This one was composed back in 1987 or 1988 and was one of my first 'successful' ambient pieces. It originally had a numbered title but for now that title is lost. The piece was played almost entirely on my Ensoniq Mirage w/the backwards drum sounds being samples I took from my Roland TR-707 and looped, detuned & reversed. The breathy vox sounds are also Mirage samples. The computer driving the sequencer was most likely my C= meaning the sequencer was Dr. T's KCS. The delay sounds too clean to be the mk. III Echoplex but I don't remember if I had a digital delay at the time. Tracking & mastering are problematic but were most likely to cassette.
My ambient pieces like this one were designed to be heard at low to very low volume in a room w/no bright or direct lightning. They were intended as unobtrusive 'audio wallpaper', something to form an overall space ambiance w/o demanding the listener focus on the material. Good frequency response descending to sub-octaves is essential, however, as I make use of the entire audible spectra. As always, I do have higher resolution files available...
ReverseDrums-96KB
02 November 2008
28 October 2008
S'Not Tuna!
As Advertised! The name of this release-candidate was of course an in-joke against the duo of Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen aka "Hot Tuna", a duo that I've seen several times and whose work I did & continue to revere. The truth here is that I & SS never played w/a live drummer & frequently played w/o even a robot drummer.
The first tune is a punk tune I wrote to put on access teevee. This version is similar but not exactly the same as the version on the extant video which I will post when I'm able to. The main difference is that my vox on this version, while buried, are still audible unlike the vox on the video which are masked by tape echo. The raison d'etre for the lyrics was to write a political song that used the f* word as many times as I could (10?). What was funny was the video at ~3 minutes was good filler and appeared on the local access channel for quite some time in-between fundamentalist preachers' shows. Date 10/91?
SS is direct through his Digitech rack fx & everything else is midi.
Track_1
A piece that we worked on for 8 hours straight one Sunday afternoon. SS brought me a partial progression, we extended it and I wrote midi parts for it. On the final take, the one documented here, I stuck a live microphone in front of SS and commanded that he 'sing now, dammit' and sing he did. The lyrics are simple as he made them up line by line while he was singing them, but I always liked his ideas on this and thought them far better than 'adequate'.
Track_2
Found another version, probably a previous recording as it doesn't have vocals. Or it might be from when I archived my 4-track recordings as it wasn't mastered until some time later.
Track 2 (81st)
Last one on side one and was a rushed improv - I'd only played through this SS progression once or twice but we ran out of time and so had to record it when we did. While I made a number of (bass) mistakes in the song, I think I did a decent job of convincing unsuspecting listeners those mistakes were 'supposed to be like that'.
Track_3
The first tune is a punk tune I wrote to put on access teevee. This version is similar but not exactly the same as the version on the extant video which I will post when I'm able to. The main difference is that my vox on this version, while buried, are still audible unlike the vox on the video which are masked by tape echo. The raison d'etre for the lyrics was to write a political song that used the f* word as many times as I could (10?). What was funny was the video at ~3 minutes was good filler and appeared on the local access channel for quite some time in-between fundamentalist preachers' shows. Date 10/91?
SS is direct through his Digitech rack fx & everything else is midi.
Track_1
A piece that we worked on for 8 hours straight one Sunday afternoon. SS brought me a partial progression, we extended it and I wrote midi parts for it. On the final take, the one documented here, I stuck a live microphone in front of SS and commanded that he 'sing now, dammit' and sing he did. The lyrics are simple as he made them up line by line while he was singing them, but I always liked his ideas on this and thought them far better than 'adequate'.
Track_2
Found another version, probably a previous recording as it doesn't have vocals. Or it might be from when I archived my 4-track recordings as it wasn't mastered until some time later.
Track 2 (81st)
Last one on side one and was a rushed improv - I'd only played through this SS progression once or twice but we ran out of time and so had to record it when we did. While I made a number of (bass) mistakes in the song, I think I did a decent job of convincing unsuspecting listeners those mistakes were 'supposed to be like that'.
Track_3
27 October 2008
112992
Do you too seem to sense a gap in my memory from late '91 until sometime after '94? Various reasons would explain same but I'll leave them to the shrinks, ok? I'm here, I'm now, and what else matters, eh? Some life seems to have erupted during this (2008) October, hence the paucity of posts as of late...
Again, don't remember many of the details for this piece. Think that's the Poly800 for the first lead (& definitely a Lexicon LXP-5 for the fx). I think the bass was from the Ensoniq Mirage as I didn't have any other resources for that 'toothy' bass sound back then. Mastered to cassette most likely.
112992
Again, don't remember many of the details for this piece. Think that's the Poly800 for the first lead (& definitely a Lexicon LXP-5 for the fx). I think the bass was from the Ensoniq Mirage as I didn't have any other resources for that 'toothy' bass sound back then. Mastered to cassette most likely.
112992
19 October 2008
10-19-2008 aka something new
Yes, this was snagged off my loop recorder and the last part was recorded moments ago w/my Moog Voyager. It's in the WIP queue meaning it's something I've fooled with over the last 18 months but it never really had a 'formal' work session so outside of all the sounds being recent, can't really go much deeper into the performance details. It was recorded direct to digital loop machine.
101908
101908
01 October 2008
051893 & 070293
This piece represents an interesting conundrum - the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. The core idea, the quiet little sequence at the center of this piece, is something especially lame. Yet after coming up with that rippin' drumpart and adding those dense slabs of Poly-800 washes/pads, wow, something worth sharing. So here t'is.
Somewhere in the mythology this became the "Ricky Ricardo Drum Piece" as for some deranged reason I could see Desi Arnaz whaling away on his conga up on stage waiting for the moment to yell "Babalooah!". I think this piece was specially created for an ambient demo tape ('Ambient Shit', the tape the last few pieces are from) and may have been the inspiration for the tape itself. I gave a copy to someone who was doing an electronic music show on the radio and heard later that some of the tape was actually aired. Since it is all Midi this was most likely simultaneously tracked and mastered to a three-head cassette deck.
051893
This is a related piece from a similar time, again off my 'ambient shit' cassette - who needs vox, eh?
070293
Somewhere in the mythology this became the "Ricky Ricardo Drum Piece" as for some deranged reason I could see Desi Arnaz whaling away on his conga up on stage waiting for the moment to yell "Babalooah!". I think this piece was specially created for an ambient demo tape ('Ambient Shit', the tape the last few pieces are from) and may have been the inspiration for the tape itself. I gave a copy to someone who was doing an electronic music show on the radio and heard later that some of the tape was actually aired. Since it is all Midi this was most likely simultaneously tracked and mastered to a three-head cassette deck.
051893
This is a related piece from a similar time, again off my 'ambient shit' cassette - who needs vox, eh?
070293
23 September 2008
StringBass
Another two takes of a piece off that poorly-labeled worktape. The bass is this wonderful string bass sound from my Ensoniq Mirage that I'd been fooling with for a while. The guitar lick was originally SS's but we'd been working together for several years at this point so I'm not sure if it was 100% his or a joint-inspiration. Anyway, my apologies if he's recorded & copyrighted it elsewhere but I'm certain any version he did is different from these.
This sounds sloppy as both takes were live w/no sequencing whatsoever, both takes a bit different as well. Note that only take 3 has a break. No click track, either, as my studio at the time did not have the capability to do a click that wouldn't also appear on tape. We did this in 'free time', something I'll say more about when I get to the "S'not Tuna" tape, but for now let it suffice that I have a very strong sense for the rhythm of a piece of music and do not need a drummer to play in time. Most likely recorded fall of 1992.
StringBass T3
StringBass T4
This sounds sloppy as both takes were live w/no sequencing whatsoever, both takes a bit different as well. Note that only take 3 has a break. No click track, either, as my studio at the time did not have the capability to do a click that wouldn't also appear on tape. We did this in 'free time', something I'll say more about when I get to the "S'not Tuna" tape, but for now let it suffice that I have a very strong sense for the rhythm of a piece of music and do not need a drummer to play in time. Most likely recorded fall of 1992.
StringBass T3
StringBass T4
DumDumDum-96KB
Now kids, let this serve as a lesson to you-the only version I've found of this nifty piece is off an old worktape labeled "Dum Dum Dum Deh Dum De Dum Dum Dum". Yeah, no kidding. Please label your stuff and if possible, please document it at the time, too, you might want to know this crap 16 years later, ok? Especially if your SMPTE sync gets hosed making your master tapes unusable...
Bass is Ensoniq Mirage, much Poly-800 & Casio sounds as well, all sequenced. Sounds like the Alesis D4 drumbox as well. SS is playing his heart out on the guitar w/his Digitech rack effect. The 'vocals' are me reading something, most likely H.P. Lovecraft. This was likely recorded summer of 1992, probably direct to 2-track casette.
DumDumDum-96KB
Bass is Ensoniq Mirage, much Poly-800 & Casio sounds as well, all sequenced. Sounds like the Alesis D4 drumbox as well. SS is playing his heart out on the guitar w/his Digitech rack effect. The 'vocals' are me reading something, most likely H.P. Lovecraft. This was likely recorded summer of 1992, probably direct to 2-track casette.
DumDumDum-96KB
22 September 2008
mystery 100991
Don't remember the details of this one, either, except that I liked it a lot. (probably 1991/2) While I respect the blues, I do not think this white anglo can play them correctly so I defer to the masters. That said, this one is intense. I definitely remember recording a version of this w/a keyboard lead, will post that one here if & when I find it.
Update - 27 Oct 2008. Found the original composition date at least....
mystery
Update - 27 Oct 2008. Found the original composition date at least....
mystery
042892
Hi, welcome to yet another experiment, it's also known as "Lament for America" and was recorded in the spring of 1992. Most of the details are again lost to the mists of time except I think the initial keys were my Poly 800 and I know that part & the bass part were MIDI, the other parts were live at some time. Yes, my vox were supposed to be submerged in the background. And this is only an excerpt, the only other version I've found is instrumental and about 5 minutes longer. Aren't echo vox fx wonderful?
04289 - Lament For America
04289 - Lament For America
16 September 2008
040293-96KB
Another strange one. I'm afraid the exact details behind this are lost to the mists of time or some other such nonsense. The primary noise was created by playing a synth into one of the stranger patches on a Lexicon LXP-5. The finger snaps were from a drum machine through echo. Judging from the date I'd guess this was another late-night exploration... I have posted this as a 96KBS file to save space on the server but if someone wants the 128KBS version (or for that matter, the *.wav file), just ask.
This piece is one of my very few that actually got some airplay albeit in modified form. It was the 'entry noise' at the '98 Haunted Trails spookhouse at the Wild Basin.
040293-96KB
This piece is one of my very few that actually got some airplay albeit in modified form. It was the 'entry noise' at the '98 Haunted Trails spookhouse at the Wild Basin.
040293-96KB
021896
Maybe this could be called "Interstellar Lament" as it's practically a dirge. It's also unique in that most of the parts were tracked live, the only sequenced part I hear is the wheezy accordion sound at the beginning. That's me playing synth bass and the wordless vocals, POV playing keyboard drums and him on, believe it or not, an acoustic guitar w/a pickup! If my memory serves me right, this started w/bass & drum parts against the sequence, then my vocals and finally him on guitar. The date on this one is the day it was recorded.
If the song itself wasn't enough of a downer, it was probably also the last time we worked together as I was getting very tired of the 'bedroom rock' and wanted to 'see the world' whereas he did not. Ah, well...
021896
If the song itself wasn't enough of a downer, it was probably also the last time we worked together as I was getting very tired of the 'bedroom rock' and wanted to 'see the world' whereas he did not. Ah, well...
021896
121095-The Noise Version
Something with its original dated title! The date is the day I started working on the midi parts, the actual recording was probably late December or early January. That's me on bass, probably the S.D. Curlee->Big Muff->Alamo tube amp. Drums are sequenced and the noise parts are probably from a Sequential Pro-One through some rack fx.
121095-The Noise Version
121095-The Noise Version
08 September 2008
KOOP Party Theme (Excerpt)
A million years ago or in 1993/1994 (?) I was an integral member of the engineering collective that put KOOP radio on the air. Not only did Bob, myself & others in the collective build their first studio, their original mixing desk (from KMFA) first came to life on my workbench at my house. No, I had nothing to do with them getting their FCC license, that was solely due to Jim Ellinger's hard work, all I did was help them get on the air. But like all 'pioneers', all of us who founded KOOP radio were kicked out in a coup from the 'leftier than thou' cadre - once they had secured the efforts of our money & hard work they decided they had no room there or use for straight white males at their 'community radio station'. Last thing I heard, Mr. Ellinger is still banned from appearing on their premises although after his ten-year fight to secure the original license, while he was perfectly within his rights to have kept the license in his name, he graciously put the license in the name of the KOOP board of directors which proceeded by means of rigged elections to shut the original people out. F*ck 'em, my last involvement with 'em was in '97 or thereabouts and I haven't listened to 'em in over a decade.
Anyway, this piece dates back to a fund-raising party thrown by the engineering collective which quite possibly was the very first fund-raiser for KOOP thrown by KOOP at the KOOP studio. Through 400' of single-pair shield wire that night I sent a sub-mix of our audio directly to the control room and out on the air. I was demoing a Sequential Circuits Six-Track keyboard at the time which I brought with me and composed this piece on the keyboard's internal sequencer as the party was beginning to start, December 16, 1995. The next morning I recorded it to 2-track cassette. The original is over 16 minutes so I excerpted it but as it's an ambient piece there's not much in the way of changes in the missing 12+ minutes. The music did what it was supposed to, it helped a small group exhausted by setting up 400 lbs of PA gear chill out & catch a breath while soundchecking the PA and greeting the early arrivals. It was the only ambient music of the night.
KOOP Party Theme(Excerpt)
Anyway, this piece dates back to a fund-raising party thrown by the engineering collective which quite possibly was the very first fund-raiser for KOOP thrown by KOOP at the KOOP studio. Through 400' of single-pair shield wire that night I sent a sub-mix of our audio directly to the control room and out on the air. I was demoing a Sequential Circuits Six-Track keyboard at the time which I brought with me and composed this piece on the keyboard's internal sequencer as the party was beginning to start, December 16, 1995. The next morning I recorded it to 2-track cassette. The original is over 16 minutes so I excerpted it but as it's an ambient piece there's not much in the way of changes in the missing 12+ minutes. The music did what it was supposed to, it helped a small group exhausted by setting up 400 lbs of PA gear chill out & catch a breath while soundchecking the PA and greeting the early arrivals. It was the only ambient music of the night.
KOOP Party Theme(Excerpt)
05 September 2008
Takings-The POV Version
I've worked with a number of musicians over the decades, unfortunately I've lost contact with them all. Not knowing their current states of existence, I am choosing to err on the side of their anonymity as somehow these days some might be doing, say, xtian 'music' and would so be possibly hurt by their earlier contributions being posted here. Since by far the people I've worked with I bear no animosity towards, I'll do the best to keep their privacy WRT their work with me. That said, it seems a good thing to differentiate them from others. The other keyboard player I'm working with on this cut we'll refer to as POV. He did the lead parts on this. POV! Send me a comment if you should ever find this website, I'd like to work w/you once more...
This is one of the few songs I've written that had a name as opposed to a date or numeric title. It was inspired by some ugly legislation WRT to property owner's rights under the 5th amendment to the Bill Of Rights which I'm not opposed to in principle but am opposed to in effect as the legislation's only purpose was to to benefit a few already wealthy landowners and keep the state from doing things that needed to be done. I wrote the midi tracks in 1990 or thereabouts and the composition does owe a debt to RevCo. This recording is most likely from 1994 or 1995.
The other keyboard player I refer to as POV was the person that gave me the tracks that became AIRCH. He is playing the lead. The vocals were samples of my voice I put into the Mirage. The strange voice track in the intro & outtro the piece are real tape loops played on a Wollensak open reel recorder sitting upside down w/ the tape hanging towards the floor. Not sure of the piece I was reading but most likely it came from H.P. Lovecraft's "Charles Dexter Ward" novella. This was most likely tracked & mastered directly to my Sony TC-KE500S 3-head cassette deck.
Takings-The POV Version
This is one of the few songs I've written that had a name as opposed to a date or numeric title. It was inspired by some ugly legislation WRT to property owner's rights under the 5th amendment to the Bill Of Rights which I'm not opposed to in principle but am opposed to in effect as the legislation's only purpose was to to benefit a few already wealthy landowners and keep the state from doing things that needed to be done. I wrote the midi tracks in 1990 or thereabouts and the composition does owe a debt to RevCo. This recording is most likely from 1994 or 1995.
The other keyboard player I refer to as POV was the person that gave me the tracks that became AIRCH. He is playing the lead. The vocals were samples of my voice I put into the Mirage. The strange voice track in the intro & outtro the piece are real tape loops played on a Wollensak open reel recorder sitting upside down w/ the tape hanging towards the floor. Not sure of the piece I was reading but most likely it came from H.P. Lovecraft's "Charles Dexter Ward" novella. This was most likely tracked & mastered directly to my Sony TC-KE500S 3-head cassette deck.
Takings-The POV Version
03 September 2008
91st-The Dennis Version
If you've ever worked with musicians, you know that talent doesn't always cohabit with nice or even decent. Such is the case here. The guy was a real jerk but damn, he could play guitar. And here's proof. But I won't work with him ever again...
This song started life as 91st meaning that its composition dates to 1990 or thereabouts. Late one night in Fall 1995 (?) I dug it out and he added guitar, lyrics & vocals. There's a load of production tricks in here including actual backwards echo created by threading the master tape backwards and adding echo to the vocal tracks then rethreading the tape the right way & continue to track and sweeten. The vox 'yelps' at the beginning are from my Mirage sampler. It was tracked on the 8-track and mixed/mastered to the cassette deck.
Please excuse the delay, life intruded for a couple of weeks. Regular posting shall resume shortly.
91st-The Dennis Version
22/09 Bonus! I found a version of this I did w/a previous guitar player whose initials are SS. This probably dates from from late 1992, the analog noises were overdubs & $$ to donuts, these came off the the ol' four track... Unfortunately it's only an excerpt, but sometimes you have to settle for what you can get, eh?
91st The SS Version
This song started life as 91st meaning that its composition dates to 1990 or thereabouts. Late one night in Fall 1995 (?) I dug it out and he added guitar, lyrics & vocals. There's a load of production tricks in here including actual backwards echo created by threading the master tape backwards and adding echo to the vocal tracks then rethreading the tape the right way & continue to track and sweeten. The vox 'yelps' at the beginning are from my Mirage sampler. It was tracked on the 8-track and mixed/mastered to the cassette deck.
Please excuse the delay, life intruded for a couple of weeks. Regular posting shall resume shortly.
91st-The Dennis Version
22/09 Bonus! I found a version of this I did w/a previous guitar player whose initials are SS. This probably dates from from late 1992, the analog noises were overdubs & $$ to donuts, these came off the the ol' four track... Unfortunately it's only an excerpt, but sometimes you have to settle for what you can get, eh?
91st The SS Version
12 August 2008
Ken & Me
Another failed experiment. Met this guy, Ken, through one of my "experimental musician seeks experimental situation" ads. Of course he was a wildly-talented performer-musician w/ extensive large-market experience but at the time he was looking for a live-sequencing situation. Of course as he found his musicians they were all uniformly hostile to anything that smelt of sequencing and ultimately, to even severe (albeit controlled) fx in some of the vocals (let alone click tracks) leaving me after six months of rehearsals hauling around one hundred lbs of gear in order to 'play the triangle' at a few opportune moments. So I quit. And his was my last band.
Early on however, I wrote this sequence in my Nord micromodular and let Ken suggest the chord changes within. I guess he liked them as this was a spontaneous jam against them. It was never intended for release and his words seem to be a precursor to some of his (presumably copyrighted) songs but again, I know he never released anything like this. The digital tracks are dated 1/2004 but I have no idea if this was analog or digitally mastered originally.
Ken & Me
Early on however, I wrote this sequence in my Nord micromodular and let Ken suggest the chord changes within. I guess he liked them as this was a spontaneous jam against them. It was never intended for release and his words seem to be a precursor to some of his (presumably copyrighted) songs but again, I know he never released anything like this. The digital tracks are dated 1/2004 but I have no idea if this was analog or digitally mastered originally.
Ken & Me
06 August 2008
Smell Of Incense
This song (and only this one) breaks my rule of this site having only my original songs - this is my one & only cover so no download link and on request I will remove the streaming link as well. But I really like my version of it and wish to share.
Bob Markley & Ron Morgan have the writing credit. The song was first recorded by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band on their Vol. 2 record available here. The version I first heard (1968) was by Southwest F.O.B., a regional band popular in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. Their album is available here. If you want the song please buy one or both of the albums as the versions are quite different. My version is based on Southwest F.O.B.'s arrangement but an interesting fact is this - at the time I was arranging this (1989?) I had a low-grade cassette of West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Vol. 2 but hadn't heard the Southwest F.O.B. version in decades. (Both albums were out of print for a very long time)
All the parts except for vocals are MIDI. The drum part took quite a bit of effort. Instead of a loud guitar in the break I used a massive bank of Casio CZ-10xx voices in multi-timberal mode. The effect on the vocals is tape echo courtesy of the Mk III echoplex. In case you're interested, the bathroom of my previous house served as the vocal booth & as I was both vocalist & engineer it took numerous takes to get what we have here. Not the best vocal, mind you, but ultimately good enough. This was of course tracked & mastered on the old 4-track. Enjoy.
Bob Markley & Ron Morgan have the writing credit. The song was first recorded by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band on their Vol. 2 record available here. The version I first heard (1968) was by Southwest F.O.B., a regional band popular in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. Their album is available here. If you want the song please buy one or both of the albums as the versions are quite different. My version is based on Southwest F.O.B.'s arrangement but an interesting fact is this - at the time I was arranging this (1989?) I had a low-grade cassette of West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Vol. 2 but hadn't heard the Southwest F.O.B. version in decades. (Both albums were out of print for a very long time)
All the parts except for vocals are MIDI. The drum part took quite a bit of effort. Instead of a loud guitar in the break I used a massive bank of Casio CZ-10xx voices in multi-timberal mode. The effect on the vocals is tape echo courtesy of the Mk III echoplex. In case you're interested, the bathroom of my previous house served as the vocal booth & as I was both vocalist & engineer it took numerous takes to get what we have here. Not the best vocal, mind you, but ultimately good enough. This was of course tracked & mastered on the old 4-track. Enjoy.
Another Damned Indie Cassette
I am finding all kinds of 'treasures' here. After bailing on the planned single of "The S&L Song" b/w "How Stupid Are we?" (see earlier posts below) sometime later in the early 1990s I had the idea to self-produce a cassette entitled Another Damned Indie Cassette. On it was "The S&L Song", the song I'll post next, these three pieces and a ridiculously indulgent & today un-listenable 15 minute long piece of crap that was to constitute the entire B-side. Fear not, that bit of tripe will not be posted here. (Are you sensing some kind of trend going on? Damn those B-sides...)
Unfortunately precise details of these three are sketchy (and pardon the stupid names, they were originally numbered pieces). Worse, until I find the original masters, not only is the audio quality a bit off as these are from the original Another Damned Indie Cassette master, I'm not even sure of the dates I wrote & recorded them. As a final insult, "Field Of Swoops" cuts off early so I had to fade out the digital recording. As I find the original masters (if they still exist) I'll post improved versions of these.
"Field Of Swoops" is the oldest song here. I can tell by the drum sounds, that's the TR-707 w/the flam technique. It probably dates from 1989 or thereabouts. The others sound like 1990 or 1991 but "Break Song" has that 'sound real but keep it a little impossible' style of composition so it may be a little bit more recent. As these are all 100% MIDI, they were most likely mastered directly to 2-track cassette but I also might have used the old 4-track instead.
Break Song.
Field Of Swoops
Ponderous March
Unfortunately precise details of these three are sketchy (and pardon the stupid names, they were originally numbered pieces). Worse, until I find the original masters, not only is the audio quality a bit off as these are from the original Another Damned Indie Cassette master, I'm not even sure of the dates I wrote & recorded them. As a final insult, "Field Of Swoops" cuts off early so I had to fade out the digital recording. As I find the original masters (if they still exist) I'll post improved versions of these.
"Field Of Swoops" is the oldest song here. I can tell by the drum sounds, that's the TR-707 w/the flam technique. It probably dates from 1989 or thereabouts. The others sound like 1990 or 1991 but "Break Song" has that 'sound real but keep it a little impossible' style of composition so it may be a little bit more recent. As these are all 100% MIDI, they were most likely mastered directly to 2-track cassette but I also might have used the old 4-track instead.
Break Song.
Field Of Swoops
Ponderous March
05 August 2008
AIRCH
Okay, I will not claim this song is one of my originals, but the reason I'm posting it is my additions & re-arrangement totally changed the nature of this piece. Originally this came to me as a MIDI track from a guy I was collaborating with sometime around 1995. For some reason although I found the track cryptic I wrote some fierce bass & drum tracks that mutated his "Air Of China" into a totally different piece of work known by him, me, and now the rest of the world as "AIRCH". 38 seconds of intense bliss. My intent behind the bass & drum tracks was to write parts that sounded like they could be played by actual instruments yet were just a little bit 'impossible' to be real. I wrote a number of tracks in that manner at the time, hope to find & post 'em.
So far I have only managed to find the master of the 'slow version' but that came later, the 'fast version' was the original. So I faked it (for now) with editing software hence the artifacts.
AIRCH Fast Version
Here's the master of the 'slow version' dated sometime after after 01/22/96. Kinda has its own groove, eh?
AIRCH Slow Version
So far I have only managed to find the master of the 'slow version' but that came later, the 'fast version' was the original. So I faked it (for now) with editing software hence the artifacts.
AIRCH Fast Version
Here's the master of the 'slow version' dated sometime after after 01/22/96. Kinda has its own groove, eh?
AIRCH Slow Version
03 August 2008
8 Measley Bars
This is the most recent piece I've posted. It was written & recorded Fall 2005 for a music sampler I assembled for some old friends. The recording was direct to digital 2 track and all the sounds are of course MIDI-controlled.
The actual 8 Measley Bars themselves are the bass and drums with a cascading keyboard sound that occurs in bar 7 or 8 and the bars were then looped. All the other keys were played "live" against the looping 8. The modulations in the bass part were written into the bass patch itself.
8 Measley Bars
The actual 8 Measley Bars themselves are the bass and drums with a cascading keyboard sound that occurs in bar 7 or 8 and the bars were then looped. All the other keys were played "live" against the looping 8. The modulations in the bass part were written into the bass patch itself.
8 Measley Bars
01 August 2008
The Fragment
This piece has been something a 'holy grail' in my catalog. What you hear is the last half of a composition by me & the guitar player I was working with at the time. He wrote the first half but that bit of the bit never worked all that well IMHO. This is my part of the piece and it's all about this odd bass riff I came up with some time previously. The recording was just a 'punch & crunch' on the old four track and when it was over he & I stared at each other in slack-jawed amazement: "Did we really just play that and we really got it on tape as well?". Try as I have over the decades I've never been able to do anything better with that little riff and just about everyone else I've played it for is totally clueless as to how to accompany it. While it can be counted in 4-4 it's really a free-time kind of thing and doesn't lend itself at all well to a drum part. Maybe hand percussion. Hmmm, someday. That's of course me on the old 4-string, probably through the Alamo I frequently used at the time. The guitarist is using a Digitech rack effect. The master is from sometime in 1990, I think, probably fall or winter.
The Fragment
The Fragment
How Stupid Are We?
This song is another one of those failed experiments and was intended as the b-side of "The S&L Song" posted previously. The sad fact of the matter is that I really like the music for this song especially when the synth comes in on the break/turnaround. I also thought the drums were quite nice, considering that's a TR-707 with a special flam technique I created in order to fatten the sounds. Problem was, the idiot lyricist had a misguided idea to write an angry political song with far too many words and no attention whatsoever to the singer's need to breathe occasionally. Furthermore the singer did a lousy job, couldn't articulate the torrent of words he was spewing or at times, even stay with the rhythm. Of course the 'two individuals' being blamed were of course moi. The master is dated 9/90.
The topic of the first verse is roadside litter, the second verse was about all the crooks looting the country in the S&L scandals while getting away scott-free and the last verse was about the ugly stuff we were preparing to do to the people of Iraq the first time, Bush Sr.'s war. Should anyone request, I most likely still have the lyrics in an old notebook and will post them. Jello Biafra I ain't.
How Stupid Are We?
The topic of the first verse is roadside litter, the second verse was about all the crooks looting the country in the S&L scandals while getting away scott-free and the last verse was about the ugly stuff we were preparing to do to the people of Iraq the first time, Bush Sr.'s war. Should anyone request, I most likely still have the lyrics in an old notebook and will post them. Jello Biafra I ain't.
How Stupid Are We?
The S&L Song
I wrote & recorded this to self-release as a single! For various reasons that did not happen (see next song) but I've always liked it, a rather strange cross between the Bobby Fuller 4 & Devo. For those of you much, much younger than dirt, an "S&L" was a Savings & Loan Association, similar to a bank that primarily loaned their money for real estate purchases. But back in the 1980's due to some misguided deregulation & lax supervision, these S&Ls as an industry made a number of stupid and downright fraudulent transactions leading to a wholesale collapse and ultimately a Federal bailout (read taxpayers) of the various institutions. Oh, a few fat cats saw the inside of a cell, a few lost a lot of their money, but for the most part, the wealthiest people in this country walked away with anywhere from $100 to $500 billion dollars of taxpayer money. And by coincidence, 'twas a Bush in the oval office while it happened. Hmm, fancy that? Surprised to find today there is a major crisis brewing once again in the finance & real estate industries, only this time threatening to take out the entire financial sector? Bush Jr. is obviously determined to repeat every one of Bush Sr.'s mistakes in office but Junior's gonna show us how he can really truly screw things up.
The song is all MIDI, it was tracked & mastered on the old four track, the master is dated 9/90 but I know I was working on it in 1989. Personally I prefer Take 2, it's longer and has an extra verse or two but unfortunately it shows what happens when one double-tracks unison vocals but changes the words a little each time - OOPS. Take 1 is shorter & more direct, it was going to be the released version.
The S&L Song Take1
The S&L Song Take2
The song is all MIDI, it was tracked & mastered on the old four track, the master is dated 9/90 but I know I was working on it in 1989. Personally I prefer Take 2, it's longer and has an extra verse or two but unfortunately it shows what happens when one double-tracks unison vocals but changes the words a little each time - OOPS. Take 1 is shorter & more direct, it was going to be the released version.
The S&L Song Take1
The S&L Song Take2
29 July 2008
Something Industrial
The master for this is dated 3/91 but I do not remember the details of the piece. There is obviously at least one tape loop going, probably several and at around 2:40 it sounds like a chicken gets quickly sucked in so that's certainly the Mirage which was probably also doing the shadowy effects you faintly hear in the background.
Something Industrial
Something Industrial
27 July 2008
43rd
Now this one, the third & final from the compilation, is downright strange. It was specifically written for that compilation and the broken glass sample I created no earlier than 1989. That sample itself has a very interesting history. I was working for a company that had a large engineering lab and on a Sunday afternoon when the place was closed, I showed up with a Beyer dynamic mic, a DBX-equipped cassette recorder, a ball-peen hammer & a 1'x2' pane of glass. The breaking sounds you hear are of that pane of glass hanging from the ceiling being struck by me with that hammer. There was some interesting room ambiance in the recording plus my first couple of whacks didn't break the glass but instead produced a most unusual percussion sample which may appear later on. I cannot explain the voice samples except to say I was watching (too) many Warner cartoons from the 1930s & 1940s at the time. The sampler was an Ensoniq Mirage.
I couldn't find the actual master so this one and the previous one are from the compilation cassette itself hence the drop in audio quality.
43rd
I couldn't find the actual master so this one and the previous one are from the compilation cassette itself hence the drop in audio quality.
43rd
17th
This and the following two pieces have an interesting history. They were submitted and accepted for a compilation tape produced by the Poly-800 Users Group and found their way to many points around the globe including communist East Germany. I seriously doubt they had the slightest effect on the Berlin Wall but then again, one never knows, eh? ;-)
The master is dated 12/89 but from its title it was from early in my numbered sequence of release candidates of which there were eventually over 100 before I changed my naming system. It is obviously from my old C64-driven system and was mastered on the old four-track. The swirly lead voice is the Poly-800 and be assured, tape delays abound within.
17th
The master is dated 12/89 but from its title it was from early in my numbered sequence of release candidates of which there were eventually over 100 before I changed my naming system. It is obviously from my old C64-driven system and was mastered on the old four-track. The swirly lead voice is the Poly-800 and be assured, tape delays abound within.
17th
23 July 2008
Tree
This song happened at a rough spot in my life, probably sometime in the fall of 1986. I had somehow survived a really traumatic breakup, been kicked out of a previous roommate situation as the other guy couldn't abide that I left the front door unlocked twice (garage apartment, nothing to steal, two guys, one seriously armed (him)). Anyway, I'm living with the sorriest roommates I ever had, two schmucks named Robert & Murray. It was a neat house but the railroad tracks were way too close so one had to take 'train breaks' when recording and those losers would have the teevee blasting when anything in a football uniform came on screen. Told 'em I was a smoker when they took me in but then discovered they were as anti-tobacco as they come.
So anyway, I'm in hell, and on some Saturday I go on a lousy date. She's too young (26) and kind of odd but at one point we talked about her tree house experiences when she was a kid and she tells me how her mother brought her lunch.
Next morning I wake up with this song in my head. First I write down the lyrics then w/a click on the old four track I cut the bass part then two tracks of vocals (w/some Mk III echoplex) & presto, we're done. Years later I laid down a keyboard part then a decade later I did a MIDI version then another decade later I discovered that this version, the original, is the right one and so now, here it is. The gap at the end of "there is no death" is due to physical damage on the master tape.
"Do we have to come down" - no, this song is about being in a tree, right? It has nothing to do with getting high, right? "But the might & strength of youth will keep us safe forever", can't you taste the irony in spades? Decades later I'm still surprised by the "yes, forever" outro, it's by far the most positive thing I have (or will) ever commit to tape. Enjoy...
Tree
So anyway, I'm in hell, and on some Saturday I go on a lousy date. She's too young (26) and kind of odd but at one point we talked about her tree house experiences when she was a kid and she tells me how her mother brought her lunch.
Next morning I wake up with this song in my head. First I write down the lyrics then w/a click on the old four track I cut the bass part then two tracks of vocals (w/some Mk III echoplex) & presto, we're done. Years later I laid down a keyboard part then a decade later I did a MIDI version then another decade later I discovered that this version, the original, is the right one and so now, here it is. The gap at the end of "there is no death" is due to physical damage on the master tape.
"Do we have to come down" - no, this song is about being in a tree, right? It has nothing to do with getting high, right? "But the might & strength of youth will keep us safe forever", can't you taste the irony in spades? Decades later I'm still surprised by the "yes, forever" outro, it's by far the most positive thing I have (or will) ever commit to tape. Enjoy...
Tree
22 July 2008
The Truth Is
This is probably the most produced piece in my back catalog and it has an interesting history. Originally I wrote the bass & drums and made a stab at some lyrics, probably 1987 or thereabouts. And there it languished.
I was in Austin, TX at the time and at the Zilker Park Xmas tree every 8th of December there was a "John Lennon Memorial Sing-Along" which lasted into the wee hours. One year an absolutely amazing musician showed up and I say that person was amazing as he knew and could play every single Beatles song and I do mean every single one. He needed a ride home that night, I offered, and that's how I came to meet Roland St Germain. Later among other accomplishments he became the core of the "new music" version of the Grandmothers but back then that was well in the future. (& now it's 'years ago' ...)
Anyway, sometime later he was over and I played this for him and he took a copy and overdubbed all the additional material you here then brought me the results - I was (and still am) astonished. He used an analog four-track, a Fender Strat & a Casio CZ-101, nothing more. Except, of course, his amazing talents for arranging & production. Thanks again, sir, I will be forever grateful.
Lyric snippets -
"I don't need your religion
To tell me where I'll go when I die.
You've told me lots of things before, too
And all of them were lies."
[chorus]
"You know that most of of the wars in this world
Were started by religion.
How can we depend on you now
To tell us what the truth is (or should be)..."
The Truth Is
I was in Austin, TX at the time and at the Zilker Park Xmas tree every 8th of December there was a "John Lennon Memorial Sing-Along" which lasted into the wee hours. One year an absolutely amazing musician showed up and I say that person was amazing as he knew and could play every single Beatles song and I do mean every single one. He needed a ride home that night, I offered, and that's how I came to meet Roland St Germain. Later among other accomplishments he became the core of the "new music" version of the Grandmothers but back then that was well in the future. (& now it's 'years ago' ...)
Anyway, sometime later he was over and I played this for him and he took a copy and overdubbed all the additional material you here then brought me the results - I was (and still am) astonished. He used an analog four-track, a Fender Strat & a Casio CZ-101, nothing more. Except, of course, his amazing talents for arranging & production. Thanks again, sir, I will be forever grateful.
Lyric snippets -
"I don't need your religion
To tell me where I'll go when I die.
You've told me lots of things before, too
And all of them were lies."
[chorus]
"You know that most of of the wars in this world
Were started by religion.
How can we depend on you now
To tell us what the truth is (or should be)..."
The Truth Is
Empty Mind
From September of 1988 comes an abject lesson in the danger of giving one of those 'toy' sampling keyboards to a bored person. What I find interesting and why I posted this is the background drone, something I believe was written well before I got the sampler. Didn't do much else with the sampler, no MIDI or anything, but it was fun for a few months.
The predominant voice in the background is a sorely-missed Korg Poly-800. While quite limited by today's standards, there were characteristics in its timbre I have not heard since, analog or digital. Likewise the sequence software I was using was Dr. T's KCS on a Commodore SX-64 computer. In less than 30K of memory w/a total of 2300 events or thereabouts, that software would do things that no other package I've used since could! The secret was that any loop could link to any other at any time. I won't be posting it as it's way too long but a piece from that era was over an hour long. Can't do that today with the linear recording format that so predominates the world of MIDI software... The intro sound is the notorious ARP Odyssey/analog delay with this marvelous recursive patch that seems to constantly change itself. I have over the decades applied this patch to other synths mostly analog - the only requirement is that the synth needs to have a voltage-controllable LFO available as a modulation source.
Empty Mind
The predominant voice in the background is a sorely-missed Korg Poly-800. While quite limited by today's standards, there were characteristics in its timbre I have not heard since, analog or digital. Likewise the sequence software I was using was Dr. T's KCS on a Commodore SX-64 computer. In less than 30K of memory w/a total of 2300 events or thereabouts, that software would do things that no other package I've used since could! The secret was that any loop could link to any other at any time. I won't be posting it as it's way too long but a piece from that era was over an hour long. Can't do that today with the linear recording format that so predominates the world of MIDI software... The intro sound is the notorious ARP Odyssey/analog delay with this marvelous recursive patch that seems to constantly change itself. I have over the decades applied this patch to other synths mostly analog - the only requirement is that the synth needs to have a voltage-controllable LFO available as a modulation source.
Empty Mind
20 July 2008
Surf Music From Hell
Another from the late 80's/early 90's. The guitar is live, played by the guy I was working with at the time. He hated this as he had to hold the same chord for quite a few bars while the bass comped against his chord but so what - isn't it a composer's duty in part to torture his musicians? ;-) All the other sounds are of course MIDI and this was recorded on the old four-track using SMPTE to sync the sequence w/the tape. The 'squiggle' noises are from a Casio CZ-1000 or a CZ-101. I still have a CZ-1 BTW...
Surf Music From Hell
Surf Music From Hell
Deconstruction Parts 1 & 2
By definition, when one is an experimental musician sometimes the experiments fail. This is one of those but as it was also a glorious failure I had to share it. This was most likely recorded January 16, 1999, edited & mastered January 23, 1999. The composed portion of this was, like The Black Page, written originally as a drum solo. But I am no Terry Bozzio, instead the drum solo was composed on a Roland TR-707. More on this later.
The 'band' on this was me - keys & drums, a woman I found in the musician's classified - vox & her boy toy - bass. While she had a nice voice & good breath control, she was also a nut. For starters, she claimed to be highly allergic to cats so in order to rehearse I had to cart 300 lbs of gear across town & up two flights of stairs then I & her b/f would proceed to wipe every surface w/cleaner & towels before she'd allow the stuff inside. Obviously we didn't play together very long. Worse, she had no concept of copyright WRT to lyrics, for her they were merely words to be used freely. OOPS. There are lyrics from some show tune(s) in the first, I think and the in the second she is singing Riders On The Storm so that one is stream-only. However, I don't think any fan of the Doors could possibly confuse this w/the original - while the b/f is fooling w/the Riders riff, he couldn't get the notes right. That's how, for example, My Little Red Book became Interstellar Overdrive...
The drum pattern is a fast 6/8. The "waterfall" noise parts are from a Roland JX8P controlled by an Oberheim Cyclone arpeggiator synced to the drum machine. The whole thing was live to two-track in her apartment that day. Enjoy!
Deconstruction 1
The 'band' on this was me - keys & drums, a woman I found in the musician's classified - vox & her boy toy - bass. While she had a nice voice & good breath control, she was also a nut. For starters, she claimed to be highly allergic to cats so in order to rehearse I had to cart 300 lbs of gear across town & up two flights of stairs then I & her b/f would proceed to wipe every surface w/cleaner & towels before she'd allow the stuff inside. Obviously we didn't play together very long. Worse, she had no concept of copyright WRT to lyrics, for her they were merely words to be used freely. OOPS. There are lyrics from some show tune(s) in the first, I think and the in the second she is singing Riders On The Storm so that one is stream-only. However, I don't think any fan of the Doors could possibly confuse this w/the original - while the b/f is fooling w/the Riders riff, he couldn't get the notes right. That's how, for example, My Little Red Book became Interstellar Overdrive...
The drum pattern is a fast 6/8. The "waterfall" noise parts are from a Roland JX8P controlled by an Oberheim Cyclone arpeggiator synced to the drum machine. The whole thing was live to two-track in her apartment that day. Enjoy!
Deconstruction 1
18 July 2008
Sock Monkey Lookin' Fer Luv
This bit of strangeness is from early February, 2003. It is the soundtrack to an 8mm film of the same name I did for a tiny festival (and I'll post the film if I can ever get it transferred...). The film was every bit as silly as the name implies.
That's me on the four-string fretless, midi drums and those 'marvelous vocals' with the son of a short-time girlfriend playing three tracks of lead & rhythm guitar. Getting the right fx on the vox was a real bear, took longer then everything else to record and unlike most of the vocals I record, these were recorded "wet". You might note the octave shift that makes the vocals so sly, it's especially apparent at the fade. Likewise there's a delay at the intro, that was to accommodate the credits.
SockMonkey1.mp3
Found an second version. It's a bit more raw w/a noise synth part that I deleted from the master.
SockMonkey2.mp3
That's me on the four-string fretless, midi drums and those 'marvelous vocals' with the son of a short-time girlfriend playing three tracks of lead & rhythm guitar. Getting the right fx on the vox was a real bear, took longer then everything else to record and unlike most of the vocals I record, these were recorded "wet". You might note the octave shift that makes the vocals so sly, it's especially apparent at the fade. Likewise there's a delay at the intro, that was to accommodate the credits.
SockMonkey1.mp3
Found an second version. It's a bit more raw w/a noise synth part that I deleted from the master.
SockMonkey2.mp3
Symmetrical Dance
This is a very old song from my back catalog. The vision that inspired it was early in 1973, but the music was composed & recorded in the late 1980's/early 1990's. I really don't remember when I cut the master but as it was done to cassette I guess that dates it there. I always heard this as a very visual song and the images I have are of the sort of video that is half live/half in a mirror, kind of a split screen sort of thing where the motions in each half of the screen are precisely symmetrical. Very good on headphones if you're listening or soft & in the background if you're not.
All instruments are electronic and yes, that's a Mark III echoplex in there as well. The burbling sound in the intro & outro are an old Arp Odessey through an analog delay box, a common feature to my recordings of that era.
Symmetrical Dance
All instruments are electronic and yes, that's a Mark III echoplex in there as well. The burbling sound in the intro & outro are an old Arp Odessey through an analog delay box, a common feature to my recordings of that era.
Symmetrical Dance
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