I'm Climbing Up Those Walls Again

Before I hand over the last three songs in the latest CD, I'm going to talk a little bit about Ren.

Even before I learned of the legendary Coheed and Cambria and their story-driven music, I wanted Ren to be about something. All of my cds trying and take a step in post-shareware electronica (pretty much my own genre for the kind of music you'd hear while playing a new .exe in DOS back in '92), but all of them have tried to take on the "video game hero" feeling.

Never Been There was more of a practice run. The world presented was very strange, disturbing, and sometimes grotesque. It never left any room for a hero to come in and save the day. In fact, looking back, I imagine Never Been There was the game world that the hero failed to save. Imagine that great evil triumphing and then fading, leaving behind a broken landscape. It was the village where a mother and father had to explain to their child why no one ever came to their aid. All this was brought about by the 3 central songs: "Future Collision", "Present Situation", and the fading "Past Accident".

By the time I finished Dehack I had mapped out what I really wanted in an album. It was a fair bit more experimental and free form (i.e. I used drone for a change). Like the beginning of the previous cd, the opening of Dehack has a very somber opening. This still isn't a pretty universe we're dealing with, but by the middle of the cd it is revealed that there is some good out there. The hero that Dehack presents is a young one: the young boy who receives advice from his elders before going off to save his best friend/love interest. When he dies in his attempt in "Game Over Man" we soon find him resurrected in "Continue Girl." After all, this is an ideal video game. After a final journey in "Descent to Asgard" his triumph is documented in "Saved Princess."

Now we have Ren which tries to take a different approach. I intially intended to have it narrated by robot voices, with a grandfather robot telling all these little robots about this great hero, but that idea was eventually cut, so all you have is the music.

Our introduction to this game world is no longer dire and full of despair.. it's pondering. Throughout the cd, we're faced with war, long journeys, love at first sight, but then terrible failure. This hero, Ren, is much older than your coming-of-age Link persona. After falling in love, the 'princess' is of course captured. Put through your standard video game level to save her, Ren makes a terrible mistake that costs him dearly. The last few songs on the cd, which are in this post, deal with his goodbyes, and his regret. Here's to failed heroes, and how they can inspire us anyway.

1. 0101 Star
2. Life In Trocadero
3. Monoscope
4. The Insider's Blessing
5. Allowing for a rule
6. Heartford +2b
7. Novai
8. Last Night's Synthony
9. The Glory
10. Bionic for a Second
11. Prepare to exhale
12. Waiting to inhale
13. Four days in the dark
14. Eye contact at the dress rehearsal
15. Exact detail
16. Safely Now
17. Who do I have to save?
18. Level 1
19. Rather than a god
20. Knee Play No. 5 (Philip Glass)
21. I Remembered Her Wrong

If you missed any of the previous songs and want them, let me know. If you want mp3 versions of the original two cds, I can send them as well.

Thanks for listening!