I'm finishing up a new track entitled "Model Citizen" after a lengthy hiatus from the studio to tend to the sale of our current house. A little bit of totally self imposed stress, so I can't complain really... things are almost all squared away at the moment.

I recently hooked up with two cats who used to be active in the local hip hop scene in the mid '90s. We've gotten together to work on some new material and hit it off real well. The problem is scheduling time in the studio for three guys with young families and full time jobs!

This newest track is definitely produced with space left in it for some fresh rhymes overtop. I don't really like rap in general (I don't own rap albums, I have mostly instrumental music in my collection), but there are a few abstract flows I've heard over the years that even I can appreciate. I'm wondering where this all will lead...

Some of the best unsolicited advice ever given to me from Can band member Holger Czukay via fax years ago. I have it hanging in the studio to remind me:

"Don't get bored by stupid routine actions".

It's true - the biggest fear an artist can have is repeating and rehashing the same idea over and over. Writing the same book or painting a slightly different version of the same painting...

I'm constantly listening to the last piece I wrote and making sure the starting point ("routine actions") is never the same. If I finish a very beat heavy track, I mold the next one to be ambient and light on the percussion side. This awareness can be taken down to microscopic levels involving anything from tuning, length, tempo, sound selection, etc.

It makes for harder work but hopefully better work.

Saw Hugh LeCaine's 1948 Prototype "Electronic Sackbut" at the Museum of Science and Technology over the weekend while visiting with some friends. It's now recognized as the first voltage-controlled synthesizer ever built.

That makes the Sackbut the grandpa of most of the synthesizers from the 1960's and 70's , some of which live in my studio.

The display included recordings taken from old 78 RPM records, and I was surprised at how expressive the instrument was. In one example, the Sackbut sounded exactly like a well played flute accompanying a piano!

That's pretty rad!

We're moving to a new house in May, and in preparation several boxes of old clothes were brought to the local Salvation Army. It's been a few years since I checked out the used record section at this location. My last visit uncovered a few dozen records - but now there are several shelves of records flip through.

Some days, nothing beats digging through crates of dusty old records. The cover art can be entertainment enough! It's an eye opening lesson in the do's and dont's of graphic design. And at 49 cents each, you can't feel too bad picking up a dud or two. They can always be returned to the Sally Ann if there's nothing to sample or listen to.

The rules I follow are pretty simple. If you run across four copies of the same record in the same place, chances are it was quite popular upon it's release and should generally be avoided.

The gems are the locally made records that were released on small labels and given out to friends and family... pressed up but rarely listened too. Occasionally people will dump their entire collection, and good or bad it will always have a particular vibe. Good if they were into 1970s funk and disco, bad if it's the entire output of the Irish Rovers.

Best find this last trip? 1952 soundtrack to the French movie "Jeux interdits ". Let's see what's on here...