This is a tricky process: on one hand I want to bring something to the song that makes it different from the other ambient numbers on the disc. On the other hand, I don't want to stray from the Future Loss blueprint established in Room 17, where Brian and I had limited resources at our disposal.
I've been trying out several ideas with the beat programming. I've tried to come up with something made solely out of kick drum samples, which range from the hollow, to the dry, to the boomy.
There's also automation going on behind the raw sequencing: delays, filters and phase effects have been brought into play, in order to make the rhythms move, blur, drift off, then snap back into focus.
The result is more textural, than something you would tap your foot to. More work needs to be done on it: I'd like things to glide into a fragged, time-stretched quarter time section at one point. Then there's all the dogs barking that I recorded through the vocal delay pedal.
At his stage, the jury is still out on how things stand. It's tempting to suggest reverting back to a kick and snare pattern... but the truth is that we've exhausted that particular option in other songs on the album, and this track is calling out for something else to set it apart.