#053 Zimbabwe Grooving by John Bartmann

The piece of music in this week's episode is called Zimbabwe Grooving. It’s a smooth lofi deep house track. It uses an mbira to sound a bit African and a software instrument called Flesh to sound contemporary. Let’s break it down!

IN THIS EPISODE

05:20 I have an mbira which I like to combine with house grooves and more contemporary sounds. At the time of writing this, I was inspired by little-known artists like Penya from On The Corner Records.

06:17 The jazz guitar hook in this track is a simple, repetitive pentatonic line. Sometimes it’s about the notes you choose, but in this case it’s about the timbre of the instrument. A smooth, mid-tone guitar works way better with this type of smooth house music than, for example, an overdriven electric. I wanted the piece to sound smooth!

06:55 What makes it feel ‘live’?
The bassline is a very simple sustained note which uses a filter to open up the high frequencies during each sustained note. What makes it special? It was recorded directly in audio from my Novation X-Station synth and not in MIDI. This means that the bass in this track is a performance, just like a bass guitar or vocal would be. I believe that this type of deliberate, committed intentionality is somehow perceivable to the human ear, even if it’s on a subconscious level.

08:30 What makes it retain attention? Dance music is repetitive. Not everyone is always dancing when they listen to it. Without the micro-variations you unavoidably get when recording with live instruments, music made with a computer always begins as too perfect. Humans don’t like ‘too perfect’! It bores us quickly. So to create variety in the core beat I used a few tricks:

• A 5-bar cycle instead of the more regular 4-bar
• An irregular tap delay on the click sound
• Occasional West African drums to stab at the rhythm

09:10 What makes it so smooth? South African artists like Black Coffee are known for deep house, which is smoother, more melodic and jazzier than a lot of European dance music and EDM. What I love most about this track is the nice lofi feel. To create this smoothness, I emphasized the role of the low frequencies kick drum and played down the brightness. I chose subtle ambient sounds like the pad layer.

DOWNLOAD THIS TRACK

• Download it https://gum.co/sMfC
• Find more https://johnbartmann.com/music

SHOW NOTES

• Penya (On The Corner Records) releases electronic interpretations of African instrumentation and group singing https://penyamusic.bandcamp.com/album/penya-na-msafiri-zawose
• Black Coffee https://twitter.com/RealBlackCoffee

SOUNDS & DEVICES USED

• Native Instruments Flesh by Tim Exile
• Mbira
• Ibanez AF-75 jazz guitar

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• Pravda https://pravdaofficial.com
• Pebble Shakers https://pebbleshakers.co.za

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

How I Make Music is where behind-the-scenes musicians tell their own stories. Every Wednesday, we break apart a song, soundtrack or composition and investigate the insights into how it was made.

How do you make music? Find out how to host an episode of this podcast https://smarturl.it/howyoumakemusic