A Past Pastoral

It clears at the start, then a Sleet drum section, quickly joined by the keyboard and guitar. Everything falls back but a few plangent keyboard notes. Guitar comes chunking in like a digestive process gone wrong. At the 3 minute mark a lyrical little melody evolves and blossoms. A rare moment of unity soars. Small variations on a swing follow. Something that ought to be a bit funkier follows. Then just before the 6 minute mark the guitar picks it back up again. Sleet takes it exactly where he wants it while the guitar splinters.

Break It Down, Build It Up

Strings swell in, Sleet plays a hopped up surf beat, a synth beat comes in over it. Treated guitar warbles and boops. Sleet takes apart the synth beat, bass reacts in random spotless bursts. At 3:30 I start regulating the synth beat manually by playing notes. At 5 minutes a new beat comes in, dark and troublesome. Sleet steps it up drastically. At 7 minutes the bass takes charge and things get rumbling, with Sleet creeping around the bass like he’s looking into it and thinking about getting in. He starts pounding, and the keys get a little melody going. At close to 9, Sleet takes it apart and the bass takes flight. The synth beat comes back in. At 10:30 it gets hypnotic for a brief timeless flash. Banging keys starts right afterward, and it gets a bit jungle. Bass pops, as strings take elfin wing. A complaint is registered by the guitar as everything gels into crust. A tiny descent brings about the bombastic end.

Man-Made Wallow

Synths pulse and a melody is pecked while Sleet tip taps the cymbals. Guitar scratches an itch, goes up and down in pitch while insisting on a beat. The synth falls out of sync and wanders back in. The kick drum pops off, the guitar and synth lament and diverge. Near the four minute mark Goddard wails way off in the back. The guitar takes the lead. Sleet slams into the synth beat with staccato snare snaps. Six minutes in everything collapses into a middle eastern drone. Synth bass and laughs, sit on the couch and post that shit on Facebook.

Busy City Shrift

Swift synth beat shimmers, some guitar sparks fly by and by. At the two minute mark strings rise, and Sleet scrambles up and up with the synth while two guitars shed splinters of thought. At the four minute mark it gets real with the bass glowering darkly into the scene. Sleet peels back to a stone cold beat and the bass chugs it along. The guitar gasps gaping scrapes of song. A few shy synth notes offer a melody with a dignified end. Three steps down in a frigid funk descent. Sleet throws new beats back and forth, while the guitar climbs and the synth darts hither and fro. At the eight minute mark the bass comes up with some cold throes, wracked with wonder. The guitar and synth shake it well, then Sleet gathers his children home. Things start to unravel around eleven minutes in, and Sleet pulls back to insistent snare pops. The guitar takes off for the stars, the beat builds, the bass rebounds, the underlying synth surfaces, keys and bass explore a drone, until the bass remains, climbing a scale of eternal whatever.

Make it Rain

Guitar drops pieces of song here and there, and then ramps up a blistering head knocker. The kick drum comes up under. A simple groove develops, growing an increasingly complex drum pattern under it. A mosquito buzzes through here and there. Tiny soft high bass notes decorate the melody. Before the five minute mark a faster groove comes in, with high bass triplets. The guitar scratches it all out, and the synth whistles a lonely alien lullaby in the background. At six minutes it snaps into a Sleet pump, and the bell-toned synths drops notes into a deep water well, the bass smoothly ripples under until the drums pop the bubble and the guitar comes back in with an urgent message from some faithless bankrupt sponsor. Around nine minutes Sleet takes the drums down to a one-legged cripple march, and the guitar decides to make one last stand for art. The synth sweeps it all up sweetly, and weather makes a final desperate plea for our distracted attentions. As we approach the eleven minute mark things get very low and dusty. The synth shivers into flight, the guitar blasts way off in the distance and Sleet pulls it back. It finishes in jerking spurts and one last note struck high.

Recorded April 26th, 2015 at Sleet Studio, Saint Louis, MO.