Sunday, July 3, 2016

finalizing inricycled (inri002)

this was posted to google+ the other day and is how i'm going to close the disc here.

this is inri002; it's what i've been listening to in the other room for the last day or so. what it does is combine bits and pieces of my first two demos, which are largely unlistenable, into something that can actually be enjoyed. i've pointed out that the first demo has a kind of abstract quality to it that has the potential to find an extreme niche audience somewhere between philosophy of the world and trout mask replica. that's great and all, but most people find that kind of thing too challenging.

this is far more digestible - which also means far less cringe-y. there are some short vocal sections, but it's broadly instrumental. the sections are usually short. so, it's a mix tape. all of the snippets were recorded in 1996 or 1997, but the mix was constructed in 2013.

i'm posting this now because i'm enjoying it for what it is. i've come to the conclusion that this is a really seriously worthwhile addition to my discography. when i first mixed it, it was more as a way to save face - i wanted to be able to do something with all these little pieces of sound that were ruined by bad lyrics. it's grown on me as a really positive decision.

it's weird. very weird. that's why i like it so much. but, it's contained and sort of catchy, too. there's an audience for this, for sure. and i'm proud of this now, finally.

==

i've released a dozen different things with the title "inricycled", making it more of a concept than a release. it's not just the material i'm recycling, now, it's the idea of recycling material.

i hope this is the final iteration. the difference, here, is that i'm trying to isolate segments of songs that people interested in my more recent compositions would find interesting. these fragments aren't entirely void of lyrics, but they're very minimal. they're also quite short.

i've retitled most of the tracks to get a feel of what the music sounds like and/or what i was thinking as i was writing it.

the material in this volume is taken from the first two cassette demos, inri000 and inri001.

this is the best possible absolute starting point for my musical material.

written and recorded over 1996 and 1997. digitally remastered, sequenced and mildly modified in the fall of 2013. released dec 11, 2013. finalized as lp000 on july 3, 2016. i consider this my unofficial zeroth record. 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 (1997, 2013, 2016).

credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, drums, vocals, keyboards, tapes, found sounds, metronomes, digital wave editing, production. 
released july 1, 1997

02-07-2016: closing inri001 and discussing inri002

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inricycled
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-cassette-demo-2
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

finalizing inri001

yeah. i just got a quick, clean listen of inri001 in on the official setup and it sounds great. i can only hope that this clarity lasts. i'm going to try it through the other gear, but i'm closing it.

this record is very much a continuation of the first demo, but it's also a kind of an appendix to it. if the charm of the first demo is in it's outsider music abstraction, this demo could easily be overlooked. but, it's in truth a more honest representation of the more ordered side of what i was attempting to create. the record also contains cringey moments, but they're not as pronounced and in truth are even largely overshadowed by the increased order in sound. so, despite the charms of the first demo, this is far more predictive regarding the music i would create over the next few years.

near the end of the demo, i become cognizant of the fact that my family is moving and i will lose the recording space - specifically the drums and the recording machine. i kept the guitars, as i was intellectually invested in them previous to the room, and my dad kept the bass. this awareness of an end point brought me to several summary type songs near the end, where i'm attempting to close the idea down prematurely. i always intended for this demo to be the same length as the first one, i just ran out of time. so, the cassette will leave the second side of a 100 minute tape blank.

while i can ultimately not honestly diagnose this demo as any more listenable than the first one, in absolute terms, it is certainly a lot closer to it. again: is this an asset or a drawback? it depends on the perspective. there's something to be said for me finishing my ideas more clearly, even if it means a loss at the level of the surreal - which is actually important in appreciating this, as one cannot actually listen to it.

that's not to say that this demo doesn't get outright weird, as it certainly does. it's just that the weirdness is more composed and less accidental - again, it's a stale academic argument, but it has a real meaning in the contrasted aesthetics.

so, i'd request that you interpret it as a reflection of the first demo rather than try and build a direct comparison with it. i'm pointing this out because i'm bundling them together in chronological time and associating them to one another due to the shared recording environment, but the value of this is more in the contrast than in the comparison.

so, i think it has a path to an audience, if not necessarily an obvious one just right now. it's too good to be intriguingly awful, but not good enough to appeal on it's own merits. so, it has to be understood in chronological context - as a transitional recording.

==

my second demo, recorded over the second half of the tenth grade, is a considerably more polished recording. by this time, i had learned a lot about how to record things and had improved my drumming and keyboard playing. while the vocals remain highly erratic, ranging from precociously insightful to devastatingly stupid, the music here is actually not far from a professional recording.

recorded in spring 1997, remastered in fall 2013. finalized on july 3, 2016. as always, please use headphones.

i consider this an archival release with little direct listening value. i've pointed out repeatedly that i was 16. however, various segments have been isolated and pulled out for a higher listenability value over here:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inricycled-a

this release also includes a printable j-card insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries from all phases of production (1997, 2013, 2016).

credits
j - guitars, effects, bass, drums, keyboards, tapes, vocals, found sounds, metronomes, production\

released june 1, 1997