Modern Art and more

Chronicles of a Dead End is a prog album.  I wasn't 100% sure of that going in, but the fact that the bassist and the guitarist both commented (approvingly) on the prog feel detectable in "Days to Midnight" left me in no doubt.

It would be an exaggeration to say that you can't have a prog album without an acoustic guitar instrumental serving as a relaxed intermezzo of sorts.  Nonetheless, there's a reason why it's a common choice, either as a pure acoustic guitar track or a band instrumental with acoustic guitar as the lead instrument.  Furthermore, "Modern Art" seems almost tailored to be adapted into the latter, as there's no guitar at all in the backing instruments - just piano, bass, drums and (in the Escapade version) various goofy synthesizer effects.

Needless to say, the version on the main album will not feature those!  It turned out to be surprisingly straightforward to transcribe the basic accompaniment of the Escapade version and adapt it to the calmer structure of the Escapade 2 version.  Accordingly, the Chronicles version will restore the piece to its original key of E minor.  This also opens the intriguing possibility of making two separate mixes of this track: the "normal" version on the main album, and a special "Goof Attack Remix" restoring the weird synthesizer passages as a bonus track.

Another possibility for a bonus track is a new version of "March for the Age".  I know I said before that it's not a very substantial composition, and it certainly made for a poor opener on both Escapades.  But during some "Faraway Island"-related downtime, I experimented a bit, and I ended up feeling that taken on its own terms it works quite well as a synthesizer showcase.  (I recreated the rumbling fade-in by slowing down the roar of an industrial-grade dehumidifier, and was amused to notice that you can't spell "dehumidifier" without "MIDI".)  No, I wouldn't say that "March for the Age" or the original "Modern Art" is conventionally good music, but they're essentially harmless, and I'd say they're both part of the Escapade mythos.

I also considered a version of "After the Party", but decided against it.  There is salvageable material in the song (its chord changes are conveniently similar to the "Escapes"), but as an entity in itself, it's too deeply rooted in crushing futility for comfort.  Moreover, I knew for sure I'd goofed up with that song when I ended up making another Asia-related comparison in my head: "Nothing's Forever" is a track on their (shockingly good) 2008 reunion album Phoenix, and makes my basic point (which is exactly what the Asia song title suggests) in a way that is neither depressing nor dull.  So, um, I'm going to stick with my first idea of cannibalizing elements of "After the Party" to flesh out the "Escapes".