when i remixed this last night, i just ran the guitars that i recorded in 2014 through a transform to slow them down from 180 bpm to 70 bpm - which is a good ways. midi is instructions, and that's not much to deal with. but, slowing down actual audio that much is going to create artifacts.

in fact, that was a part of the design of the thing - this was intentional. i want some blurriness in the guitar. it's trippy, and the thing is trippy - it's a good match, and it fits the aesthetic. i was also expecting it to come in a bit out of phase, as the part is doubled.

see, i really did play it in at 220 bpm, which is very fast. when you're playing that fast, you can be wrong by fractions of a note and not have anybody notice. but when you then slow the tape down, the distance between the notes becomes more audible - it's still the same fraction of a bar on paper, but it's been expanded to the point where you can hear it. that 32nd note botch that i didn't even notice at 220 becomes a huge problem at 70.

it's an easy enough fix; while these were live guitars at one point, now they're just samples and can be manipulated like any other.

i have a replacement for the slow mix coming that fixes some of the phasing issues, while keeping others for effect.

my first guitar teacher - in a music academy - used to dangle this in front of me as the piece i'd learn one day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0aMCpRZPZE

i didn't get there. but, i enjoyed the style. and i'm a life long fan.

i was never able to get into anything in the metal spectrum though. it wasn't just the superfluous expressions of empty masculinity, it was the accompanying rigidity in playing - because men can't express emotions, maybe? i'm a feel player. i can enjoy the technicality, but truly intellectual technicality understands that the instrument is about expression, and that's what the best jazz players understood and almost every metal player never has.

the metalheads don't just lose that touch, they seem to take pride in not having it, and look down on anybody that does.

fwiw, if you're curious, the reason i didn't take instruction in metal guitar is that i didn't enjoy listening to it, partly because i didn't like the culture attached to it. i liked fusion, jazz, prog - stuff that was more intellectual and less macho. metal was something i interpreted as "music for idiots" from a very young age.

and, i started playing at too young an age to benefit from any kind of instruction in punk or grunge - by the time i started listening to it, i could already teach myself that stuff.

my instructional phase was in blues, mostly. hendrix. zeppelin. that pushed into jazz. i was actually playing zappa & crimson with ease by the time i was 15.

then i stopped, because i was having more fun teaching myself soundgarden songs out of guitar world and i wanted to write my own music.

so, after some months of denial, i've come to the sober realization that most of my classical guitar monstrosities are now forever lost in the consequences of a snow-flooded backyard shed. i would shed a tear, if it weren't for the reality that they've been lost to my mind and my fingers for far too many years to recover them, anyways.

i would have laughed at you if you would have told me i'd be sitting here, thirteen years later, lamenting the fact that i never recorded these pieces. yet, here i am.

there's not really a good reason why i never recorded these. i just didn't. it's true that i was distracted by other projects, and that i wanted to make sure they were perfectly imperfect before i let them out. that doesn't explain why i never bothered demoing them, or even just recording them half-assed for historical purposes. alas...now they are gone...

i took classical guitar lessons for about a year from spring '00 to spring '01. by that time, i'd been playing guitar for almost ten years and had been through many years of blues and jazz training, albeit not for several years before then. i didn't want to go back to rock-era instruction, but i felt i could benefit from approaching the guitar with a different perspective. i also wanted to learn a little about counterpoint. so, we went with renaissance pieces to start off with (and which comprise this short offering) and more avant pieces by the likes of leo brouwer near the end.

a punk with a classical guitar is still a punk, just a punk with a classical guitar. throughout the experience, my cobain instincts and hendrix flairs overpowered any demands to play nicely. the truth is the guy i was paying absolutely despised me, but he also had a muted level of respect for somebody with the panache to actually think about even trying to pull this shit off. i caught him open-jawed a few times, as impressed as he was shocked.

there were almost twenty of these things written out. he'd present me with a score and i'd just go to town with it, scrawling notes all over it, changing chords, making up notation symbols, just whatever i thought sounded better. the results were a legitimate fusion of noise rock and classical guitar music in a way that stressed technical playing over atmospheres. what is present here is the very tip of this iceberg.

yet, i didn't want to just record them. i wanted to recreate them. the version of little suite that is here is a good example of where i wanted to take these things. the problem i ran into was that i didn't know how to. which isn't to say that i didn't how to do what i wanted but that i couldn't conceive of what i wanted to do. so, i kept putting it off until that stroke of inspiration would finally come...

it never came, and is now lost.

there will be a second version of this; how far in the future that will be, i cannot say. i think a part of me wants to wait until i'm older and is happy i now have the excuse to do that. for now, though, i'm closing down this project, restricting it to this short ep and an album of unrealized dreams.

recorded in the first part of 2001. sequenced as is in january, 2014. as always, please use headphones.

the second & third tracks appear on my fifth record:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

this release also includes a printable jewel case insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries from all phases of production (2001, 2014). 

credits

released May 10, 2001

j - classical and electric guitars, ebow, effects, organ, synthesizers, sound design, sampling, sequencing, drum programming, vocals, digital wave editing

original authors forgotten. please contact if you recognize these pieces. 

vlog for oct 13, 2017, where i get back to working on inri044, after a sleepy post-migraine start to the day.

update post.

this will build further as i go:


this disc is now full:

these are dated to the 13th:



and these are dated to the 14th:



write-up pending.

when i resequenced this "single" (it's now at 19 tracks...the last one closed at 17...) in may of 2015, i set it up to alternate between slow and fast versions - then put the solo sections at the very end, after a pause. the initial orchestral mix that i set up last night is done, but it means i have one too many fast versions.

i'm just going to slow the full orchestra mix down to the same length as the string orchestra mix. it shouldn't take long.

i don't have a lot of days left to waste, but i guess i lost a day due to migraine and this taking longer than expected. what can you do...