This episode comes form the youtube stream on December 12 2023, the last one of the year. The title comes from the closing song Toki Doki, and is the english meaning of the Japanese phrase. Things start off with a nice expansive mid tempo piece that has a thoughtful repeated pizzicato figure that keeps things contemplative throughout. The piece has a second half to it built around big arco layers that introduce a dreamier feeling to things. The second piece grows gradually, but becomes more and more shimmering as pizzicato layers are added, with a dance-y-ness to it that I really like. The third piece delves into a ring-y ethereal realm, with nice sweeping figures that swirl in and out into some really nice ambient spaces. Things take a slightly darker turn with the fourth piece, sounding more like the quest for clues in some sort of spiritual detective story, which eventually opens up into the sounds of some kind of important discovery. The fifth piece is a further iteration of the fourth, with a tempo increase and building off the same bass line, with more layered experimentation. I close things out with an instrumental rendition of Toki Doki.

This episode comes from the Youtube livestream on November 28th, right after the Thanksgiving holiday. It takes me a little while to find the groove, but I eventually get there, with some washy bowing rhythms making things sleepy and sweeping. The next piece has a spacey contemplativeness to it that gradually grows into something warmer and more grounded. The third piece also has some nice big warm moments, and a laid back sleepy quality to it. The fourth piece begins with a bit of a mystical quality to the chord sounds that continues to expand with new layers into something more driving and somber. The fifth piece is livelier, with a more upbeat strummed chord progression and bouncy bass. The final piece develops into something nice and epic once all the layers get established, with a cool pizzicato thematic element that almost sounds like a Western movie, or some sort of showdown.

This episode comes from the youtube livestream on November 16 2023. Things get off to a very nice mellow start, growing into an expansive descending river of bowed lines. The next piece grows out of a quicker paced back and forth arpeggio, evolving slowly out of an atmospheric ether, and then changing directions halfway through into something more upbeat. The third piece takes a little while to settle into itself, but once I find the bass line it has a nice groove to it. The fourth and final song is slower paced, built around another more atmospheric and stranger sound, but eventually developing into some nice crunchy arco lines.

This episode comes from the youtube stream on November 9 2023. Things get off to a flow-ey and somewhat dreaming start, with a shimmery loop that develops some nice bowed layers. The second piece develops with more drive, and continues in a dreamy vein, but in a perhaps more determined way. The third song starts off fairly weird and atonal but then develops into a very nice glassy exploration of wintery landscapes and shimmering sounds. The fourth song is probably my favorite of the stream, and develops with more weight, and with the bowed parts has some nice gravitas. The fifth piece is a bit of a weird soundtracky sounding piece, exploring some strange alien flora. The final piece is a more familiar arpeggiated pattern that grows, but with a nice/strange airy ambient loop in the background that whispers throughout.

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Things get off to a vibey start in this episode from the youtube livestream on October 26 2023, incorporating the whistling effect quite early, which I enjoy using because the treble register it provides pops out so much. The second piece develops from a persistent trickle into a big warm wave that ebbs and flows. The third song has a nice walking pace, with some swirly dreamy elements that drift in and out. The fourth piece takes a darker turn built around a weirder percussive effect, with some distinctly amphibian characteristics, which gradually metamorphosizes into something brighter. There’s something inspirational feeling about the final piece, thematically speaking, and with the quicker tempo and brighter sound of things.

This episode comes from the youtube livestream on October 24 2023. Things get off to a nice airy start, built around a repeating arpeggio that has an 80’s movie interlude feel to it. The next piece develops into a broader sweeping journey that has some nice galloping tremolos. The third piece builds harmonies off a dancey kind of bass groove, and then has a nice alternative arpeggiated bridge progression. The fourth piece has some nice thematic elements to it, with a call and response feel to things. The 5th piece builds off of an almost electronic beat into a nice running arpeggio, and the final piece ends on a more contemplative note.

This episode from October 3 2023 starts off with a nice melancholy driving rhythm. The second piece has a similarly melancholy drive to it. It’s hard to describe what feeling this evokes exactly, something between determination and acceptance, with hope but sadness at the same time. The third piece has a bit of a talking heads start to things, with a driving bass line that develops into something more spacey and comes back to the drive again and again. The fourth piece gets nice and heavy really quickly, with some big arco bass to make things sound epic and forward flowing, which continues to grow into a nice swirling sparkling piece. The fifth piece has a rendition of New Groove from the first volume of the Sushi Tapes. The final piece is a jazzy little number I’ve done renditions of before on previous episodes.

This episode comes from the youtube stream on September 26, 2023. I love the liveliness of how things start out here, with an upbeat fast paced pizzicato ramble through some autumnal colored chords. The second piece gets groovier, keeping up the upbeat pace, but with a slightly darker tone, with some cool recurring motifs. The third songs builds into a much bigger and more aggressive driving song, that really pushes things forward with a big bass line that does a lot of heavy lifting and really develops into nice big thematic piece when the bowed layers build towards the end. The fourth piece builds out of a slightly weird detuned delay effect that creates a sense of anticipation, but then lands with some nice big bass again, keeping up the crisp driving pace of the piece before, with some more weird forays into different new digital effects, that are reminiscent of some of the cool things that Mark Mothersbaugh does with his collection of unusual instruments. The fifth piece doesn’t quite match the fullness and drive of the previous two, and is a simpler piece by comparison. Things become ambient for the sixth piece, with a self-sampled loop endeavor that flows into a nice dark river of a piece. The final piece is a return to the upbeat, with some nice full moments.

This episode comes from the Youtube stream on September 18 2023. Things get off to a nice medium pace with a bit of a jazzy chord sound, that quickly takes on some nice autumnal colors with the bowed layers. Growing up in Vermont the foliage season has a great deal of nostalgia for me, and I think that this piece captures some of those windswept orange and red fall tones. The next 2 pieces are explorations of the same progression, with a second attempt being made to explore things a bit more, with some nice effects. Things get punched up a bit for a livelier piece with some bounce and a wiggly hook. This is followed by a much darker piece, that has some interesting darker brooding emotional overtones to it. The final piece is a bit of a watery jaunt.