Remastered

The Best Of Gizz

Alt Folk Rock, Ambient, Electronic, Acid folk, Alt-country, Americana

Xof / @christophe-apelian ,  , Turing Horse (@benylund) , Keys by JerryW / Cobalt Crest (@user-168129126)
Among returning valued collaborators also : @mall-dad, @x-ro-official, @awmgtc, Philip M. Howard / @gentlepassionsmusic, Gizz Van Buskirk (@user-888406871) and Doug Jaffray - StMoP (@user-237201536).

Grassroots Underground Collaborative

Improvised music for electric setar trio and synthesized drums

Tehran Blues

El Bueno Y El Malo

Taking me back to my highschool days. Class of '82, represent!

Downpour '82

The best commute is no commute. 

"We Work By Proxy" leaps forward to work during the pandemic of 2020. A time when everyone worked remotely and we were all completely disconnected from each other. It was during that time that I came to the realization that this was how I wanted to live the rest of my life. Returning to a life working in an office environment was out of the question. 

12/31/23: Remixed with new bass track.

We Work By Proxy (Single)

We Work By Proxy

Floating

“The Uncompromising Operator" is intended to be an amalgam of a number of the managers I had over the years working in corporate software development. One of the early prominent ones was a fellow who spent most of his time at work playing the stock market, and was infuriatingly successful at it. Stocks, I mean, not his actual job. A lot of my managers were exactly like the guys in the movie Office Space, particularly the character who didn’t seem to have any real purpose other than to carry orders from our product managers down to us engineers. The last voice is supposed to be mine. "I'm the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy".

The Uncompromising Operator

Why Would Anyone Live In Los Angeles?

Welcome! Sometimes love goes bad. Sometimes you find your love is just play acting. Sometimes it hurts.

This is track 6 of The Fang Sessions Vol 1.

Visit YouTube.com/@GentlePassionsMusic for my music videos.

[Recorded at Fang Recording Studios, Halifax Nova Scotia 2024]

Tear The Love Off Of Me

V1940a

We're dropping the B Side early! Sleaze Gone Blues comes out at midnight, save your spot in line for the premier now!!

https://youtu.be/Jzcy0MOnqLw?si=exhNVzV0o-_-7Uh8

Pre order MD3 today!

https://malldad.bandcamp.com/album/mall-dad-3-sticks-in-the-sticks

License To Kill (The Vibe) - B SIDE 3

A liminal ambient upgrade to an older track of mine. I hope you like it. 

Note: Slightly remixed and re-mastered on March 11, 2025

Liminal Forces

Hello everybody, Gizz here.

It's been difficult lately to find motivation and inspiration. Countless days of hauling my body into my little one-room studio over the garage only to mostly end up staring at the walls and then the inevitable swirl into the black hole of social media and mindless doomscrolling.

Yesterday I gave myself an ultimatum. Today, I said to myself, you can touch nothing except your instruments and your DAW. No food. No digital distractions. No breaks except what is required by biology. You will not leave this room until you have clicked "upload" on a piece of music into your SoundCloud.

I finally found inspiration in a piece of music I have been working on for over a year and a half. The centerpiece of my 2023 album "Collisions In The Dark" was the title track. a nearly seven minute atmospheric composition that was meant to depict a period of my life where I was a bit lost in the wilderness. In an album intended to map out the relationships in my life, Collisions was about the relationship with myself.

I imagined it as a kind of cinematic scene of an astronaut lost in space, being pursued by an enemy in the blackness that was their chaotic past, and finally finding escape through a great barrier, which I imagined as a thick, dangerous field of deadly asteroids. The Belt.

I had always imagined that this composition would have a sequel. Because there was always going to be more to deal with in life beyond the belt.

As a sufferer of anxiety and depression, I know that every time we have a breakthrough in life, after that moment of relative euphoria, there is always the return of the beast. Anxiety and depression are never defeated, they are only temporarily managed. There will always be the next struggle. You can't predict when the next one will come, you only know that it will.

The sequel to Collisions was always going to be a piece called Beyond The Belt. Because the battle with anxiety and depression always seems to have the same beats, it needed to bring back the original theme. Only this time with more tenacity, more energy, more drive. I wanted this one to have an air of inspired resistance.

At one point yesterday I was ready to give up. The composition was finally what I wanted it to be, but the mix was bad. The wrong parts were on top. I had tried for a while to phase the drums out, despite how long I had worked on those drums parts, I had told myself that this was supposed to be another liminal ambient experience, but the song itself had other ideas. It never felt right without the drums. So despite my repeated attempts to reduce or even remove them, the drums got more prominent. The mix was always too hot and as I have done so many times before I had to start slashing away whole tracks in the DAW.
Then, suddenly, Studio One started to stutter and snap. At one point it seized entirely and I thought I had lost over an hour of work. Luckily, somehow, a "save" keystroke got through and I could see the "*" in the title bar disappear. I was able to kill the DAW and restart. I think it that had completely crashed with the work lost I would have quit. I was able to continue.

Finally, at almost one A.M., I put on my mastering headphones and listened to one last mix... and it was there. The song finally sounded exactly as I had imagined it. The nuances were right. The peaks were right. The fade out dropped exactly as I had wanted it to. This was finally the song I had wanted it to be for over a year.

So here it is. I would love it if you gave it a listen. The song is "Beyond The Belt" and it's a depiction of constant struggle. Battle and rays of sunshine and then the return to the fight. I hope you like it.

A darker, dreamier reimagining of last year's "Collisions 2 (Beyond the Belt)" reimagined for a deeper experience. Part of the Gizz Van Buskirk "Liminal Ambient" collection for 2025.

Beyond The Belt

May You Never - The Very Best Of John Martyn

Sunshine's Better (Talvin Singh remix)

Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais
(Serge Gainsbourg)
Album "Vu de l’exterieur” (released in 1973)
Cover version

Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais 
Et tes larmes n'y pourront rien changer 
Comm' dit si bien Verlaine au vent mauvais 
Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais 
Tu t'souviens de jours anciens et tu pleures 
Tu suffoques, tu blêmis à présent qu'a sonné l'heure 
Des adieux à jamais 
Ouais je suis au regret 
D'te dire que je m'en vais 
Oui je t'aimais, oui mais 

Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais 
Tes sanglots longs n'y pourront rien changer 
Comm'dit si bien Verlaine au vent mauvais 
Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais 
Tu t'souviens des jours heureux et tu pleures 
Tu sanglotes, tu gémis à présent qu'a sonné l'heure 

Ouais je suis au regret 
D'te dire que je m'en vais
Car tu m'en as trop fait. 

Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais 
Et tes larmes n'y pourront rien changer 
Comm' dit si bien Verlaine au vent mauvais 
Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais 
Tu t'souviens de jours anciens et tu pleures 
Tu suffoques, tu blêmis à présent qu'a sonné l'heure 
Des adieux à jamais 
Ouais je suis au regret 
D'te dire que je m'en vais 
Oui je t'aimais, oui mais 

Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais 
Tes sanglots longs n'y pourront rien changer 
Comm'dit si bien Verlaine au vent mauvais 
Je suis venu te dire ue je m'en vais 
Tu t'souviens des jours heureux et tu pleures 
Tu sanglotes, tu gémis à présent qu'a sonné l'heure 

Ouais je suis au regret 
D'te dire que je m'en vais 
Car tu m'en as trop fait.

Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais

A cover of my favorite Brad Sucks song, from his 2003 album 'I Don't Know What I'm Doing'. My 3rd song using Studio One 4, Omnisphere 2, Perform-V, Yamaha DTXPL, Martin DCPA5 Accoustic Guitar. Mike Damrath on vocals, all instruments, and arrangements.

The Covers

Dirtbag

A cover of a great DEVO song, from their 1981 album 'New Traditionalists'. My 5th song using Studio One 4, Omnisphere 2, Perform-V, Yamaha DTXPL. Mike Damrath on vocals, all instruments, and arrangements.

Beautiful World

A cover one of my favorite Genesis songs from the Phil Collins years, from their 1981 album 'Abacab'. Using Studio One 4, Omnisphere 2, AKG P220 w/ Perform-V, Yamaha DTXPL. Mike Damrath on vocals, all instruments, and arrangements.

Abacab

from ughCD030 Various Artists - THE WEDDING PRESENT A-Z

https://pmr.menneske.dk/ughcd030.html

a collection of 13 bands & musicians from around the globe paying tribute to one of the best bands to ever come out of the U.K.  
the songs were recorded between the late Nineties and 2019.  55 min.

AB. The Co-Conspirators - "Brassneck"
CD. The Also Rans "Dare"
EF. Martin FINKE - "Octopussy"
GH. YouNoLoveBunny - "Interstate 5"
IJ. The Pedestrians Pets "A Million Miles"
KL. sfu-ma-to - "Heather"
MN. Grumpy Bear - "2, 3, Go"
OP. Manipulator Alligator - "Ringway to Seatac"
QR. Le Man Avec Les Lunettes - "Venus"
ST. Sciflyer - "No"
UV. Sonnixx & Cherr - "Kennedy"
WX. Curtains Afire - "Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft"
YZ. Nicolash - "Suck"

Martin FINKE - "Octopussy"

A cover of one of my favorite songs by The Cars, from their 1979 album "Candy-O". Recorded using Studio One 4, Omnisphere 2, AKAI MPK mini, AKG P220 w/ Perform-V. Mike Damrath on vocals, all instruments, and arrangements.

Dangerous Type

How Can You Sleep?
words and music by Mike Damrath

How can you sleep?
When you know you’re the reason they can’t 
Leave their door 
Wondering what they’ll will be mistaken for

How can you sleep?
Safe secure inside your simple world
Aware of the storm
So scared to risk your sure and shady platform

Creating and instilling fear
Blue lights in the rear view mirror
Bright knuckles on a steering wheel 
A sister’s sight of a mother’s tear

How can you sleep?
Wise your hide has eased you on your way
Can't you see
A higher tide takes all her ships to sea

Creating and instilling fear
Blue lights in the rear view mirror
Bright knuckles on a steering wheel 
A sister’s sight of a mother’s tear

How can you sleep?
When you know you’re the reason they can’t 
Leave their door 
Wondering what they’ll will be mistaken for

How can you sleep?
How can you sleep?
How can you sleep?
I’m wondering how you can sleep?

How Can You Sleep?

How Can You Sleep? (Original Mix)

Gizz Van Buskirk (pronounced ˈgiz væn bʌskɜːʳk) is the electronic music recording project of  Mike Damrath, from Richmond, Virginia, USA. Originally raised northern New Jersey and then in the mountains of upstate New York. He was influenced by a steady diet of British first and new wave rock, with heaping helpings of The Beatles, Queen, Gary Numan, John Foxx, Jean-Michel Jarre, Roland Orzabal, and Thomas Dolby. Mike played drums and sax for a number of bands over the years including Fail East, Fevered Train, and the Screaming Attack Shrimp before striking out on his own under the name Gizz Van Buskirk.