Pithy 1

 At the end of the world

what will we take with us, and

at the end of time what will we wear?

And at the birth of the new forever, what ties should I burn?

Yours in words,

Count Robot

The Scepter of Bonkers

 The Scepter of Bonkers

Your mind and your heart will go zonkers

if you’re not awesome enough to hold the Scepter of Bonkers

Memories and portents so young and so old

will realise the fantasy you were foretold

Even if you retrieve the bygone name of the game

You and the game, will be the same and not the same

Make every move so glistening and bold

When you win the game the Scepter of Bonkers you will hold

What jagged and bright memorials can we retain?

Memories are the fractured moments that remain

The Scepter of Bonkers can light your board room game decayed brain

Assemblage and reconstruction of our past is our present future bulleting train

Atomic page outrage age burning extra stage of a board game sage

filling a soon to be forgotten digital page

Bonkers is/was a board game

The scepter was something we made only to be held by the victor of the game

Victory brought fame

Losing brought shame

Isn’t this ending lame?

Yours in poetry about old board games,

Count Robot

-Inspired by my brother Tim.

Amplissima - Iron Bird

 

Iron Bird- Amplissima

This is a run down of that album with some track by track thoughts on it.

Amplissima is one of many audio projects featuring, Tim Mungenast, E Dahlfree, Dobra Jené Ashentree, and myself under one of my many ridiculous aliases. 

This album was recorded in the same attic space in Norton as the Amplissima album Fields Converge (which featured awesome guest Vanessa LeFevre).

The house in Norton is supposedly haunted and supposedly was formerly a brothel a hundred or so years ago.

All I can say for sure is that the attic space is a great recording area. 

It's got a nice resonance and plenty of room to spread out.

This is the 4th Amplissima album. 

released October 25, 2024

1. Lamb Hops 5:45 -This track is a good example of E using his trumpet to build space around the rest of us.

2. Iron Bird Shenanigans 10:14 -A bit of enjoyable interplay between Tim & Dobra here on their respective stringed instruments.

3. Anything Unusual? 5:05 - Some tasty Tim guitar. Oh wow! This track has E's broken varmint call.

4. Future Events 8:42 -Featuring many samples from the classic movie Plan Nine from Outer Space. Future events such as this will affect you in the future.

Thank you Ed Wood! Some fun sonic textures on this one. Nice percussion by Dobra.

5. Hash Machine 7:17 - Hash Machine! The silliest track on the entire album. That's why it's at the end. What better way to return your ears to the planet you live on.

Amplissima is:

Dobra Jené Ashentree: octave mandolin, tambourine, tongue drum, metal guiro, tin whistle, FX, percussion, vocals

E Dahlfree: trumpet, electronics, voice, bells, broken varmint call

Tim Mungenast: electric guitar, effects pedals, overtone singing, field recordings

Drake Robey: voice, bullet microphone, sampler, samples, synth, monotron, electric kazoo, weird sound generator, FX

- I used a cheap casio synth from the late 80s on this album. I ran the output through a lot of pedals and I rather like some of the weird sounds it created.

I gave the synth to Tim. I hope he is having fun with it.

Recorded on 10/15/22, on a Saturday evening in a mysterious house in Norton MA.

Created, recorded, mixed, engineered, produced, and mastered by Amplissima.

Copyright 2024 Amplissima

The cover photo was taken by E 

The cover design was by Dobra 

Yours in iron birding,

Count Robot

Needles of the Sun

 

Needles of the Sun

This is where Death is born

The record needle injects your lush piano concerto

into my weeping ears

The laser needle burns the undesirable mutations from my skin

Do you want me to save them for you?

Death is born to a warm, vibrant, mother in a realm where the sun

breathes its moist heat upon the verdant plains

The eye of the needle is searching for you

waiting for your sores to scream 

for the penetration and your subjugation

The needle sweats your fallen desires

waiting for your most desperate despair

as the sun intrudes on the darkness

Gentle air from obscure rains

caress your tranquil face

as your piano playing swells

inside the mended cottage that

I am

And Death sleeps peacefully

in it’s mother’s arms

Yours poetically,

Count Robot

The Irish Ballad

Here's the latest Astro Al video

 

Frankie Freako

 Frankie Freako

There is nothing more 80s that wasn’t made in the 1980’s than the movie Frankie Freako which was released in 2024.

I won’t spoil the movie, but it is an amazing damnation of the 80’s cinema and culture by playing it straight from the 80’s playbook.

Juvenile? Yes, but I would argue a lot of 80s cinema was just that, see Revenge of the Nerds, Porky’s, Police Academy, etc.

Favorite line? “We went to gun college together.”

Yours in nostalgia parody,

Count Robot

A Place

 A Place

Incestuous trees grow up through the stiff dirt landscape

Here is where growth is a disease

A house that scares fog away

Cries from across the bog

Not so far away

We’re crawling towards the blood of the day

Mists are ghosts of the rain

Yours in spooky poetry, 

Count Robot