So, in my skimpy bits of free time, this is what I've been toying with.  I finally took some time to figure out the beast called "FL Studio".  The learning curve is a little rough, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

This is my first actual project in it.  I'm pretty tired of hearing 5, 6 minute songs that were done in FL.  This one weighs in at 3:27.  Short and to the point.

To help you listen to this song, I've made a timeline of the things that I envisioned while writing this song.  (Explanation to follow)



As you can see, there are 9 segments.

I - Course is Plotted -- The group I will refer to as "Thievery" makes its way to a selected destination.  Thievery is marked on the timeline by (mainly) red portions.  Marching, marching, marching...
II - Within Sight -- Target village, inhabited by those referred to as "Innocent" (yellow on the timeline), comes into sight.  Just a little further now.  Communication between those in Thievery.  Preparations for battle begin.
III - Unexpecting -- Innocent village (somewhat of an oriental influence here) is portrayed in a somewhat peaceful, oblivious state.  The sound of the march catches the attention of a sentry, who cries out the warning.  ... But it's too late.
IV - Thievery -- The war begins, and the Innocent fall like toys toppled by Thievery.
V - This is Life -- Thievery gets fancy and shows off amongst each other.  This is their collective life.  This is what do.  This is Life.
VI - In the Distance -- In the distance, another Innocent village is portrayed.  Not only innocent as well, they are unaware of their falling neighbors.  Soon the innocence is shattered.
VII - Horror Pending -- Thievery moves from the first village to the second, from segment VI.  They are falling even more quickly than the first...
VIII - August -- Innocent's warning cry returns (although overpowered by Thievery's war anthems) as suddenly the second village understands what has happened.  They can only hope to warn other surrounding peoples.  If there ever was hope, it has evaded the Innocent.
IX - Tumble -- As Thievery moves on, away from the two villages, the Innocent who have barely survived now lie in the rubble of their lives.  Their strength fades... A couple of toddler children wander about in the landscape as they seek to understand why these events transpired.

tLs

I like this 'Stolen Flow' of yours!
Especially the synth sounds and the vocal sample, the drum has the right sound for me but the wrong rhythm or just in the wrong beat somehow. Although it is very 'marching' it doesent 'lift it up' to be a song or it's 'too heavy' to be a story, to be followed! 
I really like the sliding of the synths and that all the synth sounds are 'big and dirty', as compared to 'midi clean'!
Set to a pro beat and produced a bit more this would be one of those 'really big' songs.

hey, thanks for the reply!

I understand what you mean about it being too heavy to be a story.  In fact, I didn't really start out intending to make it a "story", but that IS in fact how it started going once I got about a minute and a half into it.  At the same time, I'm pretty sure that if I had not included any timeline or explanation, that the audience wouldn't have understood at all where I am coming from...  There were too many things that I thought were too subtle in the song to be noticed propery.

(ideally, a song should be self-explanitory, but I didn't feel like this one was strong enough all by itself to carry its idea.)

for a first project, I was happy with it, but I already have ideas for new songs, and they flow much nicer (and more traditionally) than this.

I love this song.
I agree with kings there. But I like the drum. And I like that bass line in the way background..
I think at Part V it should be a bit bigger. Like bigger synth sound and so on..
Overall I really liked this song!

Great job :]

This is really good stuff. Very reminiscent of 80's movie tecnho, I love that oriental vibe to it. Bombastic synth work yet at the same time transcendental psychedelic like a David Sylvian tune (missing the frippertronics in there though ) ... its absolutely great how you put this graphical layout of the song together and how you manage to ramble on about the various parts and the structure of the song. Great material for in a booklet! People are going to love that.

So keep at it, btw it would be something even greater if it featured vocals of some sort, I can only rate this very high as it is right now...

funny you mention that... i was going to add some eerie vocals to parts VI and VIII, but i don't have my mic back yet (from the move I made a while back)

thanks so much you guys!  glad you liked it, and I thank you for the feedback

Hey man this is amazing for a start on FL..Much better than what I did and a lot more technical...Indeed your quite capable on it...Can wait to hear more....I don't really have a lot more to say as I'm sure this is just a beginning for something great...Good job!!!
Keep at it!
M.

this is very cool. great concept and i like your graphical representation alot; It gives the music another dimention and makes it more interesting. The music itself is great; dramatic and dark. very 80's techno, but thats no bad thing.  Its very different from you're other stuff that i've heard, so congrats on trying out new genres and styles

personally, i don't think this would suit vocals, but I'd like to hear the results if you ever add a vocal track

Ian

hey, i like the picture, and the story... the music is pretty epic - hooray for the thievery! - i can almost see  attilla riding down the hill on his horse... hehe

ok, i like, that its electronic, which is not that danceable, nor being ambient, neither martial sth.... or even noise...

i can see, that you put alot of work into that, you also know about music, just a little more production, and... i would like to see "full" version... like, if it had 15 minutes - how would you cope with that? - lighter track, maybe more themes or synths... that would be worth of EP....

- there's, where i am weak in criticising... if someone could do it better, it's hard to find something "wrong" 

GREAT 2 C U BAK!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice TRak .............

fish