dacca

I was reflecting on Trump's visit to China 9th November 2017. I'm not a Trump fan, nor a fan of Fascism. I'm not a fan of Communism either. But there is still much to admire in both nations, over time as well as now.

I want peace, and I hope against hope that these two great nations can maintain peaceful and prosperous relations.

Your life may depend upon it.

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Yeah, another wacky dacca fusion, this time Western heavy metal and Chinese Erdu and Pipa traditional instruments. I'm really happy with it, and I think it works. I'd love to hear from anyone who tries anything similar.

The thumping bass and rhythm guitar plus drums are from Novation LaunchPad, Erdu and Pipa are from GarageBand, and the metal guitar is ThumbJam guitar with an AmpKit metal guitar amp.

I used the same Novation LaunchPad pads on my track Demon Prowler https://soundcloud.com/dacca/demon-prowler, though stylistically Art Of Diplomacy reminds me more my tracks The Duel (banjo v electric guitar) https://soundcloud.com/dacca/the-duel-banjo-vs-electric and I Wanna Be A RockStar https://soundcloud.com/dacca/i-wanna-be-a-rock-star-but-im (for the guitar scorching). So depending on what you enjoy about this track, try one of those!

The title is derived from Sun Tzu's "Art Of War".

As an artist, I believe it is our duty to influence our world. I want to help create a world of reason, peace, trade and love.

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It's a start...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-latest-trump-says-he-and-xi-will-solve-world-problems/ar-BBEI3mv

All synths played manually, with Apple Loop acoustic guitar and delayed electric rock guitar arranged to suit the synth tracks.

I wanted to create a track that initially met our expectations regarding cold machine intelligence, but then introduce some warmth and emotion - through both the synths and acoustic guitar strumming - that ebbs and flows just like human intelligence. The understated electric guitar still manages to add a level of underlying drive and passion when it kicks in.

I'm not saying that A.I. would have human emotional intelligence, though possibly a merged human/A.I. intelligence might. In truth, we don't know - but SkyNet isn't the only possibility!

The hip hop beats were created using Novation Launchpad, to which I added a manually played "Playful Melody" synth, koto and guzheng stringed instruments, taiko drums, and Chinese percussion.

Combined with the Asian instruments, the hip hop sounded extra cool to me hence the title.

With this track imagine you are the RAF observer looking at the tiny remote aircraft battling high above in the sky back in World War Two. I've tried to capture the fragility of life that the chap on the roof in the photograph might have observed on that particular day - one of many during the Battle Of Britain - back in 1940.

I have tried to create a track that is respectful. At the same time, I acknowledge that the track is ambient synths, and quite abstract - not everyone's cup of tea for any subject, let alone the Battle Of Britain.

I can't say that I hope the track gives you pleasure. But I do hope it makes you think about the fragility of human existence.

All synths played manually by me using Logic Pro X

This is (mostly) one of my Apple Loop compositions, with a little supplementary manual playing on power guitar and drum kit.

"More human than human", that was their motto. It didn't save them...in fact, it brought about their downfall.

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Image: The original Tyrell Corporation Model From Blade Runner, Ilona Gaynor, Flickr

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Created using the awesome Dystopia pack from Novation Launchpad, ThumbJam electric guitar (with a lot of sustained notes), GarageBand hard rock guitar on my favourite dacca settings, and some BBC sound FX.

This is my new longest track. Previously, that was another science-fiction epic:

https://soundcloud.com/dacca/foundation-and-empire

For another track of mine inspired by Bladerunner 2049 try:

https://soundcloud.com/dacca/the-future-is-ours

I just threw this together using various guitars, electric P-bass, grand piano, a vintage drum kit and my favourite rock guitar sound from GarageBand. I was feeling sad, disconnected, but thinking about the sad state of affairs in our world.

I believe in freedom of thought, which makes me - and people like me - a terrorist in Saudi Arabia (a nation that exports actual terrorism), and so freethinkers are subject to possible beheading. Western nations that speak of freedom ally with nations like Saudi Arabia that suppress women's rights, suppress LGBTI rights...and kill atheists. How weak must your beliefs be if your reaction is to actually kill those who reject those dogmatic, faith-based beliefs? The sale of oil and arms is behind our Western alliance with this evil regime.

The political dogma of Communism or Fascism is little better, with the truth subject to the flock mentality of the Party for its definition.

I believe in reason, but my world does not. There is no war on terror. But there is a war on reason. It is being fought in the USA, across the Middle East, in Russia, India, China. It is a global war, and the future of our species is at stake.

With Halloween 2017 coming up I thought I'd try for a scary rock track. Our protagonist cannot resist a call - a whisper in his mind - to walk deep into the fog, though his pace slows when he see the apparition before him...

The track features three drum kit tracks, electric bass, some cello and upright bass, a Sunriser synth (I had a lot of fun playing with the settings on that), ThumbJam electric guitar with Middle Atmosphere AmpKit metal guitar amp, hard rock guitar and some low wind FX.

I hope you enjoy it.

What we do in life...echoes in eternity.

Sounds familiar? It's one of Russell Crowe's lines from Gladiator...great movie but that line sometimes feels a bit corny.

But what if, like gravity waves, our lives are writ in space-time for all of eternity? I don't mean that your future is pre-determined. I mean that your life is woven into space-time as you live it, based upon the choices you make and the hand of fate and - once woven - those experiences in your life are forever sealed...in the eternal fabric of space-time. But space-time is a journey, not just the fabric of existence. Without time, everything would happen at once. Without space, everything would happen in the same point. That's called a singularity. But we're beyond the singularity - the Big Bang - now. Our individual journeys through space-time are simply a part of universe's journey through space-time, into the future. Every moment of your life so far still exists, in space-time, and will forever exist.

The idea of time-travel relies upon a similar idea. After all, if you travel back in time, where are you travelling to if that part of past space-time no longer exists? So, everything you have ever done, and everything you will do, may well form echoes in eternity.

The same might be true of everyone that you know, everyone will you know, and everyone you once knew. It may not be "heaven", but perhaps it is a consolation to think that, maybe, when we die...our lives "live" on. And so too, perhaps, do the lives of our loved ones.

I came across the idea of a an eternal "block universe" in British theoretical physicist Julian Barbour's book "The End Of Time".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Barbour

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternalism_(philosophy_of_time)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_space_and_time

I've also wondered about photons, and the speed of light, in relation to time. At the speed of light, time ceases to exist. The speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second (or roughly 300,000 km/s). But for a photo travelling at the speed of light, time ceases:

https://phys.org/news/2014-05-does-light-experience-time.html

Time is weird.

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Image: Gravity Waves, NASA

This is one of my Apple loop compositions. It's a fun and somewhat quirky reggae track with a "spooky" feel.

I hope it gives you pleasure!