In a word: industrial.

I recorded this during the fall quarter of my first year at The Evergreen State College, much to the chagrin of a roommate. This was a completely different approach from my previous works both in how and why it was done.

This was mostly done entirely within long discontinued Macromedia SoundEdit 1.0 with a few "live" exceptions, basically continuing with whatever I could find as I had very little money to work with. I was also loaned a Yamaha DX-11 (which I later bought off the lender) and some guitar pedals that I used for a few of the tracks. Also I was lucky enough to have a woman I knew read some of my lyrics. Her name was Kelly Coyle, and she has appeared in a good number of my works in some form or another.

This was the first time I ever did a digitally based project such as this, but the quality of the average consumer PC in those days didn‘t amount to much. So due to my hardware restrictions, this one is 8-bit 22kHz audio all the way. It sounds like an AM radio blasting heavily programmed industrial music out of a monophonic speaker. Even so, I often think of this as the beginning of my serious audio composition as there was less improvisation and more structural approaches within the pasting of all the sounds.

Sadly, this recording has as many low points as high ones. It's a highly personal project and it's highly negative — in fact it was largely an outlet for self-depreciation and emotion. The words are harsh and immature, somewhat reminiscent of a Nine Inch Nails lyric. The nicer moments still work and some of the lo-fi arrangements have a powerful psychoacoustic effect of aiding in sleep. I've been an insomniac for as long as I can remember, and ironically I had no idea this would be something that one could go to sleep to. It's just too harsh and abrasive.

A few copies of this were actually distributed to willing recipients (mostly fellow undergraduates), so this was my first multi-distributed release. Oddly nobody was offended, at least not in front of me.

A personal landmark mostly for technical reasons. Two sides, 90 minutes.