Culminations. This week is the culmination of a bunch of audio work. Specifically on some remixes of my first album I ever put out. Delicate Stretch of the Seems was originally released under the name Amalgam. But the release is obviously not.
Long time ago, in a musical universe far far away…
There was a young man who wrote a bunch of songs and worked on putting a power-trio together. When I did that, I originally felt it was better to use a band name. The name I chose was Amalgam. Yes there was a meaning behind it. The concept of many things rolled into one.
The idea was to be able to run with any type of music and still sound like that band. A couple of great examples would be Queen, and RUSH. They always managed to sound like themselves no matter what they did – the musical DNA was too strong. I had this notion that Amalgam would do that to, kinda like how Trent Reznor is Nine Inch Nails as the mouthpiece.
The record labels felt the music was every bit like that and more, but the time had swiftly changed and while they loved the music, it wasn’t what they felt they could sell. Yes, that was powerful rejection early on. Someone I still decided to forge on.
Those initial recordings done on equipment owned by my roommate, Jeff Scott Soto, eventually became my first full fledged CD and a true independent release. Mixed on tech that was cutting edge for the time, which helped forge the sound. Crazy.
Even crazier was being able to obtain distribution and getting in stores with an impending tour. Everything was looking up. Then it all came crashing down.
In the aftermath, Jeff said something to the effect of: Dude, you’re doing all the work, you should just use your name. Which is why all subsequent releases were using my name.
Here’s the full circle, I’m re-releasing this early release under my name so as to not confuse people with another band called Amalgam. They are likely defunct at this point as well. Though I will say, they were good chaps in that they reached out to ask me if they could use the name when I no longer was. I said sure.
Thus, if you’re reading this, you can purchase the entire album for the first time digitally in full studio quality WAV format. Or you could listen on Friday on your favorite streaming service. Obviously I’d prefer you did the former. Especially since it sounds so much better and it’s in 48k/32bit file format.
What a long strange road it’s been. What a wild year 2026 will be as well. Stay tuned.