a few days ago I posted this without any melody and asked if anybody could tell what Taylor Swift song it was.

It’s “Calm Down” (a work in progress). Out of all the songs I’m doing for this cover album, I think one lends itself to reggae the most.

For the bonus points, the non-synthesized instruments I played are electric bass, woodwinds, and some snare fills. The drums are a multisampled sfz kit which is absolutely fantastic. You can get it for free here. I like using tidalcycles to sequence kits like this. It’s trivial to add variation, time offset, swing… basically everything you’d need to make samples sound “real.” If I were better at drums I’d play them myself, but my drum skills aren’t ready for primetime.

Is using a live coding environment for algorithmic patterns kinda anathema to dub reggae? I’d say no. Innovators like King Tubby were constantly experimenting with new technology and doing things their own way. I’m over here listening to my idols do weird shit… and taking notes.