Introducing… Canabrism’s “Almost No Exceptions”

For those of you in Dublin tonight, drop in to Against The Grain on Wexford Street to hear a rare Canabrism set, which will feature a track or two from this year’s RPM challenge album, “Almost No Exceptions”…

Glass Half Full

As usual, the post-production on this year’s RPM album has extended quite a bit beyond the February deadline, but finally here is the entire album for you to download, just in time for the Summer holidays…

Canabrism – Almost No Exceptions (128k mp3, zipped)

Exceptional Music

Here’s a brief introduction to the tracks on the album:

Natural Tractor Habitat – A pad-based track that boasts some bouncy bass and evolves into a fairly lively beast towards the end, creating an environment that tractors would obviously like to hang out in.

Aztec Rabbit – The name comes from an episode of QI, where Victoria Coren reveals she had a dream in which Stephen Fry asked her “Why was the March Hare so important to the Aztecs?”. In fact, it wasn’t – but the Aztecs did worship rabbits…

Original Windows – An ode to the last remaining original windows on my street, which were replaced with those fancy double-glazed variety this year. If Brian Eno can write music for airports and David Byrne can write music about buildings, a brief stab at a track about windows is probably fair game for a Canabrism album. I note that there are fewer food-related song titles in this year’s offering at any rate…

Background Glaze – While I was doing a pottery class (at the glazing stage of a project), I heard an interesting track on BBC Radio which featured a lot of rhythmic bell-like instrumentation. I tried to emulate this by recording my kalimbas into Ableton Live, but the end result is drastically different to the track that formed its inspiration.

Another Monkey Returns – This year Iran claimed to have sent a monkey into space. However, the Internet, after having carefully analysed the pre- and post- photos of said simian, put forth a theory that the post-flight monkey was in fact a different monkey entirely.

Following Wind – This track was one of two on this year’s album that was composed in Logic Pro; the name is a reference to my preferred direction of cycling.

Seven Births – This is inspired by a Hindu/Irish wedding, during which there were many blessings and the name here reflects one of those.

Head Hat Blues – The only ukulele based track on the album, this is something that really should be turned into a proper song, but would need some lyrics first.

Attention Thread – The name reflects an arrangement technique of always redirecting the listener’s attention to one specific lead instrument or sonic component. I think I lost the thread of my own instruction on this one.

Penguin Marmalade – Another name influenced by the Hindu/Irish wedding; I asked the groom to incorporate the phrase ‘penguin marmalade’ into his speech, but I think he must have somehow forgotten.

Diverse Inclusion – This does include some ukulele, but is mostly guitar based and should probably get some vocals too. Whether it will ever achieve such endowment may or may not become the topic of heated debate in certain quarters at some point in the future.