Mr. Pan[k]sament – The Ghost of the Absent Father (2011)

Marcus Miller once said: “that one of the problems with making contemporary music is that you never know how it will be judged in the future”. That’s true, but still, I believe it really doesn’t matter what anybody think about it, who and how judge it. I’m conscious that I disappointed most of my fans from the 90’s, but I always felt like I have to move on and I’m kind of pathologically scared not to repeat myself. Under the moniker “Mr.Pan[k]sament” I’m exploring extremely different areas of musical expressions from electronica to metal and from punk to jazz, it might be confusing, I’m aware of it, but this is who I am. Writing recently about Queensrÿche and reading some of the fans comments about their latest release I was thinking about one more aspect: a band should play what their fans demand or what they actually feel? Some great artists such as David Bowie with each release moved on in some other direction while bands like AC/DC played the same riff for decades but both are just great exactly for what they did. So, it’s no “right” or “wrong” answer. On the other hand, thinking about music exclusively in genres, I think it’s definitively wrong and leave us with a very narrow horizon…

“The Ghost of the Absent Father” is kind of concept album without lyrics, verbal content, I tried to put my thoughts exclusively in sounds. There’s only one exception: “I Hate the Blues” which I also did jammed with the guys from the band Oedip Piaf, but here is the original version and as bonus track another version in collaboration with Mr. Winteller from London. It’s about alienation, about secrets and our deepest fears, about lies and selfishness, about divorce, traumas and not at least, about our children and our relation/communication with them. We use to say that we do things “for the best of our children”, some couples do not divorce “for the sake of their children”. I don’t know, but the kids are not stupids, they will feel if there’s something wrong not to mention about the situation when the parents are arguing or fighting day after day. In that case I believe the best thing for everybody is to move on. But thinking about this a million time I realized it’s just another example for there’s no “right” or “wrong” situation in life, there’s nothing black or white, always there are millions of shades of grey.
I have pretty strong ties with my son and I’m struggling to keep them this way. I only hope one day he will understand and forgive me.

“Having Trouble Sleeping” is a 17.25 minutes long trip, it kick off pretty chill and kind of “trancy” and a little bit jazzy, but from a “dream” it became a “nightmare”, it has a pretty heavy ending. “Father’s Day (clean cut mix)” comes more “sunnier”, it reminds me of Sundays spent in the parks playing. I like this “feel alright” spirit and I wish I could write more often this kind of songs. “Electro-Acoustic Two Notes Techno (Unstable Mix)” it’s something I always wanted to try: the most minimal techno theme played once with acoustic instruments (cellos, violins, etc) and thereafter twisted into electronics. It’s funny and pretty danceable. “The Last Elephant” (free download!) it’s kind of hard-electro with aggrotech and EBM resonances and a gloomy/doomy, slow grinding passage, it’s another thing I always wanted to try. “Hey Hi Hi Ho (TV Mix)” it’s about the time our kids spend it watching the TV. Sometimes for the parents are releasing when the kido is quietly watching his favorite cartoons, but statistically it’s proved, Cartoon Networks for example it’s the most violent TV channel and obviously all that violence will effect one way or another our children. “07994 (Göynük, Kemer)” it’s smooth and relaxed, reminds me of a nice vacation in Antalya. “I Hate the Blues (Chill on the Hill Version)” is the original version of this song, as I write and arrange it and with the improvised lyrics in Hungarian I singed at the rehearsal with the guys from Oedip Piaf. “I Hate the blues” can mean a million different things actually, in this particular context it means that I hate to arguing and hear the same old song all over again. “Drum No Bass (The Space Carrot)” is the “reverse version” of the drum’n’bass concept: I didn’t use bass at all and it’s a “brother like”, evil twin track for “Electro-Acoustic Two Notes Techno”. “The Weight” is a mixture of dark and heavy, the basic them it’s pretty smooth (and sad) and I construct around noise layers. “10.36 PM” lead me a little bit into the area of noise, it’s another thing I was curious about and maybe I will return in this twisted zone sometimes.
I think this is an album of moods and grooves, it’s gloomy, sometimes quite noisy, it’s another thing that I had to bring to the surface and release.

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