‘Delectable Machinery II’ Bandcamp (purchase) CD Purchase Individual Song Breakdowns --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the record: Continuing what was established with ‘Delectable Machinery,’ this is my love-letter to cyberpunk, a niche within sci-fi, that of which I’ve been preternaturally fond of since a kid. This record is also dedicated to my father, Thomas Orbin. Composition began in August of 2020. I had known by then that my dad was sick, but it didn’t take a turn for the very worse until mid-November of the same year. I embarked for Chicago to track vocals for ‘Midnight Acolyte’ with Gabriel Riccio and Sacha Mullin. Within that session, less than a week long, he was bedridden. I finished as quickly as I could and drove home overnight, stopping only for a short nap or two. When I arrived, he was on his deathbed. My mother and I cared for him at home for four days until he passed. Two days after, I wrote the final song, “Requiem for a Fantasist,” alongside its complementary poem. I worked at a maddening pace, tracking the drums, bass, and doing synth production for both the self-titled record and this one, but didn’t start tracking vocals in May of 2022 for various reasons. The lyrics on this record are a blend, a wrestling of thoughts and accounts of my father’s last days, filtered through his perspective, as well as an—obviously fictional—attempt to upload his consciousness into a computer to thusly live forever. Mixing was wrapped in early 2023 and mastered concurrently with Ditties 4. I didn’t know when I’d release this, since it was to follow the self-titled record within my second ‘mini-oeuvre loop,’ but the timeline worked out splendidly to finally publish it on what would have been his 69th birthday (#nice). Happy Birthday, Dad. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits 1. The Opulence of Denial 2. Brief Clinamen 3. The Neon Suite: Nightfall 4. The Neon Suite: Joyride 5. The Neon Suite: Bowels of the City 6. The Neon Suite: Gala of Ephemera 7. The Neon Suite: Kairos 8. The Neon Suite: Ricochet 9. The Neon Suite: Sidereal Ashes 10. The Neon Suite: Dawn 11. Threnody 12. Requiem for a Fantasist  · Travis Orbin - Drum set, Percussion, Bass, Synthesizer, Programming, Vocals  · Alexander von Hagke - Saxophone on 2, 6, 11  · Greg Loman - Electric and Acoustic Guitars on 2  · Gabriel Riccio - Keyboards on 5  · Sophia Uddin - 7-String Electric Violin on 7  · Amar Gokhale - Tabla on 10  · Minou Alirezazadeh - Vocals on 12  · 7-string electric violin engineered by Gabriel Riccio at his home studio  · Piano VST Production on 5 by Gabriel Riccio  · Minou self-engineered at KK Rec. / Kollektiv K e.V / Germany  · Everyone else self-engineered at their respective home studios  · Vocal arrangement on 12 by Minou Alirezazadeh  · Composed, Produced, and Mixed by Travis Orbin  · Lyrics by Travis Orbin  · Mastered by Taylor Larson at MixWave Studios  · Cover Art by Travis Orbin Dedicated to the memory of Thomas Orbin. Thank you to my fans, friends, associates, and family; especially my mother for her perpetual support and my neighbors for putting up with all of the racket. Also, thank you to my endorsements: Pearl Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Remo drumheads, Vic Firth drumsticks, RTOM drum accessories, Vratim drum shoes, and E-Pad! Practice Pads. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cover Art Construction I purchased a model of the New York cityscape, spay-painted it, and smashed it to bits with a hammer. I also purchased some very cool miniature ceramic ‘dystopian’ building models from Etsy. Then, I found a loop of TV static on YouTube, positioned everything in front of it, and snapped a pic. My first attempt was with my Canon 90D, but I couldn’t get everything in focus. Believe it or not, yes, the pic was captured with my iPhone 13 mini. The photo was then digitally manipulated with Gimp: lots of texturing, filters, etc. I also added the glowing orb in the upper right corner. It represents my father’s soul. It will probably be misconstrued as a moon, but that’s okay. I tried placing it in the center where the buildings are, but it looked like an explosion and that was not congruent with the aesthetic I was chasing. Click here to see the original pic, sans edits and title. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ‘Delectable Machinery II’ Gear List: “The Opulence of Denial” · 12”/16” Pearl Reference Pure tom-toms with Vintage Emperor coated batters/Emperor clear resonants · 6.5”x14” Reference brass snare drum with Controlled Sound X/Ambassador Hazy snare side · 20” Reference Pure bass drum with Powerstroke III coated batter/Ebony Powerstroke III ported resonant · Cymbals (from left to right, player’s perspective): 20” K Heavy Ride, 19” K Dark Thin Crash, 15” K Light Hi-hats, 8” A Custom Splash, 6” A Custom Splash, 13” A New Beat Hi-hats, 19” K Custom Hybrid Crash, 18” K Custom Special Dry China, 19” K China “Brief Clinamen” · same setup as “The Opulence of Denial”, except with a 5”x14” maple piccolo snare (with a Powerstroke 77 coated/Ambassador Hazy snare side) in place of the Reference brass, 13” A New Beat Hi-hats in place of the 15” K Light hats, and no right-side hats “The Neon Suite: Nightfall” · same setup as “The Opulence of Denial”, except with custom hats (14” K Constantinople bottom (top) / 14” K Custom High Definition bottom (bottom)) in place of the 15” K hats “The Neon Suite: Joyride” · same setup as “The Neon Suite: Nightfall” “The Neon Suite: Bowels of the City” · same setup as “The Opulence of Denial”, except with an 11” FX Oriental “Trash” Splash in place of the 8” A Custom, an 8” A Custom Splash in place of the 6” A Custom, and an 18” K Dark Thin Crash in place of the 19” K Custom “The Neon Suite: Gala of Ephemera” · same setup as “The Neon Suite: Nightfall” “The Neon Suite: Kairos” · same setup as “The Neon Suite: Nightfall” “The Neon Suite: Ricochet” · same setup as “The Neon Suite: Nightfall”, except with a regular ‘stack’ (14” A Custom EFX / 16” FX Oriental China “Trash”) in place of the 8” A Custom Splash, and an 8” A Custom Splash in place of the 6” A Custom “The Neon Suite: Dawn” · same setup as “The Neon Suite: Nightfall” “Threnody” · same setup as “The Neon Suite: Bowels of the City”; at one point, the 11” FX Splash is exchanged for the regular ‘stack’, and the 8” A Custom Splash for the 6” A Custom Splash. The setup also reverts back to the original towards the end of the song.

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