I recorded this last year in a single improvised, spur-of-the-moment session. Listening to it now and you know what? It's fucking epic. It's too goddamn big to be contained. It's like an obnoxiously extended Stanley Kubrick sequence, melted until it's all ugly and warped, then run through a Viewmaster.

I also don't know how my neighbors put up with this shit.



m2
james fenimore cooper

1) james fenimore cooper (31:06)

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

The latest in my m2 music project, these five pieces total about an hour and are strung together into one long suite of intense drones, washes of sounds, and abrasive soundscapes. It will either be relaxing or utterly grating, depending on your tastes. Enjoy! (Song titles are links to the mp3 files.)



m2
The Endless Twelve

1) Sunday Bliss Can't Lift, Can Only Pretend (7:05)
2) Falling Back Into It (10:38)
3) Etched On Me Is A Waiting Demon (7:38)
4) The Endless Twelve (24:54)
5) Sobriety (5:02)

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Thanks! I will be downloading once I'm home. Looking forward to it!

_________________
"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Hey Shoe, I think you have the gain set a little too high. This recording is pretty distorted.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

My guess is, because he's Angelo Badalamenti.

_________________
"When I was a kid I always thought Chewy and Lando were brothers."

It is quite fun to run things through a dozen effects pedals and hear the result, isn't it? I have some weird synthy toy things and an electric bulbul tarang (some stringed indian instrument) and I love cranking the gain up and making textural stuff like you posted. I never record any of it though. I'm pretty much just like a kid with a bunch of toys and no purpose.

Oh yeah, I love doing that stuff. Just exploring sounds and textures, seeing what happens if you attack the guitar this way instead of that way, things like that. I get lost in it. When I really get in the zone I'm just wrapped in it. The result are these long, meandering drones and washes of sound.

I'd been doing it for myself since I bought my first guitar in ... 1992? ... but never thought to play it for other people. Most of the time I never even recorded it. When I finally did with this record it was sort of on a lark. Didn't do anything else like it for close to 10 more years, though I kept playing music like that.

One of my biggest regrets is throwing out a few hours worth of four-track tapes that were primarily either early forms of this, or drumless recordings of me and the guy I did Slumbersigh with just making walls of noise in my dad's basement. This was around 1994 and 1995. Only two brief clips survive and they're pretty cool (to me). Why did I throw them out, damnit!?

The recording I want most is this 45-minute piece that was nothing but layered feedback. I didn't have a four-track at the time (this was in 1993), but I could sorta do multi-track by plugging a pair of Walkman earphones into the mic jack of my cheap bookcase stereo. It was one of those dual tape decks where you could dub tapes, and if you dubbed a tape while also recording you could layer the stuff on top of one another. It was really rough and you had no real control, but whatever.

So one afternoon I took a tape I had -- I remember it vividly -- which had R.E.M.'s Green on one side (written with green ink) and Document on the other (written in orange ink). Plugged in this shitty yellow guitar I had into my shitty Gorilla practice amp, cranked it way up, and let feedback drone and shift and swell for an entire side of the tape. Then I rewound and did it again, laying a new set of feedback on top of the old. I did this maybe four or five or six times.

It was probably unlistenable, but for me, at least, it was damn near meditation music. I listened to it quite a bit until I discovered this Flying Saucer Attack collaboration. (That's also around when I discovered that other people actually did this stuff, and people liked it.)

I have no idea whatever became of that tape.

tl;dnr - right on, Brian!

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Just remembered that one of the very brief surviving clips is "Asshole" from Music To Trip To: The 1994 Xmas Single. (Notes about that tape are here.) "Forgetting Prozac" from that same tape is sort of like the feedback stuff I used to do, but not exactly. It's taken from the end of a joke song I did called "Fat Boys Need Love, Too." I no longer have a recording of the song itself, only the few minutes of feedback at the end. It was intended to be abrasive, guitar-wrecking feedback rather than endless, meditative feedback.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

m2
Falling Back Into It

DISC ONE
1) Spinning Lecterns (2:32)
2) Womb Encasement (16:50)
3) Election (6:44)
4) Paint Brushes (7:42)
5) Without Waking (6:46)
6) Untitled (10:08)

DISC TWO
1) Projection (1:44)
2) Unbroken Sac (7:03)
3) The Day of the Tears (12:23)
4) They Forget The Tab At The Way To The Station (5:25)
5) Summer Day Cools To Grey (4:22)
6) Pangaea (15:04)

NOTES: Recorded from 2009 to 2011, maybe. This is the first m2 double record. RSJ plays additional guitar on "Pangaea". "Without Waking" was originally recorded for an abandoned collaboration with Carl Sagan's Ghost and is presented here with only the m2 contributions. "Untitled" was recorded in 2008. Cover photo by ESJ. All songs (c) ESJ 2012.

Also at:

http://www.ericsanjuan.com/fallingback.html

and

http://shoegaze99music.blogspot.com/201 ... -2012.html

EDIT: Realized my notes are wrote. Spinning Lecterns, Projection, and Election are all from 2008, too. I originally intended to do an EP called "Election" -- all three tracks were recorded on Election Day 2008 while watching the returns -- but I found the idea too trite. Set those tracks aside and forgot they existed until recently. It only clicked with me just now where they came from (they've been in the front running the last several m2 albums).

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Downloaded before I left for work but haven't been able to listen to it yet.

_________________
"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Hope you enjoy. I was a little unsatisfied with portions of The Endless Twelve -- in retrospect, linking all the tracks together into a single hour-long piece was not the best choice, as you need those breathers between pieces -- but feel like I bounce back pretty well with this one.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Happy with the response so far. I posted it someplace I haven't ever posted my music. One person followed the link to all the other m2 stuff and commented on the previous album instead of this one. Got the most awesome compliment:

It was one of those things where I was listening to it late at night, and it kept getting harsher and harsher, and I was worried my neighbors would hear it, but I seriously couldn't turn it off because I was worried the sudden silence would melt my brain.

:thumbsup:

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Listened during the last part of work today. I love how you tracked it. I can see me splitting the discs depending on my mood as I feel the latter disc is a little harsher overall than the first one.

Favorite tracks so far:

Without Waking - something about this one reminds me of a church organ slowly building and then fading.

Womb Encasement - I dig the record needle style static at the beginning and how it bleeds into the main track.

Paint Brushes - I like the overlapping sound of the picked notes.

They Forget the Tab at the Station - I was going to say this one was my overall favorite but it's a tie.

Pangaea - because this one just slays me. I've been repeating these two while setting up my paddleboard. Between the work and the music, it's like I reached a zen state.

Thanks for sharing this Shoe. Falling Back Into It may be my favorite of your M2 stuff. It's at least tied with The Dialogue of Narrow Sorrows.

_________________
"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Glad you liked it.

Pangaea is an odd one. I don't have a strong memory of playing that one, in part because I was sort of directing Shoe Jr. while doing it. He plays some additional fuzzy guitar in the background, especially in the latter half. The two of us were sitting facing one another, both with amps blaring, and as I'm making my way through it I'm directing him on how to follow. You can hear some voices I left in at the start. Usually I'd clip that out, but it felt right to leave them in.

On Womb Encasement, that record needle static is actually guitar stuff, believe it or not. I didn't intend for it to be there, but it was, and I was too pleased with the slow building shimmer of the track to throw it away.

When I get a chance I'll upload the collaboration version of Without Waking. It's pretty interesting. Starts as you hear it above, but develops a synth bassline, drums, and samples my guitar sounds on its way to being ... kind of groovy. Quite different.

Thanks for listening!

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Untitled used to be, but I think The Day of the Tears is now my favorite. It just feels thick and big, and it pulses and cascades through all these movements that lose me. I just got wrapped up in it bad.

I used to never do stuff in post, finding it "impure" for stupid reasons. But I started to do more than just record the pure noise based on some comments by you, CaryC. And this track wouldn't exist without that. It's strength in part comes on the reverse reverb I now use a lot ... which is funny, since the guy who INSPIRED me to do this stuff is Kevin Shield (My Bloody Valentine), and his main trick is a reverse reverb pedal. He uses a pedal, of course, and I always felt like if I was going to do it I'd DO IT LIVE



But then I realized, who cares?

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

"Summer Day Cools" is now my favorite. I had it on in the earbuds while paddling and it was perfect.

_________________
"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

The great thing about m2 is I feel like it's a private sort of thing. I've listened to everything I can find, btw. The Endless Twelve is on my Modern Warfare 3 battle playlist. Latest album is a very pleasant surprise.

Let me know if you expand into vocals. I would send anything I could for a m2 track.

Regardless, keep on keeping on. Great stuff.

_________________
"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss."

Wow, thanks, Z! That means a lot to me. Had no idea you were even tuned in.

And yeah, even though I share it it's definitely private to me, especially since very few people listen. Which is okay. That's not why I do it. I'm gratified that ANYONE listens. It's just kind of a thing I do.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Yeah, and there's something pretty powerful about working in that way, too. Most of the projects/artists I've found that work in private are usually the most interesting and diverse. It should be more appreciated and definitely more practiced.

_________________
"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss."

I have three new m2 records just about set to go, just making minor tweaks to a few tracks that aren't working for me. One has been sitting around for over a year, another was recorded all in one night when I was dealing with a really difficult situation a few months back.

Plus I'm in the midst of trying to collect all the worthwhile material that never got onto an album. An outtakes collection, I suppose. Trying to trim about 10 hours of stuff down to two discs.

But!

Last night I sat down with the guitar, super overdriven and doused in of echo, and started playing a piece.

The next thing I know an hour goes by. I had totally zoned out. Got lost in the sound and ended up recording an hour long piece. Didn't force it. It just came out.

Listening back now and it sounds like it came out pretty cool. I don't know how often I'll have the endurance to listen to a single piece this long, but I'm really liking how it sounds. Don't even remember playing most of this. It goes to some pretty cool places.

Going to have to give this thing a title.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Doing overdubs on an hour-long track is fucking exhausting.

It was all improvised the first time around. I don't know what the fuck I was playing.

Trying to put a pair of stereo tracks to it, anyway. I think this earns a little more work and a bigger sound.

But geez, to stay focused this long. TWICE. (Three times, actually. I mean twice for each stereo track.)

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Yeah, there's a reason why almost every Tangerine Dream concert is only available in bootleg form (wholly endorsed by TD), and only a handful were ever mastered properly. Granted, it's easier with computers nowadays, but you still need a spiritual level of patience to grind through lengthy improv pieces.

_________________
In space, nobody can hear you ride breakfast goat

I see how you roll, Shoe. Hold out all of 2013 and then do an Inception release in January. It's a pretty good plan. But.. these tracks need to be smoked and gamed to!

Feed us.

_________________
"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss."

Looking forward to hearing this. I need music for the plane trip to Fest!

_________________
"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Did some additional work on the hour-long piece this weekend. It seems to work, which surprises me.

Surprises me because the SUPER long stuff can get pretty claustrophobic. I enjoy the individual tracks on The Endless Twelve, for instance, but I laid the whole album together as one continuous pieces. As a result, I get fatigued listening to it. It's so DENSE. It never pauses for breath. There is very little space on that record.

This new one has ups and downs, and it has kind of a scuzzy guitar tone that fills up a lot of space all on its own, but it doesn't overwhelm, either. I'm enjoying that.

Anyway, I'm almost leaning towards pushing this new piece towards the front of the queue and waiting on the other material. Don't want to dump everyone at once, and at the moment this one excites me most.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Clicking record. NOW.

To do another live dub on that hour long track.

See you at 12:45 am. Damn.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

11 minutes in.

Laying back for now. Actually playing would ruin it.

Maybe more in a minute or two.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I was going to do play-by-play last night as I tracked, posting during stretches when I wasn't playing (I'm leaving some moments more sparse than others), but got caught up in the music.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Not too long ago, I saw my dad dead on the floor of his house. He had been there for several days, long enough so that his face and extremities had started going black and so that he started to puff up in that weird way that corpses do when they've been sitting around for a few days. When I got home, I plugged in the guitar.

This is what came out:



m2
The Third Day

1) Boxes Filled With It (3:25)
2) Only Moving Backward (3:48)
3) Slow Decay (14:16)
4) Not Alone Anymore (9:00)
5) Seeing Light (5:25)
6) Frayed Mind (1:27)
7) Multi Organ Failure (6:14)

The recording is deeply flawed in spots -- my wah pedal has shitty wiring and it was acting up bad -- but I felt like in this case I'd just present the whole session as an honest document of that 45 minutes or so rather than try to massage it.

No outtakes, no tricks. Came home, plugged in, this happened, unplugged, had dinner.

By m2 standards, I think "Slow Decay" is the standout. In other circumstances, I'd have ditched most of this session but kept that one. It's a good track. "Boxes Filled With It" is also pretty good and is also one I would have kept.

Anyway, new m2 music.

Cary, I'll try to get that hour-long piece I've been talking about uploaded soon so you can zone out to it on your flight, I just need to listen to it a few more times so I know I'm happy with it.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Sorry about the circumstances surrounding this recording but I'm eager to hear it nonetheless. Thanks for posting the links.

_________________
"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

It's not public yet, but here is the hour and ten minute piece recorded a few months back.



We Finally Made It (109:29)

This was....

...I don't know....

... still too close for me to look back on and decide whether or not it's good, I s'pose, but having gone back to it a dozen times already and gotten lost in portions of it I decided yeah, why not?

I will buy a beer in person -- fucking three -- for anyone who can actually last through the whole thing.

That's not a challenge. Just sayin'. You're either into it or you're not.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I am currently combing through 10+ hours of material trying to bring together a project I've been kicking around for close to 8 years now: a collection of m2 pieces I like but that never made an "album." When I do these albums, they're usually culled from a lot of material, since I really just record this stuff as a way to "vent," end up liking some of the results, and bring them together into a collection (though on numerous occasions I have set out to start recording with the specific intention of recording an album -- and in truth, those are usually the best ones).

I've whittled things down, but we're still looking at 3 "discs," and possible 4, instead of the 2 I initially intended.

Not sure if I should just go balls out or keep chopping it down.

Frankly, it doesn't matter a whole lot these days. I don't really run in ambient/drone circles anymore and no longer post to those forums, so whereas at one time when I posted one of these records a couple of hundred people would download them (which is stupid and amazing, yet it's true), I'm pretty sure they don't get any action anymore. Hard to tell. The statistics on my new site suck, and I won't spring for BandCamp.

Still, putting them out in the world is what makes them "real" to me. It helps me feel like, "Okay, that's finished, now I can move on," otherwise it kind of sticks at me like a thorn.

So I have to get them out there.

And soon. More is coming very, very soon.

A lot more. There are several years worth of material built up at this point.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I have it down to three discs, but three long discs. Each a bit over an hour. That's long.

I think I really need to suck it up and cut a bunch of shit, get it down to two discs of just the best outtakes. Ultimately, the most important thing is that I can listen to these, since I listen to them more than anyone else!

Already putting all the other stuff into disc-separated "Outtakes" volumes that will be just for me, so it's not like the effort is wasted or I'll have a hard time finding this stuff again.

(I record so much stuff of so many different styles, it's sometimes a pain for me to find the stuff I want to revisit. Experiments with electronic music or me crooning with an acoustic guitar or whatever, I record a lot of stuff no one but me ever hears. Part of this whole effort is just getting it better organized and culling the best of it.)

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I'm looking forward to hearing it, Shoe. I've been neglecting my own songwriting and music for years now. Every time I hear one of your drone albums (and there are two still on my iPod- The Endless Twelve and Dialogue of Narrow Sorrows - that get regular play), I want to go back and pick it up again. My biggest obstacle is honestly that I no longer have an easy way to record and layer tracks. I've played around with Reaper but had latency issues and just didn't have the patience to try to hammer those out.

My point is, I'm looking to more M2 stuff to kick my ass into gear. Two discs? Three discs? I'm good with either.

_________________
"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack