Death Valley Burial Ground is the most recent project of Andrew Mortensen. With Death Valley Burial Ground, Andrew explores the  dark and atmospheric genre known as ‘doom’.
Taking inspiration from doom/drone acts as well as going back to his blues roots, this project looks to be an interesting one, and one he also hopes to perform live with.

10 – Death Valley Burial Ground – ‘Weather’
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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

10. DEATH VALLEY BURIAL GROUND – Weather
Produced, arranged and performed by Andrew Mortensen
Recorded at AM Frequencies August-October 2009
© 2009 Andrew Mortensen

This track, and project came about by total accident.
It’s such a great feeling when something new comes from a musical ‘accident’.
Basically I had planned on doing a dark-noise remix of ‘Weathermen’.
I had performed a bunch of synth noise and was mixing in the guitar line from the original when I soloed that guitar line.
I really liked the effects and tone, and thought I’d like to maybe add some more guitar, so I picked up the guitar & got ready to lay some down.
What happened next was great. I think I had a phone call or something & had to put the guitar down & leave the room. As I left, my foot caught the lead & the guitar fell over. When I returned and went to play, the guitar had been knocked way out of tune, and randomly too, as the machine-heads had hit the amp before hitting the floor.
The result of this was a bizarre & random tuning. I played a random chord and it just happened to sound great (needed very minimal fixing to be in tune with the recording) and fit perfectly with ‘Weathermen’.
Around this time, I’d also been listening to quite a bit of Earth, Sunn O))) and Bohren & der Club of Gore and I heard this chord I had made, I knew I wanted to write more music in this vein and based around this tuning.
I’ve written a few songs so far, and even also went back to some old compositions that were originally written for Adam Pringle Band – obviously APB was  groove-blues, not doom/metal – but playing with tempo, feel and arrangement has made some work. I plan on getting guests on the tracks too, mostly guitarists. I hope to get Adam Pringle, Julian Curwin, George Rigatos and Lachlan Dale to play on some tracks. I’d say it will be more ‘blues/roots’ than metal, but will still have heavy elements to it. I hope to start recording later this year, and even get some live shows if I can. It will most probably be  instrumental music, unless I come across a vocalist who wants to be involved.

Shouts outs (who have helped or helped influence this project) go to Adam Pringle (give me some baritone brown note), Julian Curwin (the spaghetti twang man) and Lachlan Dale (my brother in DOOOOOM) and  Junko Mortensen (愛してる).

This is the final track of Volume 2. STAY TUNED FOR VOLUME 3

www.myspace.com/moztroniquz

09 – AM FREQUENCIES featuring MORGAN MURPHY – ‘Sick Day (Moz Troniquz mix)’

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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

With this track, when creating the music, I was aiming for a minimal electronica feel – touching on ideas that might be akin to some Aphex Twin or Björk. It was sort of by chance that Morgan became involved. I had already planned to invite her to be involved in a remix of her own, but when I finished the remix I just knew her voice would suit the track. I was not expecting what she came up with!  She really went to town with the ideas, lyrics and some experimental vocal multi-tracking and techniques.
I plan on hopefully doing another one with her down the track.

9. AM FREQUENCIES featuring MORGAN MURPHY – Sick Day (Moz Troniquz mix)
Produced, performed and arranged by Morgan Murphy and Andrew Mortensen.
Mixed by Andrew Mortensen.
Recorded at AM Frequencies, June ’09 and Gamma-Ray Gun Productions July – August ‘09.
Lyrics by Morgan Murphy
Original music / lyrics by Andrew Mortensen.
© 2009 Morgan Murphy / Andrew Mortensen

http://www.myspace.com/billyliarmorts

(Sorry, not much on site…)

Billy Liar is the project of bassist Andrew Mortensen. It started out as a project for Andrew to pursue his love of turntablism/hip-hop combined with dub and heavy rock/metal. Over time, it has morphed into a group effort that now contains elements from many genres.

08 – BILLY LIAR – ‘Victory Dub’

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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

With this remix/re-work I really wanted to keep the vibe of the original version.
The guitar is from the original version and I really like how I weaved it into the mix.
I really like the way the original keyboard line, now on piano, floats around with it’s delays over the deep bass & groove.
Special thanks to Mark Clifton (for the fretless loan), Matt Ward & Chuksing (for playing on the track) and Milica Stefanovic & Julian Curwin for their critique.

8. BILLY LIAR – Victory Dub
Produced, arranged and performed by Andrew Mortensen with:
Chuksing – guitar solo; Matt Ward – drums
Recorded at AM Frequencies August-October 2009
© 2009 Andrew Mortensen

www.myspace.com/studiotannwestlabz

Studio Tann is a product of the devolution of man to the point where the only light the skin tone gets is from the bright lights of a computer screen in a home studio environment. That said a unique form of devolved music is created in this bleak circumstance. Studio Tann protects his extra pale condition by only venturing out after the sun is securely buried in the horizon. With the night life at his mercy he then reeks havoc with his twisted beats and subsonic tones.

07 – STUDIO TANN – ‘KillaQueenz Vs AM Frequencies: Almost a Pure Mad Feeling (Mash mix)’

For this remix, Tim Hagan mashed-together Almost Pure from the ‘Fleish’ album and Sydney hip-hop duo, KillerQueenz’s Mad Feeling from their ‘Sistarhood’ album.

KillerQueenz - 'Sistarhood' album

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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

The original track Mad Feeling can be found on the KillerQueenz album ‘Sistarhood’ which can be purchased from their website: www.myspace.com/killarqueenz

7. STUDIO TANN – KillaQueenz Vs AM Frequencies: Almost a Pure Mad Feeling (Mash mix)
Produced, arranged & performed by Tim Hagan
Recorded at West Labz Sound, June 2009
Original music by Andrew Mortensen / KillaQueenz
© 2009 Tim Hagan / KillaQueenz / Andrew Mortensen

www.myspace.com/georgerigatos

George Rigatos is a guitarist, composer and band-leader from Sydney. He has been involved in the Sydney music scene for some 20+ years, being a highly sought after player in various genres, including blues, funk, rock and jazz.

06 – George Rigatos – ‘Suspicion’
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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

6. GEORGE RIGATOS – Suspicion
Produced, performed and arranged by George Rigatos.
Recorded at Pi-Neal Studios 9/09.
Original music by Andrew Mortensen.
© 2009 George Rigatos /Andrew Mortensen

05 – Arcleverék – Virus (Geschwür mix)

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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

5. ARCLEVERJÉK – Virus (Geschwür mix)
Produced by E.Varga
Recorded at Facecrush Freqs Budapest, June-September ‘09.
Original music/lyrics by Andrew Mortensen.
© 2009 E.Varga / Andrew Mortensen

www.rupertgoes.com

Rupert Goes Shopping is based in Sydney, Australia and is the largely one man band of RupertG. RupertG has been writing and producing music for 15 years. He switched to electronic music after a run in with a car whilst crossing the road removed some of his fine motor skills in his hands and limited his guitar playing. Rupert Goes Shopping is heavily influenced by bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Opeth and many other Scandinavian Death Metal acts, but is not of the metal genre. They have been labelled ‘Gothic Lullabies’ by some and ‘Sunday Afternoons at the Pub music’ by others. They are not sure what genre they fit into, and are hoping they work it out one day…

RupertG uses Propellerhead Software’s Reason and Record for all his compositions.

04 – Rupert Goes Shopping – ‘Sick Day (Shoplifting Mix)’

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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

04. RUPERT GOES SHOPPING – Sick Day (Shoplifting Mix)
Produced & arranged by Rupert Goes Shopping.
Recorded at Rupert Goes Sound May 2009.
Original music by Andrew Mortensen.
© 2009 Rupert Goes Shopping /Andrew Mortensen

AM Frequencies is one of the music outlets of Andrew Mortensen, most well known as the bassist in sci-fi rock act, Slimey Things. AM Frequencies has covered many genres including noise, experimental, dub, film music, hip-hop, metal and electronica. Most recent work is the “Fleisch” album which is industrial inspired rock/metal. This track is one of a number of self-remixes.

03 – AM Frequencies – ‘Corroded Littoral’

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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

3. AM FREQUENCIES – Corroded Littoral
Remixed at AM Frequencies August-September 2009 by Andrew Mortensen
© 2009 Andrew Mortensen

With this remix, I had an Amon Tobin style in mind. I sampled quite a few parts of sounds from vinyl records, and used those notes to re-create the original riffs etc.

02 – CTS – ‘MWFS (Zim mix)’

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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

2. CTS – MWFS (Zim mix)
Produced, mixed, arranged and rearranged by CTS (CJ Highley)
Recorded at CTS Headquarters, August 2009
Original music by Andrew Mortensen.
© 2009 CJ Highley / Andrew Mortensen

AM Frequencies is one of the music outlets of Andrew Mortensen, most well known as the bassist in sci-fi rock act, Slimey Things. AM Frequencies has covered many genres including noise, experimental, dub, film music, hip-hop, metal and electronica. Most recent work is the “Fleisch” album which is industrial inspired rock/metal. This track is one of a number of self-remixes.

01 – AM Frequencies – ‘Seeds of Red (Roach mix)’

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[See post to listen to audio] original song from ‘Fleisch’

1. AM FREQUENCIES – Seeds of Red (Roach mix)
Remixed at AM Frequencies June-August 2009 by Andrew Mortensen
Contains elements of “Cockroach Killer” by Billy Liar
© 2009 Andrew Mortensen

For some Volume 2 posts, I thought I’d share a little more on the tracks themselves.
With this remix, I had in mind Justin Broadrick’s remix style on the Love & Hate In Dub album. Heavy, funky beats with heavy, industrial-like guitars & bass. At the time of working on the remix, I realised that the riff of ‘Seeds…’ actually was similar to the Billy Liar track, ‘Cockroach Killer’ from the  ‘Warning: May Contain Traces of Fingers’ (2006) album. I decided to morph the two, which became this remix.

Bill Liar's 'Warning: May Contain Traces of Fingers' album