Admiral Twinkle Devil is an anagram of my full name. I'm a huge fan of dub, and had been threatening to do a traditional dub record for years. Over the years, I would do skeletal dub tunes to try out new recording equipment or techniques. A few of these tunes actually warranted release. As I worked on this project, I gradually broadened the concept to include more jazz and electronic elements. While not all the tunes are traditional dub, the process was always rooted in the style There's also a strong element of film music in these tunes, though the idea of "music for imaginary films" seemed a bit pretentious given the scale of this record, hence the subtitle.

Dread at the Controls: recorded in 2000. This tune was an attempt to do a Meters-style groove in 7/4. JD Monroe, AKA DJ Scratch 'n Sniff provides some great turntablism. The main riff is played on a DX-7, the arpeggiated part is from an Oberheim Matrix 6, noise patches from a Nord MicroModular, drums by Cory Oace and a Roland MC-303 Groovebox. Recorded in Emagic Logic Audio. Download MP3 (5.4MB)

Wabi Dub: recorded 1998. Cory Oace, one of my favorite drummers, spent an afternoon recording unaccompanied drum tracks in my living room in early 1998, and these have been essential in the making of this disc. I built this tune around one of his performances, overdubbing Rhodes piano, bass and Nord Lead. It was mixed as a traditional dub mix, all effects applied in one real-time pass through the tune. This was recorded and mixed in Bias Deck. Download MP3 (4.4MB)

Coffeepot: My girlfriend Melissa rescued this coffeepot from her work, it would make this slowly-ascending whistle for about the first 20 minutes after turning it on. It annoyed her coworkers, but she was always telling me about this magical coffeepot that sounded like an Indian flute playing the Alap section of a Raga. Here it makes its recording debut. The sound you hear is entirely the coffeepot, with just a bit of reverb added.

Another Man Done Gone. Recorded 1992. I was briefly obsessed with plunderphonics in the early 1990's, and this piece was done using a primitive 12 bit sampler, a drum machine and a DX-7 for the bass. Dan Scollard, an excellent electric bassist, here provides what I believe is his only recorded appearance on acoustic guitar, recorded at about 3 am one morning as we finished another recording project. I think he sounds great here, adding a Ry Cooder-ish twang. The samples come from the Allen Lomax recording "Blues in the Mississippi Night", (note this was long before Moby's Play album), Gyorgi Ligeti's Lux Aeterna, and the ubiquitous Funky Drummer loop (James Brown). Recorded on analog 8-track and mixed to DAT.

Crash Loop 1 & 2: Computers crash. When mine crashes while recording audio, it'll often leave little bits of extraneous audio on my hard drive. I've learned to accept these as little gifts.

Theme to Down: Recorded 1996 and 1998, in Deck and Opcode Studio Vision. My friend Seth Skundrick approached me about doing a score to his proposed indie film Down, and this was an early idea for a theme. The bass and drum machine parts were sketched in Deck in 1996, two years later I added the rest.

Drivetime Automata. Recorded 2000, Emagic Logic Audio. This piece started out as intro music to an educational CD-ROM, when the music was dropped from the project, I kept this idea around. Over time, it mutated from a Tangerine Dream/Jean Michel Jarre-esque analog synth piece into something closer to jazz fusion or Stereolab. Matt Calkins did the solo in 2 takes in about 1/2 an hour, he sounds great and adds a fantastic energy. The synth parts are all analog, from my MOTM/Doepfer modular, Oberheim SEM and a little bit of Rhodes piano at the end..

November 17 (1999). More Modular synth, this was a set of patterns on an analog sequencer (Doepfer MAQ 16/3), with a bit of arpeggiation from a Sequential Circuits 6-Trak. For quite a while I tried adding parts to this piece, and they only seemed to diminish it. One important thing I learned in doing this disc was the power of simplicity. Download MP3 (2.8MB)

The Ring Modulator of the Nibelungen (1998). Another Cory Oace drum track. I built a simple ring modulator and recorded this tune right after finishing it. The bass, Rhodes and Nord Lead were all tracked through the ring mod. A few days later, the ring mod stopped working, and I've never been able to fix it. This then, is its only appearance on record. The title is a Wagner pun I couldn't resist.

Blow to the Head (2000). As in, "As subtle as a ..." My friend Bert Schoenfeld gave me his 1957 vintage Hammond M3 organ, this piece was recorded the day I moved it into the studio. I was trying to do a tribute to one of my favorite musicians, organist Larry Young, particularly his burning work with Tony Williams' Lifetime. The drum loop comes from the intro to an unreleased Das Neonderthrall track (Henry and my band before Minus). The "other" solo part is Rhodes through a Fuzz Factory and a phaser.

Ode to Joystick. Another classical pun, sigh. An IBM PCjr joystick, bought for $1.79, controlling the modular synth.

Talkeen (1997). This was done in two parts, an analog tape loop of synth textures (mostly ARP Odyssey) and the rhythm track done with samples of Dave Storrs congas, heavily processed, Henry's drums and a Roland Groovebox. The title is an untranslatable Indonesian word for "words uttered with the last breath."

Elevator: (2000). This piece began life as a drum loop by Dave Storrs. I noticed that the loop, when played simultaneously at pitch and a fourth below, had a really great shuffling, loping groove, and the cymbals seemed to imply a C minor 7th chord. Page Hundemer, Dave's rhythm section partner from the Tone Sharks, was the obvious choice for the bass, he also plays the strummed chords on piccolo bass. This was the first piece I ever recorded in Logic Audio. Download MP3 (3.7MB)

Malheur (2000). Recorded during a few bad hours while dealing with my father's death in early 2000. I grew up in Malheur county, Oregon, and always wondered at the irony of the name. The chords were inspired by a Debussey piano piece, and Cory's loop was slowed by about 1/2 to fit the tempo. Download MP3 (4.1MB)