Fresh from Imbued Vagary’s live streaming event on NYE 2015, Floating Fish Studios held its first Synth Jam Session of 2015 at FFS II on 01/01/15.

This track, titled Overload, is an electronic experiment from the session.  Be careful!  There’s just no telling where this may lead…

Imbued Vagary - Overload (Live at FFS II 01/01/15)

This second offering from Floating Fish Studios Synth Jam 2016 - Birthday 07/30/16 sessions is an improv titled, Diseased.

Paul Polidoro on the “Wheels of Steel” again shows off his turntable prowess during this improv while Thee Sub One Genius assembles a Beat Architecture landscape. Ttam Troll pulses a Prodigy synth bass line as Mary, Mary sprinkles samples throughout.

Imbued Vagary - Diseased (Live at FFS II 07/30/16)

During the Fall of 1987, Scott and I began to search for musicians to form a new band. Our previous band, The Secret Society (rev1), had disbanded after Dirk Frey began to pursue Experimental Jazz music which didn't quite fit with what we wanted to do and Larry Lee Fiber had packed up Melqwar (sp?), the Fiber family station wagon, with all his belongings and headed to Los Angeles, CA to pursue a career in the music business. Larry's move to LA also deserves a special note because, with his move, there was no longer a direct Fiber family presence in Shippensburg. Though their shadows were long from UAS (Underhill Albany Station) and LA, things were never quite the same.

Not to be deterred in our pursuit to form a new band, Scott and I visited a band practice session at the home of Griff "Take a Whiff" Townsend in the Fall of 1987 where we saw Tim "LTJTHC" Harrell on drums and Matt "Scrap Pap" Skirpan on guitar. We liked what we heard from Tim and "Pap" and shortly after that practice we asked them to join the band that we were forming. They said yes and we then collectively began our pursuit for a lead singer.

While attending SU (Shippensburg University), Scott met a guy named Brad Shaeffer whom he had some classes with. Brad told Scott that he was a singer so we arranged to go over to his apartment and audition him. We went over and Brad sang Robin Trower's Bridge of Sighs. Here's where, in hindsight, we should have realized it wasn't going to work out. We really didn't have any similar musical tastes but we needed a singer and he had a microphone (and a "very" small Gorilla amp) so we recruited him and our band was complete.

Now, since we had a band, we needed to find a place to practice and to line up our first gig. Here's where our friend Kurt Smith came into the picture. Kurt was attending SU and living at 9 Queen St in Shippensburg with some of his future Pi Lamba Phi brothers. They were planning a New Year's Eve party for 12/31/87 and asked us if we would play at the party.

At this point, we still hadn't rehearsed together as a band and there was only a week left before the party. Since it was Christmas break for those of us in college and high school, we were able to practice every day but, needless to say, we had a lot of ground to cover. We needed to pick some songs to play and learn how to play them. We ended up with a 7 song set list which included Pung (an original song), Wild Flower (The Cult), Monster Man (The Suburbs), Need You Tonight (INXS), Progressions (an original song), Misty Mountain Hop (Led Zeppelin), and Primitive Love Rights (Mondo Rock).

In addition to picking songs to play and learning how to play them, we also had to pick a name for the band. We had been rehearsing in the basement of 9 Queen St which was also to be the site for our first gig. The basement was affectionately referred to as "The Dungeon" and, as you can see in the picture above, the basement was pretty nasty and was equally "smelly". As an homage to our rehearsal space, we decided on "Dungeon Aire" as the name for our band.

We managed to get through the show and it was well received by the partygoers. They didn't seem to notice that Matt Skirpan's guitar was severely out of tune for most of the set. This was the only gig that we did as "Dungeon Aire" and shortly after this show, we added Kevin "Bart the Fart" Wilson on guitar to the band and changed our name to "This Mistress". More on that in future posts.

There was a jam box recording made of this entire show and, without further ado, here is our version of Monster Man (The Suburbs)...

Dungeon Aire Live 12/31/87

Dungeon Aire - Monster Man

In Fall 1989, we formed our electro-terrorist unit called Any Questions?. In the very early days of the band, MC2P4 wrote and sang most of the vocal parts but we also worked with a few other singers before I (Ttam Troll) eventually took over all of the singing (term used "loosely") duties.

One of these singers, whom I wrote about in an earlier post, was Brian "Who" Black but the first singer we worked with was our friend, Ken Chandler. MC2P4 and I had both known Ken for many years and had played in several bands with him. Some of these bands included Fantasia, This Mistress, and The Secret Society (rev 2).

One weekend in Fall 1989, we invited Ken to visit and record with us at Der Palast des Goldes. We (Any Questions?) had been working on several songs and, by this time, had three (Nightfall, Numan (Madonna's Puss), and Vagary) that we felt were ready for vocals. We played these songs for Ken and then turned over our Fostex X-15 Multitracker 4-Track Cassette Recorder and pair of headphones to him so he could listen to them and compose lyrics.

After a day of sporadic work and excessive partying, which frequently happened at Der Palast des Goldes, Ken had finished lyrics for these songs and we endeavored to record them. The second song that we recorded is one entitled Vagary. It's quite different than a "typical" Any Questions? song. This pensive synth rock experiment showcases the more varied experimental sound of early Any Questions?. I hope you enjoy it.

Any Questions? - Vagary

This sonic experiment culled from the FFS II Synth Jam 2010 - '80s Style session was conducted on 05/15/10.

Thee Sub One Genius' interplay between a Korg ElecTribe ER-1 and ES-1 created the rhythmic foundation from which he, MC2P4, and I manufactured this fractured yet oddly uplifting improvised instrumental. Always seemingly on the verge of derailment, we held it together, with the help of Ali, for the 7+ minute running time of the experiment.

This experiment is titled TR-3.

Imbued Vagary - TR-3 (Live at FFS II 05/15/10)

Legend has it that on one early June evening in 2010, a FFS II Synth Jam was held. The ensemble gathered included Dave Chandler (aka Thee Sub One Genius), M Scott McConnell (aka MC2P4), and Matt Norcross (aka Ttam Troll).

During the improvised recordings, which were dubbed the Punish Your Machine sessions, the trio of synthesists became hungry and ventured forth from the studio in search of nourishment. Their search ended in the land of Fujiyama. It was there, at the hibachi table, where Chocolate Japanese Noodle Baby (CJNB) was born.

This 11+ minute audio sculpture is our sonic representation of the experience. It was recorded on 06/05/10.

Imbued Vagary - CJNB (Live at FFS II 06/05/10)

This opening drone from FFS II Synth Jam 2010 - Drones on 07/24/10 captures a performance by Dave Chandler (aka Thee Sub One Genius - pictured above) and M Scott McConnell (aka MC2P4). It set a perfect tone for the sessions and, upon my arrival and a trip to Fujiyama, we delved further into atonal soundscapes.

This improv was titled TR-1.

Imbued Vagary - TR-1 (Live at FFS II 07/24/10)

Ice Rift is an audio sculpture culled from Any Questions? - Darkness. This rare 1992 release offered an early glimpse into our Imbued Vagary project and an example of the synthetic tapestries that we would weave into our future film work.

The longest of all of the songs from Darkness. Ice Rift is probably the bleakest. It's another song which I composed well past midnight and before the first rays of dawn. These hours proved to be quite fertile creatively for me while I explored some very dark corners.

Darkness

Any Questions? - Ice Rift

This was the first time since 02/20/10 where all original FFS Synth Jam members convened and we wasted no time diving deep into the electronic plasma pool.

The ensemble gathered for this session included (from L to R) Tim Harrell (aka LTJTHC), Dave Chandler (aka Thee Sub One Genius), Matt Norcross (aka Ttam Troll), Stephen Saputelli (aka Steve O Klock), and, not shown, M Scott McConnell (aka MC2P4).

The first audio to surface from the inaugural FFS Synth Jam 2012 is this improvisation titled TR-1.

Imbued Vagary - TR-1 (Live at FFS 11/24/12)

Today marks the 5 year anniversary of the original new era FFS Synth Jam.  The fruits of which are still being enjoyed today.  From these sessions, the latest incarnation of Imbued Vagary was born.  To celebrate this, we have a series of CD releases coming out this year.  The first, titled Captured Moments, is being mastered now and will be available soon.

Here's a track from our inaugural Synth Jam.  Enjoy!

Imbued Vagary - TR-6 (Live at FFS II 02/20/10)

We start off the Floating Fish Studios Holy Grail Week with some absolutely "classic" raw video studio footage. Only the FFS inner circle will realize the full "classic" nature of this but, hopefully, everyone else will at least be entertained and amused by it.

This chemical-fueled video studio footage was shot at FFS II shortly after the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. MC2P4's lyrics for this song were inspired by the fiery oil rigs that littered the Kuwait desert and sprayed their precious crude all over everything and everyone. His one-man, one take performance was captured by Brian "Who" Black and has long been hidden in the FFS vaults.

The audio for this song was recorded shortly before the video shoot and was our first (and last) attempt at multi-track recording using the Ensoniq ESQ-1 tape sync feature. As you can hear, the angular and disjointed music has a visceral, jerking quality that can't be blamed solely on the "altered" sub-humans that recorded it.

For the collectors out there, here is the original never-before-released audio recording for Any Questions? - Oil In The Gulf. Enjoy...

Any Questions? - Oil in the Gulf

First mutant to ascend from the plasma pool after the Cy-Tech Wars. Skilled in cybernetics and data manipulation. Exhibits an extreme appetite for blood and kills for his own pleasure.

Imbued Vagary - CJNB (Live at FFS II 06/05/10)

Ttam Troll

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