[Music] Tapewolf - Pancake Ferret LP

[Tapewolf]

Finally it is done.  Presenting my fourth album, Pancake Ferret.  Most of the tracks were previously published in my thread, albeit in different versions.  In most cases, the ones I now present are substantially better than the earlier demos.  I'm sure most people here can guess the origin of the title

Now, this is probably going to eat a lot of bandwidth, but here's the link.  Try to use the Jamendo bittorrent thing if possible.  (It might be too early yet...)

http://www.dougtheeagle.com/ferret.htm

The cover art was again drawn by Turnsky, who also kindly provided the Operation Wendigo image from his comic, Foxfire Chronicles. This can be found in the booklet, linked below. Additional art by Keaton. Guest vocals on 'Daniel' include James Rolls as Dan, Catherine Willington as Mab and Tara Rolls as Alexsi. Guest vocals on 'Sheep' by Sam from Microsoft Narrator.

A PDF version of the cover with full lyrics and liner notes can be found in the link above.

Notes on the individual tracks:

1. Operation Wendigo

'Operation Wendigo' was conceived on Christmas 2006, with subsequent rerecordings all the way up to November 2007. It is based on Turnsky's webcomic, in which five strangers are kidnapped and turned into furries as part of a clandestine government experiment. The final version was recorded across two sychronized 8-track tape machines and remains one of my favourite songs on the album.

2. 'Apocalypse in 4/4'
Uh, this is a sort of twisted apocalyptic vision in which Jesus was cloned by some evil genius to make an army. Just a strange idea I had while walking home one night. No drugs were used here, honestly.

3. 'Shadow over Merthyr'
This was an attempt to replicate the music and atmosphere of the fantasy-metal band, Bal-Sagoth, whom I adore. It's kind of based on Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft, only set in Wales.

4. 'Princes of the Dreams'
This is a cover/collaboration of a song by xss, which was inspired by DMFA. The music was written by xss, performed by me. Lyrics by xss, with modifications by Tezkat and myself. Permission to include it on the album was graciously provided by him. I just wish the singing could have been better. This was also recorded 16-track.

5. 'The musings of Jakob Pettersohn upon the time when he was once known as Johan Cross'
This continues the DMFA-inspired Jakob Pettersohn saga.  Those who read my CJP story should know this 

6. 'My wicked life with the Hattifatteners'
This was, believe it or not, inspired by 'The exploits of Moominpappa' by Tove Jannson.  Moving swiftly on...

7. 'Sheep are Satanic'
Actrually this isn't much better in terms of deep and meaningful music, having simply been inspired by a walk on Mynnyd Maen. Later I realised it bore a strong resemblance to Pink Floyd's song. Damn. Either way, Sam, your local friendly speech synthesizer really cannot say "soy" or "soya". Workarounds, which took some effort to find, include "soh ya" and "ssoyer". While "ssoy" works, "ssoya" does not. But that's not the point. It's more fun to point and laugh when the word comes out as "schwrrrr".

8. 'What did Daniel think he was?'
And finally we come to 'Daniel' inspired by that heartrending moment when Dan discovers that he's really a demon, he's going to live for thousands of years after all his mortal friends have died, assuming he's not hunted down and slain by other adventurers as a monster. Guest vocals come from the DMFA Radio Project, of course.  An orchestral arrangement of this song was used on the Recipe for Disasters episode.

http://www.dougtheeagle.com

[Cogidubnus]

I liked Project Wendigo quite a bit.  The refrain almost made me laugh a few times, but I think it's quite apt.

Apocalypse in 4X4 was also very nice - I'm not exactly a music aficionado, so I don't have much to say other than I liked it. The beginning of it was somehow nostalgic, for me. The ending of "What did Daniel think he was" was also humorous - I think I remember that from somewhere, before...

Just popping in to say it'll be going on the old ipod. You're quite talented, sir - and thank you for sharing such.

[Tapewolf]

I liked Project Wendigo quite a bit.  The refrain almost made me laugh a few times, but I think it's quite apt.

Interestingly, the song was built up piece by piece using that phrase as a starting point and working outwards.  The bridge came to me while in the shower (fortunately I not only had brought my laptop over that Christmas, but also loaded a sequencer on it).
The 'prophecy' segment near the end (see http://foxfire.comicgenesis.com/d/20060825.html ) was a fluke, I just got the idea of playing the link section over and over again.  I think that part worked really well.  Takhan was voiced by slowing down the tape, but when I did the rerecording for take 5 onwards, I couldn't do it again and had to dub it across from the original master

Apocalypse in 4X4 was also very nice - I'm not exactly a music aficionado, so I don't have much to say other than I liked it. The beginning of it was somehow nostalgic, for me.

The brass fanfare is the same one used by Bal Sagoth, although I doubt that means much
As a rule I try to make the second track slightly industrial-sounding (e.g. 'Return to Babel' and 'Falcon's Tale' on the first and second albums), hence the distorted vocals.

The ending of "What did Daniel think he was" was also humorous - I think I remember that from somewhere, before...

Kind of.  It's a different mix.  It uses the music from the original version, but doesn't slow the voice down quite as much.  I chucked that on as the bonus track because I think that version of the score (titled 'Black Mass in B-minor' by the way) was better than the final version despite the flaws - the bass synth just came out better and I haven't been able to reproduce the effect yet 
I chucked that one as the hidden track because when we do the full version of that episode, someone else will be doing Albanion.  Also, the 2nd and 3rd albums had some kind of outtake from the Radio Project at the end of them too...

Just popping in to say it'll be going on the old ipod. You're quite talented, sir - and thank you for sharing such.

Thanks.  I don't know if the Jamendo download thing is working yet - it takes time to seed - but that has a higher-quality encoding than the one on my site, and also in .ogg format (for anyone else who's interested - the ipod itself can't play those).

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

jamendo is working. I just set torrent downloading, and got 825k/s, downloading the entire 80Mb in 2 minutes 07 seconds.

Enjoy. ;-]

[WhiteFox]

Is the entire album in couplets?

[Tapewolf]

Is the entire album in couplets?

No.  There are a couple of songs which are in couplets ('Sheep are Satanic', 'Apocalypse in 4/4'), and a couple which use them in the chorus ('Daniel', 'Merythr') etc, but as a rule I make every alternate line rhyme (I forget the technical term for this).

In the booklet I have merged the lines together to save space, e.g.

His name is Daniel Ti'Fiona, His mother was a succubus
And when he found her genes had carried, He didn't view that as a plus

In its original form it was more like:

His parents never got to tell him,
They left him when he was a child.
And when he found he was a Demon,
That was the last day that he smiled.

The lyrics on Jamendo were cut-and-pasted from the PDF version and share the same traits.
In any case, I believe that the music itself takes priority.  Otherwise I'd do rap 

[WhiteFox]

Rap is music. It just uses the voice as a rhythm device rather than a melody.

I hate it too.

Anyway...

I like the sound of the album, but the lyrics feel kind of forced at times. The length of some of these kind of irks me too. I usually find 5 minutes to be my upper limit for the length of a song.

[Tapewolf]

I like the sound of the album, but the lyrics feel kind of forced at times.

Sometimes they are.  To put it less subtly than I did above, I don't consider writing lyrics to be one of my strengths.  Or drum-lines either, come to that...

The length of some of these kind of irks me too. I usually find 5 minutes to be my upper limit for the length of a song.

Not a prog person, then
Seriously, I'm happiest when I've got something over 7:00 without too much repetition, 'Project Dragonsong' on the previous album being the ultimate example at about 26 minutes (an entire 'side' and a whole reel of tape just for that one song).  Though of course I appreciate that not everyone goes for that kind of thing.

[WhiteFox]

The length of some of these kind of irks me too. I usually find 5 minutes to be my upper limit for the length of a song.

Not a prog person, then

I'm more industrial electronica punk-rock, or any combination thereof. Just mix and match. I throw in some Bach and Dvorjak when the mood hits me.

If songs I listen to lasted for more than 5 mins, my head would probably splatter the walls.

Anyway... if lyrics aren't your strong point, why are they so prominent in the music?

[Tapewolf]

Anyway... if lyrics aren't your strong point, why are they so prominent in the music?

Because it didn't sound right with them in the background.  Frankly, I've seen worse lyrics, it's just that if you're expecting lyrical perfection you'll be disappointed