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About
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Forever
is a Lie
A few notes about
the compositions from the artist.
1. Heart of
The Earth (Da-Ow) is a song inspired by
the native legend that the very top of Mount Rose,
on the Nevada/California border, is where the
Earth’s heart was to be found and that, if you
had inner peace, you could feel it beating there.
This sacred place was misnamed, phonetically, by
the Wild West explorer, cartographer and all ‘round
illiterate idiot Kit Carson, as Tahoe. I never did
feel it beating. Perhaps I should go back now.
2. Drowning
Again is a song about drowning. Rather,
it's a song about getting brief glimpses of
salvation and thinking that you may just make it
after all, to then eventually be forced to realize
that you, indeed, will not. And, ultimately, about
resignation.
3. Making
More Robots. A snappy little jazz tune
that I imagined being played over the sound system
in the factory where robots make more robots.
4. Eerie
Weekend began as a way to prove to myself
that I still had at least one spooky song left in
me. It became the soundtrack to the Mummy movie in
my head. Not-so-coincidentally written and
arranged over the course of a very strange weekend
indeed.
5. Make
Even More Robots is the song that plays
when they want to step up production...
6. The
Devil's in the Details. The concept
originated in a conversation with my cherished
friend Elizabeth wherein I attempted to explain
the challenge of keeping instrumental music from
sounding redundant.
7. Eerie
Sunday Afternoon is a song I wrote on
guitar over 30 years ago and never played until
now. It was written on a strange Sunday afternoon
when I was young, arranged on a strange Sunday
afternoon last November, and rearranged to the
current piece on what was the strangest Sunday
afternoon of all.
8. El
Gringo Loco Grande is the sound of a large
Irish man having a nervous breakdown in Ciudad
Acuna, Coahila, Mexico. This is what I heard in my
cranium while buying drinks for the Mariachis who
were trying to help me fall in love with Spanish
music while I was trying to teach them jazz.
9. For
Elizabeth (Lizzie's Lament 2) was written
for a woman whom, in spite of what life has thrown
in our way and will no doubt continue to, I will
always love.
10. Forever
is a Lie is a rather melancholy tribute to
the pain that the word “Forever” has the
potential to inflict. In one way or another, that
word has never entered my life without leaving a
scar. It doesn’t sound like a particularly sad
song. Not on the surface.
11. Half
Asleep at Gloaming. The Scottish word for
the moments between twilight and dark. I perceive
it to also be the border between consciousness and
sleep, when literally anything can happen.
12. Frenetik.
Another obvious name. It started as a nervous
piano arpeggiation sort of intended as a veiled
tribute to Tony Banks (back when he tried) and
evolved into a snappy bit of string-laden stuff.
13. Sliders.
The obvious mental imagery is that of recording
studio pots and pans and levers. It's actually
about sliding. Downward. Could you stop? Should
you?
14. Mantis.
Strange and strangely beautiful. And frightening.
A beast that lives 90% of it’s life, dormant,
camouflaged as a stick, with the other 10% spent
in an unleashed fury of violence capable of
bringing down creatures several times it’s size.
Nonetheless beautiful to me.
15. Mastodon.
I was grumbling one day about how this melody was
crashing about in my skull like a fuckin' mastodon.
Don't get much more appropriate. The title say's
it all.
16. Runed
Weekend has an almost medieval/madrigal
flavor, giving way to an urban jazz bridge. I
wrote the body of this song on guitar in 1971. No
one ever expressed an interest in performing it
with me. I believe it’s just as well. Now I get
to hear it the way it should’ve been played.
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| About
the album Forever is a Lie:
I
wrote these songs over a 36 year
period. Most of them were conceived in
2006 and 2007 but even those may be
compounded ideas from long ago. A good
part of the components of Forever
is a Lie have been crashing
around in my skull since my live
performance days. Throughout that
protracted period, not one of them has
ever been performed live. Perhaps just
as well.
This
compilation is earnestly and lovingly
dedicated to by brother William. He is
both fan and idol and, for 56 years,
has been the best friend I could've
hoped for. Together, as young people,
we did defy some conventions and,
dammit, we continue to as dinosaurs.
A
couple of quick acknowledgments and
thanks...
To
Janna, whom my benevolent
higher powers saw fit to bless my life
with (and I thank them every day), Mel
Taylor for showing me how drums
were to be properly played, Buddy
Rein for encouraging a young,
mediocre student to become a teacher, Ann
- whom it is impossible to imagine
being a better, more dear friend, Liz
Scott - without her incessant,
relentless encouragement this
undertaking would not have happened, the
legendary Billy Fabel for
laughing at and with me for a
lifetime, and those amazingly
brilliant geeks who thanklessly
keep turning out those magnificent VST
plug-ins. Oh, and you
too.
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Outland
(Still a Lie)
A few notes about
the compositions from the artist.
1. 7844
- The Zaragoza Suite
is a song inspired by my affection for the
northern Mexico state of Coahuila (Techically,
Coahuila de Zaragoza). The people were kind to me
and I offer this piece as a small tribute to a
culture that accepted me as no other had. It has
several phases, not unlike the layers of discovery
of my "new home".
2. Caribe
- A celebration of the versatility of digital
music and an embrace of island/world music in
general. Bahamian in technical origin and
Meltonian in execution. (How many drummers live in
that skull?)
3. Crack'd
Blue Marble
a song that imagines the Earth hurling itself,
flawed as it is, through the expanse. With
glimpses of its own imperfection and the damage
we've caused notwithstanding. Harmony gives way to
cacophony, while nonsense hands itself back over
to logic. All of which yielding to a sad and
futile energy.
4. Dented
This is a long number that, in my opinion, earns
every minute and measure of it's tenure. Although
the graphic intro depicts a vehicular
"incident", no doubt of a certain level
of carnage, the song itself is about the remainder
of that day, if not the remainder of that life,
and the sometimes eerie tale of the survivor.
Evermore dented, if not damaged, by the event.
5. El
Bambino Latino
is a rather zany further exploration of my love of
Latin-influenced jazz. Less polished than most of
what you'll find here but definitely focused on
fun.
6. Extraction
- A soundtrack piece for sure. The scene is the
surgical extraction of valiant but fallen heroes
of an unnamed conflict. I beat six soft synths to
a pulp trying to get the perfect helicopter and
ended up with an audio recording instead. The
chopper is not a sound effect, it's a song part.
Especially the one behind you on the ground.
7. It
Never Was is one of the strangest
pieces I have indulged. A follow-up of sorts to
"Forever is a Lie" and the concept is
that "If that never was... what else
wasn't?" Is it a tribute to everything you
believed and later found out wasn't true? More
than likely.
8. Let
There Be Mel - A loose homage to a
musical hero of mine, the late, great Mel Taylor.
The man who taught so many of us dinosaurs how to
play the drums. Mel went from speed freak studio
musician (he played drums on Bobby
"Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash")
to being one of the most solid, inventive
percussionists of an entire era. It's an
undisputed fact that, largely due to his work with
the insanely prolific Ventures, Mel played drums
on more LP's than any other drummer in the history
of recorded music. Period.
9. Miasma
is a composition that strives, like "Half
Alseep at Gloaming" on "Forever is a
Lie", to depict musically an image that the
notes themselves do not necessarilly call to mind.
A miasma, by definition, is a steamy, foggy and
toxic emanation. To understand the name you have
to detune your ears and listen with your mind. If
you can't make the title become the music, rename
it yourself. But I think you've missed
something...
10. Minotaur
- As close to "dance music" as an
"Uneasy Listening" fusion drummer seems
to ever get. Picture the maze and picture the
minotaur, not particularly sinister and enjoying
himself as much as a man cursed with a bull's head
can. For the musicians out there, fledgling and
otherwise, this is an example of the dangers of
"Cool beat... wonder what happens if
I...?"
11. One-Eleven
- An experiment that took place on 11/1 and
concluded at 1:11 a.m. Rearranged into the present
form on 1/11/2007. One of my earlier purely
digital pieces that wrote itself as I watched.
Well, O.K., not really.
12. Outland The title cut is
a musical panorama piece that offers traditional
musical architecture in a completely sci-fi
landscape. No idea what I'm talking about? Put it
on and close your eyes.
13. Strung - an experiment in
taking something "organic" and morphing
it into some nearly completely
"synthetic/symphonic". From
finger-plucked nylon string guitars into bombastic
"1970's arena synth". One of the few
compositions that doesn't contain any riff from a
previous incarnation of mine. I picked up a
classical Martin D-28HW (Hank Williams model) and
two verses into it started to hear Keith Emerson
in my head. And I never did the drugs y'all did
either.
14. Been Missing You (But My Aim's
Improving) -
The title is pretty self-explanatory. Not an
un-pretty composition, yet one about chasing,
seeking and hiding at it's root.
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A few notes about
the just-released "Hammer of Karma" from the artist.
(Unlike the previous excerpted comments, this is an
actual song list.)
OVERVIEW
Hammer
of Karma is about the concept of Karma and the
weight of guilt, not just its toll. The four song
suite takes you from expectation through
realization and the attempt at atonement, and
finally to coming to grips with the reality that
one actually does pay for their misdeeds and that
the price is dear indeed.
1st
Movement: “Waiting for The Wheel”
This
piece is inspired by a glimpse of optimism
arriving with the realization that something
beyond control is about to happen. Ominous
previews take the form of “What if…”
questions as portents lead to the conclusion that
The Wheel is bringing around what actually went
around, rather than what was perceived as set in
motion.
2nd
Movement: “Hammer of Karma”
A
look into the heart of the guilty and the
realization that the machinations of what is
taking place are retribution for acts unsavory.
The mind digests, with trepidation, that Karma is
a harsh reality and that its full weight is coming
to bear in one unstoppable wave after another.
3rd
Movement: “Far Too Little – Much Too
Late”
The
sad realization that any good deed is inadequate
in the face of the wake left behind by unnamed
treacheries of the heart. Attempts at atonement
were futile efforts and any forgiveness for
indiscretions was perceived rather than valid.
Harm done is done and evil is not cancelled by
good except in the mind of the purveyor. This is
also a piece about the futility of good deeds
arriving on The Wheel once fate has begun the
process of equalization and the restoration of
balance.
4th
Movement: “Perdition”
Helplessness,
hopelessness and resignation. Some events truly
are unforgivable and with wide-open eyes,
realization of that universal fact becomes
inevitable. Is this hell? Sadly, no. In hell you
know what to expect.
Maori
Madness
An
aggressive interpretation of the beauty and
fearsomeness of cultures primitive and unchanged.
The Maori knew things we still have yet to learn.
Oh, to see Easter Island at midnight under a full
moon just once…
Robots
Day Off
The
third piece (“Make More Robots”, “Make Even
More Robots”) examining the “life” of the
androids that will inevitably one day have a part
in our daily lives.
Minotoreador
A
loosely-based sequel to “Minotaur”, this piece
plays with the proposition that the poor cursed
soul who is doomed to life in a cruel maze with
the head of a bull was earlier in this life or in
a previous one, a bullfighter. Little wonder that
it is, at times, rather confusing.
Karmic
Chaos
Structuring
the maddening concept of sorting good from bad,
virtue from evil, and impossibility of it.
What’s
With Her Eyes?
Uncharacteristically
somewhat lilting, this song is about human
attraction, connection on a deeper level, and one
unforgettable moment that burns itself into your
soul.
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All of the songs
on all three albums are
written, played (all of the parts), and arranged
by myself. The mind-boggling Roland Edirol
technology has allowed me to release the
semi-psychotic jazz fusion combo that has lived
inside of me since I was a young man. Roland
pretty much invented synthesized drums years ago
(I believe that Simmons was actually first but
swiftly took the back seat) and they then
reinvented electronic piano. No wonder that a
musician in love with drums and piano, with no
desire to perform live again (Oh, God, please don’t
make me do THAT again…) would fall in love with
Roland. We’re married now. These 39 songs are
our children, with many, many more to come.
Dennis
Melton
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The
sign read, "This
is a Dark Ride" |
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