Tripecac - Coma Pill (2003-2005)

  1. Please Hold [5:29] 2003-01-02 - 2005-01-06
  2. Drift [5:49] 2003-01-15 - 2005-01-05
  3. Beeday [6:30] 2003-01-20 - 2005-01-06
  4. Weak [5:10] 2003-01-26 - 2005-01-11
  5. Zzz [4:14] 2003-01-26 - 2005-01-13
  6. Late [6:11] 2003-02-04 - 2005-01-17
  7. Moved [6:33] 2003-02-20 - 2005-01-18
  8. Sitting [3:10] 2003-02-21 - 2005-01-20
  9. Tantrum [4:55] 2003-02-22 - 2005-01-22
  10. Cleaning [5:45] 2003-02-23 - 2005-01-25
  11. Larrabee [5:15] 2003-02-23 - 2005-01-25
  12. Night [3:48] 2003-02-24 - 2005-01-27
  13. Yeah Right [3:45] 2003-02-27 - 2005-01-31
  14. Share [5:42] 2003-02-28 - 2005-02-01
  15. Please Hold Instrumental [4:48] 2003-01-02 - 2005-01-06
  16. Recleaning [1:02] 2003-02-23 - 2005-01-25

I'll be the first to admit that Tripecac can get a little boring. The endless, aimless, muffled jams, new-age dirges, clumsy jazz noodlings, and sterile trance loops can be snore-city at times. Sure, it's decent background music, but very little of it is either memorable or inspiring. I've been trying to spice things up a bit. On Disco Hike, I added lots of guitar and experimented with different sequencers, effects, and techniques. Extra Extra added wild, a cappella improvs and a guest guitarist.

For Coma Pill I took the opposite approach. I kept the setup simple, limiting myself to Sonar and the Triton; I even reused instruments and effects on many songs. I focused on making the music as peppy and clear as possible; I sped up tempos, used lots of looped rhythms, and toned down the reverb.

I also worked very quickly. I usually spent no more than 5 hours per song: one or two in 2003 and the rest in 2005. I managed to finish all the songs within a month, making this the quickest Tripecac so far.

The end result is (IMO) the most urgent and cohesive bunch of Tripecac songs so far. The tunes can be a little same-sounding at times (e.g., "Larrabee" and "Night"), and the drum mix is occasionally a little off, but overall, the mood is upbeat enough to make me nod my head... and not out of drowsiness!

Gear:

The songs were constructed using Sonar. There's vocals on "Please Hold", "Tantrum", and "Share". The rest of the noises come from the Triton.