I’d avoid it’s gaze if I had any idea where it was looking.

more at flickr

Bow-woah-woah

more at flickr

8/26/17

New Pile Track! Current working title is ‘Mention It To Me’.

This started life as a guitar & voice improvisation, but it’s drifted around in my head for years and lives in the category of “if you finish nothing else in this life, finish THIS.” And no time like the present.

It took me a while to find the original recording. All I knew is it was a date-coded title (like most of my improvs are) and it was marked with 5 stars in iTunes. There’s about 1,500 tracks in iTunes that have date-coded titles, and nearly 600 of them are marked with 5 stars. Whee! Finally found it last night: 022510.

I had a solid idea of how it starts and how it’s supposed to end, with a sort-of fuzzy notion of what I wanted to happen in between. As of this morning, I have solidified that fuzzy notion; it still needs some editing, but the material is there. I think this one’s going to go pretty fast.

Hope I didn’t just jinx myself there.

8/27/17

Editing the whole thing together into a mock-up.

Decided it needed a B section and some melodic variations. Did a little of each, still have some more to work through.

Currently it’s organ and strings. But every time I deal with strings I jump down an orchestration rathole, and this time is no different. Now that I’ve started to rethink the melody, my brain is orchestrating more: HEY! NOW HOW ‘BOUT SOME OBOES! AND TRUMPETS! BIGGER! BIGGER! MAKE IT BIGGER!

8/29/17

Had shower thoughts this morning. A new variation of the melody started bouncing around in my head, and I played through it on guitar this morning. This thing is in danger of accordioning…

I do not like the looks of that womp rat.

more at flickr

8/20/17 R&D #6 is now called “Filthy Stinkin’ Boids”.

I mixed it all down to audio stems, did some post production tweaks, and I think it’s ready for prime-time.

Listening back to it now. No idea what I’m going to tackle next.

In the meantime, organization:

R&D:

#1 - Dark, melodic guitar improvisation
#2 - Melodic, looping fretless guitar improvisation
#3 - atonal looping fretless guitar improvisation
#4 - abstract guitar & electronish background
#5 - riffy, melodic guitar & electronics (I need a name)
#6 - atonal guitar noise & techno (Filthy Stinkin’ Boids)

Pile:

Y CAN NOT - Guitar Instrumental; bluesy but also Frippish
Ganymede - Vocal song; guitary & technoish
Halfway - Chord progression plus resampled guitar. Needs work, not sure what this will be in the end
I Dunno - Long Metal song. Needs a lot of work
I Zebra - Pretty much a guitar instrumental. In my head it’s some kind of dark goth jam, but that’s not at all what’s been recorded
Jester - A jazzy solo guitar piece. Kinda Frisellish. Still need to work out the final form before moving on
John Doe - Guitar & electronics. Kind of a mess at the moment
Permeable - A noisy thing with black metal overtones. Fairy Complete.
The Kgnarl - Guitar instrumental; weird & disjointed
The Want Machine - Vocal song; proggy rock/metal
Unbalanced - very long guitar improv & MIDI + Electronics. Currently 20 minutes long, and I’d like to get it 6.
Wired - electronic soundscape
Substantiate - another dark guitary black metal dark gothy thing

• (done) -
  Shacklebones - guitar techno
  Search For The One - guitar techno
  Seppuku - guitar techno/soundscape
  Cyclone - ugly soundscape with pseudo-jazz and electronics. Reminds me of Neurotica without the Adrien Belew bits.
  Clouds - ambient guitarscape

So, turning it around & grouping with like things:

Metallish:

I Dunno
I Zebra
Permeable
The Kgnarl
The Want Machine

Ambient:

Halfway
Substantiate
Seppuku
Cyclone
Clouds

Electronic:

R&D #5
Filthy Stinkin’ Boids
Unbalanced
Wired
Shacklebones
Search For The One
Seppuku
Cyclone

####Guitary/Songy
Y CAN NOT
Jester
John Doe
The Want Machine

I don’t know that these are strict delineations, like each of these is an album in progress, but it’s food for thought.

Or just for the heck of it, in order of done-nes:

Done:

Shacklebones
Search For The One
Seppuku
Cyclone
Clouds

Pretty Sure it’s Done:

Filthy Stinkin’ Boids
Y CAN NOT
R&D #5
Permeable

Largely done, needs words/editing/final recording:

Ganymede
The Want Machine
Wired
Unbalanced

…and the rest.

None of this includes Triptych, the thing that is supposed to be the primary thing I’m working on right now!