15. D Minor (121 BPM)

Episode Description:

The Wheel of Destiny is in tune with the cloudy weather outside the studio window today by selecting D Minor, but what are The Balls of Fate up to asking for 121 beats per minute? To find out, Oliver starts twinkling around using a piano sound before beginning the search for a nice synthesizer sound which emerges not too soon after. He starts things off in a simple way, mentioning that sometimes all you need is two chords to get things started. He alternates the lengths of bars between the chords, though, to give an interesting feel to the timing. Oliver then tries unsuccessfully to add some bass before switching to drums. A slightly jazzy, progressive rock drum beat is added that gives some character to the loop but will it be enough to inspire a bass layer on second chance? Apparently not! Zapped of confidence, Oliver resorts to adding a relaxing prog rock/math rock guitar part comprising of two individual melodies to get creative momentum back. The guitar parts sound slightly inspired by the calmer sections of songs by bands such as Circa Survive or The Sounds of Animals Fighting. Finally with the loop mostly built and the timer almost out, Oliver figures out where he was going wrong with the bass parts and more importantly where to fix it. He gets the loop finally added a little after 10 minutes are complete before soaring off into a guitar based jam. Melodic electric guitar singing over gentle, relaxing, calming, epic music. Oliver solos on the guitar, wailing out some soulful emotion before cutting out the drums and transforming the loop into a mellow, atmospheric piece; it suddenly becomes music to get lost in, music to sleep to even, meditation music, warm guitar tones, soothing notes and sounds. Things take a psychedelic turn when he lets a few notes ring out and get caught in his tape delay pedal. Using an Empress Tape Delay pedal and an Earthquaker Devices Afterneath reverb pedal, Oliver creates a feedback loop that he then shifts the pitch, shift and tone of to add a synth-like, theremin-esque soundscape, a rush of noise and explosion of frequencies endlessly hypnotising us before pulling us out and into reverse while fading out. A sound bath of sorts that once again leaves Oliver asking “what just happened?!”