Album: M’AlgoRhythms

M’AlgoRhythms

Official Release is October 17, 2020!

Click here to listen to the M’AlgoRhythms Pre-release

Attributions

Drums & Composition: Tyrone Steele
Bass: Dustin Fennell
Guitars: Hunt DeShazo, Wager Gracciano, Ben Daniels, Atanas iLiev
Synth: Christopher Reeves, Jay Frigoletto, Ty Steele
Recorded, engineered, produced by Ty Steele

Album Title info:
  • Album Title: “M’AlgoRhythms” = an Amalgamation of Algorithms
  • Rhymthos (ῥυθμός) = “any regular recurring motion, symmetry”
  • Arithmos (αριθμός) = “number”

Song Title info:

  • Planet Name
  • Planet Scientific name
  • Name of song
  • Type of song

Super Earth in Aquarius

  • Njörð – Nordic/Viking god of the sea & wealth
  • Gliese 876d – a watery exoplanet is in the constellation of Aquarius 15 lightyears away. It is an earth-like planet orbiting a red dwarf, with highly pressurized water and vapor.
  • Style: Technical, Groove fusion metal
  • INFO: This was the first song we recorded on the album. This and Auðr have that in common. The end of the song came about as an afterthought and I added the anvil for extra punch. The drums traverse every possible way to groove that time signature that I could squeeze in there. This song has some drum details that didn’t quite come out in the final mix. But it was incredibly difficult to learn overall. I spent 6 weeks training every day for the recording.
  • Guitar: The guitars, by the inimitable Hunt DeShazo, were recorded through several amps and PA’s with about 10 different microphones.

Ice Vii Meltdown

  • Gefjun – Nordic goddess of fertility
  • HD-85512b – a  rocky exoplanet 36 light years away, almost 4x the size of Earth. Could be in a runaway greenhouse effect.
  • Style: Heavy, Fusion Rock
  • INFO: 3rd song recorded. I could probably say this is the simplest song on my album for drums. The instrument at the end is a Zither. It was just a peaceful way to end a powerful song.
  • Guitars: Wagner Gracciano

The Child of Ophiuchus

  • Vör – (Careful One) Nordic goddess of wisdom
  • Gliese 1214b – an exoplanet 48 light years away, likely an “ocean” planet with no surface.
  • Style: Technical, prog fusion
  • INFO: In Greek myth, Ophiuchus is the god of medicine. The intro drum part has NO overdubs. Yes, that’s all one recording. For proof, watch the recording video. This song took me nearly four months to perfect. Usually, you look back at a part you learned and think, “Oh, that’s easy now.” Well, that didn’t happen. Don’t ever ask me to play it for you. This song was birthed strictly out of my toying around with a guitar and this whole thing popped into my head. I wrote it down and thought “what have I done” and I didn’t attempt learn it for nearly two years. It was literally almost the last thing I recorded. I’ve never been so intimidated. I recorded drums on 1/17/19.
  • Synth Solo: Christopher Reeves added his 2-pennies into this with an outstanding synth solo on this song.
  • Bass: Dustin Fennell, who is on every single song on this album (a blessing) did a killer’s job on that busy bass line – note for note how it was written.
  • Guitars: Ben Daniels

A Voyage to Arcturus

  • Auðr – (Prosperity) Nordic Uncle of Thor.
  • GJ-541d – an exoplanet 20 light years away in the Arcturus solar system, 7x the size of Earth with characteristics like our Earth.
  • Style: Melodic, Ballad Fusion
  • INFO: 2nd song recorded from the album. This song was inspired by the genius work of Marco Sfogli and is my most musical work to-date. I am quite fond of the arrangement. When I wrote it I told myself I may never write anything quite this good again.
  • Guitars: Hunt DeShazo did a brilliant job bringing out the intended feel of this tune. I think he liked it a little bit.
  • This was co-written, in part by my son, Knighton Steele, who wrote the middle section.

The City of Amber

  • Magni – (Mighty) Nordic 1st son of Thor
  • τau Ceti E – a rocky exoplanet 12 light years away, 2x the the size of Earth
  • Style: Groove, prog fusion, synth
  • INFO: The drum intro was inspired by a song from Porcupine Tree, as was a good portion of the music. This was the fourth recorded song, recorded December of 2017. I had not anticipated the song would feature a jazz-fusion style drum solo when I wrote it. But it seemed appropriate. The middle section, if you watch the video, is not an electronic kit. I custom built a 13″ x 2″ snare for the sound. The section where the bass & drums are synchronized was incredibly difficult. It’s in 5/4 if you can follow it. Many of my influences went into this one. Nevertheless, it was one the easiest to learn, which is why it was at the top of the recording list.
  • Guitar: Ben Daniels did an amazing work the on all guitar parts.

UltraCool Discovery

  • Móði – (Wrath) Nordic 2nd son of Thor
  • Trappist 1d – an exoplanet 40 light years away, 3/4 the size of Earth, usually approaching -1 °F
  • Style: Technical, groove fusion metal
  • INFO: The two intro guitar parts are in 7/8 while the drums are playing 4/4 (for all you metal-math-heads).  That made this groove particularly interesting. Recorded in June of 2018, the drum part took me a few months to nail down for the video recording. I refused to record anything piecemeal.  All at once or not at all. The double time part was purely a need to write something heavy. The soft part was actually the main inspiration for the whole song. The tradeoffs at the end of that part are jazz-fusion influenced. I think Danny Carey of Tool unknowingly helped me invent that crazy cymbal choke / kick drum part. Difficultly level: 7.
  • Guitars: The rhythm guitar was by Ben Daniels, the guitar leads by Wagner Gracciano.

Large Daughter of a Dwarf

  • Thrúd / Þrúðr – (Strength) Nordic daughter of Thor
  • LHS 1140b – an exoplanet 40 light years away, 1.5x the size of Earth, circling a very small red dwarf that is 0.186 times the radius of the Sun.
  • Style: Funky, jazz fusion
  • INFO: And now for something completely different. The fifth song I recorded, this was a “shower stall” inspiration. So, you know where I was when I heard the intro bass line. The guitars remind me of “Finish What You Started” by VH. Add organ and a duplicate guitar to match the bass “walk” and this was my most fun song. I should have used a tighter snare. The part two section diverges into Progressive Rock, Neil Peart (Rush) style, which makes this song a bit difficult to learn. The mid section really brings out my jazz influences.
  • Guitars: Wagner Gracciano did an amazing job carrying this song all around. His work on this tune really brings out his skills. Dustin Fennell really laid down a great bass solo that he worked particularly hard on. We must have recorded that solo 8 times.

Ode to Infinite Space

  • Odin – Nordic “All Father” of Valhalla and the sky, and all things
  • Ross 128b – an exoplanet 11 light years away, roughly the same size as Earth. It has a 9-earth-day year around a small dwarf star, inside the habitable zone, getting 38% more sunlight than Earth. Fascinating.
  • Style: Metal, techno Fusion
  • INFO: My only “major” (positive sounding) song, I nearly considered dropping it because it almost didn’t fit the album. But the drum intro (reminiscent of High Water by Rush) using my self-handcrafted Gong Bass drum was too irresistible. This was the 8th song recorded on the album because the coordination required was on the “highly difficult” nearing intimidating level. Don’t believe me? Try it. I have everything, including the drum solo section, written out. I followed it verbatim. The title of the song “Ode to Infinite Space” is due to the electronic Roland kit section in the middle that is somewhat ethereal in nature. All MIDI and Roland electric kit. Watch it here.
  • Guitars: All Ben Daniels who pulled the parts and harmonies right off the page I sent him and made it sing. That guitar solo … yeah. So apropos, tasty.

Perseus’ Massive Black Horizon

  • Baldr – (Brave, defiant) Nordic god of Light, son of Odin, brother of Thor
  • NGC 1277 – a Galaxy with a SUPER MASSIVE BLACKHOLE, 220 light years away, about 12-billion years old. It is 14% of the total mass of its own galaxy. This thing is HUGE.
  • Style: Ethereal, techno fusion rock
  • INFO: Recorded in February of 2018, this is the only song NOT about an exoplanet, but a very close-by galaxy with a massive blackhole eating itself. This may be the oldest known galaxy in our supercluster.
    Perseus is the rescuer of Andromeda, killer of Medusa, which is Greek mythology, not Norse. This song was birthed out of a need to write something as a sequel to “Heavy RLS” from Double Exposure. The section following the guitar lead, interestingly, I originally had no material for so I just recorded drums in 5/4 and wrote over the drums later. The song is in 7/4. It begins with a scrape of the guitar head strings. I did the keyboard/synth solo for this as I had done for Heavy RLS.
  • Guitars: I can’t say enough about how well Ben Daniels did on this guitar part.

Cygnus X2

  • Höðr – (Warrior) Nordic god of winter, blind brother and ‘slayer’ of Baldr
  • Kepler 186f – an exoplanet 582 light years away, roughly the same size as Earth. Its host star is roughly the same age as our Sun. Frankly, it’s too far for anyone to really know much more about it.
  • Style: Technical, prog fusion
  • INFO: This was my “magnum opus”  or “overture” of the entire album, a song that encompassed parts of the rest of the album, and sets the mood for the adventure. Rush fans may notice that it was named after the very long instrumental on Farewell to Kings, “Cygnus X1,” hence the song title. This is an overture of the album and was influenced by a myriad of artists from Van Halen to (believe it or not) Green Day, Rush, Porcupine Tree, and maybe a few others. There are parts in this song that are scattered throughout the album. But mainly it is its own thing. I can say, without a shadow of doubt, this song was the most difficult coordination challenge of my drumming career. If you don’t believe me … try it. Again, I have all the sheet music. First off, the song is in 11/16 – a very uncommon time signature indeed. Second, it has three main sections: 1) heavy complex; 2) soft and moderate; 3) progressive and highly difficult. That kick drum section of part III (right after the 10 marching snares I recorded), is in 15/16, played in triplet form, and therefore having to swap the “lead” kick from left to right every forty-five 32nd note played, all while adding a pattern on top that was invented purely out of my head. I literally worked on the drum part for six months straight. It was, therefore, the final recorded song on the album.
  • Keys: Jay Frigoletto was pulled into this for a synth solo over top of a few sections and he absolutely did an amazing job. He was also on four song of my last album, Double Exposure.
  • Guitars: Wagner Gracciano did guitar solos; Atanas ILiev recorded the rhythm.