The Irish Ballad

Here's the latest Astro Al video

 

Frankie Freako

 Frankie Freako

There is nothing more 80s that wasn’t made in the 1980’s than the movie Frankie Freako which was released in 2024.

I won’t spoil the movie, but it is an amazing damnation of the 80’s cinema and culture by playing it straight from the 80’s playbook.

Juvenile? Yes, but I would argue a lot of 80s cinema was just that, see Revenge of the Nerds, Porky’s, Police Academy, etc.

Favorite line? “We went to gun college together.”

Yours in nostalgia parody,

Count Robot

A Place

 A Place

Incestuous trees grow up through the stiff dirt landscape

Here is where growth is a disease

A house that scares fog away

Cries from across the bog

Not so far away

We’re crawling towards the blood of the day

Mists are ghosts of the rain

Yours in spooky poetry, 

Count Robot

Doors of Deception

 

Doors of Deception

This is the first collaborative album between E Dahlfree (part of our projects, Amplissima & Neurodivergant) & Astro Al (DNA Girl & me)

Doors of Deception was recorded on 7/27/24 in the Bunker at Maudslay State Park, Newburyport, MA

Created, mixed, mastered, produced & performed by E Dahlfree & Astro Al

Copyright 2026 E Dahlfree & Astro Al

The Bunker is the best reverb chamber I have worked in. It's free to the public as it is part of a park. I suggest you go there if you're into jamming in the wild.

E is super fun to record with because I never can predict what rambling he might do and his prepared phone stuff is always an unexpected treat. Plus he is a damn fine trumpet player.

Thanks E!

1. Phantom Steps - Is swiping your feet across the floor of a reverb chamber an instrument? No, it's a performance. This is the shortest track on the album so we thought it would be a good intro to the inanity that awaits the listener.

2. Felida Recall - A true-ish cat story. Lots of bells and chimes.

3. Moulton Residue - A wall of sounds collages itself over the mountain top and then crashes into the sea.

4. Winnebago Duck - One of the stand out tracks for me. E went full bonkers on his rant and I think every minute of his rambling was fantastically worth it. I laugh every time I hear this one. There's no reason experimental music should not laugh at itself.

5. Bunker Trumpet - Of course the trumpet is the star of this track but that doesn't belittle the lovely mandolin sounds that dance along with the echoes of the trumpet. E is wonderful at giving the rise and fall sounds of the trumpet. Great work DNA Girl.

6. Doors of Deception -Have you ever been haunted by voice mails? I sure have. This is a collage piece which means layers of performances were cut together and pasted over each other. It's something that I really enjoy with this type of audio art. No matter what we do, Jim Morrison is still dead in a bathtub in Paris.

E Dahlfree: Pocket trumpet, bells, Alto recorder, voice, prepared phone

Astro Al is:

DNA Girl: Octave mandolin, hand drum, water bottle, vocals, pipes

Count Robot: Vocals, blabbing, monotron, duotron, Thor’s wooden hammer, slide whistle, Aztec death whistle, found objects, virtual synth, stylophone, clapping, general buffoonery, duck call, egg shaker

This was a fun one to make. Hoping to do more collab stuff with E in the future.

Yours in more new music,

Count Robot

CDR Compilation

 

Hey you crazy kids!

Want to be part of a CDR compilation or just want a copy?

Check out the info below. Our project Static Apparitions is on this cdr comp.

email Hal McGee

haltapes@gmail.com

BURN THIS CD-R Volume 1 is now available, and only on CD-R.

18 tracks, 77 minutes — ARVO ZYLO, alexsmind, Mudball Mike, Su Sous Toulouse en Rouge, Girls On Fire, Jeph Jerman, BLACK WICK, Aversion To Reality, Collapsing, CHEFKIRK, PCRV, Walter Campbell, Creep City, Cacophony'33', Static Apparitions, Eko Bhango, Mike Hovancsek, and Arnold Mathes.

Front cover artwork by Mike Hovancsek. 

Volume 2 is about two-thirds full, and the project is ongoing. Contact Hal for project guidelines, and for how to purchase and trade for copies of Volume 1. haltapes@gmail.com

For many years I’ve heard of, and heard the audio explorations of, Hal McGee. It was nice to finally get to work with him.

The last track is a low fi funnel of 80’s sounds. I dig it so much.

The Contracting Expanse

The Contracting Expanse

A filling station of Time

can run out anytime

Midnight will soon be in sight

The secret kiss of the dark night

Silence of your sight

It doesn’t mean what it might

Without my sweating fright

Yours in odd poetry,

Count Robot

PS

Everything on this blog is copyright me!

Rust 5 The Rusty Robot Birds of Becket

 Rust 5  The Rusty Robot Birds of Becket

This is a write up of the latest Tim Mungenast & Astro Al album, Rust 5  The Rusty Robot Birds of Becket

Rust 5 is here

This album was mostly recorded in Becket MA.

Becket MA has an old query that has been converted into a park.

The park is filled with rusted out broken machinery and for some unknown reason an empty shipping container,

This place is the perfect backdrop for us to create the sounds of rust.

1. Scene 24 With Bells 5:18 - A mostly instrumental track to welcome you into the rusted madness. Bells upon bells. This was from the May 2023 session. Some gorgeous guitar by Tim on this one.

2. No More Robot Kings 6:04 -This track was recorded during the No Kings protest. We drove by many demonstrators and it was thrilling and inspiring to see them.

Fascism is decay. This was from the 2025 session. Some nice cigar box guitar playing from DNA Girl.

3. Tap Tap/Ding Ding 5:46- From the May 2023 recording session. Lots of bashing upon rusted out equipment. More tasty Tim guitar. 

4. Robo-Skrunge Versus The Deadly Melodica 5:52 - This is from the 2025 session. DNA Girl going to town on the melodica. This is a cosmic truth.

I’m not sure who or what Robo-Skrunge is but I like the name. Tim titled this one. If memory serves he titled most of the tracks on this album. Nice distorted guitar on this track.

5. Back-Porch Blues Revelation 5:22 - Tim delivers the spoken word piece. A delightful tale of an aging blues man who has a revelation. Bonus points to Tim for mentioning Martians.From the 2025 session.

Me on the harmonica. This contains one of my favorite bits on the album. I made a loop of us pounding on a shipping container. I think it came out well.

6. Hymn to the Rusty Robot Birds of Becket 5:42 - From the 2025 recordings. This is one of the reasons I really enjoy recording outside. You never know what amazing sounds you’ll capture in the background. I think the birds were digging singing along with us.

 The wind really got into it too. As I type this our cats ears are going crazy. No doubt they enjoy the bird songs.

7. The Void Is Where The Groovy People Hang Out 4:47 - A frothy bit of inanity. A fun way to end the album. We knew this would be the final track almost as soon as it was done. From the first recording session in 2023.

The bulk of this track was recorded right in front of the ledge overlooking the water. Silly sounds.

The stuff we played

Tim Mungenast: Teak Wonder guitar, Marshall MS-2 toy amp, Mesa Boogie Studio .22+ amp, Babybox analog synth, FX, overtone singing, vocals, whirlie, balalaika, broken Marshall MS-2 Micro Amp, bell, transsubstantiation flooba module, shipping container fist percussion. 

Astro Al is:

DNA Girl: Vocals, Ibanez mandolin, wah-wah tube, rocks, rusted artifacts in the forest, steel drum, synth, tongue drum, cabasa, slide, field recordings, cigar box guitar, melodica, rocks, singing, shipping container percussion

Count Robot: Vocals, microphones, duotron, monotron, springatron, kazoo, rusted artifacts in the forest, Aztec death whistle, metal, field recordings, FX, zither, harmonica, walkman, virtual synth, modified cassette player, toy voice changers, shipping container percussion

Recorded May 2023 & June 2025 in Becket MA, Weirdfield MA, and Ballston Spa NY 

Written, performed, produced, and mastered by Tim Mungenast & Astro Al

Copyright 2026 Tim Mungenast & Astro Al

Will there be another Rust album? Yes, we still have some unused stuff from this session and a return trip to Beckett will happen eventually.

Plus the rust series has grown on us like… well rust.

Yours in rusting ungracefully,

Count Robot