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UNEMPLOYED

by stepvhen

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1.
Ex 3 08:22
2.
My Dad Was Never Around 06:36
3.
Death as a Friend 04:38
4.
Three Buds 00:52
5.
Thank God I'm Not a Nationalist 02:41
6.
B01 04:47
7.
This May Be Useful 04:37
8.
Yarn Qurik 01:01
9.
Watering My Plants at 2 in the Morning 06:56
10.
Solo Improvisation 3 05:24
11.
DEC2012 09:13

about

"Now that I've quit, I can have one whenever I want"
- Smoker's Proverb

New and selected tracks spanning 9 years of experimental music.

In 2012 I started making what I understood to be "Noise music", after patching the aux send of my bass amplifier into the input and twisting knobs. Over the next couple years things would happen and I would continue to make music. I helped form an online music collective (that still does releases, apparently), stopped calling my dad on Father's Day, my mother got cancer, bought a tape machine, I graduated college, got a job, my mother died, quit my job, and lost much of my motivation to do anything.

In 2020 to fight the stagnation during the COVID-19 pandemic, I bought a bass guitar to replace the one I had transformed from instrument to sound object, and later bought a synthesizer, and then a few more. Eventually I discovered I could make sounds like I did years ago, the kind that set me on a path I never fully embraced. This is me embracing that path.

This is a eulogy and a prelude. Now that I have stopped making noise music, I can make more. "The king is dead, long live the king" and all that. I hope you enjoy.

credits

released April 30, 2021

Instrumentation, mixing, production, mastering: stepvhen
Album art: "La fragua" by Francisco Goya

These tracks are arranged in chronological order, with the exception of track 11 which was recorded in August 2020, but spiritually it was performed after everything else, as a reflection and a looking ahead.

2012: Track 1
2013: Track 2
2014: Tracks 3,5,6
2016: Track 7
2020: Track 11
2021: Tracks 4,8-10

Tracks 1-3 are multitrack digital recordings
Tracks 5-7 are multitrack tape recordings
Tracks 4,9-11 are live stereo performances
Track 8 is digital arrangement.

Track 7 uses digital recordings my mother made after her diagnosis, to keep track of things. These were played through the digital recorder into a contact mic.

Equipment Used:
Beringer 30 watt bass amp
Delay, Distortion, Fuzz, Digital effects pedals, Piezo mic
Roland TR-06, Moog Subharmonicon, Herbs and Stones Liquid Foam, Polyend Tracker
Euroack modular synthesizer

Performed and recorded in various bedrooms and basements over the last decade in Indianapolis, Indiana, 2012-2021.

license

Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.

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about

stepvhen Indiana

experimental artist based in the midwest

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