More About This Album:

My first album of (almost) entirely beatboxed material ("All I Know" has a lil bit of electronic drums + bass added.)

I'm def pretty damn happy with this album. Just for sheer inventiveness, it has no equal from my early period (ie, everything prior to "My God!".) I knew from early on that this album would be coming (hence its position as 3rd,) as I've always loved beatboxing / singing beats. The only surprising thing is how long it took me to put together the idea of beatbox-ifying pop songs that I hit upon for Somaphone 2. That idea was nowhere near my mind when I was putting this thing together. I was still focussed on making a strictly hip-hop kind of statement with this album (tho, listening to it now, there is a surprising amount of singing on it...)

The whole thing was recorded by me on Digital Performer in my little Ravenna home in Seattle, WA somewhere around 2000 - 2002. Mixed / "mastered" by me. "Cover art" (such as it is, or isn't) by me.

For those who can't imagine what's going on here, essentially what I'm doing is recording myself beatboxing (making noises with my mouth intended to sound like live instruments) and singing into a microphone. I will go through and record a track of, say, just drums, then I might add a track of bass sounds, then a track of treble sounds, then perhaps some singing or rapping, or maybe I'll double (record a 2nd copy of) one of the earlier tracks. And I'll just build the song up like this, track by track, until the song is done.

I'm not sure if, or how often, at this point I was using the technique of recording my beatboxing "blind" (that is, recording takes without hearing any of the other takes.) I'm pretty sure that I discovered this approach and its benefits while making this album. The benefits are (believe it or not) greater intonational fidelity, as well as greater expressive courage, both for the same reason, viz. if I hear the other tracks, I am devoting energy towards listening (and the attendant accomodation that comes along with it) that otherwise would be going toward expressing; if I "hear" everything in my head, this detriment is avoided (the added bonus of showing off my perfect, or near perfect, pitch fell out later.) I am almost positive that I used the blind method on "Souvein", "Innuendo" and possibly "I Am Human", and perhaps a few others...