The forthcoming, This Machine Builds Community compilation is what launched the idea for Top City Records, and it was the first album I finished recording, however it’s NOT the first release.
While the album was being mixed and mastered, I decided to hastily put together a short EP to test out the process of publishing a compilation, which had to be done using a different publishing service than I normally use.
I was sitting on a couple of mostly completed hip-hop songs that I had recently demoed with Mickey Pickens. I’d also been sitting on a cinematic, instrumental piece composed by Justus Becker, the eldest son of my partner Elaine York. I decided to use these songs to test out the publishing processing for a compilation, crediting each song to one of us.
Since Don Bailey (Pretend Machine) was already busy mixing This Machine Builds Community and other projects besides, I rolled up my sleeves and made my first attempt at mixing an album myself. I mixed version after version, listening on different speakers, and slowly figuring out how to get a better balance of frequencies and sonic placement. It was hard work, but I finally finished satisfying mixes of four songs, featuring some combination of the three of us in different ways.
On December 31, 2023, the Carnage Carnival EP was released on all the streaming platforms. I’ll tell you more about Justus’ song a little later. Today I want to focus on the title track, Carnage Carnival by Black Jackalope (Mickey), featuring Scurvy Rickets (me).
It starts the album off with an atmospheric, fast-paced groove that slows and slows and lands into the hook which was the starting point for what became one of the most unique and sophisticated songs I’ve worked on to date.
Mickey had sent me a memo recording of him singing the hook acapella and told me a bit about what the song was about. The next morning, Justus played a beautiful and moody piece on the piano that caught my ear and I immediately put the two together in my head. It was fairly quick work to record Justus on my electric keyboard and arrange a hip hop song around it. I love to use orchestral instruments with hip hop – clarinets and bassoons, cellos and violins, trombones and horns, and of course the piano. I used the bassoon in particular to flesh out a melody that could drift over, around, and down below Justus’ arpeggio.
We wrote our verses. We performed and recorded them, giving each other feedback and encouragement. It was crazy fun. The song has a unique sound, and a potent message, and eventually weaves itself into a moody, groovy tapestry of sound and song.
Give it a listen.
Top City Records 