Comments on: Heinous and atrocious http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2009/02/08/tetrix/ The Sound Projector music magazine and radio show Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:07:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Krock http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2009/02/08/tetrix/comment-page-1/#comment-8429 Krock Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:06:18 +0000 http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2009/02/08/tetrix/#comment-8429 Hi Ed! Thanks for taking the time to write a review of our last few offerings. We really appreciate it. Since you seemed to want some clarification in regards to what we are all about, I thought I would give it a shot. If I could describe Tetrix in one word it would be "Freedom". Freedom from the rigid forms that society and other outside forces can often impose on us. So, with this principle in mind we set out to musically explore areas that in one way or another, challenge mainstream music theory. The first thing we did, was dispense with the normal songwriting structure. In fact, virtually all of our songs are recorded in one take, completely improvised. And when I say "completely" I mean completely - we rarely try to recreate a song we have already played. Even the lyrics are completely improvised on the spot as we are recording. This is probably what creates one of our weak spots - it is very difficult to sing a line that one is making up on the spot perfectly the first time. As a result, we sometimes have to live with vocal and instrumental parts that are just a bit rough around the edges. But us folks in the band really like that wild, out-of-control sound that one gets when things are done this way. Then, usually we will take the raw improvised recording and edit in some changes and splices that we feel are outside the norm, but still enjoyable to the ear. Although opinions may differ on that;-) With our improvised lyrics, we generally try to work with themes of freedom and personal empowerment, although the occasional dystopian dirge can find its way in there. Your comments in the review have caused us to consider adding lyric sheets to the CD package, as you are correct in that a lot of songs are rather smeared and difficult to decipher. But as mentioned earlier, we folks in the band really do like this style... As for our cover art, we're glad you liked what we did! We spend a great deal of time with each new cover design, and do our best to try something that we have not seen done before. All of our covers are lovingly hand made by us folks in the band - and yes you are right - 10,000 albums was a bit too ambitious for that. We topped out at around 300 for each new album, most of which we give away to people we think will get a kick out of it:-) It took us days to hand silk screen all of the covers with flourescent pink and glow in the dark ink for Tetrix 9, but we are all really happy with the results so it was worth the effort. For our instrumentation, we really make an effort to seek out and learn new instruments. We have picked up a sitar, pedal steel, a big pile of classic synths such as the pro-one and MC-202, the classic Lowrey home organ, guitars and bass, drums with sampling drum pad, piano, digeridoo, harmonica, etc. With our synth tracks, we always try to keep it live and real. By this, I mean that we don't use laptops - everything is switched and run by hand on the fly with old fashioned analog equipment. Things end up a bit more wild and wolly this way, but its a lot of fun! If you want to see an example of this, you can link to a few songs we did live on CJSW radio here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu9g8rot_ck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDNwuJ0vQQA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWcZOyWw5ug Our live show is something we are quite proud of these days. We've been working on it now for a few years, adding components here and there. If you want a taste of what it looks like, you can see a slideshow of the show live at the Soda here in Calgary on the opening page of our website www.tetrix.ca. Really, our philosophy for the live show is that if someone out there is not in to the music, they can still be entertained - custom video, lasers, headgear, custom LED lightshow, and even a smoke cannon that can fire 3 foot smoke rings over 100ft! So anyway, I will end this short novel by once again thanking you for the review! I hope this sheds a bit of light on our heinous atrocious sound;-) -Krock Hi Ed!
Thanks for taking the time to write a review of our last few offerings. We really appreciate it. Since you seemed to want some clarification in regards to what we are all about, I thought I would give it a shot.
If I could describe Tetrix in one word it would be “Freedom”. Freedom from the rigid forms that society and other outside forces can often impose on us. So, with this principle in mind we set out to musically explore areas that in one way or another, challenge mainstream music theory.
The first thing we did, was dispense with the normal songwriting structure. In fact, virtually all of our songs are recorded in one take, completely improvised. And when I say “completely” I mean completely – we rarely try to recreate a song we have already played. Even the lyrics are completely improvised on the spot as we are recording. This is probably what creates one of our weak spots – it is very difficult to sing a line that one is making up on the spot perfectly the first time. As a result, we sometimes have to live with vocal and instrumental parts that are just a bit rough around the edges. But us folks in the band really like that wild, out-of-control sound that one gets when things are done this way.
Then, usually we will take the raw improvised recording and edit in some changes and splices that we feel are outside the norm, but still enjoyable to the ear. Although opinions may differ on that;-)
With our improvised lyrics, we generally try to work with themes of freedom and personal empowerment, although the occasional dystopian dirge can find its way in there. Your comments in the review have caused us to consider adding lyric sheets to the CD package, as you are correct in that a lot of songs are rather smeared and difficult to decipher. But as mentioned earlier, we folks in the band really do like this style…
As for our cover art, we’re glad you liked what we did! We spend a great deal of time with each new cover design, and do our best to try something that we have not seen done before. All of our covers are lovingly hand made by us folks in the band – and yes you are right – 10,000 albums was a bit too ambitious for that. We topped out at around 300 for each new album, most of which we give away to people we think will get a kick out of it:-) It took us days to hand silk screen all of the covers with flourescent pink and glow in the dark ink for Tetrix 9, but we are all really happy with the results so it was worth the effort.
For our instrumentation, we really make an effort to seek out and learn new instruments. We have picked up a sitar, pedal steel, a big pile of classic synths such as the pro-one and MC-202, the classic Lowrey home organ, guitars and bass, drums with sampling drum pad, piano, digeridoo, harmonica, etc.
With our synth tracks, we always try to keep it live and real. By this, I mean that we don’t use laptops – everything is switched and run by hand on the fly with old fashioned analog equipment. Things end up a bit more wild and wolly this way, but its a lot of fun! If you want to see an example of this, you can link to a few songs we did live on CJSW radio here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu9g8rot_ck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDNwuJ0vQQA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWcZOyWw5ug

Our live show is something we are quite proud of these days. We’ve been working on it now for a few years, adding components here and there. If you want a taste of what it looks like, you can see a slideshow of the show live at the Soda here in Calgary on the opening page of our website http://www.tetrix.ca. Really, our philosophy for the live show is that if someone out there is not in to the music, they can still be entertained – custom video, lasers, headgear, custom LED lightshow, and even a smoke cannon that can fire 3 foot smoke rings over 100ft!
So anyway, I will end this short novel by once again thanking you for the review! I hope this sheds a bit of light on our heinous atrocious sound;-)

-Krock

]]> By: SanSuchi http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2009/02/08/tetrix/comment-page-1/#comment-8425 SanSuchi Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:36:53 +0000 http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2009/02/08/tetrix/#comment-8425 I've actually heard that tetrix is a joke project by three musicians from Montreal who play in some well known bands there... They send out the CDs to 'test' the recipients. My friend Luke is from Montreal and was talking about it last week. I’ve actually heard that tetrix is a joke project by three musicians from Montreal who play in some well known bands there… They send out the CDs to ‘test’ the recipients. My friend Luke is from Montreal and was talking about it last week.

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