For the hell of it I made a few final changes and tried to connect the cheap laptop again and what the heck, it worked. I kind of wish it would quit occasionally working so I could just get a new laptop...

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The Godfathers (Birth, School, Work, Death)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2SLs7EWyIk
Heard just the last minute of this on the radio (internet radio, regular monopoly radio wouldn't play this) and I liked it. Hearing the whole song lessens it. I think it would sound better to just repeat the chorus over and over again. Maybe a guitar solo and that's it. Just get rid of the verses. I wish I could forget I'd heard the rest and instead vaguely imagine the rest of the song sounding the way I wish it did. Also could do without the images...

People make too big a deal about repetition being some kind of negative thing in music. In real life our moods don't change 8 times in 3 minutes. Simplistic loops are underrated. Being nonrepetitious just for the sake of not being repetitious is just no good. Even on the rare occasion you do successfully find something that actually really works, there's still the knowledge that the process was wrong.

This isn't to say I only like repetitious music. I have an ideal of something more which I've barely attempted yet. An ideal of being very symbolic instead of the "duh, it sounds good" usual process of music writing. What's held me back is first off, you can't manage it using presets. I'm about there now where I don't need them. About time to make a better effort I guess.

Then there is this:

I'm reminded of Brian Eno talking about recording some traffic noise and how even that, if you listen to it over and over again, your mind starts to wait for that jake brake, etc and it has a musical quality in that sense.

And so something like this on a single listen just seems entirely random. But you listen to it over and over again and it starts sounding pretty good.

...I wonder though if it's a trick. That I can just get the exact same effect with a 10 second repeating loop just by doing a good job at forgetting...

I wonder if there's some self deception going on with writing such music...? That on an initial listen it seems so random. Must one pretend otherwise to bother writing such a thing while waiting till like the jake brake it starts making some weird kind of ritual sense...?

It can be done though symbolically. Helped along by having good samples and knowing how to make sounds with some good synths. Although I think the symbols must be kind of crude and must still end up relying on some randomness. Not sure how far it can be taken. Simplistic mood loops might still win out.