Amplissima - Iron Bird

 

Iron Bird- Amplissima

This is a run down of that album with some track by track thoughts on it.

Amplissima is one of many audio projects featuring, Tim Mungenast, E Dahlfree, Dobra Jené Ashentree, and myself under one of my many ridiculous aliases. 

This album was recorded in the same attic space in Norton as the Amplissima album Fields Converge (which featured awesome guest Vanessa LeFevre).

The house in Norton is supposedly haunted and supposedly was formerly a brothel a hundred or so years ago.

All I can say for sure is that the attic space is a great recording area. 

It's got a nice resonance and plenty of room to spread out.

This is the 4th Amplissima album. 

released October 25, 2024

1. Lamb Hops 5:45 -This track is a good example of E using his trumpet to build space around the rest of us.

2. Iron Bird Shenanigans 10:14 -A bit of enjoyable interplay between Tim & Dobra here on their respective stringed instruments.

3. Anything Unusual? 5:05 - Some tasty Tim guitar. Oh wow! This track has E's broken varmint call.

4. Future Events 8:42 -Featuring many samples from the classic movie Plan Nine from Outer Space. Future events such as this will affect you in the future.

Thank you Ed Wood! Some fun sonic textures on this one. Nice percussion by Dobra.

5. Hash Machine 7:17 - Hash Machine! The silliest track on the entire album. That's why it's at the end. What better way to return your ears to the planet you live on.

Amplissima is:

Dobra Jené Ashentree: octave mandolin, tambourine, tongue drum, metal guiro, tin whistle, FX, percussion, vocals

E Dahlfree: trumpet, electronics, voice, bells, broken varmint call

Tim Mungenast: electric guitar, effects pedals, overtone singing, field recordings

Drake Robey: voice, bullet microphone, sampler, samples, synth, monotron, electric kazoo, weird sound generator, FX

- I used a cheap casio synth from the late 80s on this album. I ran the output through a lot of pedals and I rather like some of the weird sounds it created.

I gave the synth to Tim. I hope he is having fun with it.

Recorded on 10/15/22, on a Saturday evening in a mysterious house in Norton MA.

Created, recorded, mixed, engineered, produced, and mastered by Amplissima.

Copyright 2024 Amplissima

The cover photo was taken by E 

The cover design was by Dobra 

Yours in iron birding,

Count Robot

Needles of the Sun

 

Needles of the Sun

This is where Death is born

The record needle injects your lush piano concerto

into my weeping ears

The laser needle burns the undesirable mutations from my skin

Do you want me to save them for you?

Death is born to a warm, vibrant, mother in a realm where the sun

breathes its moist heat upon the verdant plains

The eye of the needle is searching for you

waiting for your sores to scream 

for the penetration and your subjugation

The needle sweats your fallen desires

waiting for your most desperate despair

as the sun intrudes on the darkness

Gentle air from obscure rains

caress your tranquil face

as your piano playing swells

inside the mended cottage that

I am

And Death sleeps peacefully

in it’s mother’s arms

Yours poetically,

Count Robot

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.