Dave Hartl & Gaijin
Click here to check out and purchase this album on Bandcamp.
The first album project, recorded just to see if one could really make a whole album using these new MacPluses that had appeared. Sequences were made and recorded and the live tracks laid down in overdubs, a method I never would use again. But all things considered, the compositions hold up and I really still like this eccentric little collection.
Synthesizers used throughout the album were complex layers of:
- 3 Yamaha DX7/ TX7's
- 3 Oberheim Matrix 1000's
- Roland D50
- Oberheim DPX-1 sample player
All tunes by Dave Hartl except "Beyond the Zero" by Dave Hartl & John Alberti
Beyond the Zero
I've been a big fan of Thomas Pynchon's novels since Gravity's Rainbow was published. This song was written while reading that book, and hopefully you can follow the trajectory of the V2s in the rise and fall of the music.
- Dave Hartl: piano and synths
- George Tucker: MIDI guitar
- Chico Huff: bass
- Danny "Blaze" Markase: drums
Geek of the Week
This reggae/synthetic fiddle tune was written while playing a long gig in a very open lounge at Harrah's in Atlantic City, where people stumbled in and out throughout the day, looking for free buffets and toilets and suffering from bus lag. It's named for a cruel (bur fair) game we played while observing the scene while we tortured the crowd with Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes.
- Dave Hartl: piano and synths
- Vince Colella: guitar
- Chico Huff: bass
- Danny "Blaze" Markase: drums
Click here to download a lead sheet for this tune.
Shinseki
Japanese for "kinsman", this one tries to capture some of the warmth and sounds I felt while in Japan (a place I am dying to return to!) The sound of Japanese instruments and the sound of Noh theater where, for a westerner, the words become pure sound devoid of meaning; both became influences on the way this piece felt.
- Dave Hartl: piano and synths
- Vince Colella: guitar
- Dave Mackenzie: saxophone
- Chico Huff: bass
- Mark Graham: drums
Prologue and Bulldog
I once owned a bulldog for about 22 hours. I wasn't the type, but the experience gave me a way of naming this tenacious, purposely ugly composition. I always liked Monk's attitude of "Ugly Beauty".
- Dave Hartl: piano and synths
- Vince Colella: guitar
- Chico Huff: bass
- Danny "Blaze" Markase: drums
Almost Ixtapa
A vacation to Mexico was pulled out from under me as I started this song, hence the title. I was trying to let the musical phrases dictate odd time changes instead of the meter dictating melodic pauses, without drawing attention to the meter changes themselves. All with a Spanish flavor...
- Dave Hartl: piano and synths
- Vince Colella: guitar
- Dave Mackenzie: saxophone
- Chico Huff: bass
- Mark Graham: drums
Dance of the Corporate Thugs
This is one of my favorites, and a great set (and gig) ender. There's a video playing in my head in this one of choreographed CEOs and lawyers with briefcases kicking poor people down the steps of a gleaming marble Hall of Justice right out of "1984" and dancing gleefully. Dave Mackenzie wails on sax. He performed an act of subversion by borrowing the charts to this and arranging it for the Saxophone Quintet at Disney World. Whether they played it or not I don't know; but if they did, Uncle Walt should be up to 78 RPM by now.
- Dave Hartl: piano and synths
- Vince Colella: guitar
- Dave Mackenzie: saxophone
- Mark Graham: drums
