| Carnivorous Snowglobes. |
Tracklisting
01. Gravity Can't Hold You Down
02. Take Me With You
03. Just Another Dream
04. F.Y.I.
05. Following My Heart
06. Coin Toss
07. Sound Smuggler
08. A Name For Yourself
09. Anatomy Of A Dream
10. The Secret Society of Divers and Sailors
11. Point To Me
12. Cloud
13. Part Of Something / This Moment
01. Gravity Can't Hold You Down
02. Take Me With You
03. Just Another Dream
04. F.Y.I.
05. Following My Heart
06. Coin Toss
07. Sound Smuggler
08. A Name For Yourself
09. Anatomy Of A Dream
10. The Secret Society of Divers and Sailors
11. Point To Me
12. Cloud
13. Part Of Something / This Moment
OK...SO WHAT'S THE GIMMICK THIS TIME?
Less of a gimmick, more of a genuinely new way of working. I was experimenting for three or four solid
months in the studio with ways to create entire songs quickly, but without resorting to the rather
contrived devices that I, of my own admission, was wont to do on the previous record, Astrocity
Atrocity.
I had been reading an excellent biography of Miles Davis, whose music was really inspiring me at the
time, and I was intrigued by the composition techniques he and his cohorts employed during his
"comeback" period in the early 1980's. The author described them improvising in the studio, and then,
upon arriving at something great, transcribing bits of it and molding that into a composed piece. I
thought about this for days and days, until, one night, I hit upon something. I was sitting on the floor in
my studio, listening to white noise, as I often like to do while I write, and just fishing for ideas. I got
something after a long while of just sitting, listening. I grabbed my little whiteboard and jotted down
some rudimentary lyrics. I then let tape run while I came up with a chord structure that fit what I was
hearing in my head.
This is just one of the many methods that I have employed on this record. I call these various means of
improvised composition "COMPROVISATION".
The point of all this is that I came up with a record made up entirely of songs (no instrumentals) that I
am quite proud of, for the sheer originality and uniqueness of it all. Never before or since have I written
this way. It is duly noted, however, that most of these lyrics mean nothing. They are snapshots; frozen
moments in time. But I will explain further below....
TRACK NOTES.
1. Gravity Can't Hold You Down.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Roland SH-3, DeArmond 6-string electric guitar, Reason, Voice.
Firstly, let me just say that the order the songs run on an album is one of the last decisions that goes
into the production. The decision to include this song on the album actually held up its initial "release"
for almost a month. I knew it was a strong track, with an infectious, early-90's hip-hop sounding
groove, a great hook, and some decent lyrics, but I never could get it quite right. It went through
countless revisions and incarnations before I decided it was finished. Took 15 minutes to write, a
couple of hours to program, and over a month to complete. What it ended up being is a song that
describes a person's dream of going to heaven. What it ended up sounding like is a very out-of-date
hip-hop / pop thing (maybe a little like Prince) with a lot of samples. Most of the drum samples came
from my own kit, as well as many implements found in my kitchen. The vinyl samples are one note off
of an old obscure DJ record I found, which was intended for adding little 'hits' to things happening in a
radio spot. Very, very useful. The same record was employed for the main melody of "Useless Mind
Clutter" from Astrocity Atrocity.
2. Take Me With You.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Suitcase Rhodes 73, Roland SH-3, Reason, Voice.
One time I heard this Devo song that used this repeating echo - dit -dit- dit- dit- I've never really
listened to much Devo (always meant to, just haven't come around yet), so I don't know which one it is,
but they were playing all these little short notes that sounded so cool with this 16th note repeating
echo. So this tune was borne out of experimenting with that sound. I put on the drum loop, started
playing some chords, and then some words came to me, so I wrote them down really quickly. This
track was completed, more or less, in one night. The lead vocal is a first take, as are the keyboards.
The background vocals took some refining.
The words are written from the point of view of a person who wants to be abducted by aliens.
3. Just Another Dream.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Suitcase Rhodes 73, Roland SH-3, Reason, Musique Concrete, DeArmond
6-string electric guitar, Voice.
A little Musique Concréte here. I had been reading an interview with Morton Subotnick about how they
would hook up the Buchla Synthesizer to several tape machines, so the tapes could be 'played' using
its touch-sensitive keypad. I thought I'd try my hand at it. So all the samples were created by me,
keymapped to a sampler, and played in real time.
This is an abstract lyric; it depicts, again, another dreamscape.
4. F.Y.I.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Yamaha bass guitar, DeArmond 6-and 12-string electric guitars, Voice,
Drumloop of an ambiguous nature.
A mysterious-sounding song which was created late one night whilst improvising; playing bass and
singing over a drumloop. Everything just fell into place. There was another vocal section, but it was
replaced eventually with the 12-string guitar solo. The lyrical ideas are nothing but
stream-of-consciousness spewings that I later wrote down and revised slightly. The vocals were then
re-cut on a separate occasion.
5. Following My Heart.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Reason, Voice.
An almost-honest lyric. It's still a little abstracted, but this is sort of directed to anyone who would
question what I am doing with my life. Sort of in a spacey R&B/Massive Attack -type setting.
6. Coin Toss.
INSTRUMENTS USED: DeArmond 6-string electric guitar, Yamaha bass, Voice, Drumloop.
Guitar Rock Song! A little different from the other slightly-spacey music on this record. I have no idea
where the lyric came from, but it's pretty interesting. I guess it's about arguments. The whole thing
would have been better had I actually played some drums on it, but that was out of the question at the
time.
7. Sound Smuggler.
INSTRUMENTS USED: RF-noise guitar, Yamaha bass, Voice, Rhodes, Reason.
I almost chose not to include this song, as it is one of the least cohesive of the lot. However, I like the
picture it paints. A pretty abstract lyric. The weird sounds come from pressing TV remotes, cell
phones, and other transmitting devices onto my guitar pickups.
8. A Name For Yourself.
INSTRUMENTS USED: DeArmond 12-string electric guitar, Rhodes Suitcase 73, Roland SH-3,
Voice,
Yamaha PSS-470 and Reason drums.
This tune came from me sitting down with my 12-string electric guitar and a loop I had made on my
trusty old Yamaha Portasound 470. I love that little keyboard. At any rate, a decent song just came
together all at once, to which I added SH-3 bass and Rhodes, and later the Reason drum loop.
Everything is a first take. I don't think the words really mean anything. They could, I suppose, but it's all
subjective.
9. Anatomy Of A Dream.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Reason, Voice.
The vocal AH's are samples of my voice. I recorded two tracks of every pitch that I could sing, and then
looped them and put them into the sampler. I call it the "MooT-o-tron", although it's probably closer to a
Birotron than a Mellotron. Anyway, it's a really useful sound.
This is actually one of my favorite pieces that I have done. It was originally written for a short video that
my cousin Kallai and I had made in August 2004. I re-edited the video a few months ago. You can
watch it here. It's another song about dreams. Seemingly one of my favourite subjects!
10. The Secret Society of Divers and Sailors.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Wurlitzer 206, Voice.
An odd, odd little song that just came together out of nowhere when I was playing around with the
Wurlitzer one night. It's an interesting story about people and sharks.
11. Point To Me.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Wurlitzer 206, Voice.
Another strange little song from the same session. I actually sang the lead vocal without
accompaniment, and added the Wurlitzer later. This one is about a newbie that joins a card game.
12. Cloud.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Spinet piano, Rogers drums, Yamaha bass, Voice.
OK. This song has a long history. It came about as an improvisation that I did in May 2000. That
version was over nine minutes long, with a lot of discursive rambling thrown in at various places. I
always cherished the tape of this song, and I knew that I wanted to make something out of it. I rewrote
it sometime in late 2001 or early 2002, and finally got around to making a proper demo version in
March 2002. I rerecorded the song some months later, but never completed the track. One reason for
this is that I thought I had deleted the files from my computer. I just assumed that it was gone forever.
Fast forward to April 2005, when I was working on this album. I was going through my hard drive,
looking for things that may have gotten mislabeled or misplaced, and restoring them to their rightful
locations. What did I find but ALL THE TRACKS FROM THIS SESSION!! It was a very happy day
indeed. I remixed it, added a bass guitar part, and it was finally finished! Five years in the making. The
words were definitely more applicable to me when I was 16, but they are still honest lyrics. The song is
about retreating into my own headspace to escape the mundane world.
13. Part Of Something / This Moment.
INSTRUMENTS: Voice / Spinet piano, Voice.
This was a solo vocal improvisation that I decided to harmonize. I guess the words mean something.
Anyway, without having a time reference to follow, it took many takes to perfect the harmony parts.
This Moment was a sitting and singing to my tape recorder thing that I did one morning before work. I
felt that it was an appropriate way to end the album....
Overall, I am pleased with the work that I ended up with. It's a fun record, but it is rather strange due to
its stream-of-consciousness nature. Thanks for listening!
/=MooT=\
Email me.
Less of a gimmick, more of a genuinely new way of working. I was experimenting for three or four solid
months in the studio with ways to create entire songs quickly, but without resorting to the rather
contrived devices that I, of my own admission, was wont to do on the previous record, Astrocity
Atrocity.
I had been reading an excellent biography of Miles Davis, whose music was really inspiring me at the
time, and I was intrigued by the composition techniques he and his cohorts employed during his
"comeback" period in the early 1980's. The author described them improvising in the studio, and then,
upon arriving at something great, transcribing bits of it and molding that into a composed piece. I
thought about this for days and days, until, one night, I hit upon something. I was sitting on the floor in
my studio, listening to white noise, as I often like to do while I write, and just fishing for ideas. I got
something after a long while of just sitting, listening. I grabbed my little whiteboard and jotted down
some rudimentary lyrics. I then let tape run while I came up with a chord structure that fit what I was
hearing in my head.
This is just one of the many methods that I have employed on this record. I call these various means of
improvised composition "COMPROVISATION".
The point of all this is that I came up with a record made up entirely of songs (no instrumentals) that I
am quite proud of, for the sheer originality and uniqueness of it all. Never before or since have I written
this way. It is duly noted, however, that most of these lyrics mean nothing. They are snapshots; frozen
moments in time. But I will explain further below....
TRACK NOTES.
1. Gravity Can't Hold You Down.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Roland SH-3, DeArmond 6-string electric guitar, Reason, Voice.
Firstly, let me just say that the order the songs run on an album is one of the last decisions that goes
into the production. The decision to include this song on the album actually held up its initial "release"
for almost a month. I knew it was a strong track, with an infectious, early-90's hip-hop sounding
groove, a great hook, and some decent lyrics, but I never could get it quite right. It went through
countless revisions and incarnations before I decided it was finished. Took 15 minutes to write, a
couple of hours to program, and over a month to complete. What it ended up being is a song that
describes a person's dream of going to heaven. What it ended up sounding like is a very out-of-date
hip-hop / pop thing (maybe a little like Prince) with a lot of samples. Most of the drum samples came
from my own kit, as well as many implements found in my kitchen. The vinyl samples are one note off
of an old obscure DJ record I found, which was intended for adding little 'hits' to things happening in a
radio spot. Very, very useful. The same record was employed for the main melody of "Useless Mind
Clutter" from Astrocity Atrocity.
2. Take Me With You.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Suitcase Rhodes 73, Roland SH-3, Reason, Voice.
One time I heard this Devo song that used this repeating echo - dit -dit- dit- dit- I've never really
listened to much Devo (always meant to, just haven't come around yet), so I don't know which one it is,
but they were playing all these little short notes that sounded so cool with this 16th note repeating
echo. So this tune was borne out of experimenting with that sound. I put on the drum loop, started
playing some chords, and then some words came to me, so I wrote them down really quickly. This
track was completed, more or less, in one night. The lead vocal is a first take, as are the keyboards.
The background vocals took some refining.
The words are written from the point of view of a person who wants to be abducted by aliens.
3. Just Another Dream.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Suitcase Rhodes 73, Roland SH-3, Reason, Musique Concrete, DeArmond
6-string electric guitar, Voice.
A little Musique Concréte here. I had been reading an interview with Morton Subotnick about how they
would hook up the Buchla Synthesizer to several tape machines, so the tapes could be 'played' using
its touch-sensitive keypad. I thought I'd try my hand at it. So all the samples were created by me,
keymapped to a sampler, and played in real time.
This is an abstract lyric; it depicts, again, another dreamscape.
4. F.Y.I.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Yamaha bass guitar, DeArmond 6-and 12-string electric guitars, Voice,
Drumloop of an ambiguous nature.
A mysterious-sounding song which was created late one night whilst improvising; playing bass and
singing over a drumloop. Everything just fell into place. There was another vocal section, but it was
replaced eventually with the 12-string guitar solo. The lyrical ideas are nothing but
stream-of-consciousness spewings that I later wrote down and revised slightly. The vocals were then
re-cut on a separate occasion.
5. Following My Heart.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Reason, Voice.
An almost-honest lyric. It's still a little abstracted, but this is sort of directed to anyone who would
question what I am doing with my life. Sort of in a spacey R&B/Massive Attack -type setting.
6. Coin Toss.
INSTRUMENTS USED: DeArmond 6-string electric guitar, Yamaha bass, Voice, Drumloop.
Guitar Rock Song! A little different from the other slightly-spacey music on this record. I have no idea
where the lyric came from, but it's pretty interesting. I guess it's about arguments. The whole thing
would have been better had I actually played some drums on it, but that was out of the question at the
time.
7. Sound Smuggler.
INSTRUMENTS USED: RF-noise guitar, Yamaha bass, Voice, Rhodes, Reason.
I almost chose not to include this song, as it is one of the least cohesive of the lot. However, I like the
picture it paints. A pretty abstract lyric. The weird sounds come from pressing TV remotes, cell
phones, and other transmitting devices onto my guitar pickups.
8. A Name For Yourself.
INSTRUMENTS USED: DeArmond 12-string electric guitar, Rhodes Suitcase 73, Roland SH-3,
Voice,
Yamaha PSS-470 and Reason drums.
This tune came from me sitting down with my 12-string electric guitar and a loop I had made on my
trusty old Yamaha Portasound 470. I love that little keyboard. At any rate, a decent song just came
together all at once, to which I added SH-3 bass and Rhodes, and later the Reason drum loop.
Everything is a first take. I don't think the words really mean anything. They could, I suppose, but it's all
subjective.
9. Anatomy Of A Dream.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Reason, Voice.
The vocal AH's are samples of my voice. I recorded two tracks of every pitch that I could sing, and then
looped them and put them into the sampler. I call it the "MooT-o-tron", although it's probably closer to a
Birotron than a Mellotron. Anyway, it's a really useful sound.
This is actually one of my favorite pieces that I have done. It was originally written for a short video that
my cousin Kallai and I had made in August 2004. I re-edited the video a few months ago. You can
watch it here. It's another song about dreams. Seemingly one of my favourite subjects!
10. The Secret Society of Divers and Sailors.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Wurlitzer 206, Voice.
An odd, odd little song that just came together out of nowhere when I was playing around with the
Wurlitzer one night. It's an interesting story about people and sharks.
11. Point To Me.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Wurlitzer 206, Voice.
Another strange little song from the same session. I actually sang the lead vocal without
accompaniment, and added the Wurlitzer later. This one is about a newbie that joins a card game.
12. Cloud.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Spinet piano, Rogers drums, Yamaha bass, Voice.
OK. This song has a long history. It came about as an improvisation that I did in May 2000. That
version was over nine minutes long, with a lot of discursive rambling thrown in at various places. I
always cherished the tape of this song, and I knew that I wanted to make something out of it. I rewrote
it sometime in late 2001 or early 2002, and finally got around to making a proper demo version in
March 2002. I rerecorded the song some months later, but never completed the track. One reason for
this is that I thought I had deleted the files from my computer. I just assumed that it was gone forever.
Fast forward to April 2005, when I was working on this album. I was going through my hard drive,
looking for things that may have gotten mislabeled or misplaced, and restoring them to their rightful
locations. What did I find but ALL THE TRACKS FROM THIS SESSION!! It was a very happy day
indeed. I remixed it, added a bass guitar part, and it was finally finished! Five years in the making. The
words were definitely more applicable to me when I was 16, but they are still honest lyrics. The song is
about retreating into my own headspace to escape the mundane world.
13. Part Of Something / This Moment.
INSTRUMENTS: Voice / Spinet piano, Voice.
This was a solo vocal improvisation that I decided to harmonize. I guess the words mean something.
Anyway, without having a time reference to follow, it took many takes to perfect the harmony parts.
This Moment was a sitting and singing to my tape recorder thing that I did one morning before work. I
felt that it was an appropriate way to end the album....
Overall, I am pleased with the work that I ended up with. It's a fun record, but it is rather strange due to
its stream-of-consciousness nature. Thanks for listening!
/=MooT=\
Email me.
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