This one just came to me after it occurred to me that I could sorta exploit the other meaning of the word "beef" i.e. a problem or issue (example: "what's the beef man?" or "do you have a beef with that"). Not that I really exploited it. The "lyrics" are just kinda free-form mumbling/talking, vaguely about that subject. I was grasping at strwas LONG before the end. XD Oh, and I actually was hungry. I got myself some food as soon as the track was finished (which wasn't long, those vocals took only two takes to do). The guitar and live keys, such as they are, were played by me- Alex was sick (and probly asleep too- I did that thing LATE at night). It shows... Not exactly precise or complex, even with the editing and the many, MANY takes... Still feels very sloppy to me. But I guess that's parta the point. Or something. Oh well, I'm learning at least... :P The whole thing took about 6 hours and was done in two nights- the bass synth, drum loop and guitar/keys in one and the vocals the next (last night, specifically- also when I did El Cheapo's vox). I ran the vox on this one through the amp's slapback delay setting... I like the effect. But the lyrics are still pointless. But it's all good fun. I nice, loose way to close the EP I guess, and it kinda bookends with Beef earlier in the tracklist.

09 More Beef (Finished Mix)

I'm really not sure what this one was gonna be called. I had something "clever" worked out for it- and then I forgot. Such's life I guess. It's not a bad title for this bit'a weirdness, another Alex improvisation that just kinda happened during the Drip sessions (much like 'Hat and Unicorn Storm). As with the latter of those two, EQ was needed to deal with annoying background noise (EQ was also used on Drip to stop the bass guitar from "wallowing" too much at the extreme low end and to make the arpeggiated guitar runs "sharper" sounding...). The "drums" (if you want to call 'em that... I feel calling those sounds drums might be a little generous...) on this song are actually the drum setting on my cheap-ass keyboard run thorugh reverb on a guitar amp and and then more reverb in the box (ie in ACID on my computer- no preamps or boards were used in the making of this music. Unfortunately... Money is the reason.). It's a freaky way to introduce an EP. But we're freaky people... I guess.

For a given value of freaky, anyways... ;)

01 I Am Not Sure What This Song Is Called (Final Mix)

Ah, Beef. The first song Alex and I did for this project... That's goin' back... :P Good times. We recorded it at his house in Adobe Audition CS5. Which was fine at the time, but then his computer crashed and was formatted/upgraded... :/ We had to put the constituent .wav files onto my hard drive and I had to rebuild the thing again pretty much from scratch. But... It worked. This is probly the track I'vefiddled with the least mix-wise, after maybe Lame and Mr. Happy's Hat... What can I say, it wasn't hard to mix. I recorded the vocals LONG after the fact, only three weeks ao in fact... But I think they work pretty well, even if they are kinda tentative and could probly be done better now... I ran them through a distortion effect in ACID after recording, too, for more abrasiveness and bite. Enjoy. I like the taste of Beef...

02 Beef (Final Mix)

A very simple, very quick piece we came up with and recorded in about 10 minutes. By we, I mean Alex, really. I just recorded it... It came from a random piano bit he improvised which I liked and captured on a whim, and then he overdubbed the synth part, as well as a guitar part which we replaced at a later date with another, better-recorded and more complex line... :) I think this is kinda a soothing piece, and apparently so does my friend Tab/Elision/whatever she calls herself now... And, of course, that great title (another Alex invention). This originally had annoying, cruddy-soundin' (in a bad, completely unintentional kinda way, not the cool Lo-Fi, Pavement/Archers of Loaf/Sebadoh/insert 90s Indie band here kinda way), but I got ridda most of it via one of ACID's EQ plugins... Oh, technology. :P Plugins are a real life-saver...

03 Operation- Unicorn Storm (Final Mix)

Drip (Reptition), or just Drip, as it's more commonly called by people who I talk to about it (mostly just me, Alex and about 3-4 four other people), is probly our masterpiece thus far. When I first started programming the drums (which is pretty much where I start, I dunno why... Just how I work I guess), I didn't quite expect it to go on as long as it wound up goin' for... It just kinda happened, and took me along for the ride. The basic drum programming was done in a single session (maybe 4 hours long). The synth part took a similar amount of time, and then after that I had Alex come in... He worked out all the parts (more-or-less) in maybe two hours and we recorded all the guitar and bass in maybe 12 hours (spaced over two sessions, the first of which was 8 hours long! :P VERY productive day, that. And very hot out, too...) We were pleased by our work when we were done, but I wasn't so pleased with the initial mix (not bass/drum heavy enough, and the arpeggiated guitar part was too loud), so, over the next several months I came back to it on multiple occasions, tweaking it until I came up with a better, "heavier" mix... However, after several more months ad the posting of the original version here on Soundcloud, I realized that the rhythm guitar part we recorded was outta time in places and lacked proper bite and definition. So, just two weeks ago I had Alex redo it- we got a far better-played take in a fraction of the time it took to do the original- a testament of both Alex's improving musical skill and the stuff I've learned from the Sound Engineering courses I'm doing... :P However, the mix here might still need work. Also, I did vocals just before Alex re-did his part. I ran my vocal mic through a guitar amp with reverb turned up and set up my other mic by the amp and recorded from there- and, lest we forget, I set this up at the kitchen table with the amp on a chair and the mic recording it duct-taped to the table at a very precarious angle... The joys of DIY. XD

I hope you enjoy this opus. I enjoyed making it- but I'd enjoy listening to it more if I could just get the damn mix right, eh?... ;)

PS- Almost forgot- there's a few more details on this one I wanted to share. In addition to the EQ used on the bass and guitars (mentioned in more detail on the description of this EP's opening track), there were some interesting sampling tricks used here. I created a sound collage of dripping sounds and maniuplated them using LeafDrums (my drum machine program, FYI) into a loop, which runs throughout the song from beginning to end. I added this after the song was already mostly done, so it altered the song's runtime by adding more to the beginning. I also creaed two loops of weird guitar "pops" and "plunks" that kinda remind me of a dripping faucet (sense a theme yet? :P) that Alex was experimenting with. This was compiled at the same time as the other loop mentioned above, not that you or anyone else cares... Lastly, there's that bass solo (a last minute thing we put in at the end of the main sessions) and a slightly time-shifted duplicate of the main drum machine pattern which I turned down a bit and added some odd phasing effects to. That's all, I think. Stay frosty guys....

04 Give 'Em A Band-Aid (Final Mix)

THIS is the final, mixed version. There were some issues with the last one, but I've more-or-less ironed them out here... :P Anyways, to the description.

Courtesy of The Imploding Universe Experience, on the (soon to be existant- at some point) SoundWave Records:

The final version of our (mine and Alex's) EP, Synaesthesia. Recorded over the course of the last two years, and remixed several times (not to mention that the vocasl were only recorded in the last few weeks- in fact, two of them were just done tonight). A whole lotta work, and it's still not perfect (but then again, what is?), but it WAS a fun time. Hope anyone who listens likes it, and, if not, well... Good for you, I guess, eh? Oh, and feel free to comment. Positive feedback's always appreciated, and negative- well, as long as it's constructive criticism, it's all good. I can take it, eh? :P

In the words of one of my songs, GET SOME!!!I

Personnel:

Sam Kasenberg - Synth and Drum Programming, Sampling and FX, Vocals, Production and Mixing (such as it is) -&rt; Guitar and Live Keys on Track 9 (Notice the lack of prowess on that song. And it sounded even worse without the editing...)

Alex Umback - Guitar, Bass and Live Keys on all track except Track 9. Also, general awsomeness and a great deal of patience... :P

05 Drip (Repetition) (Final Mix)

Finally, one of my catchphrases ("Get some!", borrowed from an old co-worker during my best-forgotten tenure as a Tim Hortons wage-slave... The less said of which, the better! XD) gets some airtime! And, of course, over one of the catchier things Alex'n I have done so far. :P A sorta pissed-off, acid-and-rage-twisted Surf-Punk (a la Agent Orange, The Dead Kennedys, some Social Distortion's mid-period work, The Offspring as of "Come Out and Play" and, of course, The Surf Punks) car song (car songs being up there with love songs as a staple of Rock'N'Roll songwriting... Everyone from the Beach Boys to The Jesus and Mary Chain have done 'em! Not that We're anywhere near the level of those guys talent-wise... :P), this one originally had even dumber lyrics than the ones here, which I came up with to replace my earlier set at the last minute. Another one that was a real nightmare to mix, what with all the layers. Also, originaly the organ runs through the whole song. I really like Alex's guitars here- one side a steady, crunchier part and the other a high-pitched, twangy wail (which I messed with in post by manually quadrupling to create an odd sorta delay-like effect)... And, of course, that trippy-ass solo in the middle, which pans from ear to ear (blame my just learning about the pan envelope function at the time of mixing for that)... ;) Not much else to say, except the mix still sounds a little off to me... But I guess you're never quite satisfied with your own work. :/ Oh well. Oh, and this was originally called El Cheapo (with El Cheapo as the car's nickname in the original lyrics... Dumb, eh?), but the plural was added with the lyrical changes...

Anyways, burn in hell, Bob. I hope you get yours... ;) And, of course, for the rest of us: GET SOME!!!

06 El Cheapo's (Final Mix)

This was an easy, EASY song to do- the whole song took about 8 hours, and the guitars/bass took about 3... Rewarding though. Lyrically, it's wordy but not sophisticated- standard put-down stuff, really. The line "You're so lame" is a take off on "You're So Vain" (You know, the old Carly Simon song?...). Stupid, but fun. Probly the most Hardcore/Punk-esque song here, really... But, all in all, it came together, and the mix was one of the few that worked out quickly and well overall... Not much else to say- Once again, vocals recorded clean and then run through the distortion in ACID- doesn't sound as good as runnin' 'em thorugh a Fuzz pedal like I did for El Cheapo's though...

07 Lame (Final Mix)

What can I say, this one just happened- it took maybe 5 minutes. It's been messed with as little as possible... Kudos to Alex for the random stuff he comes up with outta nowhere- I gotta wonder what goes on in that guys head. :P The title's random too, one I came up with this time. if you can guess what it means... Good for you I guess. Classy stuff, that title... I'll let you guys figure it out. Look it up on Google. Or don't... It's your brain.

08 Mister Happy's Hat (Final Mix)

09 More Beef (Final Mix)

We're The Imploding Universe, a two-man group from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, consisting of (thus far, though things could and probably will change) myself (Sam Kasenberg, doing Vocals, Drum/Synth programming, Sampling/FX and Production as well as Songwriting/Arranging) and Alex Umbach (Bass, Guitar, live Keyboards). We've been working on stuff for the last two years very sporadically, due to a potentially devastating combination of having too much other stuff to do and outright laziness. I'm pretty serious about this and am currently taking sound engineering courses (I also plan on going into engineering/production and possibly starting my own record label), so I'm learning as I go... On the other hand, Alex installs security systems, so he's not around that much... :P Shame, that. 

We play some sort of Indie/Alternative thing, which I like to think of as Industrialized Acid Punk (or maybe that should be Industrialized Psychedelic Post-Punk...). Uhhh...

The name of the record label I plan to start is SoundWave Records. Also, I'm sorta semi-involved in some other projects, some of which may also get their own pages here...

Enjoy, I guess. Overly long description is overly long. Yay. Whatever... :P