Behind the Scenes and in Front -From the streaming concert "The Naaah Exception"

 

Here are some pics and comments behind the scenes and in front of the scenes -From the streaming concert "The Naaah Exception".

First off you can watch the show here.

This gong is right behind me during the shows. I like banging it. Does that make me a pervert?

My pedals. Look at that profesional set up! I used a phaser pedal, old tapes, and aqueduct. Pretty trippy. 

The rest of the gear I brought, a two input keyboard amp, a cassette player, some tapes, an electric kazoo, and a fm/am radio tape player.

Some of the random stuff that we are free to use during the shows. Note the rubber chicken.

Tim & Eric after the shorty. We record a shorty before the live stream to warm us up. No video is shot of the shorty. The shorty is audio only and is put on the cds of the show, not on Youtube.

The TV in the living room is set up to watch the show.

More toys to play with!

A wall of synths!

DNA Girl!

DNA Girl during the show. Photo by Paul Brennan, not me. I stole this from Facebook.

Same as the prior photo. This one is being used to test market DNA Girl's new sitcom, "DNA Girl Casts a Spell on You!"

A small amount of their movie collection.

Your doofus host.

I am very lucky to perform with such amazing people.

Yours in NAAAAAAAh,

Count Robot

Riot of Fear -A new album by Astro Al

Riot of Fear 

An album by Astro Al

This is a write up about the just released album Riot of Fear by Astro Al.

Below each track by track description is the main fear theme that the track is at least somewhat about.

Riot of Fear was assembled from multiple recordings done over a few years. The theme of fear drew all these bits and pieces together.

Riot Of Fear

Astro Al is:

DNA Girl: vocals, voice, octave mandolin, mandolin, synth, guitar, acoustic guitar, field recordings

Count Robot: voice, chimes, bell, Weird Sound Generator, FX, synth, field recordings, samples, monotron

Recorded in Weirdfield MA, a hotel balcony in Portland Maine, a coffee shop in Lynn MA, and at a graveyard in MA

Yeah sometimes we record in graveyards. It’s a good spooky vibe.

I

1. Limited Edition Death 6:57 -Do you like to collect things? Who doesn’t? There’s one thing that’s limited edition alright.

It’s your death. Sure we all get one, but each one is unique. If you don’t believe me, ask someone who died. A very synth driven track. DNA Girl and I were both 

jamming out on synths in this one.

Some of the voice stuff was recorded in Portland Maine. Lots of heavily FX altered spoken stuff on this track. We hadn’t done a lot of synth focused pieces

in awhile so I was glad to get this in.

Fear of Death and Fear of Commercialism

2. I See Your Eyes In Every Port  3:10 -There’s a long story behind this track. DNA Girl wrote the majority of this tune 

to accompany a short story she wrote about a ghost reuniting with his lost love. This was supposed to be on a collab album

with Harts Horn that has yet to get off the ground. We’re hoping that someday it will and Joe from Harts Horn will sing that version of this song. This version was 

originally meant as a guide post for Joe, but we held onto because we liked it and since the collab is on hold, we figured why not put this one out.

For now here’s DNA Girls fine singing. The background is heavily manipulated recordings of seagulls and the ocean. If you’re reading this Joe, when you get the

time, we’d dig getting back to the collab album! Having a more traditional song here helps shake things up early.

Harts Horn is the first band we did a collab album with, which is Pet Noizes.

Fear of infidelity 

3. Riot Of Fear 8:15 - Fear is what we fear. Inspired by a line from a movie poster. There’s a gloriously ridiculous Danish monster movie called

Reptilicus. In the movie trailer there is the line “Riot of Fear”. Sounded like a good name for a track to me. Then the rest of the story fell into place. 

Take your place, the riot of fear is about to start, it always does. Fear is what we long to fear. Telephones are full of evil spirits. Electricity 

leaks out of the sockets in your house. Fear is what we always hear. The message is clear. We are the fear. Riot of fear.

I hadn’t really noticed or thought much about the tagline on the poster until one day my friend Brandon pointed it out to me. Thank you Brandon!

That title really birthed this whole album.

Fear of embarrassment

Fear of fear.

II - Like the idea of feeling like there are two chapters to this recording, as if you have to flip it over.

4. Surfin’ On Poe’s Stash 3:14  -This was born out of a recorded chat on a hotel deck in Portland Maine which inspired the entirety of this track. 

DNA Girl and I blabbing on a cold Maine winter night outside as we watched the goings on in that part of the world.

Life is ridiculous. So is this track. A fluff of stuff. There’s always stuff. Perceiving what you hear is your perception. Someday everything will be gone.

We recorded most of the music for this one in Weirdfield. 

Fear of loss

5. Great Again Again  6:13 - The opening spoken word part of this track was improvised in front of a live audience at an open mic night in Lynn a few years ago.

I looped it in again at the end with FX on it. Again and again, aren’t we great already? Answer: No we aren’t. Far from it. We’re less and lesser than great every day. 

The other spoken word part was recorded in the home studio in Weirdfield. All the music for this one was recorded in Weirdfield. 

I really like DNA Girl’s dreamy string playing on this one.

Fear of fascism

6. Becoming The Monster 4:47 -This was mostly recorded at night in a graveyard. The spoken word bit by DNA Girl was added later. 

This piece pairs well with the one before it. Deb’s got some playful mandolin strumming on this one. Harkening back to the prior track, the spoken word part

is repeated again with FX drenched over it. I played monotron and duotron on this one. They are handheld synths.

Sometimes monsters aren’t born, they need to be nurtured into that role. Look into the eye of the crow. What Byzantine secrets does it know?

Fear of the Other

7. Lick My Blasphemy 6:59  -Based on a very true story. I saw a billboard for a lobster nativity scene and that

got me thinking about this whole crazy thing. I don’t get down on religion, but I do think having a lobster nativity scene is… a little cracked.

Did anyone really go see this thing? “Hey kids, let’s go look at the birth of our lobster lord then let’s go eat some lobster rolls!”

I suppose if we decided to do another winter holiday album this could have gone on it, but I don’t foresee us doing that again. All the music for this one was recorded in Weirdfield.

Driving around Boston one long December night I saw three billboards advertising a lobster nativity scene. Think about that for a bit. So does that mean there's a 

crustacean christ?

Fear of offense

Another thing tying this album together is there’s lots of mando and the two tracks DNA Girl does the main vocal/spoken part both heavily rely on the mandolin.

Written, created, produced, and mastered by Astro Al from recordings made over many years.

Copyright Astro Al 2026

Is Astro Al a band or a duo or an audio project. You decide if you want, and it doesn’t matter if you decide, because we haven’t. 

Total: 38:15. I like trying to keep album as close to 40 minutes as possible.

Yours in album number 75,

Count Robot

The Thunderbolts

One might ask why do I like the superhero movie the Thunderbolts so much? 

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

spoiler alert

It's the only superhero movie where the story is resolved by a group hug.

Yours in group hugs,

Count Robot

Half Staff

Half Staff

Why don't we permanently leave all our flags at half staff?

Except for guns.

We should fly a flag of guns all the way to the top of every flagpole in this country, because clearly guns are what we revere the most in America.

Yours in just another daily shooting,

Count Robot

Zon Meditates-an album by Amplissima

 

Zon Meditates

This is a summary write up of the second Amplissima album, Zon Meditates.

Like most Amplissima albums, this one was recorded outside on a very windy day.

 

E picked the recording site.

He likes to record in this area a lot.

It's outside in the woods at Phillips Brooks Estate in MA in the foundation of a long since vanished house.

 

Having already cut one album together, the Bells of Oddney, we felt more comfortable working together and I think it shows.

We set up a bunch of Zoom recorders all around us and then cut loose.

 

Amplissima is (at least this time around):

Tim Mungenast: voice, electric guitar, overtone singing. glissando guitar, bells, hand noises, overtone singing

E Dahlfree: voice, trumpet, loops, electronics, overtone singing, varmint call, bells

Dobra Jené Ashentree: voice, mandolin, woodrow, Tibetan bowl, melody harp, tongue drum, rocks, sticks, and other natures wonders

Drake Robey: voice, vibra slap, monotron, stylophone, kalimba, zither

Released May 5, 2023 Copyright 2023 by Amplissima

1. Zon Meditates 4:19 - I fell in love with the vibra slap years ago. I don't use it much but it is fun and I still love the sound. E's trumpet reaches some beautiful heights on this track. I believe Tim named this one and thus the album. This is a real slow building track.

2. Possibly Beyond Europa 6:01 -E takes the spoken word lead here then Dobra picks it up.

A rather tribal number. The wind through the trees makes some fun sounds on this track.

Lots of percussion. I was using the monotron on this one. The monotron is a hand held synth.

Some nice tree squeaking sounds towards the end.

3. Phil Brook’s Electric Dream 5:45 - Tim does some tasty guitar-tronics on this track which Dobra backs up on the Woodrow then switches to percussion. Tim named this one. One of the fun things about recording with this group is we tend not to talk a lot about what we're going to do in advance. We just go for it. Tim took the lead without saying he was going to, and we backed him up without any need for talking about it. It's Phil Brook's estate that we recorded at, so why not give him an electric dream of electric guitars.

4. Thee Gentle People 5:28 -E starts off the spoken stuff here. Some deep overtone singing

by E and Tim. Dobra's Woodrow holds it together. Tim's guitar storms in towards the later half.

The stylophone almost sounds like voices towards the end of the track.

5. Sklorge! 2:33 -Tim named this one and the exclamation mark is important. You can't just say Sklorge. When saying Sklorge you have to say Sklorge! Some nifty guitar riffing by Tim on this one. This nutty instrumental track is a good break between the two longer pieces. Kalimba noises by me.

6. What Killed the Humans? 5:55 -Dobra starts off the spoken bits. What killed the humans? I still haven't figured that out. The wind is a big part of this track along with some long guitar dive bombs by Tim! We all latch onto Dobra's spoken bit. What killed the humans? I think Dobra is also beating on some rocks on this one. What killed the humans?

7. Varmint Call 2:27 -E played a varmint call on this track and I am pretty sure I heard 

some animal rustling in the nearby bushes after he played it. Dobra is rocking out with some rocks on this track. Another short yet bizarre instrumental break.

8. Grove Street Grove 6:21 -E named this one. I tortured the zither on this one. E plays a mean bell on this one. Some of my spoken bits on this one were recorded at home and dropped in later.

I dig the woodrow played by Dobra on this one. The fade out on this one is pretty darn tasty to me. Nifty guitar by Tim! My spoken bit was partially inspired by an episode of the TV show Babylon Five. 

When mixing and mastering albums like this I do not try to conceal the fact that we recorded outside. What would the point in that be? I actually try to enhance the outdoor sounds. Why record outside if you don't want to capture the sounds of nature?

The cover drawing is by Tim.

It is forever amazing to me that I get to play with such talented musicians.

This makes me very lucky.

It's always a little difficult for me to go backwards so much, but if an arty type can't look back, how can they really look forward?

Yours in sound meditation,

Count Robot

New ACLU Halloween Benefit album with a new Static Apparitions track

 

Our audio project Static Apparitions has a track on a new Halloween themed ACLU benefit album. There's a lot of diverse styles of music on this compilation.

It's called Trick or Treat Volume 1 and 2: A Halloween Compilation for the ACLU. 

Check it out.

Yours in supporting the ACLU,

Count Robot

Astro Al Live at Sonic Rock Solstice 2022

 

Astro Al Live at Sonic Rock Solstice 2022

This is a write up of the live album, Astro Al Live at Sonic Rock Solstice 2022.

Sonic Rock is a long running independent music festival held in England.

We became aware of this festival when we got the Alan Davey's Bedouin Sonic Rock Solstice DVD.

The DVD is a blast. I still watch it and dig it. 

Getting to see an independent musical festival in England was a dream.

Getting to play at a music festival in England is a dreamscape within a dream world.

As a teenage music fan  I read about all these different festivals staged more for the love of music than the love of profits. They sounded so exotic and I never thought that I would see one with my own eyes.

So many bands that sounded amazing to read about performed at these shows.

At Sonic Rock, I wanted to see the band Krankschaft a lot! They were a band formed by the amazing space poet Robert Calvert and they were on the bill. Also Ozric Tentacles were there! I had seen them play Boston a couple of times in the 90s. Totally crazy shows. Especially the one in Allston.

Getting to meet Steve Pond from Krankschaft was a blast. That guy can tell stories.

Some other highlights of the trip included:

Getting to meet the amazing Roo DJ queen in person! Roo was a friend of ours going all the way

back to Myspace.

Playing with Dr. Hasbeen was a blast!

Meeting the other amazing DJ, Garry lee in person!

Garry shares part of my brain. Thanks for introducing me to the band Smoke.

Pauline Collins Alderdice gave us a crotchet alien that she made.

Her husband John wrote a blog about the festival and rated us one of his favorite bands from that year. It's thrilling to think anyone liked us that much!

Thanks so much for the excellent cover photo Peter Stanley!

It was so much fun to make our first friend from France, Yann. We still chat on the socials a lot. We split rides back to the hotel with him as we were staying at the same place. 

We performed two Astro Al sets during the festival.

One on the opening night and one on the last day of the festival.

So many great people were there.

I didn’t have to buy a drink at the festival once. 

Everyone was buying us drinks. It was so pleasant.

 

This live album is culled from soundboard recordings of our two sets at the Sonic Rock Solstice Festival (in Bromsgrove UK) on 6/16/22 & 6/19/22. Since the audio is from the soundboard, the only crowd noises you'll hear are what the mics picked up. We did repeat a few songs across the sets. Rather than include multiple recordings of the same songs, we chose to use only the best ones. We also edited out some pauses, blabbing, and so forth and our crash and burn encore (hey kids, don't try and do an unrehearsed song that you've forgotten how to play!). While some mixing trickery was done to give it more depth, there are no overdubs. Mostly, we tried to make it sound like a single set so that it would be a better listening experience. 

 

 

 

Recorded by Pete Wibrew & crew (thank you!!!)

Produced by Astro Al

Copyright 2023 Astro Al

Originally I had a different mixing plan, but I bungled it. I had a Zoom recorder with me and recorded the first set on stage. The idea was I would mix that in with the mix I got from the soundboard so you could get both what the crowd heard and what we heard on stage, but being the idiot that I am, I forgot to turn the zoom recorder on during the second set. So I couldn't use the recording from the first set because it would have made everything from the first set that we used on the album sound vastly different than the material from the second set. 

Sigh...

Astro Al is as always:

DNA Girl: vocals, guitar, FX

Count Robot: vocals, Aztec death whistle, samples, sampler, monotron, stylophone, kazoo

Here's a track by track breakdown of the live album Astro Al Live at Sonic Rock Solstice 2022

1. I Dream of Joe Meek 5:39 -What a blast to play this one for people who know who Joe Meek is!

I should have trimmed the front end of this track a bit more.

DNA Girl played one of Martyn Hasbeen's guitars (Martyn thanks for loaning us a guitar!). On this song, I played the stylophone. This was before we finally did a studio version of this song. We tested this one out live a few times before finally getting it recorded on Ghost Dinosaur Trips. 

2. A Phone Call from the Master of the Universe 5:54 -So fun to play this one for people who get Nik! Yes, my clothes were really vibrating at one of Nik's show. And yes I still don't know how Nik got my phone number. For those who don't know Nik Turner, he was the sax mad man who leapt out of Hawkwind and kept going. Nik was suppossed to play this festival and it is a real drag that he couldn't make it. It would have been fun to play this one in front of him.

3. Dr. Gumdrop’s Flea Circus Show 5:14 - We were still re-working this one a lot at the time of the show. I managed to plug the band after us, Zub Zub. They were a fun dance band. The ending of this one was a bit more visual. DNA Girl does a throat slashing motion to cut me off. DNA Girl usually plays this one on acoustic guitar, but the electric guitar worked well enough. This eventually became the title track to the album Astro Al Present's Dr. Gumdrop's Flea Circus Show. The kazoo is the most fun instrument to play. I will standby that statement.

4. The Empire of Night 5:51 -A kind of cover of a Spaceseed tune. I used the words that I wrote for Spaceseed and DNA Girl came up with a very different take for the guitar. For my part I went for a more laconic madness style performance not sure if that really worked. I probably should have gone for the more manic ranting style that I've used before. John Pack from Spaceseed is the man! Brian Fowler from Spaceseed rocks!

The words to this one have always been about the self fulfilment of paranoia. No one is watching the narrator until he makes them observe him.

5. Kings of Terror  5:39 -What a thrill to play a song about our favorite horror movie actors in the country where some of them were born and many of their best movies were made. This was taken from the second set. You can tell if you listen closely as we mention it being the first song because it was the lead off song of our second set. I dig DNA Girl's solo here. I think it was mostly improv'd and not the original solo we recorded. Performing a song about classic horror movie actors is a ghoul good time. It's fun to play samples of them from some of their fun flicks. I tried to make the monotron sound like a monster.

6. Big Foot vs the Were Wolf  3:53 - The lights and projections were a blast. The dancing cows were particularly fun. I danced around like a whacked out contortionist during this one. Almost didn't make it back to the mic to sing my back up part. Got the 50's vibe going. This was from the second set. Howling during this number is fun. They projected fun dancing cow videos while we played this one.

7. Anne Frank 5:45 -This one is always a bit heart melting for me to perform. The words for this one were written not long after my first visit to the Anne Frank house. Feeling the weight of that persecution and hope was life changing. There wasn't a dry eye in the house that day.

The truth is I don't even know what to say. With love Anne Frank will live forever.

We thought about putting a studio version of this on Ghost Dinosaur Trips, but decided against it. 

8. Cosmic Interlude 7:04 -This was a live somewhat improvised soundscape thing. I think I freaked a few people out with my kneeling and crouching during this number. We usually try to do one piece during each show that's unique to that show. We rehearsed this, but didn't stick to the way we practiced it. I played the monotron and sampler on this one. Remember to drink your mushroom tea. Got some good tones out of the Dr.Boss sampler on this one. The samples here are all synth tracks I recorded.

9. Sharkgator 3:46 -This was from the second set. We accidentally skipped a verse on this one during the first set. So of course we used the recording from the second set. One of our more rocking numbers from the Creature Double Feature album. Would you believe me if I said this is a pro-female song? Sharkgator will swallow his soul. I played the sampler and Aztec death whistle on this one. DNA Girl did the fiery guitar.

10. Come to Me 6:10 - We’re big Van Der Graaf Generator fans (lucky enough to have seen them twice). Fun to play this in front of some VDGG fans. We aimed to have DNA Girl’s vocal part be in a similar style to the vocals on Van Der Graaf’s songs. I’ve written about this particular performance of this song before, but I can never sum up how it made me feel. This was the highlight of both sets for me. It was like falling in love all over again. Every time I looked at DNA Girl during this one I melted. It was realising that everything lead me to that moment.

I played samples of distorted zither recordings that I made.

DNA Girl nailed this one all levels. Her vocals still give me chills. Her guitar playing catches the feelings of fear and violence in the song.

The timing of her dramatic line at the end matched the sample perfect.

Astro Al really hasn’t had a live show since this gig. We will play out again at some point but it's going to be difficult to even get close to this vibe again.

11. Thank you  0:12 - Just felt we needed to depart with our thanks. 

Would we go back and play again at Sonic Rock? Sure! Just need the stars to align again...

Yours in gigs in other countries,

Count Robot