Superfluous Motor

Superfluous Motor here, just dropping in to say hello. I've been a longtime lurker here and have just recently decided to make an account.

I'm a Keys player the only member of Superfluous Motor. I've have been making music for the last five years or so, Superfluous Motor is a project I currently work on just for fun in my spare time.

I just recently released a new album that I've spent the last 8 Months or so working on. It tells a story of a man who is Shipwrecked and washed ashore. Each track title gives a hint at what is happening in the story. The album is entirely instrumental and I was hoping to tell a story with the music, it doesn't always work out, but the vagueness of it hopefully allows the listener to craft their own story of what the protagonist is experiencing. The styles range from Psychedelic to Fusion/Jazz/Funk to Progressive Rock. There are some Latin inspired parts in there too for good measure. Each track sort of segues into the next so if played front to back it plays as a single long track. My main inspirations for Shipwrecked were the albums Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull and De-Loused in the Comatorium by The Mars Volta. Although I'm nowhere close to being as good as my inspirations on a songwriting and technical level. They certainly helped me form some ideas and concepts. 

Other general inspirations include Camel, Yes, Tower of Power, Herbie Hancock, The Allman Brothers Band, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Phish, Avishai Cohen, and Snarky Puppy (there are more, I just can't think of them right now).

If you end up listening to it and find that you enjoyed it. Feel free to snag a copy off of Bandcamp for free.

Anyway that's enough of me blabbing about myself (something I'm not very good at or particularly enjoy). 

I just read your review. Thank you so much! I'm really happy you liked Shipwrecked enough to write about it!

I hope it's OK that I shared your review on my Facebook page.

Also thank you for being first person to take the time to write a review for any of my work, a very well written review too! It was slightly nerve wracking as you never know what people are going to write. Regarding the album. I wish I could sing well, or even if I had known someone who can do vocal work. There were definitely spots on Shipwrecked where I really wanted something vocally (not so much lyrics, probably more ambient vocals just to set the mood). But alas I can only work with what I have.

Anyway, I'm sort of rambling now. Thank you so much! It made my week!

Thanks again I really appreciate it!

Raff wrote: Hello Greg, unfortunately these days I don't have a lot of time to write reviews, but i am sure you will be happy about this: http://weekendprog.blogspot.fr/2014/11/weekend-38-liquid-landscape-kauan.html. This feature has a lot of visitors every week, and should be a great advertisement for your music.

I saw that! It completely made my week! Thank you so much! I hope you don't mind that I shared it to my Facebook Page.

AEProgman wrote: Hi Greg, great album!  Just got it yesterday and really enjoying it (thanks to Jim's review).  I don't write reviews much anymore (time and not very good at it), although I voted it 4 Stars without writing a review!  Will spread by word of mouth...    It is immediately accessible and I hear strong Herbie Hancock influences as well as some bits of Happy the Man, Passport, and various psych/electronic prog roots. Since I too enjoy my own company quite a bit, Shipwrecked does not sound all that bad, except for "What the Hell was That".     Keep up the good work!

Thank you kindly! You're spot on with regards to who my influences were. Herbie is one of my heroes, actually I wrote one my newest tunes after an extended jam of Chameleon with the Tower of Power Tribute band that I play in. They seemed to dig Knock It Off enough that we are probably going to play it at shows in the future (which will make it the first ever live performance of a Superfluous Motor tune). Other influences/inspirations include Yes, Jethro Tull, Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM), Focus, Camel, The Mars Volta, Tower of Power, Snarky Puppy, Jimmy Smith, Avishai Cohen, The Cinematic Orchestra, Air, the list really goes on so I'm going to stop here.

I'm also happy to see that people are picking up on the story beats with Shipwrecked, the plot is really open to the listener's interpretation, there is no "correct" or "incorrect" story line, and it is what you make of it. This is my interpretation of it:

1. Washed Ashore 

This track helps set the mood and paint the picture of what is shown on the album cover.

2. Wake Up! / Where Am I? 

This one was meant to be sort of disorienting (which is why I used odd time signatures and sometimes conflicting time signatures for some parts). Here the protagonist is trying to figure out where he is and what the heck he's going to do.

3. Shelter

This one is pretty self-explanatory, it's about the obligatory search from shelter that all cast away survival stories tell.

4. I Think I Might Like it Here

As the protagonist is kind of an introvert and not really a people person, he begins to enjoy the solitude and peacefulness of being stranded on an uninhabited island.

5. Nightfall

Then it gets dark, the island is a different place at night. The switch between the eerie Rhodes piano parts and the heavy bits suggests something not so nice is out there on the island.

6. Day 2, I'm Getting Hungry...

During his second day, our protagonist realizes that he needs to eat too.

7. Foraging

Pretty self-explanatory, the everlasting search for grub.

8. Losing Daylight

Arms full of foraged food he heads back to his camp to turn in for the night. The sun is going down, quickly. But then (at the end of the song) he sees an airplane fly overhead, unfortunately it begins to stall.

9. What the Hell Was That!?

The loud explosion from the airplane crashing shakes our protagonist to the core, shell shocked by what he just witnessed it takes him a few moments to come to his senses. There might be survivors, there might be supplies. He begins running through the jungle and finally reaches the...

10. Crash Site

This chaotic track hopefully paints a picture of the horrific crash site, our protagonist rummages through it trying to rescue survivors or at the very least salvage some supplies.

11. It's Hopeless

No survivors, no salvageable supplies, our disturbed and horrified protagonist dwells on what just happened. It also begins to dwell on him just how lonely he actually is. The noise/thingy at the end of this track is him getting an idea for his escape plan.

12. Wilson! I'm Building a Raft!

It's cliché raft building time! The repetitive nature of this track is supposed to convey the passage of time, we have no idea how long it takes him to gather supplied to build his raft, but you can hear birds chirping rolling waves and the sound of him hammering away to put the raft together (with a rock, no hammers here, unless your version has him find a hammer in the crash site).

13. It's Done! Set Sails!

Job finished! Let's test this sucker out!

14. Heading Out to Sea

It works! Let's go! As he heads out to sea the sudden changes from calm momentum to the wildly outrageous solos and sudden changes in dynamics was supposed to paint a picture of his raft getting violently thrown and tossed around by the rough waters and dangerous waves.

15. Washed Away

This one is very open to interpretation, you can either believe that he did not survive his raft ride, or you can picture the view from the island looking out to sea watching the raft disappear into the horizon. Either way this track is a revisited version of the intro track, the notes and structure is the same but the sound is different. This is supposed to signify that the island was actually the protagonist as our perspective never leaves the island, we were only observers of the guy who was shipwrecked the adjustments to the track were supposed to indicate that the island is forever changed from the man who was shipwrecked (I'm sure the airplane crashing didn't help either).

This stuff can probably seem really lame to some people, but I had a lot of fun making it. Having a theme or story to tell with each track really help me get creative in my writing process. It's really hard to convey events and story beats with instrumental music, so all this stuff may be overlooked completely by people, but hopefully it's there for the people who enjoy, care about, and look for this kind of stuff in music.

Anyway I've rambled on way too much! Sorry about that! Thank you so very much for the kind comments and the favourable review! I'm really happy people are enjoying my work, I hope the people you share my music with also enjoy it!

All the best,

Greg