The Oregon Trail

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An 18-minute midi-filled pop adventure tuned for traveling.

~Noah

Themed around the joys of travel, this 6-track EP is my most robust work to date, ranging from lo-fi house to rubbery breaks. Most of the record was composed just before going to Portland, Oregon for summer vacation.

Here's the links to find the EP.





Comprised of two bonus tracks and four reimaginings of the original work, The Oregon Trail Remixes continues to reach the wide array of electronic music that The Oregon Trail brought to the table. Tracks 03 and 06 were selected as part of a remix contest.

This is where you can listen to the remix EP.



Recording

Early ideas of The Oregon Trail as a project began in May 2021 as a conceptual EP based around my upcoming trip to Portland, Oregon. There were songs that took place in locations en route, such as Sacramento and Salem and Portland (which was the original title for track 2.) But even further back in February, shortly after releasing my song Solstice, I wrote Ticket Gate.

Ticket Gate was built in one day, around a small drum section combined with an older unused MIDI clip for the main lead. The synth was recorded in one take using Ableton Wavetable, dragging the parameters with my mouse. That's what gives all the bubbly shifts in the song, and the rise into the more squared out final part of the track. That demo sat around untouched for some months until I was sifting thru my computer for songs to put on the new EP. I asked toki for some advice on its inclusion and he agreed to help me mix the song just a bit more.

Homecoming was also connected to Ticket Gate in that the same day I mixed the final export in mid-April, I recorded the first Homecoming demo. This one I aimed to recreate the vibe of leaving a high school football game (prior to me ever actually going to one) at night. One of my fav tracks on the project. There's not much going on but it's one of my more bass-heavy tracks, with most of the melodic/harmonic sounds being bass synths.

Aire Fresco began on a Discord call with Noah in the middle of May. I was using Spitfire Labs instruments and trying to create a more human melody. I was recently falling in love with flamenco music and wanted to try and incorporate it into a track of mine. The original title was going to be San Francisco because that was the image I had in mind, with all the bustling streets being shown in the whirlwind of looping melodies in this one. Honestly not my favourite but I think it has its charm.

City Light began as a demo composed for my drum rack "Sodapop Percussion" back in late May. I started the track in a call with toki, where we were showing each other our work-in-progress tracks. He played some sick string arrangements and I asked if I could use them in the song I was working on, which ended up opening the EP with some wonderful flourish.

Qb was created the same week as City Light, as just a throwaway beat using a built-in drum kit inside Ableton Live. I never got it to the point where I could flip it into a full song, but the remasters may say otherwise. :)

The Oregon Trail was the final song produced for the EP, produced just a few days from when I left for Portland. The outwards synthetic style and 808 drumbeat was directly inspired by Musician by Porter Robinson, who recently released the album "Nurture" at the time. This is my favourite track on the whole project and definitely had the best time producing it. And just a fun fact, the very first demo sounded like this...!














Houseradio Records / Wyatt Raymond White 2022

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