Nerve (1990) is the first cassette album I had duplicated, with a run of 50 copies. It combined scrappy portastudio recordings made in my basement apartment with more polished tracks recorded with a mix of personal and professional equipment at York U. Not all of it holds up, student work or not, but some of my best early efforts were made here.

"Empire in Recline" is an instrumental mix of a song on Nerve. It fuses nu jazz funk and synth rock. The digital clav riff and gated drum sounds are of the period. No programming was used, all parts were played manually.

This track is a reconstruction of the original production using digitized stems from the 4-track cassette. I made several edits to the drum track to sync it to the unedited main keyboards; the tape and recorder were 20 years old at the time of digitizing and not reproducing the audio at a consistent speed. For the last minute, the drums and main keyboards are running together without any edit points. I have left in artifacts such as hiss, an audible punch-in on the drums, loose rhythm and keyboard flubs. There are no newly added effects or processing.

Composed and recorded November 1989
Yahama DX27 synth, Roland S-50 sampled drums, Tascam Porta One
Cassette 4-track stems transferred to digital 2009
Reconstruction in GarageBand, October 2025

Image: Nerve cassette J-card layout (detail), incorporating a photo by James McGuire

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2025

Empire in Recline

somewhat burdensome (Chris Laurent Remix)

night one (Erik C Nelson Remix)

Loops of different lengths, cascading against/with each other.
Main loop quoting the "Rohan" theme, by Howard Shore.
Field recording from September 10th, 2025, at Hillside Park in Waterloo, Ontario.
Mixed in October, 2025.

Decomposing - Cedarwood Sounds

Becoming Sensor or a Planthropocene pt. III. Allison Cameron, Natasha Myers, Ayelen Liberona

Becoming Sensor pt. III. Allison Cameron, Natasha Myers, Ayelen Liberona

Corals Of Valais (1997) by Allison Cameron Eve Egoyan, solo piano

somewhat burdensome (Seavulf Remix)

No Title Yet

líthos klásma (1995) was commissioned as the acousmatic score to the dance piece "Meshing" by Dave Wilson and the Parahumans. It premiered as part of the show Coded in October 1995.

https://elmahboob.com/2025/11/25/199530-lithos-klasma/

Composed and recorded September-October 1995

Korg 01/WFD, live transfer to CD-R, August 2000, unmastered

Image: my birthday, January 1995

Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2025

líthos klásma

Toronto-based musician and producer David Psutka has resuscitated his long dormant Egyptrixx alias – originally part of the legendary Night Slugs crew alongside L-Vis 1990, Bok Bok and Ikonika - and is preparing to drop a new album, How Tidal, on his own Halocline Trance label.  Here, he celebrates the album’s imminent arrival with a selection of faves and exclusives from the Halocline Trance vaults.

In The Mix: Egyptrixx's Halocline Trance mix

Song for Rāḥêl

A recurring process with shifting sound sources and modest production.

And sometimes recordings of songs/improvisations by Anna.

Song for Rāḥêl

Matthew Fava

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