this is a collection of three tracks that were recorded in late '99 and early '00 with the intent of being included on record number three ('trinri') but were either discarded or stripped of samples on the way there. the purpose of this ep is not to be comprehensive, but to act as a transitional time capsule: this is the sound of exiting one project and entering another. as such, the narratives are scattered and better told separately.
trinri eventually became deny everything:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/deny-everything
written and recorded in late 1999 and early 2000. these versions of these tracks were sequenced without further modification in jan, 2014. remainder of hummer added as a bonus track, and release finalized, on oct 3, 2017. as always, please use headphones.
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 (1999, 2014, 2017).
credits
released January 25, 2000
j - guitar, effects, synth, drumkit, drum programming, sequencing, sampling, digital wave manipulation, treatments, production
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track 1...
this was initially written to be the first track on my third record, which i was calling trinri as a working title. yet, it was written about the same time as i was finishing up my covers disc. i wanted to add at least one more track to the disc to make it a bit longer. for whatever reason, i ended up using it as an introduction to the hummer cover, rather than as it's own track.
record number three, deny everything, ended up with it's own introduction. however, i've pulled it out here, in instrumental form - and as an introduction to this ep.
the hummer cover is here:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/05-hummer
written in the fall of 1999. isolated in jan, 2014.
===
track 2...
so, this is an interesting thing to have sitting on my shelf. it's the 'i have a dream' speech, orchestrated with some soaring guitars.
i should point out immediately that i got a lawsuit thrown at me by the king estate when i tried to upload this to mp3.com back in early '00. i thought that was really trite, but it's not really a legal battle i want to have. i would react more or less the same way should i be threatened a second time, except to point out this time that it's fair use so long as i remove the price tag and basically just do that.
the story behind the song is not very remarkable. the working title for the track was just 'progblues thing'. it was intended to be a structured instrumental guitar track that mixed the flair of hendrix with the minimalist structure of steve reich. the speech sort of came to it by accident.
it was also the result of my dad getting himself a drumkit for christmas that year, which my step-mother promptly placed in my bedroom as a disincentive for further use. score, i guess. but it didn't survive the move a few months later. in the mean time, i got some recordings out of it - as well as a few moderately crazy drunken weekend jam sessions.
i'll note that that christmas also produced a grand piano a few feet outside my door. it's intended recipient was my sister, but she wasn't around much. me? new pc, with a convenient recording interface, and some more functional microphones. despite talk of family jam spaces, one might suspect my father was actually conspiring in my favour. there is probably a great deal of truth in this suspicion. these conditions held for less than a year, but i made the most of them.
so, the idea of the track was initially about experimenting with the new reverb system built into my new soundcard interface, by triggering it with the drumkit that had recently magically appeared out of good fortune. it had been a few years since i'd played the kit much, and, unfortunately, it kind of does show. i had spent a little time practicing along with "nevermind" and "siamese dream" for a few weeks to get back in shape, but i wasn't really "there" yet at the time of this recording. i didn't want to program loops into the song, so i compensated by splicing the track up. of special interest in this wave editing is the backwards cymbals, and especially how they intersect with the soaring guitars.
and of those soaring guitars? a fairly simple blues pattern. sure is lovely, though, isn't it?
the speech became attached to the track when chance managed to have them playing simultaneously for me. i had cnn on in the corner. it was doing some kind of special on mlk, perhaps related to an anniversary that is related to a yearly holiday. placed together, it knocked me flat on my ass.
the idea in my mind from the start was integrationist, if not really consciously so. on the one hand, the guitar part is raw southern blues. on the other hand, the structure is sterile white minimalism. i didn't just realize this juxtaposition, i was trying to exploit it, even if the racial context hadn't occurred to me. when king's speech was played over it, though, the idea really exploded; the context became much deeper. it was an instant exponentiation in profundity.
i also thought it would work well as a foil to the doonesbury sample that is in the track that follows this one [entropy (original mix)].
in hindsight, there are some problems with this. i was a moderately wealthy white kid from canada. there was never much chance of me turning a profit on this, but if i did it would be a type of appropriation. this track does appear on the deny everything demo (jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/a-commercial-break) but under the title of "a commercial break" - and without the dr. king samples. that's probably for the best.
that doesn't change the feeling i got when i first heard the two things together, or take away any of the power that the pairing produces.
i think this is worth sharing.
---
this was initially released as a download only ep. as of the fall of 2017, i have revisited this decision and reversed it: i need to have this release available in some capacity, and it follows that i'm being kind of silly in not offering the full range of options.
for example, if i were to offer the release as a download only, i'd have to offer it at $7, because it is original music, one way or the other. then, why wouldn't i offer it as a physical item? or, if i were to offer it as a $1 download and a normal physical offer, what am i doing besides punishing myself, really?
maybe i could say something about how it might have been better if i didn't create this, although i don't think that's really fair, either, as i do think it's worth sharing. but, i can't undo time. there's no "undo" button in reality. really. i've looked. strenuously.
i suppose that if i get sued i'll have to react, but i'm just going to treat this as any other release and carry on.
written and recorded in the winter of 1999/2000.
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track 3...
this is an augmented experiment with a program called "sounder" that takes advantage of some obscure midi qualities to transport the act of triggering a note into the physical world. imagine a midi tennis ball that triggers at different intensities based on how hard the ball is thrown at a wall. now, imagine a frictionless space where that ball can bounce around indefinitely. sounder virtualizes this reality.
the experiment was augmented with synthesizer and guitar parts, and a sample of garry trudeau posing as a political candidate and being interviewed by larry king. i first interacted with that sample early in the morning in a deeply altered state and came to attach certain feelings to it that are difficult to describe. while it's clearly parody, it hit me as being frighteningly representative of reality. i suppose that all effective parody has this quality. perhaps my reaction speaks more of where i was at this point than anything else. i wasn't reacting well to the return of republicanism; i was very much dreading the future that i had no control in preventing. the absurd truth, here, cut me right down.
i was fucking baked.
eventually, i decided that the sample is just not worth listening to repeatedly and removed it from the track. an instrumental version is available on deny everything:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/entropy
written and recorded at the very end of 1999.
credits
from let freedom ring, track released December 17, 1999
j - guitars, effects, synths, sampling, pythagorean sequencing (sounder), digital wave editing
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track 4...
this is the second half of the instrumental version of the hummer cover, presented as a hidden track.
the hummer cover is here:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/05-hummer
written in the fall of 1999. isolated in oct, 2017.
