My latest full-length album project is entitled The Bee LP! and it is officially available as of October 7, 2008.

For the first time since I began recording music in 1990, I’m putting out a release with cover art not designed by me. The cover art was drawn earlier this summer by my five-year-old son, Fletcher. It also serves as inspiration for the music on the album… or at least for the titles of the songs, each of which is bee-themed. There are a total of seven tracks, with a running time of just under 38 minutes.

Download the Album for Free, Right This Very Instant! (Well, Almost)

The Bee LP! is a free download. Just enter your email address below and you’ll immediately receive an email message containing the link to download the entire album in 256 kbps MP3 format, absolutely free. I promise you will not receive any spam from me or anyone else.

A new change this time around is that I am releasing all of the tracks under Creative Commons licensing, rather than copyright. Let’s be honest: I’m not getting rich (or even breaking even) selling my copyrighted music, so I’m going to focus on simply getting the music out there. But if you want to spend money and get a real live physical CD (OK, it’s not alive, but it’s physically real), it’s available for $4.99 + shipping from Kunaki.

Under the Influence

I wear my influences on my sleeve. (OK, not literally. That would be weird.) These days I’m listening to some electronic music I found online, including Revolution Void and Binärpilot. I’m also listening to Fujiya & Miyagi (and thinking about how much they sound like Can), Weezer, Death Cab for Cutie (and still wondering what the heck their name is supposed to mean), Joe Satriani, M83, and the brand new Ani DiFranco album. Yes, an eclectic combination. I’d probably be listening more to the new Metallica album too, if the mastering on it weren’t so terrible. (Although the mastering engineer claims it was already like that when he got ahold of it.)

Anyway, these musicians are all likely to manifest an influence on the tracks you hear below.

The Songs

Now then, on to the music!

1. Drones
Recording began September 29, 2008 • Mastered October 6, 2008 • 8:00
Instrumentation: Acoustic guitar, 5-string electric bass, keyboards, MIDI sequencing

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Every full-length album I do has ended up with at least one ambient track, and this of course is no exception! Except for the fact that the track isn’t entirely ambient. It is, however, appropriately titled.

2. Waggle Dance
Recording began September 8, 2008 • Mastered October 6, 2008 • 6:03
Instrumentation: Keyboards and MIDI sequencing

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I started working on this track right after I got the Remix Tools add-on for GarageBand, so I’m playing around a lot with the drum beat sounds I now have at my disposal. I’m also enjoying many of the new features of the latest version of GarageBand, which I finally have now that I also got a new MacBook a few weeks ago.

3. Honey Factory
Recording began September 25, 2008 • Mastered October 6, 2008 • 5:55
Instrumentation: Electric guitar, 5-string electric bass, keyboards, MIDI sequencing

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Don’t be fooled by the 808 beat at the opening; this is not a cover of “Beat It.” Believe it or not, this track started off as an homage to Fujiya & Miyagi’s homage to Can. But along the way something changed, since this really sounds nothing like either of those bands. It’s almost more like a weird hybrid of Joe Satriani and Weezer now.

4. Pupae
Recording began October 6, 2008 • Mastered October 6, 2008 • 2:06
Instrumentation: Keyboards & MIDI programming

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I mentioned that every full-length album I do has at least one ambient track. Most of them also have at least one weird experimental track. And here you go. Pretend it’s 1970, and you have a bag full of… well, whatever your substance of choice is, and a room full of (for the time) state-of-the-art keyboard gear. Electric piano, Moog synthesizer, Hammond organ, Mellotron. Not a trifecta, but whatever the four equivalent of a trifecta would be. Quadrifecta? Whatever. If it’s not your cup of tea, at least it’s mercifully short.

5. Trophallaxis
Recording began September 30, 2008 • Mastered October 6, 2008 • 4:55
Instrumentation: Electric guitar, 5-string electric bass, keyboards, MIDI programming, samples

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I’ll let you look up the term if you’re curious. Essentially this is a kind of whacked-out 12-bar blues. It’s also my first released piece of music containing anything from the prerecorded Apple Loops library supplied with GarageBand (the distorted blues guitar loops at the beginning). And even though my approach is completely different (and my technical proficiency nowhere in the same league), I think the results of that bit of sample manipulation ended up sounding somewhat reminiscent of some of the work of my friend and guitarist extraordinaire Andre LaFosse.

6. The Worker and the Queen
Recording began September 23, 2008 • Mastered October 6, 2008 • 7:21
Instrumentation: Electric guitar, 5-string electric bass, keyboards, MIDI sequencing

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Here’s another downbeat vibe. Not sure what else to say about it. Just listen!

7. Winter Cluster
Recording began October 1, 2008 • Mastered October 6, 2008 • 3:34
Instrumentation: Acoustic guitar

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I didn’t set out to have more than one ambient track on this album, and I also didn’t set out to record a seventh track. I picked up the acoustic, after my success with “Drones” (having left the acoustic guitar completely untouched on any recording projects for over a year), with the intention of finding the germ of an idea for track 4 or 5 (and did actually come up with something, but I couldn’t make it go anywhere). Then noodling a bit I settled into a very Brian Eno-style minimalist ambient groove. Four overlaid, looping acoustic guitar tracks and some heavy processing later, I arrived at this, clearly most appropriate as the final (and therefore seventh) track of the album. If you’ve ever heard Brian Eno’s ambient album Thursday Morning, you’ll probably understand what I was going for here. Just be glad I didn’t let it run for an entire hour (like he did).

I like coming up with concepts for my albums because they help drive me to produce, provide parameters in which to explore sounds, and also occasionally provide a learning experience. As I recorded this, it made me think of bees hibernating in winter. But do bees actually hibernate? I wondered. Turns out, they don’t. But they do form what’s called a winter cluster. Perfect. I got an appropriate song title, and I learned something along the way.