Some of you may have heard "Laura and the Jewel-Eyed Snake" on the Difficult Times Radio soundcloud page (I am going to repost that piece here so anyone who hasn't heard it can make comparisons). This is the song that Apio slowed down, stretched out and throroughly transformed to create that (with other sounds and samples added). Here I took the original recording made with a single cheap mic back those years ago when I was in that tent for autumn work. I made six copies of that track, kept two of them as is and added distortions, reverb and delays to the other for to get a more eerie sound. In any case, this is the original song that led to "Laura and the Jewel-Eyed Snake".

Apio Ludd And Chaote Filou - Wheels

I was listening to a recording I made of a song I wrote years ago called "The Wanderer". Because of my (lack of) equipment, the vocals were beyond repair even with the most brilliant distortion, but there was a long enough guitar part with no vocals that i was able to use that (repeated a few times) to create this through various distortions sprinkled over 12 tracks I made out of the single track. So here is my wandering guitar.

Chaote Filou - Wandering Guitar

A few years ago I was reading a book by a fellow named Nick Land. Early on in the book, his name inspired me to write this song. By the time I finished the book, I concluded that he wasn't worthy of the song, but that the song itself was worthy of existing. Since my guitar (and my cigar box three-string instrument) is trapped in a place I can't access at the moment, this morning I did a recording of an a capella version of the song. I then copied it into 8 tracks and did a bit of play with each track. I added a couple of rather chaotic vocal percussion tracks (tongue clicks, distorted laughter) and this is it. The lyrics:
Ol' Nick you know he landed
On a shore that was a swamp
Ol' Nick you know he landed 
On a shore that was a swamp
His beard may still be dripping
But he sure can rave and romp

Ol' Nick is made of fire
That never will run dry
Ol' Nick is made of fire
That never will run dry
He goes to his back pocket
For his flamin' flask of rye

Out in the muck and mire
You can see a fiery light
Out in the much and mire
You can see a fiery light
Ol' Nick he's out there dancin'
A flame laughin' through the night.

Chaote Filou - Ol' Nick

I wrote this "toast" a little over 2 years ago. I recorded it a capella today. Unfortunately I had to sing it much softer and gentler than it should be sung, because the only place I have to record is in my apartment, and my immediate neighbor is an older woman in her 80s, so I don't want to be a pain to her.
But once I had that recorded, I could play with it under headphones, and add the jaw harp tracks, some animal sounds (elephants trumpeting, monkeys hooting, humans laughing) and make a playful toast:

It's true I'm bombastic
But at least I'm not pompous
I blow my own horn
But I play out of key
And that makes me laugh
Like a wild howling monkey
Whose dancing on moonbeams
Right out of his tree

I may be a braggart
And I know I'm a liar
Telling tall tales just
To pleasure your ears
I'm somtimes a ranter
And often a raver
But you know I'm just playing
For laughter and beers

To the wily chaotes
Imaginaut dreamers
And troubador tricksters
I offer a quaff
Madcap merry misfits
And outlandish outlaws
And intrepid idlers
Let's toast to the laugh.

(Actually written on April Fools Day in 2015)

Chaote Filou And The Laughing Monkeys - A Toast

I found a recording I made with some finger picking I did on it, and decided to distort it. In the process I made a couple of reverb tracks that work well as ambient pieces. This is the darker of the two reverb tracks

Chaote Filou - Ridin' The Guitar Easy Reverb 1

This is the second reverb track I made, less dark than the first.

Chaote Filou - Ridin' The Guitar Easy Reverb 2

This is the ultimate track which uses the two ambient tracks, plus several other copied tracks of the original distorted in several ways. The original track was a recording I had made of myself finger picking to "The Ballad of Easy Rider". I took about 30 seconds of that repeated it to get the current length and made a variety of distortions on six tracks I copied of it. This is the final outcome.

Chaote Filou - Ridin' The Guitar Easy

Seven months ago some friends and I did some vocal improvisation under the name of The Anarchic Revelers Quintet. We called that piece "Only the Trickster (an Ode to Anarchic Revelry)" https://soundcloud.com/impd-chaote-filou/the-anarchic-revelers-quintet-only-the-trickster-an-ode-to-anarchic-revelry. A few days ago, I realized the guitar play that I called "Wandering Guitar" would fit well with that piece. So I put them together and this is the result. I feel that the guitar adds a carnivalesque feel to it. So the new title is "Wandering Trickster Carnival". It remains an ode to anarchic revelry.

The Anarchic Revelers Quintet - Wandering Trickster Carnival

This is part of an experiment that the whole Difficult Times Radio/Intentional Multiple Personality Disorder crew have been playing with involving recording a single note and then playing with it. Elle Dritch put the vocal on the Eerie Sounds page: https://soundcloud.com/elledritch5523/elle-dritch-meat-cleaver-one-note-horrors . This is the cigar box guitar track as it was expanded from a single note of about 4 seconds to a song of almost three and a half minutes through various effects and distortions. A fun experiment to play with.

Chaote Filou - One  Note Wonders Guitar Track

I started with a bit of improvisation on my cigar box guitar. Because I didn't have a contact mic, some random noise got in. I liked the possibilities it offered so I didn't clean it out. I made various distortion on all of this in several tracks. The sound I got included bits that sounded like insects and treefrogs in some places I have lived, and I loved that. So here it is.

Random Cigar Boxes - Am I A Frog ...  An Insect?

I needed to test out a new contact mic I got, so I attached to my cigar box guitar and plucked the high E string 3 times. I then took that recording and repeated it enough to make it nearly three minutes long. I copied that track so I had four tracks and did various distortions, delays and the like on those. Then I took two more tracks of the original recording and stretched them out in two different ways to be the same length as the tracks with the repeates. I put some delays, echoes and some reverb on those two tracks. I mixed that all up to get this. The original note was (supposedly) E, but E's goin' into hidin' on this piece.

One Note Wonders - 'E's Goin' Into Hidin'

For the moment I can again play tracks. If this lasts, I will continue with Soundcloud, but will also check out various alternatives.
I'm involved with the Difficult Times Radio/Intentional Multiple Personality Disorder projects. I like playing acoustic guitar and singing, but I make no pretentions that I do either all that well. So usually I distort what I do beyond recognition. Here instead I will try to let the original come through the distortions, so a kind of experimental folk-rock. It will all be flawed, but hopefully as fun for some listeners as it was for me to make. Also I do not consider anything I do "finished". I will continue to play with it all, and if any of you want to play with it in any way, feel free to do so. I would like to hear what you do with any of it.

DTR Folk

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