Judge Doom and Roland R8 inspired evening. Unmixed, unfinished

Weasel

Floating Fish Studios held its ninth in a series of Synth Jam Sessions at FFS II on 08/06/11. The ensemble gathered included Dave Chandler (aka Thee Sub One Genius), M Scott McConnell (aka MC2P4), and Matt Norcross (aka Ttam Troll).

Through a pit of synth bass wash and noisy volume pots, this track, titled TR-1, slowly coalesces before dematerializing leaving the listener wondering what just happened.

Imbued Vagary - TR-1 (Live at FFS II 08/06/11)

Floating Fish Studios held Synth Jam 2015 - Snow at FFS II on 02/21/15. The ensemble gathered included Dave Chandler (aka Thee Sub One Genius), M Scott McConnell (aka MC2P4), and Matt Norcross (aka Ttam Troll).

The snow storm could not deter the three core members of Imbued Vagary from creating icy electronic music.  The six sonic explorations ranged from ambient soundscapes to Noise.

This live improv is more akin to ambient soundscapes and is titled, Storm Clouds.

Imbued Vagary - Storm Clouds (Live at FFS II 02/21/15)

This is the first release of new/rare/unreleased tracks in 14 years!

Songs Left After The Nod (Vol. 1)

Runner

Geburah (Self Indulgent Mix)

Driving the Two-Dimensional Highway

Like It's Nothing

We came up with this song parody of Louie Louie while Scott (MC2P4) was working for Donnelley Directory Talking Yellow Pages in the Summer of 1991. Every year they would have an employee awards ceremony called the Ruby Awards. At the ceremony, they would serve breakfast and have drawings for prizes but the main purpose was to recognize outstanding work by employees during the past year. A Ruby Award was the honor that was given to each of the outstanding employees.

Scott thought that they needed a theme song for the awards ceremony so he told them that he was going to write one. They encouraged him to do so but we're sure that they never really expected him to deliver one.

Scott came back to the studio and told me what he had promised to do. He said that he'd already started to work on lyrics for it and had based them on the tune Louie Louie. He titled his song "Ruby Ruby". Though I was apprehensive about doing a parody of a popular song and, of course, thought that it was "beneath" us, we agreed that it could be fun to do if we did it in an "Any Questions?" way. So, we asked LTJTHC (Tim Harrell) to help us pull it off and away we went.

The recording session was quick and fun. For drums, LTJTHC played his Yamaha DD-5 which was MIDIed to my E-mu Pro/Cussion. I pulled out my Rickenbacker 4003 bass, which had been lying dormant since I was mainly playing synths by this point, and ran it through a nice distortion patch on my Korg A3. We recorded our tracks live to a Tascam 38 1/2" 8-track reel-to-reel machine that we had purchased from Larry Lee Fiber. I only have one version of Ruby Ruby on tape so, after rehearsing, I assume it only took us one take to record the drums and bass. I dialed in one of my signature A3 vocal effects for Scott and he sang his parody lyrics. We mixed it down and mastered it to cassette (this is before CD-R recording was common/affordable) and it was done.

Scott took the cassette in to work and, even without hearing it, his bosses said they'd use it for the awards ceremony. As the ceremony started, the Ruby Award Princess wearing her white dress, high heels, tiara, and carrying a Ruby scepter hit the catwalk. Our song, Any Questions? - Ruby Ruby, began to play and the employees erupted with applause for both the princess and our song.

Not too bad for a song parody! Check it out...

Ruby Ruby

Any Questions? - Ruby Ruby

Sadly, this post marks the end of Floating Fish Studios Holy Grail Week.  I hope you've enjoyed the past week of "classic" audio and video from the FFS Vaults.  Some of the material was funny, some serious, some controversial, and some downright hilarious but I hope you found it all to be entertaining.  While raiding the vaults, I came across more rare material so be on the lookout for a future Holy Grail Week.  Until then...

I'm pleased to share with you Ode to 1 Gold St.  1 Gold St or as it was otherwise known, Der Palast des Goldes, was the house I moved into with MC2P4 and LTJTHC when I first came to the Philadelphia area in Fall 1989.  After the long and turbulent Vizator Summer, I was glad to be able to get back to some fashion of normal life.  

The three of us wasted no time in setting up a studio in the house and the rest, as they say, is history.  When not at school or working (which wasn't very often), I was busy learning how to use all of the equipment we assembled in the studio and spent hours composing music.  Our set up was pretty small but, looking back, that turned out to be an advantage.

As evidenced in this song, taken from the final day of recording at 1 Gold St in the Summer of 1990, MC2P4 and I pulled out every bit of sonic might from the gear we had.  This majestically thematic improvisational jam was our final farewell to 1 Gold St.  Shortly after, we were off to Pottstown PA and the creation of Floating Fish Studios.

Any Questions? - Ode to 1 Gold St (Live at Der Palast des Goldes 1990)

I thought that I would continue with the vacation/beach theme from yesterday's blog post. It's snowy and cold here in the Northeast so some thoughts of Summer may be just what we all need.

In early Summer 1988, I went to Ocean City, MD with the Ocker family for a fun and relaxing trip. Late at night, I took the opportunity to stroll the beaches alone. Sometimes listening to the waves and sometimes listening to my Walkman. It was during these strolls that I first had the idea for writing a song that would sonically capture the sound of a listless ocean along with the power and elegance of the waves as they crashed upon the shore. This was not a novel idea but for an 18yr kid (excuse me, man) it provided enough stimulus for a creative spark to be ignited.

It took about a year before I fully realized this idea but here I present to you the live version of Floundering In A Sea of Digital Waves as performed by Vizator at the PPG Plaza in Pittsburgh, PA (Summer of 1989). While listening, please try to ignore the incessant guitar synth flute soloing which is going on. It is NOT part of the song I wrote.

Vizator - Floundering In A Sea of Digital Waves

Imbued Vagary - Noise 2

Release Notes:
Imbued Vagary is no stranger to brutal electronics. This second installment of extreme music in the Noise series showcases the harsher side of our Floating Fish Studios Synth Jam live improv sessions and live concert performances. Synthesis, sampling, and special effects meld together to form these harsh and noisy sonic experiments. 

As we warned on the first Noise release, “Hold on… This ride gets bumpy!”

Credits:
releases February 26, 2021 

The Imbued Vagary Collective 2021: 
Dan “The Man” 
Guillermo Pizarro 
Ho Magos 
James Krabiel 
LTJTHC 
Mary Mary 
mC2p4 
Paul Doppelganga 
Steve O Man 
Thee Sub One Genius 
Ttam Troll 

The Imbued Vagary Live Infiltration Unit (Tracks 6 and 7): 
mC2p4 - Moog Sonic Six/Moog Model 15 (iOS) 
Ttam Troll - Korg MS-10/Korg Monotron/Moog Werkstatt-01/Ensoniq EPS 

Tracks 1-5 live improvisations performed and recorded by Imbued Vagary at Floating Fish Studios and Floating Fish Studios II; Track 6 recorded live at Commun Circuit Noise Festival 2015 12.19.15; Track 7 recorded live at Seven1878 Celebration 2017 07.22.17 

Mastered by Tommy T Rapisardi at DSBP Records 

Copyright ©2021 Floating Fish Music

Imbued Vagary - The Conquistador

Imbued Vagary - Wheels of Steel

Release Notes:
Imbued Vagary continues to assimilate new members into its fold and as it does so, it expands the Collective’s musical (and nonmusical) acumen. The sonic experiments on Wheels of Steel highlights such an expansion and showcases the turntablism of Paul Doppelganga. Combined with the electronic soundscapes that Imbued Vagary are known for, an exciting and unique form of electronic music emerges.

Credits:
releases February 26, 2021 

The Imbued Vagary Collective 2021: 
Dan “The Man” 
Guillermo Pizarro 
Ho Magos 
James Krabiel 
LTJTHC 
Mary Mary 
mC2p4 
Paul Doppelganga 
Steve O Man 
Thee Sub One Genius 
Ttam Troll 

All live improvisations performed and recorded by Imbued Vagary at Floating Fish Studios II 

Mastered by Tommy T Rapisardi at DSBP Records 

Copyright ©2021 Floating Fish Music

Imbued Vagary - Can You Dig It

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 - TR-1 (Live at FFS II 08/06/11)

Ttam Troll

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