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CLARITY


Ian C Stewart "Leaping Chords Instrumental" MP3
Ian C Stewart "Oddly Enough" MP3
Ian C Stewart "Clarity" MP3

I'm really getting organized this week. Here's another tape from 1997 marked 4 TRACK FALLOUT. This one consists of three songs, only one of which appears on the other 4 TRACK FALLOUT. I'm uploading all three here for no apparent reason.

These are probably the last things I recorded in the basement at my mom's house. I think in 1997 I was going over there on weekends to do laundry and since some of my music stuff was still there, it was easy for me to peel off a few new tracks while my clothes were drying.

I think I used Ray's 4-track and mic preamp for the drums. I think the guitars and bass went through the Peavey Backstage Plus amp just to control the frequencies plus it added a semi desirable toilety quality.

Drumming-wise, my 'sound' at the time was to record the drums at the slowest speed on the recorder. So that they'd all be pitched up when played back at normal speed. And I was trying to think outside the box in terms of approaching each drum in the set as its own instrument. Which sounds awfully pretentious now but it made sense at the time.

The first song here consists of the chords I used at one time for an intro to a funny song about suicide called "Leaping From the Tallest Structure in Town." Those chords can function as their own song. I still enjoy hearing and playing that progression. Too bad I was never able to come up with a vocal melody to go over them. Which, hey, if you can sing a nice little tune over this song about becoming self aware, then I may have a job for you.

"Oddly Enough" is kind of like a mope rock jam, I guess. It was just a big pile of whatever that I did for fun. I'm guessing the drums went down first. Sounds like I had the xylophone mallets. And listen for The Econo, my beloved $12 splash cymbal.

I don't know what the guitar is tuned to on this one. The bass seems to be tuned the same. I'm not positive but I think the bass guitar is what's being tapped, Chapman Stick-like. I still enjoy the sound of this song, apart from the obviously silly improvised singing.

"Clarity" was another one from the wacky suicide song batch, a rather blatant Swans ripoff. I think I had just read M. Gira's book Drainland, which is a singularly brutal and disturbed collection of nightmare scenarios. The tune of "Clarity" is okay, I'm surprised I haven't revisited this one. The drums are goofy. Drum machine laying down the law with pitched up snare action occasionally speeding up & spoiling the atmos. Ah well.

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... said…
that's a nice painting. really.
October 20, 2007 at 9:07 PM
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