a little bit about For a Fallen Angel

Recorded between April through August 2016, with the exception of the first half of ‘Still haven’t found what I’m looking for” which was recorded in July 2015. 

I’ve repeatedly had dreams of finding an angel washed up on a beach.  There is nothing more to it then that.  

“If the Heavens let me in” has Keenan Mittag-Degala on back up vocals.  This song was inspired by a lyric from the opera Stroszek in the first scene the lead characters says “If the heavens would let this poor boy in, I’d still be working for the thunder”.  

“Nourish” is the just a piano improvsation with a quiet guitar part.  I was tryijng to be Angelo Badlamanti.  It used to have vocals on it but it made far too silly and epic.  

I wrote this song after walking around town with nothing to do for 5 hours.  This is a desperate attempt to not antagonize everyone I walked by.  

This is for real a U2 cover. The 2nd half features production from Pascale Medes and Piano by Keith Barr.  

the videos are what they are.  i guess No Wave cinema, Winding Refn’s use of colour, Snapchat stories and MDE are influences.   

Inspired by Stroszek, Anhoni, Grouper, long walks, Kid Cudi’s hooks on Kanye songs, the music of Twin Peaks, Nicole Dollenganger, the place between awake and dreaming, Jandek, Scott Walker, U2′s The Joshua Tree, warmth, opera and the right foot pedal on a piano.

next album is called Firesale and is a everything-must-go record.  will be massively collaborative, long as fuck and not as pretty as this thing.  I will also do more lofi amateur music videos, probably in a more long form.

----- things may change too. 

a little bit about Insatiable & Depraved

Insatiable & Depraved is an unfiltered edgy portrait of the average disenfranchised teenager jacked up on booze, ready-made food and caffeine with above average qualities crippled by equal self-destruction and loathing.  Over-stimulated, lacking perspective, too much information, not enough socialization and intimacy, and pure millennial cynicism.

IN DESPERATE NEED OF RE-SOCIALIZATION

Written and Recorded primarily in June/July 2015 in a bout of post-post-breakup boredom, loneliness, and solitary beer drinking.  “Sex Sells”, parts of “Lydia Lunch” and “Montreal” as well as final mixing was done in the weeks leading up to release. 

Gear used with the lovely Josh Manning’s Yamaha digital audio preamp-interface deal, an Sm-58, Ableton, an old piano, various youtube samples, ukulele, electric drums and guitar.

The only collaborators are on Glass Ulcer featuring Dave <lastnameunknown> on Guitar and Mark Tagasilk on Drums

Inspired/influenced by Jenny Hval, Scott Walker, the ludicrousness of spoken word/slam poetry culture, Murakami, Merzbow, screentime, Xiu Xiu, Whitehouse, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, Alice Coltrane, television/magazine advertisement models, Desiigner, Funkadelic’s Hardcore Jollies, internet pornography, art school art and Throbbing Gristle.

This is the first record in the ‘3 Summers’  trilogy.  The 2nd installment will be released in the summer and contains experimental pop songs about love, infatuation, joy, excitement and intimacy.

free for download on bandcamp

Caverns EP - Formidable Liqourice [black metal]

Caverns EP by Formidable Liquorice

forgot to post this !! dropped in march. black metal 3 track ep recorded in a week last summer. Liam Crocker is on guitar on the last track. inspired pretty much just by Darkthrone.

A little bit about Live Liquorice Volume I

Admittedly, I am one of those people who exclusively shares his creative output shamelessly on his personal Facebook account.  Considering the increasingly-frustrating deformity and disjointedness of Formidable Liquorice as a musical project, live shows have become a craiglistian call for musicians. The majority of FL’s gigs have been a cast of friends and local freaks doing massive improvisational drone psychedelic noise music.   These are not those shows.

The first set of songs was at a benefit show for the Native Friendship Centre at the Copper Owl on Canada day 2015.  We were instructed to only cover Canadians songs.  Last year’s popular music consciousness was loaded to the brim with incredible Canadians acts making incredible records.  Aubrey “Drake” Graham, The Weeknd, Tobias Jesso Jr, Carly Rae Jepsen, and innumerable more artist cranked out records that critics and people loved in harmony.  I knew I had to keep it classic, and keep it modern.  This was a good chance to defy expectations and have a ton of fun.  I rallied my jazz-pianist buddy Jeremy Ugro the night before with printed chord charts and ran through our selection til 2 am.

I only got the chance to see a few acts (Fall Fair Car was fun as hell) but the overall aesthetic was punk/garage covers of punk/garage/alternative hits of the 90′s and early 2000′s.  This is exactly what the young arty people of Victoria want, but this audience was surprisingly middle-aged, and a little bit disengaged.   So the drunken cringe-bantering false lounge duo of late-teenagers singing pop songs as faithfully as we can seemed to go over well, and was heckled like mad.  Absolutely my favorite gig I’ve done so far. 

The second set of songs was live on the local campus radio station CFUV (December 2014). In my email asking to partake in the Friday basement sessions I heavily implied it would be an ambient-drone thing but as I got closer I had come to terms with my lack of gear, and my lack of gear know-how.  So I did what I had to do and sang a bunch of chord songs on the uke in my best Jeff Mangum / an oversmoked Marvin.  The last song is about being in love and knowing its gonna end and how that feeling is a mixed bag.

The ode to a Love Supreme was the result of my whole band bailing last minute and being left alone to my own devices (March 2015).  It was just myself with a 4 string (slowly devolving down to just 2 strings by the end) and an iPod backing track (A heavily modified version of the split with MOT). Essentially I tried to play bits of A Love Supreme from memory on a detuned guitar.

Drone Day was this beautiful 4-hour set of bands seamilessly droneing into one another put on by the supportive freaks at Weird Canada.  We played second.  I got a bunch of ringers in including my SCHOOLGIRL cohort Keenan on Synth, and local heartmelter Jeff on Trumpet.  This was another guitar one for myself.  We got to transition slyly into the legendary White Poppy who pops into the fade out at the end.  It was a lovely thing   .

there will be a volume II before/if i ever put FL to bed. 

the next record is a 6 minute EP of solo black metal tracks called “Caverns” and has 3 tracks.  It will come out on the day of the next gig.  

Blank City doc on new york underground no waves history

fascinating doc about the portland noise scene.  truly motivating.  lots of good talks with the smegma folks.  

Top Albums of 2015

a little about the Hummingbird EP

you can download and stream the Hummingbird EP on bandcamp.

After finishing Crack Sabbath, I had become very comfortable wit the ukulele-effected songwriting, but wished to apply it it to much more hushed sound. What was produced immediately was six songs with the identical production style, work ethic, and experimental edge applied to the opposite sonic aesthetic.  My environment and state of being was circularly pleasant, balanced and stable.  I was trying to make something that wouldn't scare my mother. 

Most of these songs were recorded over September 2014 in my parents kitchen in the daytime.  

The lead inspirations on this are Grouper, Bach’s Jesu: Joy of Man’s Desire, Panda Bear, Scott Walker's Tilt, Kate Bush's 50 Words for Snow, and Slowdive.

I made this one while living briefly with two not-so-experimental buddies over Summer 2015.  Arie Kelerstein is singing in a free operatic style encouraged by my Scott Walker-esque demos, and found lyricism and articulation in the original-language version of The Dead Women by Pablo Naruda.  I did not realize the implication of appropriating Naruda until recently. 

Hummingbird EP by Formidable Liquorice

The last song is an adaption of a soundscape I've used in live performances.  It is sounds of me singing the namesake track, a few recordings of myself, Keenan (see: Eva Allenby Jean, and Casey (see: Kotodama) jamming acoustic, and a choir of mes auto tuned together.  It serves as a reminder that its not always gonna be this comfy.  

Its called Hummingbird because that song by Wilco, and the insatiable spastic quality of the bird was something me and an old friend found coexistence and symbolic resonance in.;  

this shit is way different then the prior Formidable Liquorice stuff, and might be worth reconsidering if you didn't vibe with prior releases.

- love jp

ps the next album will probably be a live album, and SCHOOLGIRL is putting out a tape on Gary's Cassettes soon. I will be focusing on the rap stuff for the next while.

(via https://soundcloud.com/clerval/were-going-to-need-more-leeches?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=tumblr)

fucking love sean rea clerval 

NEW FL .  SPLIT RELEASE w​/​MOT.

sijil by SCHOOLGIRL

Open Air by Human Qualities MUST SUPPORT THE LADS CAN YOU FEEL IT

(via https://soundcloud.com/jpmeldrum/dance-party-freestyle-prod-dartboi-burrgerkang?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=tumblr)