I am writing from my wreck of a workstation.  It appears to have been operated by someone who has spent the last several months drinking way too much caffeine and sleeping far less than necessary.  Tsk Tsk.

The trip to Nashville to have my album mixed and quasi-mastered is over.  To spare everyone too many boring details, some of the trip went better than expected and some of it didn't go according to plan.  No surprise there; how like life.

There are now, in my possession, six songs from the pending ten song album (which will be titled, "In and of It").  I am listening as I type.  Where are the other four songs, you ask?  (ahem)  They are still in the production phase.  I went to Nashville with 70% of the album finished and had the intention of wrapping it up live in the studio.  I thought it would be a nice way to add some sonic variation and end the CD on an interesting, spontaneous, and experimental note.  However, once six o'clock p.m. rolled around on Thursday and it was time to start setting up for the live programming, the engineer made an executive decision (with a tone in voice that said, "It's not in my job description to sit here and wait while I watch you wrap up programming [which is insanely boring by the way].") and stated that, "...doing a half-ass job on the last few songs and slapping everything together in a hotel room/studio just so you can rush to the label and give them thirty minutes and five seconds of music; barely eking by the required time limit, is not going to be nearly as beneficial to you as it would be if you took the last 30% of the album home to finish it properly.  Then you could come back to Nashville one last time and leave with a finished product that you are confident you've made to the best of your abilities and ENJOYED while making it [me thinks he was picking up on my stress levels]."

So, after dealing with a slight guilt trip from the studio owner (i.e. he had to turn away a potential client for me), "Team Munook" decided to postpone the last day and return at a later date to wrap up the album PROPERLY and with LOW STRESS LEVELS.

My Nashville liaison will contact the studio, engineer, and label in the very near future to nail out another work date.  In the meantime, I will distribute the six songs I have finished (well, 95% finished, they still need mastering for radio-play apparently), to loyal friends and fans to gather together a general consensus as to whether or not anything needs changing, as I will have time to fix it upon my last visit to Nashville.

I am very proud of what I and everyone involved has accomplished thus far.  The music is sounding surprisingly good.  Actually, in places, it sounds great.

A small test audience who has heard the album beyond the tune "Square 1" and witnessed  Munook in "live ensemble" form , have compared the music to:

-Portishead
-The Flamming Lips
-Tricky
-Radiohead
-Coldplay
-Phil Collins
-Final Fantasy Soundtracks
-Trent Reznor
-Sonic Youth
-Incubus
-Jeff Buckley
-Modest Mouse
-Bob Dylan
-Joni Mitchell
-Yes
-Bjork

Thanks for all the support; more details coming sooner than later......