Here's an update on my upcoming album The Mechanics of Mysticism, wherein I discuss why it's taken me more than a year, where I'm at and some of what's left before it's finished.
Haven't had a #production update for the Mechanics of Mysticism in a while... because I haven't had much to report. It's been a period of mostly laying fallow, thinking about the tracks and occasionally poking at them with a stick while saying "c'mon, do something" and doing nothing...
But NOW! Now we're cooking again! A couple of months of mostly being distant and working on other stuff musically had broken something loose at last, and we're once again cooking with gas!
Last night I loaded up a track, and instead of playing it a few times, making a few notes and then staring into the abyss waiting for inspiration, I just got cracking on it. In the course of three or four hours I added a new section, implemented a new harmonic idea I've wanted to explore in that section, added a couple layers of percussion to the whole track, and did a bunch of cleanup/organizing on it to get it ready to do the final production push.
First off, the "bad" news: it's not going to be out in October/in time for Halloween. For the few of you who were hoping to hear it by then, sorry!
Second, it has an official name (though if it takes long enough to come out, even that could change LOL). It will be called The Mechanics of Mysticism.
Currently working on 13 tracks, but it could always shrink, or could even expand a tiny bit.
Progress has been slow, but I am chipping away at it, bit by bit. It's definitely going to be recognizable as a follow-up to #PsychedelicGhostStories but it's going to be a pretty significant departure at the same time -- more exploration and emphasis on harmonic structures, and I'm attempting to use space a little more effectively on my arrangements -- it doesn't have to be so dense all the time!
Right now, it has a weirdly jam-band vibe-- at least to me-- as I'm exploring some concepts of thru composition and layering performances inside the arrangements. But I've also been removing stuff almost as fast as I add it, so who knows where we'll end up?
The important thing, to me, is that I still feel like I'm making progress even tho my original plan completely fell apart.
I've considered posting some of the early jams on SoundCloud or something... The final tracks won't soundtoo much like the early versions, but maybe folks are interested? I don't know, LMK what y'all think.
I'm also thinking I might do another EP release, or even a longer album length release, of some droney improvisations based around Strega + Terra ... So if that sounds appealing, LMK.
New video! This time, it's a studio tour covering the core elements of my studio that I'm using in my writing/recording phase for the new album! I talk a little about the gear and a little about the process. Enjoy!
New album #ProductionDiary! After an untoward amount of time spent futzing with the second track, I finally set it aside earlier this week, then spent a couple days or so working out a way to move forward.
I landed on setting up and recording some jams, with the intention of slicing them up and building tracks out of/on top of them. After a day's worth of setup and troubleshooting, I came up with this:
Time for a quick #ProductionDiary Update! I'm basically back in #PreProduction, or more accurately in a hybrid preproduction/writing phase. Set up another jam last night and it was really flowing, sounded great. Going to do another performance of it tonight, then start another new one ... Finally feels like progress instead of treading water.
First track is finished with phase one (basically written/"demoed" but it's not a demo, because I'll use most/all of what I've recorded so far in the final track, building on what's there).
Now it feels real. Vibe will start to reveal itself soon.
Time to talk about the making of my album. I hope even if my work isn't to your taste, you might find this useful as a document of home music making, whether as a source of inspiration, a resource for problem solving, or a cautionary tale.
I'm going to tag these with a series of things which might fluctuate, but I'll tag every one with the album name #PsychedelicGhostStories and #ProductionDiary, so you can follow those tags, or those tags together if there's a fancy way to do that.