This EP presents a collection of some of my own favorite amateur compositions from the last two years. They're not perfect and they never will be. However, I am still compelled to assemble them in some traditional thematic format for general presentation. You can listen to each track in the media player above or download full length MP3's by clicking the links next to each track name below.

	1. C. Fethsonorous (Intro) - 1:04 MP3
	Originally titled 'Cablamark Fethsonorous', this song's title was shortened to fit in the media player's textbox. The music for this piece was one of the dozens of random sketches I have thrown together with Reason. The text was somewhat stream of consciousness and is read by Adobe Acrobat. I did, however, intentionally chose some nonsense words - like 'cablamark fethsonorous' - just to see how they would sound in Acrobat.
	2. Rain Delay - 5:00 MP3
	This song also began as a Reason sketch that I started on December 31, 2005 and was originally titled 'New Years Eve'. I bathed everything in delay on this track. Delay is often a cheap technique to make a track sound good, and this aesthetic is rooted deep inside our subconscious. At a very basic level, we like things that are familiar - particularly in music. We see evidence of this affinity in the aggregation of genres and the popular success of styles such as theme and variation. A delay effect produces instant familiarity gratification. I took a sample from an audio book of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions and ran it through a vocoder. The speaker says "Would a man nourished by beauty look like this? 'We have nothing but desolation and desparation,' I hear you say. I bring you more of the same."
	3. So You Can Rest Medicine - 2:29 MP3
	I threw this track together in twenty minutes. I twiddled with some parameters on a Malstrom until I found a tone that I liked. Then I played a sad chord progression. The modulations in the synth create something like a melody.
	4. Singular Optimal Control - 5:02 MP3
	This track began with the four bar organ progression. Then I stumbled upon the lead melody while sitting in my bed (an intentionally mixed metaphor). I put a beat together and started experimenting with a random mod CV'd to Scream's Damage Control parameter. I liked what I had so I kept going. You can hear the inspirations for this track in Squarepusher's 'Ultravisitor' and 'Journey to Reedham', though they are clearly much better tracks. The voice sample is a lecture given in MS&E 322 by professor Peter Glynn on singular optimal control problems - hence the title.
	5. Talking (Interlude) - 1:09 MP3
	This song began as a collaboration with Jessica Roberts, Alex Vorse, and Becky Phares. We had a whole song planned, but I ended up just keeping the outtakes of Becky recording violin samples. I really liked the tone of her voice.
	6. At Our Best - 2:57 MP3
	The music for this was originally an electric piano riff and loop I used for an arrangement of an old church hymn. At some point, I added a break, a B section, and an outro. One day I was listening to a talk from Cornel West and thought 'I need to set this to music.' Rather than creating new music, I used this sad, haunting riff I already had. From there, I needed just a touch of EQ on West's voice - that is really how he talks.
	7. Civilization in Transition - 3:07 MP3
	This is a recording of the Stanford Chamber Chorale rehearsing a composition by Megan Miller. Megan never finished her composition, and this is the only audio recording that exists of this piece (other than on her computer). I love hearing the choir director calling out the measure numbers and directing the ensemble.
	8. Backwords - 2:24 MP3
	The music for this piece came from an arrangement of an old Isaac Watts hymn I did a few years ago, and the vocal samples came from the recording that we did of this arrangement. I took the original recorded vocals, sliced them up into separate words, reversed each slice, pitch shifted them, and played with the order of them until I found a melody that I liked. The vocals were provided by Mariel Mueller. For musical inspiration of the second half of this song, listen to Aphex Twin's 'Yellow Calx'. To hear my disturbing arrangement of the original hymn, 'Oh God Our Help in Ages Past', visit www.creaturemusic.com.
	9. Bank Gradons (Outro) - 0:36 MP3
	See description of track one.

My name is Paul Constantine . I am a Ph.D. student in computational math at Stanford University. On the side, I create electronic music with Reason 3.0 and ProTools M-powered. I also play drums with The Riot Squad - a band consisting students from my graduate program. For more info on me, visit ill-conditioned.com. If you are on MySpace, add me as your friend by visiting myspace.com/illconditioned. To contact me, send me an email at ill.conditioned [AT] gmail [DOT] com.