Two more songs from the summer of 2001. Both technically improvs. The first track is actually two songs in one. Ryan singing the first tune to improvised backing. Not sure where the lyrics are coming from or if he had them all prepared… Ry? The singing part is followed by pure improv that seems to be a separate track altogether, probably from the same date.

The second tune below, Boiling Point, gets the name because it builds and builds to a point of anger where Blake just snaps. In our world, once you get a name, you’re official. So Boiling Point is on the list of Chlorine Dream songs. I think we even tried to play it again once, but really… how do you play this again?

July 28, 2001 [Blake/Ryan/Dave]
Improv

September 8, 2001 [Blake/Ryan/Dave]
Boiling Point

As mentioned previously, the band had a bit of regrouping to do as 2001 began. Myles was in Mexico and the rest of us were trying to figure out how to graduate from rehearsing in basements to the big city. We spent the first few months of the year jamming sporadically, playing in studios like Rising Star (way out west) once every two or three weeks. By the time Myles was back in Toronto that summer, we had a regular schedule going of jamming about once per week. We had a handful of new songs like InspacesbetweeN, The Maze, and Citizens of Falsehood, but looking at this collection of songs it’s clear we were dying to hear Myles play. There is a LOT of blues (with phenomenal playing from Myles) as well as the closing Zone of Silence, a foreboding showpiece of psychedelic guitar although this is probably the shortest version ever at “only” 15 minutes.

July 2001 [Blake/Ryan/Dave/Myles]
The Skies Are The Gods’ Playground
New Tune
12 Bar Blues
InspacesbetweeN
Citizens of Falsehood
Strife!
The Maze
Five To One
Race Against Time
Gun Shy Flower Child
High On a Woman Blues
Human Condition
Twilight Zone
Zone of Silence

Side note: Until June 2001, we dragged in an old Tascam 4-track recorder into the rehearsal studio to capture the jams. This was a big pain in the ass as each tape could only hold 22 minutes of music. That added up to a lot of tapes. I decided to figure out a better way to capture jams and settled on a Sharp SR60 minidisc recorder with an external stereo mic. This was the setup used for every jam going forward. If we were doing this today, we’d be spoiled for choice. Pocket-sized digital recorders that record endless audio in better than CD-quality and also shoot 1080p HD video cost less than half of what that minidisc recorder cost.

Improvs were the highlights of our jams, which is probably why we started each jam with at least a solid 30 minutes of unrehearsed exploration.  If you asked us what the goal was, we probably would have said that there was no goal; the improv was an achievement in itself.  But really, there were two main goals.  The first was always to loosen up, get better, try new things, take risks, get the freedom to change course drastically, fiddle with knobs, start, stop, move left or right.   In that way, improv was the best way to start each jam.  The second goal was more direct: get more songs.  There was always a chance that the elements would coalesce, we’d have the discipline to remember what we were doing, and we’d end up with something worth coming back to.  The amazing thing is how often these first versions are 98% identical to the finished product.

There are five improvs below.  All recorded over the course of two jams on April 8th and 10th 2004.  In the final track, you can hear the basis of DITTMAR (Depression in the Theatre of Mind and Reason), which we played at Clinton’s three months later.

April 8 and 10, 2004 [Blake/Ryan/Dave]
Improv I
Improv II
Improv III
Improv IV
Improv V