Influences
Asger Baden and Peder, “GGGG”
Susumu Yokota, “For the Other Self Who Is Far Away That I Cannot Reach”
Story
This one originally had lyrics; the best line of those lyrics is the title of the song. I was really big into Taskmaster New Zealand over the summer of 2021. New Zealand is an unusual comedy scene in that there are loads of talented performers from a population of around 5,000,000. So there are national TV stars who still only have a small-to-medium circle of opportunities.
Of those, Brynley Stent stood out to me as someone with some singing ability and who’s been in a music video but hasn’t been asked to sing on anything yet. And she has a comedy monologue on her addiction to free stuff because she grew up with modest means. I have enough analogs to that notion that I identified surprisingly seriously with the monologue. So I wrote some lyrics and emailed her agent about her possibly singing this song that’s an adaptation of her work.
Although Brynley declined, she did, based on my Soundcloud listens from Auckland, listen to three of my songs. That was gracious of her to give me the chance. In any event, I had fallen in love with this (7+7+6+7)/4 verse chord progression, so I wanted to turn it into something.
The something stalled for awhile, as (7+7+6+7)/4 things are wont to do, until I took the three elements I had – harpsichord(ish thing), cello, and white noise – and pivoted from a full neoclassical piece into one I kept messing with. (Fun fact: the cello is primarily doing the same notes as the white noise.)
That turned into the ending, so the rest I built out with more dark, disturbed energy that gets a sitar-harpsichord mix astride it. The 27 beats segment into 9 3s for the middle section; you can super-tell my love of Susumu Yokota’s Love or Die album at that point.
So that is how a New Zealand comedy bit turned into a baroque soundtrack piece.
Also, this is track 2 because track 9, seven away, is in 34/4 – seven away from the 27/4 here. Math.
Some press about it
“‘Sandbags on the Flood of My Insecurities’ is one of the neuron-firing personifications that defines Isleib’s style. An ingenious recreation of the pulse-quickening feeling of anxiety. It starts with a light trickle of errant thoughts, soon overcome by the static of irrational extrapolations. The hammered dulcimer, which is a recurring character on the record, acts as both a relentless driver and a beautiful vessel for melodic depth. As the soundscape fills and darkens, the war drums enter the fold driving the track to its manic conclusion. The score to a genuine, ineffable sensation that happens to everyone at some point and some quite frequently.” – Jon Ireson, music-news.com
“Sounds a bit like being trapped in a flooding submarine in the loveliest possible way.” – Layla Marino, YourEDM
Next song: Polliwog 1 & 6 7 8
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