Friday, January 3, 2014

publishing inridiculous (inri033)

except to split out the last track as a single, i've decided not to alter this in any way.

i was moving, conceptually, to more serious styles of music. i wanted to write these epic 20-minute trips that reached into every genre imaginable. you can hear that shift over the last few things i posted, and it really accelerates moving into the year 2000. this is my last kiddy recording...but it isn't really a kiddy recording.....

see, i had a bunch of noise tracks that i'd been putting aside for a third demo, trinri, that was meant to carry on with the same concept as the first two: "songs" and "collages" would alternate over 19 tracks. the problem i ran up against with trinri was that i was no longer interested in writing songs. what was coming out, instead, were these fifteen minute journeys. that's ultimately the driving reason that i switched things up: the format had worn itself thin.

so, i pulled the noise collages together (along with some older collages that i had pulled from various sources as far back as my first demo tape) into this thing. i became aware at some point, very suddenly, that the whole idea and product was sort of ridiculous. hence the title.

this recording is consequently void of actual songs. it isn't easy to listen to, and offers few reprieves, but if you're a fan of the genre that includes bands like coil, psychic tv, dvoa, nurse with wound and hafler trio (i hesitate to use the i word in context) then you may find something of enjoyment here.

cover art is from 1999. how the hell did the greeks think mesopotamia was an ocean, anyways? surely, they had contact with babylonians, if not indians. that's never made sense to me.

the last track just got tagged on as an afterthought. it never really fit the theme. so, i've removed it (as of january, 2014) and placed it here: http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/book-it.

recorded from 1996-1999. this is my third record. as always, please use headphones.

credits:
j - guitar, effects, bass, keyboards, tapes, synthesizers, live drums, drum programming, hammerhead (909 emulator), sound raider, sampling, cool edit synthesis/sequencing, loops, digital effects processing, digital wave editing, flute

released december 10, 1999



the track i've split off into a single:


AND THAT COMPLETES MY INRI RUN THROUGH.

well, i have an inricycled to construct, still. that should be fun. but it's a different thing.
i need a cult.

somebody 3d print an image of me and get to it.

well, go on now. don't just stare at the screen like a buffoon, get to it.

publishing inrimake (inri032)

....and that closes this down.

it's weird how this represents such a segue. it's on the ass-end of my kiddy releases, but it's reaching towards something more mature and realized. on that note, i need to be clear that, while these are technically remixes and/or covers and/or reinterpretations, they often differ so far from the source material that the connection is barely discernible. the ones that are instrumental are really original compositions in the style of something like the art of noise.

if you're going to listen to this, it absolutely requires headphones and some serious focus. pretty much all these songs are built around very dramatic and very hard panning effects. it's not just a little sci-fi kind of gimmicky sort of thing, the disorientation that the panning creates is really key to interacting with this.

as with most of my more extensive releases, this touches on a wide array of outsider genres: 60s garage-psych, experimental trip-hop, idm, prog, jazz fusion, psychedelia, synth pop, skate punk and several others. at it's core, though, this is both on the art rock fringe of the experimental/industrial genre and on the electronic fringe of the psychedelic genre. that's how to interpret this.

==

something that happened in the late 90s, when fans of bands started getting together and talking on the internet, was the phenomena of the unauthorized remix. schemes were hatched all over the internet to create remix records, tribute discs, fan collaborations and whatnot. in hindsight, given what the internet turned into, it was actually a refreshingly productive use of networking.

different artists have reacted in different ways. i got yelled at by the now deceased singer of god lives underwater for one of these. trent reznor, on the other hand, eventually went so far as to set up a competition (which i didn't take part in, as i'd moved beyond the idea by that point).

once i'd put a few remixes/recreations together, and received more positive feedback doing it than with any of my own songs, i began to realize that if i could get somebody's attention then i could construct myself a launching pad. it seems like that's what a lot of people were thinking; it didn't work out, but i did end up with a number of remixes.

unfortunately, i've lost a lot of them. about a third of them ended up on a cd-r i threw together at the end of 1999. a third just sat on my hard drive, and a third disappeared into the internet. i'm putting them all together here under the title of the 1999 release, 'inrimake'. the initial release ended after "the day inri messed the world up"; the last five songs are 'bonus tracks'. i've further split off the first two tracks to a standalone ep, liquify (inri031), partially because they never fit here properly and partially because it pares the augmented version down to under 80 minutes.

now, i should point out that i was very much going for the *abstract* remix sound rather than the club-friendly mix. you can't really dance to these. you're not supposed to. you're supposed to blare them through headphones and trip out into them.

in terms of my own work, this record very much extends a bridge from the inri period into the deny everything period, to the extent that it arguably realizes the goals of both phases better than either phase does.

recorded sporadically, and without cohesive intent, over '98 and '99. originally compiled in the fall of '99. augmented and minimally altered in january, 2014.

HEADPHONES ARE MANDATORY TO EXPERIENCE THIS AS INTENDED.

credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, synths, drum programming, digital wave editing, cool edit synthesis, sampling, sequencers, loops, remixes, reconstructions, reinterpretations

released october 15, 1999

publishing book it! (inri034)

this is another lost track that exists in a sort of an ill-defined alter-reality. the track mixes idm, new age, jazz fusion and progressive rock into a ridiculous, hyperfruity masterpiece. it's a mash-up of return to forever and mike oldfield, as remixed by coil.

it came out of a jam in my basement that fall. i was feeling a little more lonely than usual. see, i was quite literally the only person in my social group that bothered doing grade 13. so, school was converted from my only real social grounding (and i was always an extremely introverted loner) into a place of isolation and alienation. i skipped a lot of classes, actually, in a desire to escape the people. looking back, i sort of regret not reaching out to the people around me a bit more; it would have helped in more than just a social context. but, in hindsight, i'm also able to understand the separation better as one of class; as much as i regret keeping myself isolated, i think i would have been better off not carrying on with school at all.

i mean, i did well. my average was over 90. but i felt hopelessly out of place. i knew i didn't belong there....that they would never accept me unless i became the kind of pretentious jerk i despised. nor did i want anything to do with them, anyways. i really hated the superior attitude that i found myself immersed within. so, i just kept my physical distance and my mouth shut, hoping the condition was temporary (it wasn't).

the flip side of this is that i was also working a part-time job in a fast-food restaurant and i hated it just as much. i didn't fit in any better there, amongst the kids with no aspirations in life except to work in order to exist.

so, i found myself stuck between worlds, not wanting anything to do with either. in both cases, though, what i found the problem was was the people. "i don't mind the job, but i'm repulsed by the staff".

what i really wanted was just to be able to lock myself in a room and never have to engage with anybody ever again. i think that i'm the only person that could have written this. it exudes my idiosyncrasies in surreal, tongue-in-cheek humour. but it's also dead serious.

"i'd rather have a book than a friend.
it's loyalty will never end,
doesn't succumb to fashion or trend,
and all the information it sends,
will never get lost along the way.
when things get as tough as they may,
it will always know exactly what to say,
'cause books don't hurt...
...or do they?"

musically, there's some fancy playing here. everything is completely live: no loops (except the drums, programmed into a 909 emulator). that guitar part is sort of tricky. and check the bass part in the breakdown.

the thing i really like about this the most, though, is the gorgeous kosmische ending section, which is built up on overlapping sixths and is just the most dreamy thing to escape into ever. dramatic ending chord care/of a day in the life.

and, indeed, this is the dramatic ending chord for inri.

recorded in the fall of 1999. as always, please use headphones.

credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, synths, sequencers, drum programming, flute, digital wave editing, vocals, production

released december 15, 1999