Vanishing Point (available here on iTunes) is a collection of edgy textures and sundry moods, pulsing rhythms and heavy grooves.
Building on his hard rock roots, Thomas Denman has expanded his sonic palette in his first solo instrumental release. Shifting from dense to minimal and rocking to ambient, it traverses the supernatural, time, lifespans of winged insects, indecision, and nostalgia by blending the acoustic with the electronic, and the real with the virtual. Structures vary from rigid and familiar to experimental and decaying, conjuring images of swinging horns, intrigue, a haunted Wild West, the Middle East and beyond. The chopped, glitched, funkadelic and flipped often rub against the twisted, distorted and pitched-shifted, while compositions expand and contract.
Despite the modern methods and electronics employed, a deliberate attempt was made to impress a vintage, off-the-grid analog-recording feel. Tonalities were stretched, and fortunate, random accidents were captured and preserved, as in “Timesweep,” on which raindrops, beating percussively against a window air conditioner, were recorded during a mic’d acoustic guitar performance, and seamlessly tempo-warped into the song.
“Vanishing Point” / Retrograde Motion / Dragonflies / Firestarter / Ghost Town / Intermission / Blue Bells / Believe Me / Time Sweep / Days Past /Think About It / Goodbye
"It's business as usual for a mysterious contract killer in New York City. But with a job like this, there's no such thing as an ordinary night."
The short film “Retrograde Motion,” a Zon Pictures Production shot and edited by Atom Fellows, follows the exploits of a NYC “contractor” (Thomas Denman) on a Saturday night as he deals with his dangerous duties, which take him from the Upper West Side to Chinatown to Hell’s Kitchen. Featuring music from the Thomas Denman digital release “Vanishing Point."
In 2010 I got a MacBook Pro 2.4 Ghz Intel Core i5. With that, and an Avid Eleven Rack (which included a version of ProTools 8 LE), I began experimenting with the world of computer recording. Since I am not yet the world’s best lead vocalist I knew I had to focus on instrumental music; also, while I didn’t want to be purely traditional and organically acoustic, I also didn’t want to be solely electronic - rather, be at the intersection of the two.
By the summer of 2012, and after a switch to Ableton Live 8, I had a collection of material, which was then enhanced and brought up to the highest standard possible, with an ear towards digitally releasing it for public consumption. Thanks to the magical mixing and mastering help of Tor Johnson, by the spring of 2013 “Vanishing Point” was finally finished.
Next, I thought a music video, besides being great fun to make, would be an important ingredient in the release; fortunately, my old friend and longtime collaborator Atom Fellows has been having recent success in the realm of digital video production, and was willing to shoot something for the opening song “Retrograde Motion.” Our original concept had me driving around NYC at night, all arty and atmospheric; however, the resulting footage looked better than we’d anticipated, so we decided to beef the story up a bit, add some “shadow” elements and more actors, and turn it into a seven and a half minute short film. In addition to featuring the song “Retrograde Motion,” the resulting video also features music from the songs “Ghost Town” and “Think About It.” The finished short film “Retrograde Motion” may be found here, and more information, including stills from the shoot, may be found on the film’s Facebook Page.
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