tools

Fate, chance, and dumb luck play an important part in making sound and music, and serendipity can be just as effective as focused deliberation. Part Zen, part homage to Eno and Cage, part "ambient philosophy", but mostly to avoid taking things too seriously, the following are indespensible:

Oblique Strategies

The Motherlode List of Eight Balls on the Internet
The Public 8 Ball: A real 8 ball being shaken and read just for you.
The Magic Coffee Mug. Be sure to add cream & sugar
Dissecting the Magic Eight Ball
The Wonderous Sarcastic Ball
The Magic Eight Ball is never wrong

Clock of the Long Now
Time passes far too quickly

John Zorn's "Cobra"

instruments

guitar

Q: Do either of you "play guitar?"

A: Not really. One plays a bit, one noodles. Neither would use the term "play". Then again, neither of us would ever refer to ourselves as "musicians" either, so take that as you will.

Neither of us has really been happy with playing guitar in the ways we have in the past, nor has been driven to really learn "chops" and spend the vast amounts of time it really takes to master the instrument. In fact, both of us decided long ago we're much more interested in composition rather than playing. Hence our working together and our disinterest in playing live. Very influenced by Eno's views on these ideas.

That said, it's all noodling, with specific goals in mind, but we tried very hard to approach the instrument in as naive a way as possible, and to "forget" as much technique as possible, and just see it as a raw thing that makes sounds and you can do things to, like hitting it with kitchen knives. Same way we approach synths - we learn enough to get around them, tweak them, and then experiment to find sounds we like, and go from there.

Everything we do comes from that. Trying hard to "unlearn" as much as we can, to approach things like music and art and packaging in a innocent and open-minded way, much like a child would, and from there discover things that interest us.

pedals

Beloved guitar pedals, past, present, and future(?). We do not endorse any particular brand or piece of kit, unless someone really wants to pay us to do so. Drop us a line, we'll pimp your shite!

Steve Reich's definition of the use of "phrases" to create "phasing" as defined in his seminal minimalist manifesto Music as a Gradual Process. It's the idea of a standard looper like the Line 6 DL4 Delay or XYZZY but having been designed and built in Texas, it was taken to the extreme of allowing you to create loops up to four (4) minutes (!!) long, and then layer more loops on top of that, limited only by how much of its memory you use. Built like a tank (although our first one did go bad, but was happily replaced under warranty), it allows us to create the looping guitar pieces that slowly build up in layers. The one "pedal" (if you can call it that) we could never play guitar without. -->
 
Boss
BCB-6 Pedal Case Boss BCB-6 Pedal Case
We don't play live but it's nice to be able to keep them organized.
CE-300 Super Chorus Boss CE-300 Super Chorus
With all the Roland Chorus effects we have access to, you'd think we wouldn't need this, but it's an irreplacable gem.
CS-3 Compressor Sustainer Boss CS-3 Compressor Sustainer
A necessity for those of us who can't play cleanly, but the compression is also mandatory for the Slow Gear and the sustain makes for great ambient washes.
DD-5 Digital Delay Boss DD-5 Digital Delay
We're absolute sluts when it comes to delays.
PS-3 Pitch Shifter/Delay Boss PS-3 Pitch Shifter/Delay
A wonderful delay in itself that has a natural compression, but also a pitch shifter since we tend to overplay the resonance and higher strings.
PSM-5 Power Supply Boss PSM-5 Power Supply/Master Switch
Power for the rack, saves wankers like us hundreds of batteries a year.
RV-5 Digital Reverb Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb ( product info)
A combo reverb/delay that has a ton of useful settings blending the two.
SG-1 Slow Gear Boss SG-1 Slow Gear ( product info)
These sell for USD $300-600 on Ebay. They're very cool, but that's just nutters. DOD makes a "Swell Volume" that's good, but we'll admit nothing like this original.
 
DOD
DFX94 Digital Delay/Sampler DOD DFX94 Digital Delay/Sampler
Can't have too many delays. This one's a classic, does wonderful trails.
FX90 Delay DOD FX90 Delay
Their basic, old school flagship digital delay. A classic, with wonderful repeats.
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