SILENCE ON THE AIRWAVES

Track Listing: 1. Speak Up, Robot 2. Rubikon 3. Machine Love 2.0 4. Telophase 5. Sine Square Saw 6. Darkdance 7. Silent They Rust 8. Signals From Inner Earth 9. Through The Vortex 10. Shortwave

The Manitou's debut CD, completed December 2005; released January 2007.

Liner Notes

Speak Up, Robot - Created primarily from glitches sampled from a barely-working Speak & Math, with a drum track and a couple of synthesizer parts to finish it off. All the parts came together surprisingly quick, and needed very little post-production. This is one of my most spontaneous and serendipitous tracks to date.

Rubikon - The title has no real bearing to the meaning of the song (whatever that is) but seemed to fit the music. The lyrics are equally vague; I like to think they're about being desensitized.

Machine Love 2.0 - Machine Love is based on an old MIDI track from my Synthesis cassette. It first appeared on the Darkdance e.p. in 2002. This version is re-arranged and remixed, bringing out the vocals and enhancing the impact of the climactic ending. It's about falling in love with a computer.

Telophase - A house-inspired song about the point at which cell-division occurs in single-celled animals that reproduce by mitosis. The working title was Musiqbox, because of the music-box like patch from the K-Station I used.

Sine Square Saw - This is quite an experimental track. A good portion of it was born in Fruityloops while I was testing its MIDI capabilities. Samples used here include 1/4" drill bits being struck, and vocal snippets courtesy of some friends of mine.

Darkdance - Another song from the past. This fit perfectly with the other material, so I gave it an overhaul and cleaned up the mix.

Silent They Rust - This wistful instrumental was created while testing a VST a friend sent me. I got out my Optimus and recorded some piano over the top (with plenty of delay), then finished it off with the GMedia M-tron.

Signals From Inner Earth - Anxious to use some of my circuit-bent gear, I put together this ambient collage initially as an extended intro for "Through The Vortex." Lots of reverb and strange noises. The title was inspired by the Hollow Earth Theory -- the belief that the world is hollow and there is a whole civilization living inside it.

Through The Vortex - A jaunty but laid back house groove which takes a diversion into sample-territory during the middle 8. I had some fun with arpeggios on this one.

Shortwave - A lengthy rave track, packed with synthesizer goodness, including an improvised acid solo. The simple lyrics are about finding love on the airwaves.

Kit List