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Alien Machines (1988)

by A.S.O.

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1.
The Fall & Rise of Reginald Zenon 03:40
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2.
Alien Machines 05:25
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about

In August of 1988, many years ago, A.S.O. was born. A.S.O. was a trio of musicians that consisted of:

Greg Marchant - Keyboards, Acoustic Piano, Sequencers
Dan Buch - Drums & Percussion
Doug Michael - Guitars

This group came to be when our friend, recording engineer Rob Beaton, had some available studio time and asked Dan if he wanted to do some recording. Dan said yes and contacted Greg and I. The deal was we had 2 days to record something… and that included playing on a demo or two for Rob. What came out of this venture was 2 very solid instrumental rock songs.

I grew up with Dan Buch and over the years we have played in different band configurations. Greg and I were in a Pop Rock band called Voysis. We both were songwriters and contributed a lot to the Voysis sound. At the time Greg and I lived in LA so we had to make the trip up to the Bay Area where the recording studio was located. We all looked at this opportunity as a fun time to get together and a cool musical adventure as we went into the studio with no concrete plan, except to jam and see what happens.

My memory is a little hazy here… but the first day we spent setting up and then recording parts on a few demos for Rob. Toward the mid to the end of the day we started jamming. Pretty quickly things fell into shape. The Fall and Rise tune came the first day but with a less than par guitar melody. We also had the bones for Alien Machines. I believe before we left that first day we had a song form outlined…. We just needed to execute it the next day.

I do remember working on the melody for the Fall and Rise tune that night at Dan’s apartment. The next day we came in and solely worked on our 2 tunes…. The recording went pretty smooth as everyone was throwing out ideas…. Our solos went down fairly quick and easy. The solo in The Fall and Rise for me was totally improvised. I think we tracked it 2 or 3 times. Greg’s piano solo seemed to go even faster…. Maybe a first take?

The Alien Machines song took a little longer to get down as it had a more complex song form, with multiple sections…. The feedback solo (at 2:30) for me is still one of the best guitar moments I have ever done for a recording. I love the rhythmic syncopation that Dan and Greg did underneath the solo. Very impactful…. All in all it was an amazing and very satisfying experience. Working with Rob Beaton is always a great time as he knows how to work with people. It was mixed very quick but overall the sound is good…. There are some things that I wish were better, but we had 2 days… that was it.

Also these recordings are coming off of a cassette dupe, so there is some tape hiss and the occasional weird dropout that you get from a cassette that is 35 years old. I was able to clean it up a bit… but keep that in mind when you are listening to these tunes. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did and still do!

credits

released August 1, 1988

Greg Marchant - Keyboards
Dan Buch - Drums
Doug Michael - Guitar
Engineered by Rob Beaton
Recorded at The Plant, Sausalito, CA.
August 1988

All songs composed & performed by Doug Michael, Dan Buch, Greg Marchant

Cover photo by: Stefan Keller from Pixabay

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Doug Michael

Doug Michael is a seasoned composer, guitarist, instrument builder, and educator. He’s been a regular featured composer on the syndicated TV show “Planet X,” and scored a Hyundai car commercial narrated by Jeff Bridges. Doug has had television music placements with Pawn Stars (History Channel), Tanked, MTV, Animal Planet, A&E, CBS, This Old House, The Golf Channel among others... ... more

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