FUN with NHOJ: A Prog Rock Chronicle
Where have I been?
I’ve been freaking out at the vast bucket of agenda I have given myself. Maybe I should have started a smaller project than a sixty minute concept album about mortality.
I took another vacation week, which turned into two weeks of work on it or has it been three? I still have my job but I have been about as naughty as I can get away with. A bout of insomnia has set in which just makes it all the more surreal. I lie in the dark for a while then go turn the stuff on again. I’ve been manic, obsessed and anti-social. Food and water have been entirely supplanted by coffee. No alcohol is involved.
I had determined that not one note or word shall be omitted or economized from the project. Ha! Then I made a to-do list. Holy Shit! I am getting better and more efficient at computer recording and screwing it up less. I continue to be both flabbered and gassed at the astonishing sonic results I can get with this stuff. I never made things that sounded like this before.
I realize now that posting and book-nonsense is what I turned to when I couldn’t do music.
Martin has been taking up the slack and I thank him for that. I’m still nailing spam at least.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must decide which of the 600 tom-tom sounds is best for verse two.
Where have I been?
I’ve been freaking out at the vast bucket of agenda I have given myself. Maybe I should have started a smaller project than a sixty minute concept album about mortality.
I took another vacation week, which turned into two weeks of work on it or has it been three? I still have my job but I have been about as naughty as I can get away with. A bout of insomnia has set in which just makes it all the more surreal. I lie in the dark for a while then go turn the stuff on again. I’ve been manic, obsessed and anti-social. Food and water have been entirely supplanted by coffee. No alcohol is involved.
I had determined that not one note or word shall be omitted or economized from the project. Ha! Then I made a to-do list. Holy Shit! I am getting better and more efficient at computer recording and screwing it up less. I continue to be both flabbered and gassed at the astonishing sonic results I can get with this stuff. I never made things that sounded like this before.
I realize now that posting and book-nonsense is what I turned to when I couldn’t do music.
Martin has been taking up the slack and I thank him for that. I’m still nailing spam at least.Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must decide which of the 600 tom-tom sounds is best for verse two.
Glad the tweaking is going well Nhoj… but don’t neglect that sleep too much. I find it’s easy to muck things up on the computer, especially when you are still experimenting, so I’m pleased you’re getting some good results.
I don’t mind taking up the slack in the interim… I’m into-riming.. it’s what I do…
Let’s hope the best tom-tom sound isn’t number 597… 
I don’t think Nhoj should get a haircut - he might lose his powers. Also, it would mean too much of his face would be visible which would be distracting. I like to concentrate on his posts. I’d also love to hear his music. How about it, Njoj? A little snippet perhaps, a teaser ... little audio file… Whaddayasay?
Tweaking? Schmreeking! We’re hammering out shiny top coat tracks in near total darkness. It was a nine and a half hour struggle against several of the elemants but track two finally has its intended electric guitar and mandolin duet.
Of course you can’t hear it. There are no windows down here. I think we’re trapping some kind of gas. I sent Livingston for more mosquito netting but he never returned.
Tweaking? Schmreeking! We’re hammering out shiny top coat tracks in near total darkness. It was a nine and a half hour struggle against several of the elemants but track two finally has its intended electric guitar and mandolin duet.
Sounds great… well.. hammer on I say… get it, “hammer on”, no… ok it sounds like it’s been too much of a long day for weak guitar jokes.
Of course you can’t hear it. There are no windows down here. I think we’re trapping some kind of gas. I sent Livingston for more mosquito netting but he never returned.
Well you have been down there a while now… no windows or ventilation… I suggest you don’t strike a match.
Here is a track from Number 1 son uploaded on sound cloud, done for his University course.
Look how easy it can be to upload a track… 
A word to the wise, always try and remember a peanut is not actually a nut but….....a legume.
Just sayin’
More importantly it is a complete protein, just like NM.
Nhoj, I’ll look forward to hearing more of this triplet questioning and tentative answering, and I appreciated the several nods to Yes guitar mayhem, bass, and Tom-Tom work. You have lyrics to come? Those, I suspect, will outdo Yes’s from the early 70s. The slow triplets are addictive and cinematic.
Bravo!
I preferred looking at the picture more than listening to the music because I only like music I can whistle or lyrics that me weepy, like Leonard Cohen.
I am sooooo uncool, Nhoj.
I am also sooooo envious of you. I wish I had a passion of some sort. I’ve tried making a list of possible passions, but it doesn’t seem to work that way.
..I’ve tried making a list of possible passions, but it doesn’t seem to work that way.
You need help making a list… you know we do have a list expert here on PR Saralynn..
My thanks to everyone, especially Martin, for all the encouragement. You have no idea how hard it was to push the activate button.
My intention is only to satisfy the curious. It’s not for everybody.
I wasn’t sure if you could still hear, (Rob). I didn’t want to say anything awkward. Send me an address and I’ll send a disc (if you want). I hate mp3’s. Hearing the stuff stream is always a letdown. Death to Timbre! Death to Imaging!
All the entries should be filled with “something” by next weekend.
Yeah, I can still hear, Nohj. Just. Actually I hear a bit better now that I have my new hearing aid - a bone anchored implant that conducts sound through my skull. I like to take it out and show folks the implant so they can see what a cyborg I’m becoming.
Anyway, thanks for the link to your music web page. Your stuff is very interesting. I have to say at the outset that I know sweet FA about rock music, progressive or otherwise but I’m going to tell you what I thought anyway - no witticisms, just a straight critique.
I tend to sort music into three categories: simple, complex and art. (These categories can overlap) To my mind yours is complex art. As it stands, without catchy lyrics, it is pure music without even a pretty melody as a crutch. I like that. (From what I gather that is going to change)
As I said, the music is complex. For example, ‘Going North’ is no simple rock tune. It’s very polyphonic. There’s lots of interesting stuff happening over and above the basic rhythm and base. The same goes for ‘Hide’. The way you slip in those short high note figures is very surprising and original. I love what you did right at the end of ‘Efin Faeries’ - those last high notes were a surprise but exactly right.
Your musical ideas sort of fit with your thinking as expressed in your writing about the trioone scheme - complex, inventive, original…
Sorry I can’t talk about your stuff in rock music terms. I compare everything to Beethoven’s late piano sonatas and string quartets. Not easy pieces to get to know but once you do there’s no going back to ‘ordinary’ music except for dancing around at gay bars. Your music is not ordinary. What I would really like to hear is one of those tracks developed into a longer piece. The problem I have with most modern popular pieces is that they last about three minutes, use the three basic elements, rhythm, a tune and words and these are simply repeated rather than developed. I hear hints of development in your stuff.
I’m looking forward to hearing more.
Should that have been ‘triune’ rather than ‘trioone? I’m never sure.