OK...SO WHAT'S THE GIMMICK THIS TIME?
Less of a gimmick, more of a genuinely new way of working. I was experimenting for three or four solid 
months in the studio with ways to create entire songs quickly, but without resorting to the rather 
contrived devices that I, of my own admission, was wont to do on the previous record, Astrocity 
Atrocity.
I had been reading an excellent biography of Miles Davis, whose music was really inspiring me at the 
time, and I was intrigued by the composition techniques he and his cohorts employed during his 
"comeback" period in the early 1980's. The author described them improvising in the studio, and then, 
upon arriving at something great, transcribing bits of it and molding that into a composed piece. I 
thought about this for days and days, until, one night, I hit upon something. I was sitting on the floor in 
my studio, listening to white noise, as I often like to do while I write, and just fishing for ideas. I got 
something after a long while of just sitting, listening. I grabbed my little whiteboard and jotted down 
some rudimentary lyrics. I then let tape run while I came up with a chord structure that fit what I was 
hearing in my head.
This is just one of the many methods that I have employed on this record. I call these various means of 
improvised composition "COMPROVISATION".
The point of all this is that I came up with a record made up entirely of songs (no instrumentals) that I 
am quite proud of, for the sheer originality and uniqueness of it all. Never before or since have I written 
this way.  It is duly noted, however, that most of these lyrics mean nothing. They are snapshots; frozen 
moments in time. But I will explain further below....

TRACK NOTES.

1. Gravity Can't Hold You Down.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Roland SH-3, DeArmond 6-string electric guitar, Reason, Voice.
Firstly, let me just say that the order the songs run on an album is one of the last decisions that goes 
into the production. The decision to include this song on the album actually held up its initial "release" 
for almost a month. I knew it was a strong track, with an infectious, early-90's hip-hop sounding 
groove, a great hook, and some decent lyrics, but I never could get it quite right. It went through 
countless revisions and incarnations before I decided it was finished.  Took  15 minutes to write, a 
couple of hours to program, and over a month to complete. What it ended up being is a song that 
describes a person's dream of going to heaven. What it ended up sounding like is a very out-of-date 
hip-hop / pop thing (maybe a little like Prince) with a lot of samples. Most of the drum samples came 
from my own kit, as well as many implements found in my kitchen. The vinyl samples are one note off 
of an old obscure DJ record I found, which was intended for adding little 'hits' to things happening in a 
radio spot. Very, very useful. The same record was employed for the main melody of "Useless Mind 
Clutter" from Astrocity Atrocity.

2. Take Me With You.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Suitcase Rhodes 73, Roland SH-3, Reason, Voice.
One time I heard this Devo song that used this repeating echo - dit -dit- dit- dit- I've never really 
listened to much Devo (always meant to, just haven't come around yet), so I don't know which one it is, 
but they were playing all these little short notes that sounded so cool with this 16th note repeating 
echo. So this tune was borne out of experimenting with that sound. I put on the drum loop, started 
playing some chords, and then some words came to me, so I wrote them down really quickly. This 
track was completed, more or less, in one night.  The lead vocal is a first take, as are the keyboards.  
The background vocals took some refining.
The words are written from the point of view of a person who wants to be abducted by aliens.

3. Just Another Dream.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Suitcase Rhodes 73, Roland SH-3, Reason, Musique Concrete, DeArmond 
6-string electric guitar, Voice.
A little Musique Concréte here. I had been reading an interview with Morton Subotnick about how they 
would hook up the Buchla Synthesizer to several tape machines, so the tapes could be 'played' using 
its touch-sensitive keypad. I thought I'd try my hand at it. So all the samples were created by me, 
keymapped to a sampler, and played in real time.
This is an abstract lyric; it depicts, again, another dreamscape.

4. F.Y.I.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Yamaha bass guitar, DeArmond 6-and 12-string electric guitars, Voice, 
Drumloop of an ambiguous nature.
A mysterious-sounding song which was created late one night whilst improvising; playing bass and 
singing over a drumloop. Everything just fell into place. There was another vocal section, but it was 
replaced eventually with the 12-string guitar solo. The lyrical ideas are nothing but 
stream-of-consciousness spewings that I later wrote down and revised slightly. The vocals were then 
re-cut on a separate occasion.

5. Following My Heart.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Reason, Voice.
An almost-honest lyric. It's still a little abstracted, but this is sort of directed to anyone who would 
question what I am doing with my life. Sort of in a spacey R&B/Massive Attack -type setting.

6. Coin Toss.
INSTRUMENTS USED: DeArmond 6-string electric guitar, Yamaha bass, Voice, Drumloop.
Guitar Rock Song! A little different from the other slightly-spacey music on this record. I have no idea 
where the lyric came from, but it's pretty interesting. I guess it's about arguments. The whole thing 
would have been better had I actually played some drums on it, but that was out of the question at the 
time.

7. Sound Smuggler.
INSTRUMENTS USED: RF-noise guitar, Yamaha bass, Voice, Rhodes, Reason.
I almost chose not to include this song, as it is one of the least cohesive of the lot. However, I like the 
picture it paints. A pretty abstract lyric. The weird sounds come from pressing TV remotes, cell 
phones, and other transmitting devices onto my guitar pickups.

8. A Name For Yourself.
INSTRUMENTS USED: DeArmond 12-string electric guitar, Rhodes Suitcase 73, Roland SH-3, 
Voice,
Yamaha PSS-470 and Reason drums.
This tune came from me sitting down with my 12-string electric guitar and a loop I had made on my 
trusty old Yamaha Portasound 470. I love that little keyboard. At any rate, a decent song just came 
together all at once, to which I added SH-3 bass and Rhodes, and later the Reason drum loop. 
Everything is a first take. I don't think the words really mean anything. They could, I suppose, but it's all 
subjective.

9. Anatomy Of A Dream.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Reason, Voice.
The vocal AH's are samples of my voice. I recorded two tracks of every pitch that I could sing, and then 
looped them and put them into the sampler. I call it the "MooT-o-tron", although it's probably closer to a 
Birotron than a Mellotron. Anyway, it's a really useful sound.
This is actually one of my favorite pieces that I have done. It was originally written for a short video that 
my cousin Kallai and I had made in August 2004. I re-edited the video a few months ago. You can 
watch it here. It's another song about dreams. Seemingly one of my favourite subjects!

10. The Secret Society of Divers and Sailors.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Wurlitzer 206, Voice.
An odd, odd little song that just came together out of nowhere when I was playing around with the 
Wurlitzer one night. It's an interesting story about people and sharks.

11. Point To Me.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Wurlitzer 206, Voice.
Another strange little song from the same session. I actually sang the lead vocal without 
accompaniment, and added the Wurlitzer later. This one is about a newbie that joins a card game.

12. Cloud.
INSTRUMENTS USED: Spinet piano, Rogers drums, Yamaha bass, Voice.
OK. This song has a long history. It came about as an improvisation that I did in May 2000. That 
version was over nine minutes long, with a lot of discursive rambling thrown in at various places. I 
always cherished the tape of this song, and I knew that I wanted to make something out of it. I rewrote 
it sometime in late 2001 or early 2002, and finally got around to making a proper demo version in 
March 2002. I rerecorded the song some months later, but never completed the track. One reason for 
this is that I thought I had deleted the files from my computer. I just assumed that it was gone forever. 
Fast forward to April 2005, when I was working on this album. I was going through my hard drive, 
looking for things that may have gotten mislabeled or misplaced, and restoring them to their rightful 
locations. What did I find but ALL THE TRACKS FROM THIS SESSION!! It was a very happy day 
indeed. I remixed it, added a bass guitar part, and it was finally finished! Five years in the making. The 
words were definitely more applicable to me when I was 16, but they are still honest lyrics. The song is 
about retreating into my own headspace to escape the mundane world.

13. Part Of Something / This Moment.
INSTRUMENTS: Voice / Spinet piano, Voice.
This was a solo vocal improvisation that I decided to harmonize. I guess the words mean something. 
Anyway, without having a time reference to follow, it took many takes to perfect the harmony parts.
This Moment was a sitting and singing to my tape recorder thing that I did one morning before work. I 
felt that it was an appropriate way to end the album....

Overall, I am pleased with the work that I ended up with. It's a fun record, but it is rather strange due to 
its stream-of-consciousness nature. Thanks for listening!

/=MooT=\