released October 11, 2022
The following comprise works taken from Nowhere Mountain’s 2019-2022 catalog. The accompanying films can be found here:
vimeo.com/markregester
Track 1 “Values,” “Headspace”
Track 2 “Exit Earth”
Track 3 “Euclidean Python (excerpt),” “Salty,” “Trash Magic”
Track 4 “Euclidean Python (excerpt),” “Flippy-Toe Jazz,” “Time Versus Everyone”
Track 5 “Everything Is Mixed” by Vrakka DamDeg (nonnon Bounce House remix)
Track 6 “How I Met Steve Albini,” excerpts from “I've Discovered a New Color, And I'm Working on a Magnet That Attracts Wood” by Dave Madden
Track 7 excerpts from “I've Discovered a New Color, And I'm Working on a Magnet That Attracts Wood” by nonnon
Track 8 “Rubber Margaret Gets Her Revenge,” “Space Janitors”
Track 9 Unreleased outtakes from “Rubber Margaret Gets Her Revenge”
Track 10 “The Ghostmaker”
Track 11 “Ritmo y Ruido” by Manufactura (nonnon remix)
All sounds, production, mastering by Dave Madden
The original idea was to create three or four long (perhaps haunted) sound baths or musical environments where the listener begins in something familiar or at least grounding (a beat) and is taken deeper – much like the act of meditation. However, I have about forty little “hooks” (in the Pop sense), jokes and immaculate, important-to-me sounds spread throughout these tracks that, selfishly, I insist you hear without having to dig. The output here, though written separately without a larger vision of cohesion (i.e. releasing it all as an album), fit together as a singular artistic journey. It’s for fans of late-night ‘90s MTV, Max Headroom, any Syd Krofft production, all executive produced by John Cage, Stockhausen and Biz Markie
Unedited journal notes (mostly half-completed text messages I didn’t send or scribbles about things I thought of when washing the dishes):
10 9 22
Last things
1. Switch 2 and 3
2. Look at the orig Paris mix. This one sounds expectedly bassy and ZZA vox is hissy.
3. While you are at it...maybe fix whatever the fuxj is wrong with the vocals? Why do they sound so disjointed and chopped still? Maybe you have a plugin unmuted
Feel weird about using the word suicide in the sense that 99% of normies freak out, 100% of nonNorms do because they are either triggered or disgusted or have heard the original song.
Cartoon, radio show, mixtapes, vibes
The real thrift store jam
Thinking about SMB made me think about balance, and how each piece has one. For example, SMB required
PS Dude you should write down what you think about balance.
I finally have all my levels right and the tracks in an order that makes sense. The last time we put one of these out, I was content to put them all in a folder and upload them with the idea that everyone would put them on shuffle, anyway. Now, after spending 2020-2021 REALLY focused on listening and opening manuals to learn how to get a polished mix - even if it's clanking forks, I want you to hear the fork and not a high-end harmonic pend up spending a lot more time because the bar of what I now know I can reproduce (
Just feel like rambling about art for a sec.
This soundtrack album evolved from the orig idea of 3-4 long, trippy tracks where each is a mixtape of the soundtracks based on general grouping of style or mood. But as I'm moving things around, figuring out how to Rick Rubin style produce a record full of crazy bones into whatever it is, I can see it's a lot of advertisements and shorts
It's just too cool of a story of us to throw together. If I let someone else engineer it, they would lose all the memories and jokes ha.
I just like to challenge my idea of "this is finished" before putting something out there.
10 5 2022
Volume on 2nd track too quiet - switch it for something else to match Paris
Still unsure about leading with Values Paris
It does set an amazing tone, but need to continue it
Space out the jams
Still think Euclid is too long. Maybe make it faster YES
Is it too long? Make it five sides? 2 sides
I think it's either too long or needs better sequencing.
Cut some SMB, mix it around.
Fred needs his own track
Answer is to still split the tracks? LEANING THAT WAY
Ritmo y ruido rules
9 25
Next steps
Fix Euclid to not be so long.
Tighten the sweets
Use an emotion generator or a word thing from the titles
Do you have Ghostmaker in there?
Do an Albini suite. Smb suite because I am super GD proud of this
Need to upload it to Spotify, fast.
I remember every pop and click
How do I know it's done? When the recording doesn’t pull me out if the music
Audio engineers are cynical because always looking for what's wrong
So the end of the composition chain is mixing, if it's recorded
I made every single thing in it. I know it so well. I told it where to go, it did the same. We guided each other, tbh. That's how it always is
That's why I'm not celebrating when I'm finished: mixing as the music, not making the music and being proud, feeling stoked to have it recorded. Here, I made this. Sorta you did. You made some sounds that were, I'm positive, corrected by someone. The guy not celebrating yet (that's also a good book idea)
SPACE JANITORA IS TIGHT and gets huge
Stop compromising the beat IF you can make it work.
Name these suites mild, medium, hot per the mood. "Scary" "funny" etc
Ps space janitors is dope
Basement is INTENSE and really tough. It's music where I feel like I'm weathering a storm.
Mistakes in music means generally that something is too loud. I know this because my ears have endured as much of my in progress music as I have to every piece recorded music that entered my ears. And i may have gotten into it because of how it sounds. The way the parts assembled. And much time, knowledge and energy got them to be in the good shape they are in. Countless hours made this after the musicians were finished in the studio months ago.
So when i try to make mine like that, i can hear if it is or not. It will never exactly be, but this rigor is how I learned to keep your ears relatively safe from ear fatigue.
My aesthetic is editing
Mistakes to me are a few categories, but mostly something is too loud or quiet, I i forgot to mute, catch a click. It's rarely a clash of harmony or haphazard juxtaposition that upsets me as long as it is mixed correctly. It's why orchestras has ffffff marks, doy gnogt
