The Sphere
Music of the Sphere
© 2007 Jump City Productions (634479713231) (format: CD-R)
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Retro punk metal thrash trance music with a humorous twist. Think Frank Zappa with Jimi Hendrix as a sideman and touches of Pink Floyd and Firesign Theatre thrown in.
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The Sphere was a very strange band that manifested itself one night almost 20 years ago in my garage/studio in North Hollywood, CA. The music is hard to catagorize, lying somewhere in the realm of Punk/Metal style with Thrash attitude and Trance qualities, containing some Jazz sensibilities and a dash of Firesign Theater. It is all original, though you will occasionally hear familiar themes drawn mostly from movie and TV music!
Throughout the mid to late eighties, I dabbled in the recording business, making radio advertisments for camera stores and shoe emporiums, doing voice-overs and creating jingles and such. Occasionally I would host a Saturday afternoon jam session in the studio, usually followed by an Italian dinner provided by my lovely bride, Lonna. While we ate we would listen too and laugh at the crazy tracks we had just made.
This particular session (9/27/88) was on the occasion of my wife's 30th birthday and features three of my closest friends, fine musicians, all of whom I had worked with in bands and in the studio for about a decade.
The players are:
Earl Oliver: Me. I switched off between guitar and drums on these sessions.
Pierre Ardans: Pierre played bass on a couple of cuts and spelled me on the drums. He also played guitar.
Stanly Chin: Stan played lead/rhythm guitar and shared the bass duties with Pierre and Larry.
LJ Dopp: Larry played some bass guitar and alternating lead guitar with Stan. He played keyboard on Religiosity. He also added some guitar to sweeten two tracks in a post production overdub session.
All four of us contributed vocally. All of the music and lyrics were ad-libbed on the spot.
You will notice right away that most of these cuts are really just portions of the full performances. That is because some of these original recordings were more than 30 minutes long, all of them were more than 10 minutes in length except for two. Religiosity is the only full performance cut in the collection.
As producer, I have selected the best continuous portion of each track and faded them in and out. The group were all multi-instrumentalists, so different combinations of players and instruments can be heard throughout the album.
Here is the rundown:
Lost in Space: This instrumental was my idea. Really just a rhythm lick on an Am chord on the guitar. I am playing the harmonics on the bridge sections, and I also played lead guitar in turn with Larry (in overdub) throughout the track. Pierre is on the drums here and Stan is playing lead/rhythm guitar. Larry played the bass on the original track. (6:46)
On the Street: This instrumental was invented by Stan, his guitar is the biting, growling rhythm pulse on this tune. He also spaces into some very stylish lead lines at the beginning and several other places before the piece is over. Larry is playing the 2nd lead guitar through most of the track, Pierre on the bass, myself on drums. (8:19)
Shortnin' Breadsticks: This is pure Pierre. He started it with his guitar lick and drove the entire tune from beginning to end. He also realized about a minute in that the tune resembled the traditional childrens song, "Shortnin' Bread", so he started singing that! From there madness ensued... I was playing the drums and singing, Stan was on lead guitar and singing, Larry played bass (+ 2nd lead guitar in overdub) and sang. (7:18)
Theme for a New Age: My narration on Theme for a New Age was written and recorded in post-production, after the fact. The tape was speeded up when I recorded the voice-over so that it produced the "basso profundo" narration you hear on the sweetened track. I also played drums here. Stan played rhythm and texture to Larry's lead guitar, Pierre was on the bass. (7:54)
Song of the Dessert: The initial guitar rhythm on this track is mine, but it evolved into something that was invented simultaneously among us. Again, the true identity of the old tune "Song of the Desert" was not revealed during the first few run-throughs of the main theme. It occurred to us that the melody of that song would fit the chord structure we were playing, so we ran with it. Larry's brilliantly comical narration was ad libbed right off the top of his head. I was playing rhythm guitar to Larry's lead. Stan is on bass, Pierre on the drums. Sound effects and animal noises provided by myself, Stan and Pierre. (5:55)
Religiosity: This is another Pierre spectacular. It began with Stan doing a little dittie on his bass after someone said something about Halloween. He segued into the "Theme from the Adams Family" TV show and we all caught on to his spooky theme idea. Then suddenly, Pierre shifted gears and took it into a religious direction by starting to chant like an Native American shaman - we all happily followed suit and once more, madness reigned... Pierre on guitar, I was on the drums, Larry played the piano and celeste on this track. (3:41)