Mystery Whack

We’ve pointed before to Walter’s earliest recorded cassettes from 'the modern era' (circa 1989-90).  He used these “little instrumental pieces” to teach himself his new MIDI set up, and mentions them in the 11TOW EPK clip below: [you can see the full EPK here]. 

They’re what you’d expect from someone just learning keystrokes and sound banks: skeletal; monostructured; experimental. Here's a short clip from one of them 

[© Zeon Music: 1990/2019]

Since he soon moved on to writing “tunes that had some lyrics to them” (the EPK again), nothing more became of these early exercises.

Or so we thought…. 

A few years ago, we happened upon an unlabeled cassette boxed with an entirely different project. In the middle of the project's audio, we suddenly heard 40 minutes of live guitar, bass, and keys running down one of those earliest MIDI riffs. 

We’re sharing a bit of that live segment here: [Pro Tip: the vamping only starts near the end, c. 4:20]

[© Zeon Music: 1990/2019]

We have to call this Mystery Whack for now, because despite months of digging, deducting, and poking the memory banks of sundry living musicians, we've yet to obtain a definitive account of the who, when, and where.

I think one attribution is clear, however: the hyperactive maniac leaping about on the drum machine track? That’s gotta be our boy.

Hopefully, our favored theories will get sorted out if and when “new shit comes to light”. Stay tuned ...