"Summer Robot"
by Moss Palace
Spoiler
- "kick drum" - me hitting an SM58 with my open palm, sampled and tweaked
- "bass synth" - the low C on a ukulele, sampled and tweaked
- "aaah choir synth" - Erin singing an "aaah" for a measure, sampled and tweaked
- Mellotron flutes (which are technically a "sample" of sorts, sample of a tape of a sound, etc.)
- other percussion instruments are live played claves, cabasa, and sleigh bells
- Erin's harmonies are fake, instead of her singing them per usual I duplicated her lead vocal and autotuned and pitch shifted the copies to create the harmonies myself
- we also used a sample of Erin playing a note on a recorder, it's in the second half of the first verse and the final chorus
- glockenspiel is live played by me
- I tried to make Erin's vocals sound grittier and less pristine and creepier with effects processing
- oh yeah, we also have a "tongue drum" which Erin played a note on and I sampled and played starting after the second chorus
It’s the same place every time
As if I left an x to mark the spot
An indelible print left in the sand
An oil stain on my towel from your hand
Lined up bodies on their backs
Abandoning all shame to face the sky
So intimately baring everything
Emerging from the chrysalis of spring
A grand parade of flesh
And no one seems to mind
Behind our dark sunglasses
We are blind, we are blind
Hear an echo in the breeze
Of a seagull flying, crying for more
Not a head lifts or notices the sound
So subdued we are, laying on the ground
Baking in the bright sunshine
Nobody dares to leave their special home
An invisible force, taking our will
Summer robots programmed to stay still
A grand parade of flesh
And no one seems to mind
Behind our dark sunglasses
We are blind, we are blind