Trex - Simulameous

I recorded this improv with my sister's bass and her boyfriend's drums in two passes using a pair of tape recorders. Have instrument will record, that's my philosophy.

I like the way the bass distorts. That was intentional; I wanted to sound like an electric guitar.

Introducing the next song...

Bang bang bang bang... This is same rhythm as in "Cheapass", but on drums instead of bass.

This drum rhythm is kinda cool. Kinda. Sorta. Loses it at the end, though.

Another bass and drums jam. It sounds like I thumped the kick drum while playing the bass. The bass is very distorted. I guess I was trying to sound punk.

I played a melody from "Trek" on the bass while thumping the kick drum.

Despite the fact that this features relatively involved bass and drum parts, I think I recorded them simultaneously rather than on 2 separate takes. I don't remember how I did it.

Another bass and kick drum jam. This time, I tried to sound like heavy metal. I love the drum sound at the end.

This time I applied the bass and kick drum to reggae. It's okay. Sounds really muffled, though. And it needs melody. And more drums. And a steady beat. And a point.

This is a heavily distorted epic jam, recorded in one take (juggling bass and drums). I love the feedback at the start; it reminds me of Gang of Four. I also love the fact that the drums don't start until seven minutes in. Too bad they're so sloppy!

I really distorted the heck out of the bass! The vocals are really distorted too. It's hard to understand most of them. Not that you really wanna know what I was saying; the lyrics are very dark and raw.

This song was a catharsis. I was stressed about my musical lack of productivity. Tripecac had stalled; I was tired of my Yamaha SY55's limited polyphony, memory, sounds, and editing capability. I much prefered loose, noisy jamming like this, even though it was sloppy.

In this song, I pretended that it was now 2000 and that I had become a couch potato stoner/loser, that I was effectively "dead". That's how I saw some of my graduate school acquaintances. I really didn't want to be like them. This song is my criticism of their unambitious, uncreative personalities.

The interesting thing is that less than a year later, I gave up on the Yamaha SY55, abandoned the album-in-progress (South or Southeast), and bought myself a Triton and an electric guitar. So now I can jam noisily whenever I want. :)

As a "bonus", there's a tiny bit of "Christmas in Cancun" thrown in near the end.

Note: I'll probably censor the profanity before uploading the mp3.

The title is a pun on "Khazad Dum", which was J.R.R. Tolkien's other name for Moria. Yeah, pretty lame. The music is even worse. It's just sloppy pounding on drums. I guess the kick drum sounded like the drums in Moria.

More thumping. I don't know why I thought I would want to reuse it.

I was announcing the next set of improvs...

This starts with simple, slow arpeggios, and then turns into semi-cheesy chords. And then very cheesy melodies. Yuck. Fortunately, it's short.

Bored with the piano, I headed back downstairs to the bass and drums.

More noisy bass and drums racket. I was trying and failing (again) to sound like heavy metal.

I was trying to sound bluesy. Not too bad. For the first few seconds. But then it keeps going, and going, and going... There are pockets of almost-coolness, but lots of sloppy boringness.

I was trying to sound punk again. Didn't really work.

This starts off painfully slow. But gradually becomes cooler. Not too cool, though. This is still Trex we're talking about.

Bye bye.

Final words from the day's long jam session.