Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A Round Trip

A Round Trip
01-A Round Trip, version 1                   73:23
02-The Party Car                             29:00
03-This will get us an R-rating for sure     25:32
04-Animatronic Conductors                    21:56
05-Closely Watched                          126:00
06-Suspense, like picking the right color    31:51
07-A Round Trip, version 2                   59:46
Total time     6:07:28
"A Round Trip" explores the irritations of commuting.  Each one of, excluding the lucky few that work at home, has to commute for work.  Living where I do, the commute consists of a solo drive.  Many people have to deal with public transportation.  I can't honestly say which would be worse, I can only say that the drawback in the solo drive is no interaction with any other individuals.  Saying this, I would probably be correct in assuming that those on trains and buses would trade that daily interaction with a ride through the country on a motorcycle in a heartbeat.  When I'm up to it, when the situation permits, that is my solo drive.  I am not complaining, just painting the mental picture.
The title track was completed and mixed and remixed and remixed as ususal.  Only, in this instance, I couldn't decide which one to use, which one was "worse".  So I used them both as bookends for the album.  The difference are slight and subtle, but exist within the same recording's mixdown.  "Closely Watched" is inspired by the Chezchoslovakian film "Closely Watched Trains", which I found and watched while working on the project.
These three pieces are performed on electric guitar.  "Animatronic Conductors" and "Suspense, like picking the right color" were sequencer realizations, "The Party Car" is a sequencer/percussion programming piece, and "This will get us an R-rating for sure" is a combo of percussion programming and that mechanical device I used for "Wheel of Fortune" on "Transmissions From The Machine Planet".  "Animatronic Conductors" and "Suspense, like picking the right color" are inspired by two of my favorite film makers, "Conductors" being Felini, "Suspense" being Hitchcock.  ( I don't consider myself to be a film critic/historian/authority of any measure, but after watching Michealangelo Antonio's "Blow Up" I commented that I felt that the use of color in the film was amazing.  I later read in an Hitchcock biography that his comment on "Blow Up" was that the Italian's were years beyond anyone else in the use of color.  A truely good feeling!)  I can also say that "Conductors show a Larry Fast influence, while "Suspense" shows a Brian Eno influence. "The Party Car" is an interpretation of a train ride I took from Venice to Rome.  The Italian railroad was on strike (of course), the train was packed, and in the car with my wife and I were four female students from Southern Mississippi University and the reggae band Burning Spear.  Their tour manager was hillarious.  "This will get us an R-rating for sure" tops off the movie influence of the album, using various sounds and beats to create a somewhat erotic experience.

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