[Music] Tapewolf - Illiath the Barbarian (LP)

[Tapewolf]

If anyone's interested, I have just released my fifteenth album of progressive rock, recorded in 2018 - 'Illiath the Barbarian'
Thanks to Merlin for drawing the cover!



The album itself can be had for free here:
http://dougtheeagle.com/itb.php

There's also a Bandcamp page if you think it's worth paying for:
https://dougtheeagle.bandcamp.com/album/illiath-the-barbarian

This is the fourth outing for the 2" 24-track machine.  While there have been a few additions to the studio, they mostly happened during the end of the writing period.

This is my fifteenth album, following 'Dr. Gwendolini's Amazing Medicine Show'.  While I haven't made any massive stylistic changes as was done on the previous album, there is still a healthy amount of variation.
The opening track, 'Follow the Leader' aims for a 1980s sound, and uses actual 1980s equipment where possible including the reanimated Cheetah MS6, while 'Bob the Bunny' has definite psychedelic influences, up to and including backwards tape sections.  'Big Bad Wolf' is one of the more conventional tracks, while 'The Dragon Demands A Sacrifice', is the instrumental number rounding off the first half of the album.
The second half is a suite of three tracks, telling a story about the eponymous wandering warrior, Illiath.

Hope you like it!

All songs recorded on 2" 24-track.


All songs written and performed by J. P. Morris, Copyright (C)2018
Recorded using the Old Ways at The Lab, Cwmbran 2018
Mixed 22-25 Nov. 2018. Mastering by Alex Balzama at Swift Solutions, Feb. 2019

Greetings go out to Keaton, Ren, Wuff, Keetah, Sofox, Merlin and co.
Additional shoutout to Jonas Goonface for his comic, 'Follow The Leader'.
Thanks go out to the Rosegarden team, to Brian Roth and all at RTM, ATR, MRL and co for keeping the analogue dream alive.
Cover by Merlin Missingham, logo by Luke Turner. Organ recorded at St. Grod's.  Recorded on SM900 tape, mixed to ATR Mastering tape.

The PDF booklet can be found here:  http://dougtheeagle.com/itb/illiath.pdf

Track Breakdown:

1. Follow The Leader
Inspired by the comic of the same name by Jonas Goonface, this song is written from the point of view of the strange feral children terrorising a small town in 1980s America.  Where possible, the song has been made using actual 1980s equipment, or the nearest modern equivalent including the re-animated Cheetah MS6 polysynth, and the 1988 speech synthesizer.

2. Big Bad Wolf
This was the first song written for the album, taking the idea of the 'big bad wolf' and turning him into a superhero.  I can't say I'm all that fond of the lyrics for the verses, but I do like the chorus and the music.

3. Bob The Bunny
This originally started out as an amusing wordplay based on a certain song by the Beatles, with a working title of "Sergeant Pepper's Busy Day", but it eventually grew into its own thing.  Arguably it counts as parody, but at the last minute I modified the lyrics and retitled it.
This is one of my favourites on the album, not least because of the reverse tape segment.  The editing was all done with razorblades, and reproducing the exact timing from the demo in the final master was problematic, but I got there in the end.

4. The Dragon Demands A Sacrifice
This was a last-minute addition to the album, and there are a few places where its rushed nature becomes apparent.  Still, it helped balance out the album, and it's nice to have an instrumental track again.  This one uses some new instruments which weren't available during the recording of the rest of the album, the Korg N1R in particular, giving it a slightly more 90s sound.

5. Illiath Part 1 - The Quest
I figured it had been a while since I did a half concept album (a'la 2112), and began writing a suite of stories about a certain warrior lady from my comics.
Early recording was a little fraught owing to technical difficulties, but it was also the first track since 2015 to use the Cheetah MS6 which had been lying on my workbench for several years awaiting repair.  In my opinion it was well worth fixing.
The writing for the song produced a lot of extra material which immediately went into Part 2.

6. Illiath Part 2 - The Fight
This is the second song in the Illiath suite, and one of my favourites on the album. Parts of it were extra material from part 1, which gave me a head start and the song was completed about a weeks after the first part.  Starting with the cheap 1980s Casio keyboard was a bit of an odd idea but was quirky enough to keep.

7. Illiath Part 3 - The Capture
This is the concluding part of the Illiath trilogy.  As with the earlier songs, it is based on unused material from the previous song.  However, unlike the previous songs where I was on a roll, it was a lot more painful to bring together, not least because I wanted to finish the album on a high note and Part 2 was a tough act to follow.  In some ways it suffers from the "sausage sandwich" effect in that lots of unrelated material was brought together to try and finish it resulting in a lot of style switches throughout the song.  I think it turned out nicely, though.  I'm rather pleased with the vocal harmonies.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I figured it had been a while since I did a half concept album (a'la 2112), and began writing a suite of stories about a certain warrior lady from my comics.

My, is that the time already? The years just fly by... ;-]

[Tapewolf]

My, is that the time already? The years just fly by... ;-]

Heh, I kind of stopped posting these because I wasn't sure anyone was still interested.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Heh, I kind of stopped posting these because I wasn't sure anyone was still interested.

I can understand that. I kinda dropped off the forum for a few years due to being busy with life and stuff, and other folks seem to have as well, so the forum has gone a bit quiet, as happens. :-/

[VAE]

My, is that the time already? The years just fly by... ;-]

Heh, I kind of stopped posting these because I wasn't sure anyone was still interested.

I see I've missed out on a *lot* these few years - I'll have to download stuff and listen to it.
Meany's latest fanfic has kinda brought me back to DMFA and everything else around it, as it goes.

[Tapewolf]

Well, there's been a few releases since Illiath, including "Project Retake II", "At last, the 2019 album" and "Robots and Other People", but my favourites are:

https://dougtheeagle.bandcamp.com/album/xerian - The concept album which the 'Xerian' comic is based on

https://dougtheeagle.bandcamp.com/album/encyclopedia-draconica - A collection of songs, mostly about dragons.  The 'Pax Draconica' story I've been posting here is set in the same world as the "Evil Dragon/Dragon King" songs.

[VAE]

Downloaded everything, because I am an impulse actor. Now, just remains to listen to it all.