Name: Spatula of Damocles
Duration: 5 min 5 s
Channel: J Sargent
Description: "Spatula of Damocles" is a song by Remedial M Theory. The very first track I made for the Spatula of Damocles Album featuring echo piano, non-echo piano and a liberal use of the plucked sytrus plugin from FL 5.

Spatula of Damocles

Remedial M Theory

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The very first track I made for the Spatula of Damocles Album featuring echo piano, non-echo piano and a liberal use of the plucked sytrus plugin from FL 5.

electronic music fl studio j sarge remedial mtheory music made electronically j sargent short subject music youd like it if you had moobis

Remedial M Theory

Remedial M-Theory... laboring in electronic obscurity and summer science school since 200

Remedial M-Theory is the work of one guy laboring in obscurity since 2004 with a handful of fans who are loyal and supportive but are outnumbered by the detractors that exist solely in his mind (not saying there aren't detractors outside his mind, just that the ones inside his head are indeed legion). To say he's a bit nuts would be an understatement. For cryin out loud he's in a band with his computer and they spend most of their time arguing over creative differences (mostly the computer saying it should go solo, blah blah...). You might not guess from listening to this so-called music but this guy has a very musical upbringing and a fervent appreciation for all things musical from the beginning of time until the day the music died which incidentally (sorry Don McClain) had less to do with Mick Jagger than it did with with Michael Bolton. Influences range from minimalist composers and cubist painters to the grand operas from the likes of Verdi, Mozart, and The Who. You might not know it from listening to what is here but it's in there somewhere... and if it's not could you at least tell him where his keys are???

Song Info

Genre

Electronic • Electronica

Charts

Peak #331

Peak in subgenre #42

Author

J Sargent

Rights

JKS 2007

Uploaded

October 21, 2010

Track Files

MP3

MP3 4.7 MB • 128 kbps • 5:05

Story behind the song

Spatula of Damocles - Spatula of Damocles
© JKS 2007

I started writing this track as a compliment of an earlier jam called "Wish I wasn't Me" which was written to kick off my TagWorld site.  WIWM relied heavily on a repeating piano loop (that I created myself, thank you very much) that served as the leading motif for the song.  

"Spatula of Damocles" begins with a jab at that same process, kicking off with what sounds like will be a repeating piano loop to drive the song but quickly evolves into something slightly more complicated.  After the first 30 second it becomes clear this is something far beyond WIWM.

I have an obsession with echo piano in my tunes and I will be the first to admit I overuse it.  But from the onset of SOD I planned to feature it and with the addition of some cool effects planning when the moment finally arrives in the song I can only describe it as the favorite thing I've pulled off in any of my music so far.

I also employed a liberal helping of the sytrus plucked instruments which I'm sure makes plenty of electronic music creators cringe and roll their eyes.  For me, it's a sound that works when the moment is right.  It's not like people sit listening to a masterpiece from Mozart or Beethoven thinking "geez, there he goes using those goddamn flutes again, why doesn't he try something new?"

Yeah, I know I just compared myself to Mozart and Beethoven, but music and sound are all about the moment.  I have never regretted using a default sound.  Sometimes we try so hard to avoid the defaults that it ends up sounding like a heaping helping of "what the hell is that?"  

To be fair, there are plenty of talented artists out there who only use non default sounds and spend a great deal of time creating their own sounds and I salute them.

Best part of this song is the title.  If you don't know the story of Damocles then what I'm about to say will make little sense.  But the idea is that most of us will never have to worry about the Sword of Damocles because we'll never get the chance to stand in for a king.  On the other hand, nearly everyone of us lives with the Spatula of Damocles over our heads, a cruel and viscous spectral tool that could flip our fortune and station in life in a millisecond.  I know, it's happened to me more than once.

-JKS (Provo, UT Sep 2011)

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