Ghostattica

There is really a lot to say about this recording. But I'll try to keep it short. We've wanted to do an album since last summer when the concept was to record in this old, eerie barn and use the various junk to our advantage to make sounds. That was a while ago and when it was only Alexis and I. Some of the material recorded here was supposed to be recorded around the "Sonic Barn" era. I'm glad that idea didn't go through. This feels like a much more fleshed out effort and I can honestly say I'm really proud of this record no matter how bad some people might find it. I'm proud of it because I've never had the experience to record with close friends before and each session was more fun than the last. The name is derived from the idea that it was mostly recorded in my attic where there are two signatures, one from Ellen Erickson and one from R.H Tervo. I believe these ghosts haunt my home. You see...we were recording one night, an instrumental session, and when I was reviewing the material, I discovered a chilling voice. "This is my bedroom," it said. A couple of weeks after I discovered the voice, my house was struck by lightning from the attic and destroyed my hard-drive. When I got the data restored , I found that the song with the voice was gone without a trace. It's almost as if they didn't want their presence known. We choose to record in the attic because there is this constant sense of unknown company up there.

...Just a little true ghost story for a truly ghost-y album. Most of these songs were recorded within one or two takes with minimal special effects from the computer. I asked Ben to contribute a while ago something for this album, the result is the extremely eerie keyboard workings of Collin from False Color. I went to Ben because of our first release together about a year ago, the Halloween split. Out of the 75+ sketches done for this album, we favored these the most. My only regret is that Angel didn't join soon enough. We didn't quite have the time to apply her as a resource as much as we wanted to. But I'm glad that she's a part of the band and I wouldn't have it any other way. So here is our Halloween treat/trick from us to you:




















Ghostattica
01. The Vogue Timeless
02. A Labyrinth Of My Own
03. Bat Crossing
04. The Invisible Musical
05. Small Nooses
06. Ellen Erickson August 25, 1935
07. Go By The Ghoul's Rules
08. Trick Or Retreat
09. R.H. Tervo August 1, 1922
10. Macabre
11. Sarcophagus
12. Purgatory Party
13. Stirring The Cauldrone
14. One Last Look At Madeline Usher (featuring False Color)

All of the bass guitar work was played by Angel (Natas Mai), the guitar/keyboard/mixing, sampling, and editing was done by myself (Macshaw Corpse), and Alexis (Ivy Belk) wrote all of the lyrics and sang in all of these songs. We all had a hand at contributing lyrical input, but Alexis has a way with words that is just very somber so she had a lot of room with that angle. Recorded fall of 2009.

I have...

I woke this morning with a fever of 103 degrees and insane fever dreams about Animal Collective? I immediately went to the hospital. Not much they could do but make my fever go down a bit and give me some antiviral medications. I am even advised to wear a mask over my mouth so that I don't infect others. We have already had about 3 different school closings around here...what is the big deal?

Best News EVER.... (to me anyways)

So I was having a pretty shitty day at school. I get home, no one is home. And I notice my old crashed hard-drive is missing since I've kept it near my computer since it broke from sentimental reasons. I notice a pile of 9, 10, maybe 11 discs sitting there with titles like "Spiid" and some with episodes of Space Ghost I downloaded. I open them...and BAM, all the material I lost months ago is back!! I'm really excited about this too! All of my first recordings under the Grace Budd moniker, recordings from the Eloise period, soundscapes from Dharma Is A Door, uncompleted EP work, just PURE TONES of stuff recovered! I wanted to take a break after the In The Jaws Of A Dandy Lion record, but I have so many flowing ideas going around my head right now with this discovery. I also wanted Aether Transit to be the last release until about next year. But I really can't say or think anymore. Anyway...I just wanted you guys to know that all the things I had planned are back in my grasp and it's awesome and I hope you guys feel the same way. I can't wait for Halloween and to hear the new Jetplane Cinema album and what everyone else has coming.

Positive vibes,
Macshaw.

Aether Transit Physical Release

Grant has done the honor of making a few limited copies of Aether Transit. I'm really excited and if anyone wants to buy a copy, go to the link below. It's just 4 dollars in person and 7 through the mail. There's only going to be ten made, so hurry if you want one!

Check it out HERE.

Aether Transit

Going into this, I prepared no concept or "idea." I just wanted a new collection of songs. And I have to say that this is probably my favorite release of my yet. My primary influence for this was Joe Meek's I Hear A New World. The construction of the album was pretty tedious, I recorded 28 different tracks for it and I kinda pieced together this loose theme of space travel. Anyway, I hope you guys dig it. Like always, I dedicate this to...anyone that listens really.

I asked Grant if he would like to help me out with a song. In return, he brings us "The Ghost In The Atom." Created out of scrap samples I had from the material. I think it ties the whole thing together pretty nicely and personally, I'm honored he contributed. I want to do more contribution work in the future with anyone who is interested.





















Aether Transit
01. Activation Of The Flower Of Life
02. You Go
03. Wild Earth
04. Gamma
05. Friendly Bugs
06. The Wind Will Dry You Out
07. Record Scratch Requiem
08. Stoned Star
09. Psychonaut
10. Mother Earth And Father Meteor
11. Aether Transit
12. The Ghost In The Atom (featuring Nova Scotian Arms)
13. It's Not About The Vessel, It's About The Journey

P.S. There was a problem uploading it to mediafire. So the link is a sendspace link. Enjoy.

P.P.S. There was another problem. Grant's song wasn't able to be accessed because it was sent as a afi. file and I didn't notice until he just pointed it out. I took care of it. I also put the album on mediafire instead of sendspace. And if you already downloaded the album this will save you the time of downloading it again for Grant's track:

Download here.

Update and Virtual 7 Inch #1

I posted this Virtual 7'' a couple of days ago but quickly took it down. I was thinking that I wanted to incorporate them into the next Spiid album, but I decided against that. At this point, the album, "Aether Transit" is done and is in the tracklisting/mixing phase.



















Virtual 7 Inch #1
01. Claustrophobia
02. Respiration

With the next Spiid project already near completion, I've had time on my hands to record a few tracks with Alexis and Angel. For a while, Alexis and I wrote a lot of different material and recorded it in bits and pieces and we've come to find that it didn't fit into what we were doing with the Halloween record. So sometime before the end of 2009 we want to put together an album of songs we never recorded but have only sat and collected dust. With all of our damned equipment problems lately, Angel hasn't been able to contribute much. We have the money to get the amps and equipment we need. But it's just a means of finding it. The first place we had in mind doesn't have the amps anymore. So no Halloween show, unfortunately. But we have much bigger plans for the end of the year.