1. Loose the Ropes I – 2:42
2. Loose the Ropes II – 1:38
3. Just One More – 2:37
4. Night Flight – 1:44
5. Did You See the Moon? – 01:43
6. Crickets Tick Time – 0:38
7. The Fishermen Three – 2:02
8. Nothing Flower – 2:53
9. Before the Sun – 2:43
10. Landing – 3:37
11. Hope – 3:24
12. Nets of Silver and Gold – 4:08

All music composed and produced by Charlie McCarron and Nick Syman

Piano – Ted Godbout
Drums – Pete Johnson
Trombone – Nick Syman
Saxophone – Mara Syman
Trumpet – Mark Syman
Voice and all other instruments – Charlie McCarron and Nick Syman
Engineering, Mixing and Mastering – Charlie McCarron

Album art by Jason P. Schumacher

The Day Breaks Fast…

Nick came up with this gospel tune based on the first thing we recorded during our initial jam session. The final mix will still be sparse and simple, but I’m going to add some gospel-y “oohs.”

Just One More

Nick and Mara Syman recording trombone and saxophone.

My normal singing voice was sounding kind of lame on this song, so I tried a strange technique I was working on a few years ago but never put into practice until now. It’s called glottalization or vocal fry (had to look that up!). It makes my voice sound like I’m singing an octave lower than normal. It took me about four hours and nearly 100 takes. It’s a strange effect to hear by itself, but I’m pretty happy with it in the mix. Then I listen to this Tuvan throat singer and remember how much of an overtone-singing noob I am!

Acoustic Guitar/Electric Organ Piece

Nick recorded a drone with an electric chord organ, then improvised a wandering guitar and vocal part over that. The only thing we may add are some wind chimes.

Check back in a week, and we’ll have a full album for you! By the way, we’ve decided to revive the band name from our experimental trio. Nick and I are now officially Cagetones.

I started this track with the underlying synth chords, and brought it to Nick on Sunday to add some tuned percussion, including vibraphone, crotales, tubular bells, a gong, and glass shards. The final mix may end up with even more instruments.

This is also the debut video of my new camera, a Canon 60D. I’m really excited about it, aside from a big honkin’ dead pixel that’s really obvious in dark situations. Going to have to take it back for a replacement.

I did some stylized color grading on this one, to make it much warmer. It’s actually pretty extreme when you compare the color-graded version with the original footage:

Nick’s original intention for the piece was to give me a musical base to write something over. But it stands alone so well, I almost don’t want to add anything to it. Take a listen for yourself:

Jeff Schwinghammer was inspired to make this comic-book style film after seeing this graphic design video about “stickout photos.” I think it’s a pretty clever way to incorporate green screen without having contrived backgrounds. Jeff’s secret ingredient? Green tagboard. The man is a DIY master.

Nick and I ended our session on Saturday by trying to co-compose some music for our RPM album. But it was kind of a slow and not-very-fruitful process, compared to our improv jams. So we came up with a new plan for our next meeting: we would each create a background music bed for the other person to write a melody/solo over. So here’s my idea (filmed by @JSchwinghammer):

I’ve never recorded two layers of bass in a song, but it just seemed to fit when I thought of the bass only as a staccato rhythm part. I approached the electric guitars the same way; I just wanted two simple parts that would have slightly offset rhythms. I’m curious to see what Nick will add to this.

Like my last song idea, this beat is another totally different sound for me. But I had a lot of fun coming up with it, and I think more of this style is on the way. If it’s not already apparent, I’ve been listening to some Thom Yorke lately, especially his erratic “Twist”:

This is a totally different vocal style than anything I’ve done before. Where I’d normally sing phrases that have the same meter in every line (usually 4/4),  this one is totally based on the lyrics:

Down by the ocean I’ll be (7 beats)
Breathing in warm sea breeze (6 beats)
Laying out on an endless shore (13 beats)
Then when the reaper comes for me (8 beats)
I’ll beg and I’ll plead (6 beats)
I’ll trade any day for just one more (18 beats, until the next strong beat)

Something that helped me write in this strange style was that I just played the same chord over and over (a D7, if you’re curious). For me anyways, it seems like the more I limit myself musically, the more expressive my songs turn out.

I’m happy with where this one is going. We’ll just have to see how it fits into the grand scheme of the album. Check back soon for a video of Nick and my second RPM session.

We hadn’t really jammed much since our senior year at Saint John’s University, when we did a lot of chance electronic music in our trio, The Cagetones. Although right now Nick and I are still kicking around ideas in the dark, I’m really looking forward to the project. Nick plays a mean trombone and is an all-around musical genius.

The very first thing we improvised actually turned out pretty cool. There are a few pieces that I could see making the cut for the final album. Have a listen to this rough mix and let us know what you think:

Thanks for stopping by, and check back tomorrow. Nick Syman and I just entered the 2012 RPM Challenge, and we’ll have a fresh-out-of-the-oven-and-undercooked preview of our music so far.

- Charlie