Senryu

“A Change of Heart”
“Great. Expectations.”
“The Last to Let Go”
“Thunder Shook the House”
“(finally found my)”
“Halfwild Boys”
“Take Yourself Apart”
“Hyperventilator”
“Memory Zero”
“Before it Happens”

Senryu is Zac Fallon, Andres & Dan McCormack, Steven Rodgers, Jeff McClain & William Wright

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Eric Nowinski

Artwork by Jenna Hancock.

Executive producer: Arrison Kirby

Click here to purchase on iTunes

Click here to purchase on CD Baby

The Beauty Bar, New York City

Click to download as a continuous mp3:

Venusian Proclivities

“Liquid Days (Part 1)” – Philip Glass Ensemble
“Non mirar di questa bella imago” – Sergio Vartolo/Concerto delle Dame di Ferrara
“Possibly Maybe” – Final Fantasy & Ed Droste
“Sea Breezes” – Roxy Music
“Send Me No Flowers” – Nellie McKay
“Before Cologne” – Ben Folds
“Never Tear Us Apart” – Beck, St. Vincent, Liars & Os Mutantes
“A Trail of Asterisks” – Senryu
“Your Place” – Zero 7
“Take Care of Business” – Nina Simone

So we’re on into Libra now and I felt moved to make this mix as a result.  I’m not sure how many Libra people would actually enjoy this music, but I do feel like the flow of the thing captures that Libran sense of beauty and relative softness.  Also, it’s one of only a very few mixes I have ever assembled that seems to be overflowing with romantic lovey dovey type crap.  Given the typical Libra ideas of romantic love (the effects of all planets that are not Venus notwithstanding), I don’t believe it could really be any other way.

I didn’t want to get too much into the Libra dark sides with this mix.  I wanted to keep it focused and refined.  Possibly even elegant…certainly balanced.  Consider it a birthday present, Libra people.  Jeeze.  Libra Libra Libra.

Senryu

“Missing Page of Memory”
“MorningKidNightKid”
“Inklings”
“The Best Weak”
“A Trail of Asterisks ”
“Up We Go”
“Obsess Much”
“Fang X Fang”
“I Hope You Don’t Burn in Hell (Just Kidding)”
“Natural Regretter”
“Can You Hear Those Trumpets?”

Produced by Zoe Ruth-Erwin & Senryu

Wil Wright – guitar, vocals, music
Steven Rodgers – drums, music
Dan McCormack – guitar, music
Andres McCormack – bass, music

Additional recording by Arrison Kirby, Eric Harvey & Wil Wright.

Cecilia Miller – cello
Daniel Hart – violin
Natalie Kimbro – violin
Ariel Saldivar – duet vocals
Zoe Ruth-Erwin – duet vocals
Jeff McClain – additional vocals
Zachary Fallon – additional vocals
Savanna Ellis – reading
Ruth Carey – reading

Art Direction by Jordan Noel at GingerGroupDesigns.

Recorded around Knoxville, TN.
Drums recorded at El Studio.

Original sketch by Saitarou

“Yoko Intro”
“Tuesday, September 9th”
“Deadway”
“Mimi and Chippu”
“Chippu and Mimi (Alternate Version)”
“Heaven”
“Only Ghosts”
“Yoko’s Song”

Here are some outtakes and experiments from my sessions recording Part 3. Notice the art that accompanies this entry also.  These are the original conceptual sketches for the album art.  These sketches, as well as the end result are the handiwork of Japanese artiste, Saitarou.  Click her name and check out her stuff.  She’s incredibly unique and gifted in what she does.

As to the music, here is a guide:

“Yoko Intro” A lot of stars aligned to get me to Japan.  My friend, Sean Deitrick, had just moved to Nagoya and had an extra room for me to stay in.  Also in Nagoya, they were kicking off the opening of a new airport built on a landfill island.  Because of this, I was able to get a round trip ticket for four hundred and forty-four dollars.  Lastly, through the magic of social networking, I had befriended Homako.  (She is a design wiz, by the way, so you should check out her stuff.)  I knew her better as Yoko back then, when she lived in Nagano.  Part 1 was a mix CD that I sent her in the mail when we first met.  (She sent me candy and a CD by The Books.)  Part 2 was another mix CD, which I hand delivered to her when I arrived at the Zenkouji Exit in Nagano.  Part 3, of course, was the all original recording I did of all the songs I wrote when I was over  there.  Long story short, “Yoko Intro” was the first (and only original) track on Part 1.

“Tuesday, September 9th” I was in Japan in April.  In May I went to Pennsylvania because my aunt was dying.  I brought my MC-909, a hand held tape recorder, and a bag of cassettes with me and began programming work for “Jim on the Plane.” I also worked on three other tracks on that trip.  One of them was this one.  The news broadcast samples were recorded from the radio on the morning of September 11th.  I call it “Tuesday, September 9th” because that first reporter states that Tuesday, September 9th, will go down in infamy.  Either he messed up, or the conspiracies run deeper than we thought.

“Deadway” This beat formed out of the “Train to Nagano” beat quite accidentally.  I was experimenting with different echo effects on the beat and then suddenly there was this thumping, crazy mess.  When Dirtnap Dave and I were putting together the earliest beginnings of our hip hop ensemble, Flashmob, I presented this track (with others) for possible use in the project.  Understandably, he poo-pooed it.  His roomate at the time, Kactus, says it sounds like sweaty gay club music.  I kind of hear it.

“Mimi and Chippu” This was another one that  I presented for Flashmob, but we did not use.  It’s the skeleton from “Chippu and Mimi” but with an assortment of additional sounds, obviously.  I completely did away with the old arrangement and melodies, in fact.

“Chippu and Mimi (Alternate Version)” This essentially is “Chippu and Mimi” but with different beat arrangements.  It almost made the final cut, but I decided on a last minute reworking after deciding that it sounded too disco-simple.  The final version is much less half-assed.  This one simply is what it is.

original sketch by Saitarou

“Heaven” I used to be really proud of this piano piece.  Unfortunately, I could never really find a home for it, outside of my own heart.  We played it live with Obadiah a few times, but no one in the band really gave a shit about it except me.  I held on to it as long as I could, but never wrote it down.  Now it is completely gone from my memory banks and will probably never be played anywhere ever again.  Sad.  This is the only non-Obadiah recorded version of it.  Though they are not present on this version, it did have lyrics.  They were:  “Heaven is in surround sound and the atmosphere is comprised of nitrous oxide.”

“Only Ghosts” I created this on my 909 during the sessions in Pennsylvania.  (See above.)  If you listen carefully, you can hear a sample from “Mr. Krinkle” by Primus in there.  I had no real intention for it in the beginning, but this beat has since been used for a small handful of stuff.  In regards to Part 3, I had first used it in “Bamse.” Since then, it has also been applied to my remix of “Disconap” by Senryu.  The beat was also used by hip hop trio, Per Capita.

“Yoko’s Song” Before there was a Part 3 (or a Part 1 or 2 for that matter), there was “Yoko’s Song.”  Homako and I had begun chatting in February.  After hearing some of my music, she suggested that I make a song with a heartbeat in it.  Then, on St. Valentines Day, I did just that.  The result is this.  I completed the whole thing in a day.  Written, mixed, mastered and delivered on February 14th.  It’s probably the schmaltziest thing I have ever written.

illumination

“Ohio” – Chin Chin
“Jet Engine” – Forest for the Trees & Beck
“Crooked Dub / Obscured by Clouds”  -  Gorillaz vs. Spacemonkeyz vs. Pink Floyd vs. Arrison Kirby
“Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping” – Air
“Roche” – Sebastian Tellier
“Noir Blues to Tinnitus” – of Montreal
“Video Tapez” – Radiohead vs. Del The Funky Homosapien vs.  Amplive
“Great Gig in the Sky” – The Flaming Lips & Peaches
“Speak, See, Remember” – Pavement
“One Fine Day” – Cracker
“The Great Western Road” – David Byrne
“Cloud of Unknowing” – Gorillaz, Bobby Womack & Sinfonia ViVa
“Sleepyhead” – Senryu

illumination was submitted for the Tapeworms March theme:  “Wake Up.”  I am posting it today because it’s Easter Sunday and I find this to make for a pretty good Easter mix.  My only regret is that I didn’t have it posted this morning so that someone might wake up to it.

photograph by Caleb W.

“Inklings (Two Missing B’s and a Microphone)” – Senryu vs. Arrison Kirby vs. Beck

“Inklings” was the first song from the new Senryu album to REALLY hit me.  It did the first time I heard it and the effects lasted a good deal beyond that time.

Its BPM is just a little bit faster than that of some bonus beats from Beck’s “Where It’s At” session.  So I slowed down Beck and stuck the two together.  After a little bit of tweaking, editing and remastering,  the result is a “clubbier” version of “Inklings.”

I think there is something psychic intertwining these two pieces of music intrinsically.  The imposition of one over the other is nearly dead on as the course of each song changes.  Perhaps it’s merely a fanciful, random intermingling of sounds in time with each other, but I think there is something more veiled and godlike at play.