Creative Commons Soundtracks: Part 2

I try to lead a creative life; as much as I can fit in around the wage-slave mundanity of the 9-to-5. Part of that is I allow myself to play and dabble in as many fields as I want. I know the cliche "Jack of all trades, master of none"  may apply to me but I do consider myself a reasonable accomplished photographer. The danger of mastering a craft is feeling stale. I can knock out pictures of a reasonable standard but I've lost a little of that wonder and magic I felt when I first saw a print fading out of the ether in a developing tray, or when I first realized what I could do with my first digital camera and an early version of PhotoShop.

It's a feeling I've rediscovered playing at making soundtrack music. The last time I recorded something was on cassette on a hissy 4-track. Like all arts and crafts, technology has changed all that and lowered the bar to entrance and participation. Instead of having to patch a load of things together with midi cables and bounce down tracks I can now just mess around for a few minutes here and there on my laptop. I'm sure what I'm coming up with is the equivalent of those first Photoshopped pictures I made: cliqued, over-saturated, over-sharpened, amateurish messes but I am having as much fun as a kid with finger paints. And to get past those musical, amateurish messes I first have to make them. Lucky you can even hear my fumblings thanks to SoundCloud which seems to be to music what Flickr is to photography. Just like a newbie on Flickr I am lost in the crowd on SoundCloud and am having a hard time working out how to separate the wheat from the chaff but the novelty is still working in my favor.

Deep Dive Drift by the other Martin Taylor

Wednesday Loopy Blues by the other Martin Taylor