FAWM: "Gaslighter"

Gaslighter

2 weeks ago by @adforperu

Liner Notes

This was a lot of fun to write, record, produce, and export. It's fairly derivative of a few obvious things, but 🤷

I road tested the first verse lyrics for a live track with a totally different backing, so thought it'd be good to start something fresssh.

I just wish I could make Real Music™, ya know? :(

*Edit - I should add that my Spook Muziek shows are exactly this: backing track + vocal, and I absolutely lean into that 😎

#house #dance-punk #indie #electronic #fawmtronica

Lyrics

i’m a gaslighter
i’m making music on a synthesiser
and a drum machine that you can’t see
‘cause it’s buried in my SPD

quantise 1/8
automate assimilate
why see the northern lights
when ones and zeros resonate
make a riff, command+D
low bit-rate MP3
compensate for latency
then you are a deity
120 tempo
move your body like an LFO
autotuning average joe
choking on a vocalzone
dizzy like an oscillator
preset my operator
play it on a synthesiser
i’m a gas-lighter

Comments

@airbagtester 41m

Disco beats are almost always certifiably 99% Fresh. Reminds me that even if I'm not sure it's Real Music™, if I'm moving to it, it's a successful sonic experiment. Created by a succession of techniques. Developed during the war.

@mikedebenham 5d

Everything since the player piano is the devil's business as far as I'm concerned, but this got me bopping. Those choppy vocal stabs are real nice.

@bijou 1w

This song makes me question my reality.

@mdavisto 1w

Ha. Who's vox is that on the intro - is it you?

That rippy gated pad is tasty. AND THE SQUIGGLY PORN ONE panned left. I adore that one.

@degausser 1w

Hang on a minute... Do I smell a rat? ;)
Really enjoyed this when I first heard it back in hmmmmm actually I'm not sure... Definitely no earlier than the 1st Feb 2025! It's good!
Is that Johnny Borrell lol?

@giantenemycliche 1w

As someone who just did a gig with backing tracks, this is very funny lol.

@atam94 1w

Dude, I love this!!! All the attention to detail, like the "low bit-rate MP3" etc. are just so, so good.

@leepat 1w

the only excuse you've got for making this instead of real music is that a body does need to unwind sometimes and this... thing is actually a good backing track for that...

@theawkwardsleep 1w

damn ADAM~ this is fantastic
the layers, the samples, the movement is so ingenious and the groove gets going so well. The ending is perfection. great stuff.

@bigmood 2w

oh this is so fun! The rhythm of that synth goes so hard and I really like how much fun you're having with the vocals, the a a a a of the gaslighter line hits and that chorus is such a golden hook. And hey, at least you're not making ai music haha

@iwilleatyou 2w

This song is too happy Adam. Like you're in a really good mood and skipping down the neighborhood singing "I'm a gaslightah!" and nobody pays you any mind type of happy schmappy.

Well alright.....i like it just a tiny bit.

@fortelmfield 2w

ahaha, this is amazing! smart lyrics and fantastic delivery, I love how raw the vocal can get given how clean and produced everything else is! and revealing yourself as a Mac user...

@fonte 2w

I'm a gassss lightahhh uh huh

@ddd 2w

DOPE M U S I C. Infectious. Powerful vocals..well done 👍👍

@bradbrubaker 2w

Snotty stuff ya got here. Brings to mind "North American Scum" for me, which is to say intensely danceable, irony or no.

@vomvorton 2w

Haha, this is great fun. Sounds like it'd be an absolute party live, as much as a song with a BACKING TRACK can be considered an absolute party.

@balancelost 2w

Imagine burying a drum machine in the social democratic party of (somewhere). This is good fun, and there's all kinds of cool sounds in here that I can't pin down which makes me intrigued about how you made them. Not sure what this has to do with gaslighting, but who cares when it sounds good! Also, let's debate about live performance, if I may. Modern audiences don't really care about things being 100% live, but I think that at least a kind of lip service to playing instruments live goes a long way. There, nuance captured in a glib comment. Nailed it! And you nailed it! go team! Hi 5s all round.

@med4th 2w

Ah hey there Spooky, this is superb

@oiko 2w

ha ha, very cheeky - and funky! very well chosen synth elements, and the vocals are perfect for the track too! good sounding mix as well. my battered ears struggled to hear the spoken part in the B section, maybe just pull that up a smidge. looking forward to the next one!

@afterschoolclub 2w

Haha, this is loads of fun! Is that the guy from Razorlight?! The staccato-y backing is ace. Surely this has to be added to the Spook Muziek setlist immediately?

@oddbod 2w

Ah, so that's what a twonk is 👍🏻
You're not using loops are you?

@drivebylovefest 2w

My partner just walked in the room and gasped and said “OMG is that a FAWM song”!?? with her jaw down. I just sais “i know, right”?
I’m so blown away. You must have had such a riot putting this one together. There were enough differences in all the different sounds to really keep my attention and I loved the way you woukd exclaim-sing “i’m a gaslighter”! really fun, thanks for that.

@coolparadisoMod 2w

Killer song! Top class! So very clever and each element so well put together!

@unpronounceable 2w

Dude, I just want this placed in like every creeper TV show. Gaslighters need themes too.

@thelowestbitter 2w

My favourite genre of Ad is Big Dumb Fun, so this is right up my street because BANGER AHOY! As a fellow backing tracking fraud I am fully behind the message, even if I had to look up what SPD meant and then search "SPD music" because I assume you aren't singing about sensory processing disorder. Anyway, the synths are great and I love all the little production touches like the bitcrushing on "low bit rate mp3". Class tbf

@andrewthewood 2w

Ha, wonderful! Do I get a prize for spotting that vocalzone is the odd one out as it's a lozenge, not a bit of electronic kit!

@judypie 2w

Hahaha I love that cunty sound clip so much 😂 Also, love this! I love all the practically Latin (to me) lyrics, and I KNOW that ole johnny boy would!
You’re so clever 😁
NOW WHERES MY TEA?

@angelinapowersuit 2w

So fun! I don’t do much electronic music so some of your refs are lost on me but I don’t care - love the beat, the energy, and your delivery. Such a pro!

@billwhite51 2w

love that chorus gaslighter/synthesiser is a killer rhyme... and even better the way you sing it.

@frenchcricket 2w

Is that the Pro 800 doing that bass? Sounds so thick! I really like the gated stuff as well. I was just reading about how gated synths in the 80s all used the same gate, the Drawmer DS201 as made in Yorkshire! Apparently impossible to get the exact sound without it. Err, anyway sorry for that digression. I’m having a blast listening to this. You might be deriving but at least you’re deriving from multiple sources.

@antlion 2w

fun! very effortlessly polished, I'm always amazed that folks can pull out such high-quality production on a fawm timeframe. consider my tailfeather shaken :)

@guatecoop 2w

Yup! I am with this sentiment. But, your track is too interesting and fun….needs to be more derivative!! This is very cool.

@foolbaar 2w

Kick-ass party song :)

@hornesgiftshop 2w

Everything about this takes me back to being 16 and forward to being 61. I love it.

@headfirstonlyMod 2w

Haha, I have no idea who that guy is but he sounds like the sort of pop star who was once accused of not being responsible for any of the music on their records and has never gotten over it.

This is indeed a banger. Never underestimate sarcasm as a powerful musical force for grabbing the listener's attention; or humour, for that matter—the lyrics are hilarious!

I love Devin Townsend's approach to performing Addicted! when Anneke van Giersbergen's vocals kick in and she isn't even in the same country, let alone being present on stage, he just shouts, "Yes, I'm using a backing tape! Deal with it!" The audience don't care; they go *nuts*...

@spikedirection 2w

urgh.
Look, I don't use any of that stuff, either, I'm all organic, grassfed, lo-fi, analogue music. I don't even use a DAW to record.
But this is all because I'm too poor and thick. And I don't get all snotty about it either.
Love this, this is a banger!