The Creeping Man
Shifting landscapes of electronic happenings--drones, beeps, field recordings, decomposing melodies and the odd spot of sampled dialog--create a wholly satisfying landscape to repeatedly explore. Nice!!!
Favorite track: The Spirit In Which You Say It.
There were no lights in the sky, not at first. Not until you started looking for them. By that time it didn't matter anymore, there were larger questions. Had there really been anything in that photograph at all? And weren't you simply LOOKING at the photo when this started? How did you end up beside this old school (closed down only a few years ago,) staring up at that tree-lined ridge, trying to figure out what it is you'd seen? Had you fallen inside the photo?
The school closed down in 2018, 2019… but it's 1982. How could that be? Staring into the empty corridors through cracked security glass you have a sense of déjà vu. You walked those halls carrying books, you sat in that auditorium, you stood and tried not to wince when your friend punched you in the shoulder. Except you didn't go to this school, and in 1982 you weren't even in high school yet anyway. You're an old person and you're 10 years old, you're a high school student and you're middle-aged, staring at a photograph of something that could be just a white speck on a lens, or maybe the surface of something mostly occluded. Or maybe it's something stranger, telling you it's 1982, 2012, 2018, and 2021 at the same time.
What was in those trees in 1982 that some bad photo from 2018 reminds you of? The thought tickles the surface of your mind, some page from some book in an abandoned parking lot, fluttering in the wind. But it's gone again. There was probably nothing there, and the lights in the sky never mean anything at all.
credits
released August 15, 2021
All music composed and performed by TT between March of 2020 and August 15, 2021. Incompetently mastered in August, 2021. All text and artwork also created by TT. Creative Commons license Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike.
Font used on front cover is "Press Play" by codeman38.
Allele Cog Experiment used, for this album, mostly Eurorack Gear. For the nerds, here's a probably incomplete list:
Arturia Minibrute2s and Rack Brute, Pittsburgh Modular Mod Tools, 2hp Vowel, Make Noise Morphagene, Joranalogue Filter 8, some (very well built) knock-offs of Mutable Instruments Marbles (Pachinko,) Clouds (Typhoon,) and Elements (Atom,) 4ms Ensemble Oscillator, Erica Synths Black Wavetable VCO and Black Hole DSP, Doepfer utility modules, ALM Busy Circuits Pamela's New Workout. Other tools include some effects pedals: Red Panda Tensor, DigiTech Digidelay, and various cassette recorders and players, as hacked versions of those. This album is mostly, though not entirely, DAWless; this is definitely not a stylistic choice but instead a practical one related to workflow, time, and space. Some things were recorded in Reaper, but most direct to a Tascam DR-07x, whose battery cover I think I lost today in Bedford, PA - if you find one, or have an extra laying around, let me know. All rudimentary mastering done in Reaper.
While this is a solo endeavor, and any mistakes are mine alone, there are a lot of people who've helped make it possible. My wife, who doesn't really get what I'm up to down here but supports me doing it in every way. My two kids who occasionally peak their heads in to see what that horrible noise is. My two brothers who usually don't like what I do, though every once in a while surprise me, and my mom who is my mom. Jim George who said, basically, "just put some shit out, idiot," and who is waiting with baited breath for this album to "drop," (boom); Chris Campbell whose work as The Creeping Man has been an inspiration recently and who helped to push this album into existence, probably without knowing it; Michael Johnson who's helped me immeasurably in the process of beginning to grok modular synthesis, and whose work as Apertome is an inspiration; Ryan Adam who, occasionally, I can find on a Saturday when I need him; Anthony Robinson with whom I've had numerous discussions about how to do whatever it is I've been trying to do musically and philosophically since I started trying to do it; Simon Waldram who's supported the music I've been a part of over the years as much as, if not more than, anyone else; and the ghost in the closet under the stairs. There are quite a few people on Instagram who seem interested in what I do here, and while there are too many to mention, I appreciate them all. There are countless others but this is starting to feel pretentious for an album I've just sort of crammed together over a weekend. Is this pretentious? If I've forgotten anyone it's because I'm an idiot.
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