Vizator - Land of Glass Towers (Demos 1990)

Release Notes:
Before the Industrial music of Any Questions? and the Electronic music of Imbued Vagary, Ttam Troll (Matthew R Norcross) and mC2p4 (M Scott McConnell) were part of a Fusion Rock band called Vizator (later to be renamed Vyzator). Joining Vizator's founding band members David S Irish and Carlton Holt, this lineup's sole performance was at the prestigious CitiParks Showcase Mondays concert at Oliver Plaza in Pittsburgh, PA on August 07, 1989. 

After the August 1989 Vizator performance, Ttam Troll and mC2p4 left the band and relocated to Philadelphia, PA to form Any Questions? and Imbued Vagary. David S Irish and Carlton Holt carried on as Vizator's sole members and began working on demos for a CD release. 

In early 1990, David and Carlton reached out to Matt to see if he'd be interested in laying down electric bass parts for the forthcoming Vizator CD. Matt had not yet been involved with any CD projects and jumped at the chance to get back together with his former bandmates and do some recording. The music contained on Vizator - Land of Glass Towers (Demos 1990) are from those recording sessions which took place on March 10-11, 1990. These instrumental demos were eventually scrapped and the band re-recorded the songs using synth bass for the final Vyzator - Land of Glass Towers CD which was released in 1991. However, these early demos show what could have been if the band followed their instrumental power trio Fusion Rock leanings. That was not meant to be and this became the final artifact of Vizator. Enjoy! 

Credits:
releases January 20, 2023 

Vizator members: 
David S Irish - Guitars and Synthesizers 
Matt Norcross - Bass 
Carlton Holt - Drums 

Songs composed by: 
Ready to Deal (Irish) 
Trapped Inside This Maniac (Irish) 
The Chase (Irish/Holt) 
Club 54 (Irish/Hutter) 
Land of Glass Towers (Irish) 

Recorded March 10-11, 1990 in Pittsburgh PA 

Mastered by Tommy T Rapisardi at DSBP Records 

Cover Photo, CD Design, and Layout by Matthew R Norcross 

Copyright ©2023 Floating Fish Music 

FISHCD025

Vizator - Land of Glass Towers

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)

As Dungeon Aire, we had quite an eclectic and adventurous set list for our first and only gig on 12/31/87 at "Number 9" in Shippensburg, PA.  It included such diverse songs as Led Zeppelin - Misty Mountain Hop, The Cult - Wildflower, The Suburbs - Monster Man, Mondo Rock - Primitive Love Rights, and even two original songs (Pung and Progressions) that we had written.  Somewhere between all of that, we also chose to perform INXS - Need You Tonight.

Here is a jam box recording from the show which features Brad Shaeffer - Vocals, Matt Skirpan - Guitar, Matt Norcross - Bass, Scott McConnell - Synthesizers, and Tim Harrell - Drum Machine.  It's the only song that Tim played the drum machine.

Dungeon Aire - Need You Tonight

The sessions for our 1992 release, Any Questions? - Prey For Death, produced many song ideas which were never fully developed. Terminal was one such idea. With it's up tempo, driving beat, it was quite different than the other tracks which ended up on the original, official product. It's sound is really more reminiscent of the style we'd explore on our follow up effort, Any Questions? - Death.

When I was compiling tracks in the Fall of 2001 for the 10th Anniversary Special Edition CD release of Any Questions? - Prey For Death, it seemed like the perfect time to revisit this once cast aside song idea and include it as a bonus track.

There wasn't much to do to bring this song to life and complete it. All of the musical elements are exactly as they were back in '92. I had the MIDI data and all of the original sounds sources so I loaded up the song and recorded it onto our 24-track ADAT system. From there, we did have to come up with lyrics for it. The original song idea had never evolved to that point so MC2P4 penned a rough draft of the lyrics from which I then added to and refined to fit my vocal style. The result is what I share with you now. Enjoy!

Prey For Death (Special Edition)

Any Questions? - Terminal

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

During the sweltering Summer of 1988, The Secret Society convened at Horse and Buggy Highway Studios in Shippensburg, PA to record songs for their debut release. This rev (Rev 2) of The Secret Society was comprised of members from This Mistress and concentrated on recording original songs written by M Scott McConnell and Matt Norcross.

When we weren't sweating to death (there were no air conditioners in the studio) or doing "serious" recording, we would sometimes roll tape and record some live versions of the songs with whoever happened to be visiting the studio at that time. This recording of Progressions is one such recording. It features M Scott McConnell (Synthesizers), Matt Norcross (Bass), Tim Harrell ("Live" Drum Machine), Ken Chandler (Vocals), and Kevin "Bart the Fart" Wilson (Guitar). It was recorded direct to a Fostex X-15 cassette 4-Track. It's distorted and sonically poor but still a fun listen. I hope you enjoy it.

Live in the Studio 1988

The Secret Society - Progressions

While waiting to officially release our Any Questions? - Death CD in early 1996, MC2P4 and I began working on new ideas in the studio. Our sonic arsenal had grown quite extensively leading up to this period and we were anxious to make new music with it. These ideas ranged from very structured pounding rhythm Industrial to very non-structured and improvised ambient music.

Technical falls a little bit in between both of these concepts. Recorded on 02/04/96 (the DAT says so!), this 15+ minute improvisation features a very structured/repetitive rhythm track and chord structure. On top of which we incessantly solo over intertwining synthetic tapestries and sampling overload. We had fun on this day and now you'll get to hear it too!

1996

Any Questions? - Technical

The FrightWorld Sessions was not a "normal" Any Questions? release. In fact, to this date, it still remains unreleased. Our "normal" harsh industrial sound was replaced by harsh ambient textures which we composed during work on our first feature horror film, FrightWorld, in 2007.

The compositions on the release were taken from our first improvisational sessions for the project and are at times sonically unruly and rough around the edges. However, they captured the essence of the horrific scenes that we were scoring for so we decided to include them.

Eventually, we may release The FrightWorld Sessions and the rest of the unreleased material from these sessions but, for now, enjoy this small sampling from our first film score. This track is entitled FBI Assault and it was used in the film.

The FrightWorld Sessions

Any Questions? - FBI Assault

In January 1991, shortly after the start of the first Gulf War, we were very prolific with our musical output.  The deluge of 24/7 war footage and chemically-fueled all night recording sessions garnered many new song ideas.

Though many of those ideas never progressed further than the cassettes they were recorded on, a few like this one, GB+VX, ended up being produced more and recorded on our Tascam 38 1/2" 8-track reel-to-reel machine.

This one started out simply with a very repetitive drum beat and synth parts.  After adding a round of Gulf War audio samples, MC2P4 delivered his apocalyptic vocals and then I spent the rest of the night (and into the morning) recording multiple effected, electric bass parts before mixing the final song that we share with you now.

Enjoy...

Any Questions? - GB+VX

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

Requested by one of our long time fans, Douglas Shields, here is another This Mistress track saved from oblivion from a long lost tape.  It’s our cover version of INXS - Don’t Change.  The quality of this boom box recording from early 1988 is very sub par.  It also sounds as if we were still learning the song or should I say, I was still learning the song.  Enjoy!

This Mistress - Don't Change

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.

This Mistress - Don't Change

Ttam Troll

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