// 808: evix, Pete and Frank Vaults

Back on a mission: 'From the Vaults', a miscellany of Pete and Frank diamonds in the rough from our massive tub of cassette tapes (seriously, over 200 of them in there). Recorded during the early days of 1997 through 2004 straight to cassette, before we started up all our laptop-based sessions at the end of 2004. Not that we didn't have computers around the whole time, but they were mainly for programming aphasein songs or playing samples (as you'll hear briefly on a few tracks here), and didn't lend themselves to improvised and often confusing recording sessions. Tapes, on the other hand, were the perfect medium for this.

Vol. 1, Cult Classics, represents the early years of 1997 -1998, which were filled with weekly constant recording and lots of experimentation. Basically any chance was taken to record or try something new. Roughly half of the tub o' tapes was produced during these 2 years. The recording levels and quality varied wildly, and songs fell apart and turned into new ones (though really that's always somewhat the case), but a few interesting gems have been found after skimming the top layer of the tub (who knows what exists in the depths). Highlights include early classic 'The Guilt' and the 34-minute 'Petey McFrank' which is a mega-mix taken straight from our 'Best of Pete and Frank' tape complied in 1998. The years 1999 to 2002 were mainly spent in separate cities working on solo stuff, very rarely all getting together to jam.

Vol. 2, Vintage Digs, represents the new-found cohesion and style after we all joined up again and moved into a house together in 2003. There was another explosion of recording then, aided by our Music Den room, photos of which grace the album cover sleeves (early setup on Vol. 1, later setup on Vol.2 - only real pictures of the early 1997 place are tacked to the walls on the inner covers). Another catalyst was the two Zoom SampleTrak units that had been used for solo creations in the intervening years. The effects units from these can be heard all over the tracks on this album. Our long-running affection for Ween can be heard distinctly here in some of Pete's vocal stylings and our unusual cover of 'The Blarney Stone'. This album also ends with a 34-minute exactly mega-mix from one straight tape featuring the hilarious 'Senor Chaos' song (and yes, I did find it odd and, um, interesting when both of these segments that I thought would be good bonus stuff to throw on at the end and weren't worth cutting up, turned out to both be just a few seconds from 34 minutes even, and even more so when I added them to the finished tracks for each album and both albums just barely came in under the 80-minute limit. I really did.)

Also released is OWAE, the last evix album, a four song ambient excursion and another one from the vaults, made on the Korg M1 keyboard back in 1997 just before it was sold. Standing for the "Overall Way of Anything and Everything", the letters also stand for what they represent: O for particles, W for waves, A for the arrow of time, E for the 3 joined dimensions of space. It completes the abstract minor tour of the universe represented by the evix releases and is a nice relaxing come-down, at least until 'matter' kicks in (but isn't that always the case).

One more drop to go before we get out of the game for good. Thanks for playing. Your results may vary. Stay tuned.