*Electronic rock with jungle/drum-and-bass influence* I've never really felt that I was ever good enough But even I can be improved if I just stay tough My teeth are metal reinforced My eyes are plastic lens And daemons run inside my head…

I (Al) wrote this song way back, just before the start of the current Iraq war. But it comes back to my mind every time a politician utters words matching a regex something like /(capture and )?kill (Osama )?Bin Laden/. It happened to be Obama…

through the dead branches, through the dead branches

Started recording this with no idea what to do with the sound. Wound up with three different vocal takes to choose from, didn't like any of them, used all of them.

This song was recorded illegally. Please don't rat us out.

I lit a string on fire...

I'm going to get all pretentious again and say this one is about the concerning strain of what I might call "religious modernist traditionalism" espoused by technological singularity fanatics (Ray Kurzweil) and authors like Neil Stephenson.

Words are from a sestina of the same title by Steve Davenport, who asked us to make music out of it! This was a terribly fun song to record. We did it, of course, while drinking. Thankfully no instruments were harmed.

Good old dulcimer bash-up. This is certainly the most aggressive song I've played on dulcimer. I'm sure all those people with solid-body electric dulcimers have done worse...

Original working title was something like, "And after six years I finally understood why they sing in the streets here, and could go home." It's sort of about anonymity in the modern city. If that sounds pretentious, that's because it is.

I am concerned with the values of my generation.

Musical tribute to the ideas of Jane Jacobs (author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities) and Christopher Alexander (author of The Timeless Way of Building).

This track is the introduction to the main bulk of the album. It says "WELCOME TO RPM '09" and doesn't let you go until you've gotten to "Dancing With The Midnight Waves", the penultimate track.

A bit less percussion and a bit more rhythm was the idea for this. I say that, but the track had a fully formed drum track alongside it until right at the last when I discarded it in a fit of creative temperament.

I'd be lying if I said this entire track wasn't sparked by the opening audio clip. It really made me think about the ways some people create their own enjoyment. Cool.

One of my darker tracks. This tracks epitomises how RPM felt for me; A progressive struggle where I just got my head down and got stuck in with the thing. In a phrase, this track says to me "Just fucking get on with it."

I would make the 70's sound more like this.

There are too many amazing quotes from this film to not sample them SOMEWHERE in my album. Time after time, the 'yo-yo master' line got me laughing, so I thought I'd pay homage to it.

The scene setter. This was the first track on the album and I've still got mixed feelings about it. Audibly, I like it. Cohesively, it doesn't REALLY fit in... My girlfriend told me "like it needs to represent the rest of the album. It grabs your…

Why this represents 1993 is really quite a mystery to myself. I was 2 years old, so I've no idea why it strikes me as such a dark and mysterious year. I think I managed to get down exactly what I was thinking with this track.

This is the end of the journey. It's time to maybe think and reflect about some of the things we heard and then forget we ever heard them.

Easily my favourite track on the album. This was a real forced number at the start of it's life; I was well behind my song quota (5 finished on the 23rd... time to worry) and I needed to knock something out at least. Something clicked about an…

this is based on the soundtrack of a film called september clues very interesting dunno if its true but fun all the same for conspiracy nuts....

Side 2 of my virtual record. It's a long, mostly instrumental suite (a 'Lounge Suite' - I know that's corny but I just cant resist:) The different sections run as follows: Opposite Attractions Sloppy Jo Too Many Martinis Prefix/Suffix A Cup of…

Powerlounge - Electric Cheer An album created for the 2009 RPM Challenge, conceived to be eventually cut into vinyl, and arranged as such, in two halves. The track listing for side 1: Welcome to my Weird Bye Bye Baby Genius / Madness Negative…

This is basically an accordion jam with a nice bass line!

A deceptively forceful song dealing with the death of my sister.

An older song from a previous band that was never quite captured to my satisfaction. I was going for very laid-back "Pale Blue Eyes" vibe.

An exercise in configuring sonic spaces - it was only later that I realized the scathing lyrics were self-directed.

An attempt to evoke images that weren't in the first-person. I tend to write in abstract fragments and this piece is no exception.

A song that ended up in an entirely different place than from where it began. It was meant to have a dark 'David Gray' kind of feel, but ended up being the love child of 'Love and Rockets' and 'Stars on 45.'

A song that really crept out of nowhere and one that I don't entirely understand its meaning. Some things in the song I can pinpoint the origin, but some I haven't a clue. I'm really happy with the way it turned out - semi-ok vocal and all.

Another song held over from my band days. Again, an attempted homage to the Velvets, but perhaps a little too shiny. I still plan to replace the cheesy 'solo' synth with glockenspiel somewhere down the line.

A song I wrote and recorded in one day (the day before the RPM Challenge ended, actually). I really stretched my abilities as a picker here (duff notes and all), but I shamefully admit I really like this song. A reminder to me of the strength…

A blatant attempt at exploiting the deep well of The Jesus and Mary Chain/Pixies/Raveonettes/House of Love. A lovingly loud, shiny and guitar-laden paean to those great bands.

A song I've had stored in my head for quite awhile, though never committed to tape (erm... binary code) - probably because I thought it was a bit simple and even trite. Having to come up with an album's worth of material in a month cured me of…