ES

Eric Salazar recently came to my attention as so many Denver people do. I meet them years after I think I should have met them. We revolved around the same places, events, and circles of friends, yet never met each other. Small world theorists, take notice. Of course it may be possible Denver is some sort of situational continuum spread over infinite universes, intersecting only randomly, such that you may never actually meet your friends due to the fact they are from (and usually in) their own respective universes.


But I digress.


ES's (née Emptyhead's) biography brought back all kinds of happy memories for me. A year or two after he says he obtained his first EPS-16, I also bought one. I have since only moved one Ensoniq model up from that sampler for making my own music. Good gear is simply good gear. Salazar also reveals in the liner notes of When I Was Emptyhead 1997 – 2007 his boyhood dreams of creating the ultimate band, and attracting women by having the perfect band name. Apparently since the name Wyld Stallyns was already taken by a fictional pair of would-be rock stars, Salazar's band choose Emptyhead and The Orange Brigade. Emptyhead then took to selling homemade CD-Rs. "To my amazement, people thought these handmade CDs were real and actually bought them."


While Emptyhead was exploring his grass roots mass marketing, I was playing in several Denver bands and making my own music but not actively marketing it. My cassettes were mostly for playing loudly in my car stereo system for the benefit (some would say detriment) of my friends. Salazar achieved modest success making dance music for the next several years and I moved to California for a decade to make bad software and good theatre music.


Since my return to Denver I've been performing my electronic music more often and attending some local events. At one event I was introduced to ES by my friend and fellow electronic musician, Bios+a+ic. ES and I exchanged CDs and I came away with When I Was Emptyhead 1997 – 2007.


In the liner notes ES also requests, "I hope you listen to (the songs) while you are having sexual intercourse." Unfortunately the morning after I received my copy of When I Was Emptyhead 1997 – 2007 from ES, Carrie was busy, and besides, I had to clean the toilets. So I decided to test out ES's musical effects on my toilet cleaning, and hoped it would work out as well. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine the effects of the CD as intended by its author.


The first track, Little Movie had a nice scrubbing like pulse which would have been best for the scrubbing or swishing part of the cleaning, but I'd only begun my task and was just getting my rubber gloves on and squirting toilet bowl cleaner into the toilets. (I never think I live in a big house until I have to clean it – yes, we have a lot of toilets.) On the third toilet, I missed and squirted toilet bowl cleaner on the floor and had to stop and clean it up before it corroded the floor. Now, I'm not blaming Little Movie or 7minutes 7 seconds, the next tune that came on, but I'm just sayin'. I suppose the delay wasn't a big deal because the toilet bowl fluid is supposed to sit in there for a while anyway. I had a moment to contemplate how the song sort of reminded me of an electronic recording project from the nineties called Jouissance that is almost impossible to find anymore.


By the time This came on I'd cleaned up the floor mess and was ready to spray the scrubbing bubbles on the rims, seats, and tanks. Sort of a pensive mood that becomes kind of dancey, This kept me moving productively from toilet to toilet in sort of a pensive yet dancey way. It was around this time I mused on the irony of how you don't need to pee until you've got cleaning products sprayed on all the available toilets rendering them unusable.


As Rebis came on, I got out the brush and went to work scrubbing. Rebis and Penitence Tres were in my opinion the best scrubbing songs on the CD, and unlike Little Movie were very well placed around fifteen or so minutes in for that part of the work. However since ES's stated purpose is apparently for the disc to be played during sexual intercourse and not toilet cleaning, I'm not exactly sure what purpose 'scrubbing music' would serve fifteen minutes in. Maybe I don't have sex in the same way as most people.


It was at this point things got a bit uncertain.


The Cannibal Lovers Theme Song and Flat Affect both move into a fast drum and bass feel not well suited for detail work and by this point I was supposed to be shining up the rims, seats, and tanks with a wet cloth. However I just became too excited by the music and was getting water everywhere. By the time the bursts of feedback in the song Ivory Coast cut the air, I had to take a break from cleaning: I was getting tired and besides, I was beginning to put chips in the porcelain.


Aside from making me want to watch some old eighties cop movies starring Eddie Murphy, Sisela allowed me a bit of respite from the job and I got a glass of water. After a short break, the somewhat ironically titled Frustration helped get me back into the pace of toilet cleaning. That followed by Voluptuous provided nicely paced working music with which I was able to clean up the mess I'd made during the drum and bass storms.


The album winds down with fifteen minutes of the smooth, legato music of Garfield Street, Penitence Uno, and Aire. Although it wasn't really necessary to take that long wiping all the toilets down with a dry clean rag, the decrescendo allowed me to finish my job with calm focus as well as clean my rubber gloves and turn them inside out to dry. It was around this time I mused on the irony of how you don't need to pee once you've finally finished cleaning your toilets and they're usable again.


The "hidden track" Jose's Groove bookends the disc with a little 25 second clip that quits just as you notice it. Don't check your player. Nothing is wrong with it. At this point if you've left your repeat function on by mistake, you'll be tempted to clean all of your toilets again. To avoid getting caught in the perpetual loop of toilet cleaning, be sure to disengage the repeat function before playing When I Was Emptyhead 1997 – 2007.
- Steve Forker

with three takes to choose from (the original plus poison flow and emptyhead remixes) this slab of vinyl may seem intimidating or even perhaps a bit repetitive.

not to worry, simply head straight to the "emptyhead recovery remix" for the best of the three. with a painstakingly subtle atmosphere that lifts and stabs, the strongest reworking comes from the spine-tingling nuances barely noticed yet absolutely essential. - XLR8R

This last crop of CDs/Tapes I received to analyze and CRUSH THE HOPES OF ALL THESE ARTISTS IN MY PLANS FOR WORLD DOMINATI..err, you know..anyway, it is with GREAT pleasure that I receive what I've recently got. I'd like to start out with quite possibly the cream of the crop, Emptyhead's self-titled album. Yoinks. This is incredible. To define this CD in a genre would be an injustice. To say the very least, I'm VERY pleased with this. Elements from all types of style are encompassed in this. This is a most honest statment..no 'standard fare' of genre. What really amazes me is the purely compositional elements of this disc. Tracks ranging from piano oriented arrangements to a DJ remix done with nothing but turntables really spice up the pallette. Each track is incredibly well produced (and all on a CD-R, to boot!) and different. Yah, that's kind of cliche, but the pure talent in this release and in every song engulfs the listener with pure aural ecstacy. Seriously. Beautiful soundscapes and almost orchestral arrangements are found all through this disc; even a drum & bass track adds to the eclectic nature of this album To truly define this, I'll share a sort of 'revelation' I had while driving to a friend's house & listening to this: after reading a recent article in "Keyboard" magazine, it struck me that this album fit what the editorial was about: the music actually tells a story. I mean, each song is full. There's suspense, resolution, denoument, everything. This is truly a..well, I could say timeless release. I really really hope more people hear OF Emptyhead and give this a listen. If it's not clear by now, I'm floored by the pure musical moods of this album. Indeed!

Matt Simpson, Last Sigh - Last Sigh

Produced way back in 1998, "IvoryCoast" still sounds like a breath of fresh air. Combining an 'old school' style break with lush synth melodies, this one breaks the rigid mold of d'n'b. Catchy analog riff throughout will have all the trainspotters at your decks. The flipside offers up Red Math's "Angry 90's Edit". Using all the old breaks, the Red one lays down a classic anthem that will warp you back in time to jungle's proto beginnings. Rareform follows suit with the "Get Me Out of Hear Mix" which also dips way down into the bag of old jungle tricks. If you like that '93 sound, you will eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Sharee, Knowledge Magazine - Knowledge Magazine

you gotta respect any label that does things a little differently and i think new vision is forging ahead in some new sound territory. this three cut piece of wax offers up "emotions in force" plus a couple of dope remixes. the original surges with a unique blend of melodic keys, tactile drums fills and a sweeping synth wash.

the first remix, entitled "emptyhead's recovery remix" keeps the haunting key riff relatively intact but pushes those synths up a notch and add some 'intelligent' style drum programming and prominent, mutating analogue. the flip is the "poison flow remix" with just a splash of the original keys, harder drums and some alien bass.

nice. - Knowledge Magazine

eric salazar, aka emptyhead, has the right idea... thank you's go out to emagic, the makers of the logic sequencing software, and ensoniq, synth and sampler makers extraordinaire. if you can't thank the people who make you the gear to create with, then who?

the title track on penitence is a minimalist, electronic-to-the-core affair. only two melodies battle for your attention throughout the song, and enough happens to them and the sounds that create them, to keep you occupied. simple but effective seems to be the motto here. the second track is more upbeat and also longer, making for some more changes in instruments, and it's danceable too. track three reminded me of jean michel jarre, in that classic synthesizer style, with more emphasis on the melody
than the sounds. this is interesting, because it takes emptyhead down the unenviable path of competing against the synth masters, like jarre and vangelis, and although no-one could emerge from that fight unscathed, mr. salazar holds his own admirably. the last track is a reworking of penitence, with the addition of a beat and it really brings the song to life. i would choose this over the original.

a different route is taken with voluptuous, the backbone is the opening track, deodato, formed by a number of jazz-oriented and rap music samples. he doesn't just take the samples to incorporate into his own song though, he actually uses them to create a dancy jazz tune. the second track is more powerful, with a strong beat and a fuller overall sound. the same is true for the other two tracks on this ep, which i found more enjoyable than penitence. the songs are well laid out, they have interesting tempo and mood changes. cool.

Alex, raw42 monthly music, February 1999 - Raw 42 Monthly E-Zine