Well, folken, the promised Dialectical B-Sides are finally available to all of my Patreon patrons. The "Where Is My Mind?" cover, of the song by Pixies, is fated to be a later one-off that most likely will never land in the public eye, but it wouldn't have fit very well with the tone of Dialectical Observations anyway. These B-sides are, after all, to be included on an Extended Artist's Edition of the album, available as a Patron reward to all pledging $10 USD or more. The B-Sides, however, are available no matter the pledge amount.
The first finished was the song formerly known as "Madame Muzzle," a preview of which was included in a prior article. You'll be able to hear how much it has changed below. About the writing of this song: As they often do, this used a previously recorded piano riff that I had stuck in my head, which I just had to "jot down" on the spot. That's what I call it when sitting down for a moment to record something so that I'm sure I'll be able to use sometime later - "jotting" it down. When I go through these short recordings to look for inspiration, sometimes something will just grab me and I'll run with it. That's how this started, though at first I was looking at a repetitive piano riff to accompany what I already had. This was sounding a bit clunky to me, and the inspiration came later to write something in a more fluid, more "classical" style; a stream-of-consciousness flow with less structure. I had a lot of fun with it, and you can pretty well see the result of that in the "Madame Muzzle" preview. However, a lot of rewriting and rerecording of the treble cleft piano came later so that the two parts were more harmonious and complementary. Changes were also made to the drum and bass tracks, and the end result was a bit of an upbeat neoclassical composition with post-industrial percussion. "Madame Muzzle" no longer seemed quite so appropriate, though; it's more of a joke-title to begin with, but maybe it'll be used later. I had a few title ideas written down that had occurred to me before, and what I kept being drawn to was "Why Can't We Have Nice Things?" For such a rather cynical title, this song seems a little too whimsical, but maybe the contrast is what grabbed me in the first place. Anyway, sometimes I have to say to myself, "Who am I to argue?" I may be the writer, but these songs and titles often have their own ideas in mind, and can be rather pushy.
My next project was an idea I'd had for quite a while. Ever since I published "Winter's Salve (Fecund Remix)" on The Instrumentality Project, I've wanted to simplify it. Similar to how I felt about "Jade's Theme (Introduction)" - which will probably be getting the same treatment somewhere down the road - there seemed to be too many ideas that, while all of them good, were crammed into one treatment. I wanted a compromise between the Alternate Spin (which might as well be the original) and "Fecund." First of all, I wanted the same more-structured arrangement of the piano that I used in "Winter's Remix 2.0" and "Fecund," but with the gentler close of "Alternate." This took some tricky maneuvering and a little bit of disguise but I managed to make it work beautifully. Then I took the strings arrangements and some of the beat elements from "Fecund" to create a rough draft that I let myself sit on for a couple of days. I ended up studying the subtle, heartbeat-like beats used in "Alternate" closely and copied it, then took ideas from the simplified beats of "Fecund" used in my rough draft, and created a lovely marriage. With simpler, more elegant instrumentation, I created what I'm sure I could simply call "Winter's Salve" and pass it off as the original, which I've been tempted to do. It will be labeled as such on Dialectical Observations (Extended Artist's Edition) but will be clarified as the "Dialectical Spin" when referenced outside of the album. This project wasn't originally intended to be one of the Dialectical B-Sides, but it fit the general ambient-neoclassical tone of the album so well that I thought, "What the hell?" Therefore, a third song for the extended album seemed called for, even though there's traditionally just one or two.
What I've been working on these past several days has been a radical change from "Why Can't We Have Nice Things?" and "Winter's Salve." I started off with yet another idea that I had jotted down, and trotted it into a 180 with some blasts of industrial-metal noise, similar to what can be found in "Movement." Without realizing it, I had changed the time signature from a 3/4 to a 4/4. I tried to change it back, but kept on finding myself unable to. Even when I found a natural progression, shifting back to the song's prior tone, I discovered I was still writing in 4/4, but decided to just keep it going. Then I dropped the song for several days; in fact, I think it was at that moment that I decided to shift my attention to a new mix of "Winter." When I came back to that song after a respite from songwriting, wherein I took up the not-as-fun promotional work, I found that I was in an easily agitated mood, which lasted for a few days. First it was President Trump and the current state of the world, and the U.S.'s position in it; then it was the break-up of my marriage, at the same time longing for my ex-husband, wondering what he was doing and thinking, and being very angry at him while questioning myself. During this time I poured my agitation into my songwriting. I already had a metal progression hinted at in the song I was working on, and this state of mind propelled it full-tilt. During this furious songwriting that would no doubt see it completed in just a couple of days, I'd been wondering at a title, drawing a blank. Then a sideways glance at my notebook landed on "Just surviving is killing me," a quote from Fear the Walking Dead, I believe, that I had written down; sometimes I hear something I just have to write down. "Survival Is Killing Me" became the tentative song title - my reluctance was purely because it sounded so oppressive and tragic. However, the name stuck, becoming part of the drive in its writing, and informing the chant in the last-minute addition of vocals. This chant was actually a pervasive thought that I'd had, and it was good to exorcise it. I won't speak it here; you'll have to hear the song to find out.
As I'm writing this, I'm listening to playlist of Dialectical Observations with these new songs inserted into it. "Killing Me" won't be available for anyone to hear until the Extended Artist's Edition is released, which means only pledges of $10 or more will have access to it. It is likely, however, that both it and "Nice Things" will be included on my next full-length EP, though I have no idea how far in the future that might be. The "Dialectical Spin" of "Winter" isn't likely, on the other hand. There may be a WInter's Salve EP released at one point (probably not until after the next EP), partly to put the Alternate Spin back into circulation (it hasn't been available since I removed Instrumentality from my "official" discography, aside from the Anniversary Spin of Progress Report at my NoiseTrade site) and to showcase this new mix. The whole point is that you won't have access to any of these three songs (well, you'll be able to stream an unlisted upload of "Nice Things" below) unless you're a Patron. I'd like to point out that you won't be charged for your pledge until after the release of my next full-length EP or album., while you can enjoy the pledge rewards right away, as well as the rewards of being a Patron in the meantime. These include whatever is in the three tiers ($1 or more, $5 or more, or $10 or more) as well as previews, early downloads, and whatever I can think of to make you feel special in the meantime.
For now, enjoy this example of what's available to download for Patrons, and think of this as a reward for being one of my readers!
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