SubscribeI’ve started writing for the gaming website Obsolete Gamer, and I’ve just published my first review for them. Check it out: Alex Kidd – The Lost Stars, a very weird game for the Sega Master System.
Tungsten Filament Group
Bryn Schurman's Blog
Trey Gunn interview
Back in May, I got to interview touch guitarist/composer Trey Gunn for the Eleventh Hour Radio Show. We talked about his new album Modulator, scoring for TV and film, and how he got started with the Warr Guitar.
June Caustic Reverie update
The other day, I found some mostly finished tracks that I had been working on back in December. The plan was to make a noise EP with Shufflebrain and then make a drone ambient album with the same source material as Caustic Reverie. It currently stands at eight tracks and 29 minutes between the two projects. I’m unsure if I want to flesh them out into separate EPs/albums, or if it would be better to release them as a split in their current condition.
I may be reissuing some Caustic Reverie albums in the near future. I’d like to tweak the artwork so that the spines all have the same font and spacing and expand on the liner notes in some cases.
Ray Alder Interview
I got to speak with Ray Alder from Fates Warning about the reissue of their classic album Parallels, his latest Redemption album Snowfall On Judgement Day, and what is coming out from FW in the coming years.
Show review: Bigelf and Porcupine Tree 4-24-10
I had the best concert experience of my life last night when I saw a longtime favorite band for the first time. I’d been into Porcupine Tree since I heard Stupid Dream back around 2000, but the first time they’ve played in South Florida was last night. The tour just happened to be at one of the nicest venues around, the Fillmore at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach.
The opening act was the Los Angeles-based group of prog-tinged doom-rockers known as Bigelf. I had seen them last year at the Progressive Nation tour (also at the Fillmore) opening for Scale the Summit, ZPZ and Dream Theater. Luckily, this was a much longer set this time around, and I got to hear more of their older material as well as three or four cuts from their latest album Cheat the Gallows. I think they might be best described as if Black Sabbath circa 1974 had Tony Banks playing organ and Mellotron. The highlight of the show for me was the organ solo on Hydra. Also worth noting was the Yoda figurine that singer/keyboardist Damon Fox had on his Hammond.
Porcupine Tree was a complete sensory overload. Although the band would be entertaining enough to watch on their own, the movies and images projected behind them were hard not to watch and ranged from the hypnotic to the disturbing, especially during the 70-something minute song-cycle The Incident. Said suite was performed with minimal interruptions, which was amazing since bandleader Stephen Wilson had to change guitars in excess of ten times. A second set focused on more recent tracks from In Absentia and Deadwing, though I was treated with the slow-burner Russia on Ice from Lightbulb Sun. Long-time collaborator John Wesley was spot-on in making the PT sound come to life on stage. The fidelity was amazing, but I was too close to the mains notice much if any surround effects.
Few bands can touch the range and sonic sophistication of Porcupine Tree. My experiences from three years ago left me wary of falling fire curtains, but the show went off without any technical hitches that I could notice. In addition to some fantastic playing, there was a brief magic show, a marriage proposal, and a funny bit about Steven Wilson’s misadventures in sun-tanning at the beach. This is going to be a hard show to top.
Caustic housekeeping
I’ve updated the Caustic Reverie pages with a handy list of links. I’d appreciate if those of you on Facebook added my page. I’m currently in the process of uploading more albums to Bandcamp for those that have expressed interest in higher bitrate downloads, but there are some filesize limits that will prevent me from putting up some of the longer pieces like Absent or Bower/Fissure.
Pirates, Vikings, and Knights, oh my!
PVK II released their latest Beta through Steam last week and I found myself hopelessly addicted to the anachronistic mayhem. I poked around their site and found that they were looking for a sound person. After posting some of my work on their forums, they welcomed me aboard (so to speak) to do sound effects and voice acting.
I spent most of the night recording and editing sound effects. This is something that I haven’t really focused on since I last worked on Facewound, and I forgot how much fun it is to grab a bunch of crap from around the house and find ways to make the approximate noises you’re looking for. Part problem solving, part artistic expression, part scavenger hunt. I attempted to film myself during recording process, but I’m not really sure how the video turned out.
RHF revisited
I’m currently working on re-recording the Rotten Hot Fog track This Is Science. The original version was written and recorded in a hurry as part of a songwriting contest about the life or works of J.C. Bose. I like the song overall but the guitar and vocals really bugged me in places. I went to import some of the backing tracks from FL Studio into Reaper, and for some reason, it decided to speed everything up to the default project’s tempo. Talk about happy accidents! I’m woodshedding to get the guitar and bass parts clean at the new, punchier tempo.
RPM challenge
February is almost upon us, and with it comes another chance at the RPM Challenge, which is an event where people attempt to write and record an album of 10 songs/35 minutes in the shortest month of the year. My entry last time was the Caustic Reverie album Rust Shore. I would definitely like to do another ambient/drone album for this, but I feel like I’d be better off using this as an excuse to focus on one of the many projects I haven’t properly fleshed out, such as Sword Oil or Rotten Hot Fog.