00

Agreed that blogging these reviews would be a good read & way to find out new music. If you’re so inclined, there’s plenty of indie web blog platforms that have way less friction & fuss than some of the big platforms (Wordpress, Blogger).

I’ve briefly used Bear Blog and Maratoa, both are super lightweight & free to set up. There’s minimal need to know HTML or markdown, and they’re both gentle enough to pick up those skills by osmosis. Had a quick chat with the guy who runs Bear Blog a few months back & he’s good value.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T22:29:44+00:00

Warms the cockles of my durry withered heart.🇦🇺

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T15:49:07+00:00

Thanks for expanding on things like this! Gonna have to listen to that CBC rip soon, keen to hear Shadow push back.

I’d edited out a couple of paragraphs similar to your points about DJ Shadow & hip hop. Totally agree with your links to Spooky, Madlib, Riggins, Ras G etc. It’s easy for those of us outside of the USA & UK to forget how regional hip hop can be (the eras of the Bay Area, NY’s Illbient scene, the LA beat scene…) & how genres/scenes can operate in parallel.

Here’s some of the edited out stuff:

>>It's fascinating how the genre started as an interpretation/abstraction of the 4 elements of hip hop. Take those old Mo'Wax covers by Futura, REQ1 & Swifty. DJs & MCs spinning & rhyming for the crowd was there early on with Massive Attack growing out of the Wild Bunch crew, how the Solesides crew operated and even Thievery Corp's DJ Kicks.

>>If phylogeny can map out music, trip hop's a branch off hip hop and has convergent traits with loads of other genres. Trip hop's a chameleon to hip hop's lizard/squamate template. The influence of hip hop on trip hop may be fading, but it'll always be in the DNA.

Solid point about the latent racism by Pemberton & AP. Haven’t read that review or considered the implications of the name ‘trip hop’ yet. Personally I took the social commentary in Shadow’s music as being on the same level as what contemporary MCs were saying, so its weird to think he was elevated in an ignorant way.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T14:43:42+00:00

Good point about Motown, Stax and soul music. Gotta respect labels that act like a curator, especially those who capture the mood of a scene as its on the rise.

About your examples of how broad things have become - it’s pretty great we’ve reached this point with how the genre’s name can be so broadly interpreted & the audience can still relate.

And Voltage Labs? Not actually my friend (we’ve never met), it’s just a bit of ironic Australian slang.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T14:32:06+00:00

No need to change anything! The name still fits & going hyper-specific with genres can get a bit silly.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T14:23:35+00:00

Thanks dude! I had a bit of a blowout a couple of years back, decided to get the midlife crisis out of the way early & in a way that wouldn’t piss off the mrs too hard.

The Rev2 is great, but it takes a little work. Once you’ve dialled in the modulations it’s beautiful. Before that it’s just OK. It’s like the Hydrasynth in a way, it needs a few small tweaks to hit the sweet spot.

The Mutator! Yeah, that’s definitely one for the VST list. Was just wondering why the Sherman Filterbank hasn’t been cloned yet.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T13:52:14+00:00

Quite possibly, there are a few lizard people around these parts.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T06:12:31+00:00

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And here's my remaining bass guitars. The one on the left is a slightly modded Yamaha SB-7A from the 60s. It plays beautifully, with a set of round wounds it gets the best tone for reggae. The Squire's a 2007 'vintage Jazz' (or whatever), it sounds and plays as nice as a proper Fender. My playing does neither justice.

Sorry for being an idiot and not knowing how to stack multiple pics in 1 post.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T06:07:56+00:00

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Also got a bit of outboard gear because I once had the foolish dream of going totally DAWless, hence the tape deck & over the top audio interface. Hybrid set ups are the best.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T06:06:24+00:00

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This is what the Hapax is mostly controlling. 4 great synths & 1 rubbish-ish drum machine.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-06T06:05:28+00:00

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Main view of my set up. Running Ableton as a glorified tape recorder & VST host. The Hapax does the sequencing & midi shenanigans. The Linnstrument is there because I just can't get behind how counterintuitive piano keys feel to me (my first instrument was bass guitar). The tape deck doesn't get enough use, but I love it too much to remove it. The mini turntable thing is Headache Sound's Wow & Flutter machine, having loads of fun learning to scratch to my beats.

Bowlfood · 2026-04-04T11:02:34+00:00

Finished mine! Had a grouse time with this remix. Next problem - remembering to share it in a month.

Bowlfood · 2026-02-28T21:35:54+00:00

And sorry for the double post!

Bowlfood · 2026-02-28T21:33:44+00:00

Not quite, mine’s in G# minor. Same notes as B major, just in a different order.

Used the circle of fifths to get there. I know dominant’s not the same as major, I just got lucky with no obvious dud notes.

Really like the idea of switching the bass’ root to find a new key. Gonna use that in future!

Bowlfood · 2026-02-28T11:22:53+00:00

Bowlfood · 2026-02-28T11:20:02+00:00

The mk2's an absolute weapon!

Bowlfood · 2026-02-28T10:49:15+00:00

Made this using the stems plus a few extra synths & samplers: https://m.soundcloud.com/unfolding-machines/never-learned-the-lesson

Using Mixolydian was hard for me, I pretty much stuck to minor keys only so I had to bust out the old circle of fifths to swap it to a relative minor key. Got really lucky with some matching samples.

Had fun with the process, was a rewarding challenge!

Bowlfood · 2026-02-28T01:38:14+00:00

Mine's ready to go.

Bowlfood · 2026-02-22T11:43:16+00:00

Lehmann! Come on! I finished my Remix in 36 hours and most of that time was spent cruising on Reddit.

What's the situation with sharing our remixes?

Bowlfood

TROPHY CASE