For these sessions, the three MasTicA's ( p@, gumB, munkE ) expanded to six to represent what had been happening in recent live performances. MasTicA LiVe is an ever changing thing, based on club size, the audience and who's available to sit in . MasTicA tends to have many different faces over time. So when a string of gigs with the same faces occurred they wanted to document this period of musical momentum.
Not all moments in the studio had all six of this lineup, some only a few. Brad Houser (Critters Buggin', Edie Brickell) crouched behind a sound baffle and a row of effects, disappearing and reappearing with just the right baritone sax squeaks and moans tweaked through a box or two. The darkness and cool comfort of Cedar Creek was more than once abruptly awakened by the "Wall of Drums" covering the entire north rock wall of the studio. (p@'s mix of acoustic and electric drums, supplemented by Branden Harper's (ambientmood.com) north African percussion toys.)
Arriving late and leaving early for another gig , Bruce Salmon (Alejandro Escovedo) added many textures and voice samples. All the while gumB looped and unlooped basses upright and electric fretless while munkE blew alto sax. Thanks to the steady hand of Bill Munyon (King Crimson, Butthole Surfers), they were able to capture many of these special moments direct to two-track. (Producer p@ always likes to keep the two-track rolling.)
In the end, due to lack of funds , they never finished the "proper songs," instead going almost exclusively to these two-track mixes to begin the search for moments.
In '02 MasTicA found time (during Crim breaks ) to "cut and paste" many of these moments together. Then gumB added some acoustic stuff, munkE some sax and voices, and their daughter Miabel added voices as well. These were added to the two-track mixes and more samurai editing was done as many special moments hit the digital cutting room floor, continuing the improv like approach throughout editing and kept the muse felling LIVE.
Somewhere in the middle of this, p@, gumB , Brad and Bill got together at "The Zone" in Dripping Springs These sessions echoed the feeling of the Cedar tracks and added impromptu moments which appear on tracks 3, 7 and 11.
Everyone mentioned here donated their time and skills to this project, and hope you enjoy this slice of Mastic Time, until the record they tried to start , "the songs and such" is completed. These moments suggest they made this one for the "Joy" of it, and the sounds here are from the heart of very creative beings. This is a great representation of the fun they have when given a chance to "MasTicAttacK".
Freshly unpredictable and unpredictably fresh sounds from King Crimson rhythmatist accompanied by big basses , angular horns and mysterious voices on this studio improv based recording of quick changing dark fun.