Decomposure is Ontario's Caleb Mueller. I recently came across his music and have found myself listening through his albums, at least one of them daily.
The way he makes his music is by sampling things from everyday life by just recording certain actions he does or by just leaving a microphone recording or by walking around with a tape recorder. Such as samples of drummers from the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival. Some samples are extremely noticeable or really hard to make sense of. He even sometimes just uses his voice to make sounds or beats (his newer albums feature him singing). He plays the piano too and I'm sure the acoustic guitar with how often it's implemented.
How to best describe his sound... I really don't know. It really varies too much for me to really explain. All I can really say is that I just really like it. His stuff always sounds really inviting in a folk sort of way, but also with the obvious electronics when it comes down to percussion. He described one of his tracks from his EP that comes out tomorrow as "Countrytronica about jumping over metaphysical fences, should be a big hit..."
All the artwork in his albums and all the official videos he has were made by himself.
[i][b]Taking Things Apart[/b] (2004)[/i]
His first album released on a label is "Taking Things Apart", which has no vocals from him in it, but all the songs are aptly named after what their songs draw from. The first song being called "Scrabble", which samples him, and who I assume his wife, playing Scrabble. It has a nice woody sound about it because of this. Really, just by looking at the title of the song, you can figure out how it's going to sound and you can make out all of the noises in it. It's charming, really.
[img]http://images.payplay.fm/d/e/decomposure/600/decomposure.jpg[/img]
[i]Track List:
1.) Scrabble 5:16
2.) Matches (Extended Mix) 3:50
3.) Toy DJ Payset 2:04
4.) Drawing 4:09
5.) Speech 6:29
6.) Sound Card Noise 3:41
7.) Skytrain 4:21
8.) Notepad Guitar 1:44
9.) Piano/Toy Electronic Drumsticks 3:29
10.) Headphones 2:48
11.) Cassette Player (Acidic Mix) 2:54
12.) Interview/60 Hz 10:11[/i]
Scrabble:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-el1jsr-6Mc[/media]
[i][b]At Home And Unaffected[/b] (2005)[/i]
His second album. This album is his first to actually have him singing in it (I like his voice). It's the album I've listened to the least, for some reason (probably because I love the others a bit more), but it has its place. I can't really say much about it other than it sounds like him... It sounds like a younger version of his "Vertical Lines A" album. It's made solely from samples taken from inside his apartment. It has a fair bit of acoustic guitar in it too.
[img]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b76/tremor_control/decomposure.jpg[/img]
[i]Tracklist:
1.) Whose Side Are You On? 5:10
2.) At Home Part 1 4:42
3.) Bathroom/Guitar/Piano 2:03
4.) Distraction 3:24
5.) Guitar/Trivial Pursuit 2:05
6.) Buttons & Switches 3:02
7.) Beatbox 3:39
8.) Disconnect 3:43
9.) Multitracked 4:16
10.) At Home Part 2 4:36
11.) The Center Of The World 5:42
12.) ... And Unaffected 3:21
13.) Piano/Melodeon 3:36
14.) The Wars 7:22
[/i]
Distraction
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppn5b393Yzk[/media]
[i][b]Vertical Lines A[/b] (2007)[/i]
My most listened to so far. It's an album where you don't go "Oh! I like that one song the most!" You end up liking the whole album if you like one of the songs. It's an album entirely intended to be listened to in order and at once without skipping around. It's absolutely amazing and one of my favorite albums ever. The lyrics aren't very tangible and I think that's the point. It's just supposed to sound good and it really does. I highly recommend this album and really hope that anyone would enjoy it.
His webpage (for this album): [url]http://www.blanksquirrel.com/buy.php?indexkey=1[/url]
[img]http://www.blanksquirrel.com/images/vla1.jpg[/img]
[i]Track List:
1.) Hour 1 [3:27]
2.) Hour 2 [3:26]
3.) Hour 3 [3:12]
4.) Hour 4 [3:38]
5.) Hour 5 [2:43]
6.) Hour 6 [4:25]
7.) Hour 7 [4:22]
8.) Hour 8 [7:37]
9.) Hour 9 [4:43]
10.) Hour 10 [8:29]
11.) Hour 11 [11:01]
[/i]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYJ7gNw7-h8&feature=PlayList&p=0C8BF9FE86933F67&index=0&playnext=1]Playlist of the entire album.[/url]
Hour 10
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N23DfsTNE9c[/media]
[i][b]Humidity Patient Guide[/b] (2008)[/i]
The Humidity Patient Guide. A song that is an album (it's literally just one huge track). This thing is all over the place, but it flows to those places. None of the changes are extremely abrupt and none of them feel forced or incorrect. It's something you really just have to listen to, and you can (for free!). He has it on his website/label entirely for free as well as all the art with it (a 25 megabyte PDF).
Link: [url=http://www.blanksquirrel.com/buy.php?indexkey=2]Humidity Patient Guide[/url]
As with his other albums on his site ("Vertical Lines A" and the coming "North Carolina").
It's a great album that I was wary of at first because it's just one track, but after listening to it 7 times now, it's great and totally worth it (it's free anyway).
[img]http://www.blanksquirrel.com/images/hpg1.jpg[/img]
[i]Track List:
Humidity Patient Guide [50:54][/i]
There's no direct media, but he has some excerpts on his Myspace, I'll put the link at the bottom of this post.
[i][b]North Carolina EP[/b] (2009)[/i]
I have nothing to say about this yet as it isn't out yet (comes out tomorrow, August 28th), but I have high hopes for it, and from the one song from it on his Myspace, I don't see how I will be disappointed. It'll be free from his website too.
[img]http://www.blanksquirrel.com/images/nc1.jpg[/img]
[i]Track List:
1.) Whiteboard (Tuesday) [2:53]
2.) Artwork (Wednesday) [3:35]
3.) Past the Post (Thursday) [2:59]
4.) Baptism (Friday) [3:48]
5.) The Culture at the Time (Saturday) [3:07]
6.) Brave New Pope (Home) [3:17][/i]
Links:
[url=http://www.blanksquirrel.com/index.php]Blank Squirrel Musics[/url]
[url=http://www.twitter.com/decomposure]Decomposure's Twitter (He posts stuff about his upcoming material and other random stuff)[/url]
[url=http://www.myspace.com/erusopmoced]Decomposure's Myspace[/url]
"North Carolina" comes out August 28th, 2009, and he's currently working on "Horizontal Lines B".
Enjoy.
I think I'm in love. Everything about this man's music is pure beauty.
I actually feel inspired, but I feel as if I tried his techniques (Which I've wanted to do for ages) I'd feel as if I was copying him.
[QUOTE=Kamikaze;16958624]I think I'm in love. Everything about this man's music is pure beauty.
I actually feel inspired, but I feel as if I tried his techniques (Which I've wanted to do for ages) I'd feel as if I was copying him.[/QUOTE]
I've always wanted to make music by just going around recording stuff, but I don't feel I'd ever be able to give it direction and I don't think I know enough about musical structure either.
This guy is basically doing what I've always wanted to do, and doing it greatly. I'm glad you like it.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qtk9c6ZGcM[/media]
I couldn't help myself
It's a kickass song
[QUOTE=En-Guage V2;16959337][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qtk9c6ZGcM[/media]
I couldn't help myself
It's a kickass song[/QUOTE]
I really have to disagree. =\
[QUOTE=Kamikaze;16958624]
I actually feel inspired, but I feel as if I tried his techniques (Which I've wanted to do for ages) I'd feel as if I was copying him.[/QUOTE]
Why don't you just go for it, its not like he is the only one who has done this. Its not the way the song is made that's different its the choice of sounds you decide to record and the manner in which you put them together.
If you are truly inspired just do it then experiment with that inspiration and make something.
[QUOTE=Xyrofen;16959522]I really have to disagree. =\[/QUOTE]
Screamo isn't everyone's thing
I can acknowledge that
[QUOTE=En-Guage V2;16997218]Screamo isn't everyone's thing
I can acknowledge that[/QUOTE]
I swear I didn't rate you disagree, by the way.
Also, Caleb lied, North Carolina isn't out yet. He said hopefully by noon his time (Ontario, CA) on Saturday.
That's alright :D
Rated friendly
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