2007
brings us...
You
asked for a
paragraph...I gave you a novel.
1) Howdy!
2) Tipping the dishwashers along the way.
3) Like a ghost being boiled alive.
4) Futile peach come hither.
5) Aeon goes to Butlins.
6) With bated breath, we walked out of the liquor store with a cheap
case of beer.
7) Ballad of the neo-nazi skinhead who sent the girl with a liberty
spiked mohawk straight to hell.
8) Tarkovsky was right, the world does look better in sepia.
9) There was a light, that shot through the window, piercing shadows of
a worn night.
10) The study of dipshits on speed going nowhere fast.
11) July 30, 2007: Ingmar plays his last game of chess.
12) The only light on for miles, a used car salesman sits in his small
office with wood paneling at 2:36 in the AM.
13) The proud owner of the most pedantic poodle in all of Austria.
14) Remember the time I vomited on the Ferris wheel?
You can download both RAR album here:
"Collected Requiems For Innocence Lost" (2006)
"You asked for a paragraph...I gave you a novel." (2007)
Name: mgb001002.rar
Size: 87MB
The download link is: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VRTAV7CS
Some samples of "You asked for a paragraph...I gave you a novel." can
be found here: DemoBreece
2006
(finally) reveals a full cdr worth
of work, very long time coming, tits up...
You can hear tracks from the album - “Collected Requiems For
Innocence Lost” - on MySpace : michaelgbreece
Or...just download the entire fucking thing (yes, I am a generous man,
don't say I never gave you anything, ya ungrateful bastards) :
"Collected Requiems For Innocence Lost" (2006)
"You asked for a paragraph...I gave you a novel." (2007)
Name: mgb001002.rar
Size: 87MB
The download link is: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VRTAV7CS
ALBUM TITLE:
“Collected Requiems For Innocence
Lost”
The
reason I titled this cdr “Collected Requiems For Innocence Lost” is
because the material is rather morose, which seemed odd given that the
past couple of years have been the happiest and most productive of my
entire adult life (still pretty freshly married with a nice new job as
well as artistically I was able to create the most satisfying material
and more quickly, no less, than usual for me). I think ADULT is the key
word here. As I really (some'fuckin'how) did become a true blue adult
of late (and it only took more than 30, fucking, YEARS)...just
something I feel deep down, something I never felt before...and it was
this feeling (of adulthood) that (I think) caused me (subconsciously -
ie: when I would fire up the recorder and work) to mourn the loss of
the innocence of my youth (so to speak) that I was clutching so tightly
to for so long. Granted, I will always retain a certain youthful energy
or freshness about me, as I'm not at all down for becoming a stale
assed staid fucking Adult or any bullshit like that, but...you
know. So between the music coming out slow, cloudy and dark...coupled
with this feeling of adulthoood...figured it was an appropriate title.
WORK TITLES (in sequence order):
“Fireflies hover over road kill in
an effort to stay balanced”
There
was a time of about a year straight where me and the wife took a
country road route to work late at night, we would always see SO
FUCKING MUCH road kill, I swear. So often our ride to work was like
driving through a pet cemetery (or some such shit) - not only raccoons
and possums, but also cats and dogs, even saw a slaughtered (via car)
deer...poor thing must've gotten trapped in a concrete tunnel on the
road then panicked as a vehicle was driving through the tunnel, saw the
deer smashed against the concrete wall inside the tunnel. Talk about
depressing. All of this really brings the issue of ones mortality to
the surface, which is good...to an extent... We've since changed our
route, thanks.
“The disappearance of a knife
thrower’s assistant (November 13, 1957)"
Track
just had a noir'ish quality to it, I think, as well as an odd
carnival'like percussion break (I only very rarely use percussion and
when I do...it's never ever in a rhythmic manner)...which is what I was
fixing to convey with that title, I think it does.
“Traffic won’t budge, as Joseph
bleeds profusely in the backseat”
Just
a thought about how shit over-crowding is, presented in a "what if"
scenario...in the city, you can be a mere 10 minutes away from a
hospital yet...might as well be an hour (which can literally be
forever, if you were bleeding to death in the backseat).
“Rain bathes a black tar road, he
will not reach his destination (for Gus Christofi)”
Gus
was the blue-collar man working as a limo driver who was shot and
killed by the ex-NBA basketball player (not star, as the media would
tell it - I know the NBA well and knew the type of player and
personality he was) Jayson Williams (piece-of-shit with a long history
of fucked up violent vile behavior - may he one day GET HIS in court,
unfortunately...the rich rarely do, as he likely will not either, very
sad). Call it an ode to the proletariat.
“Stifling the urge to get an ax from
the basement to bash your skull in (for Charles Crumb)”
A
modified quote from the late great older brother (and guiding spirit)
of the famous underground comic R.Crumb. When I viewed the documentary
"Crumb", I found myself riveted by Charles (the most interesting of the
three brothers - in fact, I found Robert to be the least). Also he
represents the recluse (which I've been, in earnest, for about a decade
or so).
“The time for purification is at
hand”
A cliché quote attributed to nervous people who have gone too
far over the edge, call it an "ode to" those folks.
“The schizoid who drinks tea instead
of coffee due to a heart arrhythmia chokes on an apple slice”
This
one's dedicated to myself (and ode to me, if you will), I occasionally
get PVC's (heart arrhythmias) which occur especially when I drink
coffee (that I no longer do) including decaf (isn't really about the
caffeine but rather the chemical properties involved in coffee, which
is why I can drink black tea, despite it's reasonably high caffeine
content). Can be caused if I've over-eaten and/or haven't gotten enough
sleep, also stress. At any rate, it's a joke played on myself, I
prevent the arrhythmia's (and the frightening feeling PVC's cause) only
to die whilst eating an apple (I tend to use apples most to represent
the hypocrisy of the medical community).
“Clouded still life on hard wood
floors (for Renee Hartevelt)"
Dedicated
to Renee (the victim of a murder where she was cannibalized afterward)
because I'm sick and fucking tired of that asshole, Issei Sagawa,
getting attention and celebrity status (possibly even idolized by some)
- such as his own newspaper column and tv show and books in Japan -
he's also a fuckface with a rich daddy who paid the court off for his
freedom - what a dickhead, motherFUCK him!
“The angel of West Washington Street
was raped tonight at the Catalina, Room 27”
On
our new route to work, we kept seeing this strange young (maybe 16-18,
possibly very early 20's at most) girl walking the street (at all hours
- from 6pm to 6am) heading either to or fro a string of dirty sleazy
flee bitten motels scattered along the road near a strip joint. At any
rate, the first time I saw her I happened to glance up while turning
the car, it was still daylight out and she was wearing a flowing white
(milkmaid'esque) dress, had very pale skin and long red loose spiraled
hair, she looked sort of like a "soiled angel", had an odd vibe to her.
Figure the girl's a prostitute. Sadly (?), haven't seen her in a while,
hope she's ok.
“Early morning light streams through
a window down upon the body of a dead child while a young couple fuck
in the next room”
This
one stems from a true crime story of a young "goth" couple, the male
murdered the females kid because it was crying too much throughout the
night...the asshole strangled the child. With this small dead body in
the other room, they proceeded to fuck each other silly (these people
actually GOT OFF on this shit that they'd done to their own child).
Equipment List : Akai DPS 16-track
digital recorder, Emu Proteus
2 Orchestral sound module, Yamaha SY 55 keyboard, Digitech TSR 12
efx, Behringer UB1832 mixing board. My recording technique (or lack
thereof) is one in which I (if anything) encourage dirt, so...the sound
quality (or,
again, lack thereof) is rough,
just as I like it. The pieces were conceived and realized between
2004-2006.
2004 saw
a project (free to all : Programma
Di Religione) that called for works of .15 seconds in length,
interesting exercise, here's the result...
"pope"
The year 2002 was
devoted to sketches...
"untitledsketchthree"
(1.83mb)
In which were recorded on my dying
Tascam 4-track (which by this
point was a 3-track...and is now...your guess would be as good as mine)
as well as the basic Sound Recorder from Windows.
Also, I began to utilize a method of graphic notation (which is,
essentially,
a way of writing music minus the standard notes and such - ala what one
normally finds on sheet music). Luckily I'm normally the only performer
of my works, so...this method has proven itself to be a success for me
personally. Since I don't read nor write music (in the standard
sense)...graphic
notation is a means of writing music for me (as opposed to certain
modern
composers using it merely as a novelty or as a means to stretch certain
boundaries and whatnot found in written music).
My first (well, technically the second, the first was done at the
age of 18) "official" release (cassette only) was...
"the formal education of a deity whilst under the influence
of basic cable television" (track listing)
The ballad of humanoid - 1994/95/96 (11:17)
The
sacrificial worms
of stuart (4.13mb) - 1994 (4:24)
The life and times of an embryo - 1994 (2:20)
The space between ones eyes - 1996 (8:20)
The prop - 1998 (3:33)
While
driving home from the 9 to 5 - 1991/92 (1:50)
When glass could sleep
- 1991/92 (3:20)
*always I'd include other (various) tracks, mood depending on which ones
Recorded and mixed : 1991-98
Equipment employed : Tascam 424 4-Track
Recorder, Ensoniq Mirage
Sampling
Keyboard, Casio-CZ101 Synthesizer Keyboard, DigiTech TSR-12
Multi-Effects
Processor and General Electrics micro-cassette recorder
Originally released by : humanoid productions / richmond, virginia
As mentioned above, recorded between the years 1991-98
(essentially
my -second, though first with multitracker- "early years" recordings).
Most of my early work is spoken
word based (which is to say that spoken word was often times the focal
point, with audio/sound/music acting more as a backdrop). While I still
respect and appreciate spoken word as a legitimate artform and
expression...I've
since moved onto other audio outlets. In large part I've been a student
(informally) of modern classical (or simply "modern music" or
twentieth century music") since the age of 19. With each passing year
becoming more and more central in my audio world. To the extent now
that
modern classical is easily the focal point of music for me.
While
I do plan to occasionally utilize spoken word within my work...it is
now
only included when it's absolutely called for. At this stage, I would
consider
my work legitimate "twenty-first century music" (or I suppose
"post-modern music") firmly rooted in the vein of classical.
As you will hear via the wav.file sample below, I utilize modern means
(in both recording technique and concept along with sound - ala field
recordings,
keyboard/module orchestras, etc). But again, this should not fool you.
To be sure, the current state of my work isn't "ambient" nor
simply "experimental".
CDRs are available for
purchase, $9 (includes shipping - add $2 for orders
outside of US, making it $11 total worldwide) for my cdr and my wife's
which also includes a dvdr of an experimental short film my wife and I
shot (she edited and composed the score), payable via PayPal, check or
money order, contact mgb@pipeline.com
for details. The difference between the free MP3 download (above) and
this 3 disc package is as follows (for you fidelity whores out there):
mine = 51mb (low-end MP3) vs 410mb (high-end AIF) my wife's = 58mb
(low-end MP3) vs 426mb (high-end AIF) which is a significant difference
in sound quality (I'd have to imagine, though am no fidelity whore
myself). As well as you get a DVDR of short films as a bonus in the
deal. Making it 2 CDRs (my album + my wife's) + a DVDR that will
contain my wife's wonderful experimental short film as well as
something by me, as a bonus. That's THREE discs for ONLY 9 bucks (11
outside the States), can't beat that shit with a stick folks!
