Bottom Feeders

This compilation was originally conceived as a collection of recordings of Bass-Type Instruments doing things that Bass-Type Instruments do not ordinarily do. At some point it was expanded to include Electronic Noise Artists... the only music maker lower on the Sonic Food Chain than the Bass-Type Instrument Players. We also threw in a few Screaming Drunk Girls for good measure.

Track Listing and Notes:

1. Scraps/Chic Norris
A microtape recorder placed inside the bottom of an 8" doumbek inserted above the bridge of an upright bass presented to the player Koto style.

2. No More Tickets to Frownland/Jeff McLeod
Arrangement tracked live through a stereo filter. One take of minimal Chapman stick overdubs through a second stereo filter, then one take of bass guitar direct through a tube preamp.

3. Seven Mild Growlers/Roman Gabriel Todd's Beast Rising Up Out Of The Sea
recorded August 2006 to 4 track cassette.

this was recorded in 7 takes. first is a whole tone scale in A with a nice little blast beat. second is a whole tone scale in Bflat with a tom tom rumble. third is ultimate butter. fourth is a tribute to the flying luttenbachers. fifth is 121231212312123. sixth is a peice made on the drums by benny with RGT adding notes. seven is bass vs drums. the 7 takes were edited together in a cakewalk program.

t. ray once took a shit and told me "it was a mild growler"

4. Vomitorium/Stephen McClurg
Upright bass prepared with binder clips. I almost erased this, but when I began projectile vomiting during playback, I figured it was the keeper. Second take following the first take following a 13 hr drinking binge.

5. Picking Weed Out oF Their Loco Heads/As documented by Scott Bazar.
Performed solo on tabletop guitar by myself and a small electric fan. No effects or overdubs were used. It's a study on contrast: from dark calm to bright erratic.

6. Black Diaspora/Trey Lane

7. 40 Minutes Into A Bottle Of Mad Dog/MicSmythe (MS)
I got off work, picked up a bass, grabbed a noisemaker, some indian bells, and a bottle of Mad Dog. I pressed record. All live, with a touch of delay added during some bowed sections. The ambulance in the background is real.

8. Prologue/Mike Lane

9. Lane Change/Mike Lane
Mr. Lane was presented with a bass drum, an upright bass flat on its back, an electric bass with the headstock inserted into the drum head of the bass drum, some mallets and sticks. MicSmythe turned the knobs on an envelope filter while Lane triggered the drum and played on the various surface points of the upright bass.

10. Conjugal Visit With An Unplugged Electric Bass/MS
A tribute to instruments sitting in corners collecting dust. An old electric bass with rusty strings recorded unplugged, with outboard effects added in mixdown.

11. Basic Training/MS
The most obvious natural harmonics played in the most obvious way for less than obvious reasons. The title is a clue for those that wish to venture further.

12. Sentences Generated For Disgust/Kenny Johnson
Upright bass, Marimba, Roto tom frame, boundless playground bells (playground for developmentally challenged children in Montgomery), Vocoder samples, Hand claps.

Recorded 8-10-2006.

13. This the stars, the sea mirror, unseen in his death./McClurg
An electric bass played with the edge of a quarter. I began with the idea of using the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” as a raga. Third take.

14. Walking the Coward/Frankie
For this track a barrowed electric bass was sent though a cable to a recording device and a song was played by a man.

15. khflxlm/Jeff McLeod
Arrangement tracked live on Chapman stick into an Echoplex Digital Pro, with each successive part multiplied and overdubbed on the fly in the first pass-through. After the parts were played, they were then rearranged manually on the EDP, then recorded. The synth at the end was added after the EDP parts were dumped down, and is a pre-dialed-up pattern cranking up after the synth (an old Realistic Moog knock-off) was switched on.

16. Tothra/Panelouxx

17. Exit Comfort Station/Artaud's Skeleton
Recorded June 24, 2006, in Montgomery, Alabama. Used a G4 eMac. The track is comprised of drone vocals slowed down to emphasize the low end. Some of the vocals are doubled and quadrapuled up. Also some sounds of keys jingling, tweezed and tweaked to emphasize low end. Entirely improvised; it took a little under an hour to complete. Not recommended for high volume and/or weak woofers.

18. Onkyo/As documented by Scott Bazar.
“Onkyo” was recorded at home, no effects or overdubs were used. "Onkyo" means reverberation of sound. It is also a term used to describe a school of thought concerning minimalism. The goal of this piece was to create something of quiet intensity. A guitar was used placed on a table,muffled by cloth,and a large letter holding spring set on the pickups. The piece was performed by distancing myself from the table and gently tapping the floor. The vibrations would resonate through the spring and pickups creating a very low bassy thunder clap. It was recorded very low so that the silence is louder than the sounds causing the listener to hear things that may or may not be there and to raise the question "does it really exist?"

19. Defaulter Deformer/Mur
One electric bass track detuned to octaves and fifths and bowed--flavored with heavy flange and reverb effects. Second electric bass track tuned standard and distorted. Samples from Christian public television, Decorated war veteran and seasoned killer Mr. Rodgers, and a faith healer's sermon translated to Japanese - Lyrical phrase stolen from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake.

20. Soggy Donuts/K & B
Sample riff from a defretted 1980's Series Ten bass extracted by Ali A, with microtape vocals from a freak out session with Kelly T and Becky M. The actual bass player is our dirty little secret.

21. Outro/Matthew Martin
Matt was asked to play an ending without a beginning. Mike Lane grabbed his drums. Press record.

22. Cantelope/Frankie
For this track an old bass(y) acoustic guitar was mike(d) and ran through an octave pedal and distortion pedal, then the peice was improvised while a Dandelion ate a cantalope.

23. Hampton Boardwalk/Kelly Coyle
As I recall, the task was to have something composed and something improvised. I almost immediately wrote the composed piece for it I just couldn't get it recorded. That, and I didn't own a bass just then.

It's really a guitar piece, played on a tic-tac bass, an instrument that is tuned like a guitar but an octave lower. No fancy stuff on the recording (it could be better), but I'm pleased that I got it to work at all. The improv might be next (I'm not real sure).