If you would allow me, I'd like to take you on a trip through mythological history. Using state-of-the-art-technology, Damaged Tape has electronically recreated some of the sounds that once graced lands such as Atlantis, Shangri-La, and the holy kingdom of Priester John.I've spent the fall working on this collection of music, and possibly sacrificed a bit of my sanity making it. The tracks here are heavily layered and include things such as ghost melodies hanging just underneath the surface while rhythms cross each other in a uneasy alliance. The main focus here was on analog synthetic pomp, but you'll find things like curiously haunted guitars and acid-house beats lurking around in the mix too.
My collaborator on the other side of the world for this one was Scott Atkinson, my pal from down under. Both of us are history dorks, avid connoisseurs of things psychedelic, and we were more or less on the same trip for this one. Beyond his very tripped-out artwork for Psychedelic Anthropology, he has contributed some haunted spoken-word beat poetry on the first and last tracks to fill in the thematic blanks. If you dig his contributions, more of his work can be found here: www.redbubble.com/people/floatingworld
As usual, I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments and I hope you dig the tunes.
Listen to Me:
Damaged Tape - 2009 - Psychedelic Anthropology
5 comments:
I like this a lot, especially House of Turkish Delights and Paradise Pause.
I am curious about one thing though, and that is how did you two go about composing this?
Did you literally sit down and try and emulate what you feel the soundtracks to Shangri-La and Atlantis would be, or is the historical aspect not particularly important?
Sorry for proding :p
Glad you dig the recordings! I don't mind prodding at all.
The first track I recorded was "House of Turkish Delights" in response to one of my students saying that he thought my electronic music sounded Turkish. Shortly after, I developed a concept around the mythological kingdom of Priester John. As work continued, I worried that that concept might be too obtuse, and I was already trying to shoehorn the Coptics and Shangri-La into that framework. "Atlantis Rising" was when I opened up the concept to be mythological civilizations in general. Originally the track was entitled "News of the World" and was to feature samples from 1930's radio news broadcasts. I played it for my father, and he felt like it repreented something like a shark prowling underwater. I liked that idea and simply redirected it towards Atlantis. The quick answer is that the historical (or more accurately anthropological aspect) was on my mind, but the tracks developed naturally and I added the title at the end. If you want to get a window into my compositional process, check out "Paradise Drone" on the 'Dr. Schluss' Best of 2008' comp. It's the same basic track as "Paradise Pause," but with the main melody scrapped and the other elements brought to the foreground.
Can't wait to hear this and the post below! Thanks for putting in so much work for the pleasure of your audience.
I'm looking forward to this, too. If you hadn't stuck your own tracks on that 'Best of 2008' compilation I would probably never have taken a chance on Damaged Tape.
Hi Dr.
again a nice one, very listenable.
I especially like the House of Turkish Delights track as well as the vocoder sounds and the spoken word passages (though the 2nd track is a little bit too much dancefloor for my taste).
All things considered I'd say: solid work, but I'd love to hear some more adventurous, experimental parts - a little bit too much "mainstream" for my taste...
But don't get me wrong, I still like your music a lot.
mike-floyd
http://homemade-lofi-psychedelic.blogspot.com/
Post a Comment