05. The Beguiling Potential Of The Ominous Five (5:55)

A special edit for this collection (at the only running time it COULD be!), drawn from a lengthy experiment in random sound building. Having created and numbered a large selection of electronic samples, we then put some together according to a set of predetermined rules. Which of these were included and for how long was decided by a random number, in this case, the number five (selected by drawing from a deck of cards), so only samples with a five in were used etc. Two such works were done in November 2019, very early days for the Bullet (so please excuse the odd click), and to be honest, we weren’t really sure about them at the time, or what to do with them for that matter. They both appeared in full on a Broken Tape Records 400 track compilation, but that alone seemed like something of a throwaway, considering all the time and work that had gone in to them, so at nearly 53 minutes combined, we self-released them as a freely downloadable ‘unofficial album’. Must admit though, they’ve grown on us more over time.

From “THE ATTEMPTED VERIFICATION OF NUMEROLOGICAL ELOQUENCE”

(Music & Elsewhere, no number)

O

06. Mutant Flash Mob (5:59)

Considering we recorded this track in October 2019 after having been together a mere two days, it was something of a surprise to us that it turned out so well and has proven so enduringly popular. It’s one of the sessions from what was intended to be our first album, but then got sat on for over a year due to one thing and another. At nearly 9 minutes, we figured the original album version was a bit long for this collection, we also didn’t want to use the commonly heard radio edit, so we made this Extended Optimas Mix specially. We’re nice like that. Mostly.

From “DIGITALIS”

(Music & Elsewhere, M&E MB-002)

07. Спеціально Bідредагована Bерсія Hашої Довгої Aудіороботи (Aле Tепер Більш Доречно Перейменована Чкраїнською) (6:35)

Originally created in February 2020, both inspired by and for the prolific Russian label, Broken Tape Records. The full piece ran for one hour and was titled “Длинная Aудио Pабота C Претенциозным Hазванием Hа Pусском Языке”, which roughly translates as “Lengthy Audio Work With A Pretentious Title In Russian”. Who says experimental musicians can’t have a sense of humour? It made up the entire of what would become our debut album, in spite of it not being the first one we recorded. When it came to a track length version for this collection, particularly at this moment in history, we were uncomfortable with using the existing edit, complete with Russian flag artwork and voice samples, I guess for rather obvious reasons. So we sat down and re-recorded the Russian bits, changing them to Ukrainian, recreating the sounds they sat on and then reintegrating the resulting mix into an excerpt from the original work. The new title translates as “Specially Edited Version Of Our Lengthy Audio Work (But Now More

Appropriately Renamed In Ukrainian)”.
*This is in no way intended as a criticism of or disrespect to Alexey Kondart, his excellent label, or even the Russian nation in general, a country in which we have many friends; we have done this as a protest targeted specifically at a single action of Putin’s governance of that country; the invasion of Ukraine.

Original track from “SOLIDARIETAS” (Broken Tape Records, btr 161)

08. George’s Tool (6:14)

Elling Lien’s RPM Challenge struck us as a rather noble task, if a little Quixotic in nature, but we liked what he was doing, so we joined in and spread the word accordingly. Having taken the original challenge to “record something in February, just because you can” (we went for the album category, 35 minutes, though we just did one long track, rather than several shorter ones), we continued with the secondary challenge; to record every month for a year, and did the same on each occasion, mostly involving power tools. All at Skit’s behest, of course, he likes power tools. We ended up with a body of 12 x 35 minute works (finally released as a single mega-album), of which this was one. It was our entry for August 2021, under the title of “George’s Tool (At Full Length)”, though there was also a radio edit (the 7 incher) and a longer ‘dancefloor’ edit for the adventurous (the 12 incher). For this collection, we’ve done a unique mix in between, which we call The 9 Inch Special. Our thanks to George, who very kindly let us get some samples of his tool (an angle grinder, get your mind out of the gutter) while he was doing our patio. Nice man.

The artwork includes Mick and Skit heads by Kev Trundley.

From “RATIONE PERSONAE MENTALIS” (The Church Of Noisy Goat, TCNG 388)

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