I have no idea what I’m going to do next until I do something next after the something that I had no idea about that came next which is what this music is. It’s the stuff that I did next after I watched myself happen as I engaged in musical and sonic nextery. So, here’s a blog about the sampler of stuff that’s coming up next on a series of EP online releases. That sounds about right. For those that know me, they would nod in agreement about the rightness of nextery and the not knowing. I don’t know much but suffice it to say that much merely is. I like that very much.



Two tracks have been heard already. I posted rough mixes of ‘Dharma Bull’ and ‘Lamonte and Meredith’ by Shutterpulse, which is, if you don’t know, my ambient drum and bass outfit with outstanding percussionist Trey Newmiller. You can find them on Soundcloud in their rougher forms. I did some mix tweaks and some toasty fat mastering on the two tracks. Both tracks feature regular fretless and pitch-shifted shred fretless. Using a pick. I also layered ambient doo-dads and glitchy bits. I’m fond of that. I reaaaallly love ambient electronica music. Didn’t think I would. But I do. La Machine will play a ton of stuff at ANY tempo within one millisecond of accuracy. I like that. The human element gets tired and flaky and grumpy and argumentative. When the dodgy human element engages in performance with La KomPEWThor, it doesn’t care whether you are tired, happy, sad, up or dead. It blasts away and you have to keep up. I like KomPewThor. He like ROXXX! Humans. As the song goes:



DOWN IN THE PARK WHERE THE MACHMEN MEET THE MACHINES AND PLAY KILL BY NUMBERS

DOWN IN THE PARK WITH A FRIEND CALLED FIVE….

Gary Numan, thank you. The first and BEST version, Tubeway Army Live. Yesh.

[I mentioned using a pick on a bass. “BASS” What IS THAT ANYWAY? Trunk shakin’ beatz. Awwwww yeah. ]

The pick. Funny thing that. I’ve never seen more people get their panties ram-rod crack-crammed over a 40 cent piece of plastic. Funny thing indeed. How does one cope with an ACTUAL problem? I wonder. And folks think I’m a bit neurotic. Ahem. Right. On that note: Funny thing too. Detractors say I should be playing guitar. Soooooooo, after being tired of the looming threat of a good time, I’ve been doing it. Using pitch shift and and AND piccolo bass through a guitar amp played with a (gasp) pick. So. Thanks for snide remarks, I aim to please. And YOU! You can aim TOO, please. Yes. All is right in happy time space station land!


Two tracks feature a ‘jam’ between me and a drummer named Gary Usie. Gary is from St. Martinville LA, The heart of Cajunland. He speaks with a thick Cajun accent that is sometimes hard for me to understand. He’ll say something like. “I stole that lick from Tony Royster.” It will sound like Ah stow dat lick fum Tony Roystuh,” I’ll hear it as “I roasted ticks and oysters.” Gary is a brilliant drummer and he and I have hit it off musically. It was HIS idea to record some jams and put it out there. We descended on a studio in the back of a plumbing shop in St. Martinville and flailed away. (No his drum hardware was NOT made from leftover plumbing pipe.) He helped me exponentially on the NEXT thing I was going to do. Folks have asked me to record some shreddin’ jams. Like dude, you need to just jammmmmmm. That sort of thing. So, this time I did. We turned of the inner censor, that internal arbiter of good taste, ignoring the good folks that KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE, and played as we liked. No second guessing. Well, there was some. But, it was ignored. I kept some of the original bass tracks and I elaborated on other things. If this was going to be a jam, it was going to be the way I hear a good jam. A jam means in the jazz realms and still does, a place where you tried your new ideas and practiced at the expense of everything. As a rock musician, it usually means the bass and drums do a twelve-bar thus, giving the guitar elements a karaoke machine with a pulse in order for them to engage in pentatonic tomfoolery and chicanery and then gab about some fuzztone pedal that they have been gaslighted into thinking is brilliant. Yippee. I did learn a thing or two about improv and frankly, I’d rather take chances. Taking musical chances is a real gas. Here’s a documented chance. No censor, no good taste, just going for it. As it should be when you jam. On jamming; It’s a good idea to have ideas. Yes, it’s tasteless. Yes, it’s raw. Yes. I love it so much. I hope you do too. (By the way, taste, tasteful, tasty used to mean something. Now it merely means boring. Really. If someone describes music as tasteful these days, in a description of recent releases, I’ll usually pass thank you. Please just say it’s really nice. That’s nicer which is more nice than taste. )

Thought: If ida played da blooz, ida used a Rickenbacker and a Marshall. People might say: Dass ‘at Tickfaw-cuzzin’-humper dat playz a Rikkybakker anda Marshmellow Moon Pie speeker. It could happen. Totally.


The last track is going to be for a Solo Bass EP. This track uses my 8 string and a fretless and treatments. A version of this tune exists on Martin Simpson’s WHY I PLAY BASS compilation. This version, has more elaborate and nice treatments. It’s a nice tune. Very niiiiiiice tune. Not tasteful, but nice. I have no use for taste. I have use of nice. Speaking of nice, some of the stunt bass parts were all played at once with no overdubbery and others were overdubberied in my overdubbery labberatory, which is across the hall from the lavatory. Steve Lawson can vouch for this and confirm it as a fact. Which it is. I only state the facts. I do have a fax machine. It stays in the closet. Good music does not stay in the closet. Unlike a fax machine, music gets more enjoyment and use. I’d rather create art than send faxes. Unless I fax some art. ArtFAX. Art facts. Artifacts. Musical and sonic artifacts. I prefer that. Are ya interested? Stay tuned. Love and bunnies!



Tripster