Program with caution

The power of technology to suck the very life out of a piece of music (at least, one that relies heavily on its emotionally charged nature) should not be underestimated.  The drums in "Escapade" illustrate this starkly.  Replacing the programmed percussion with a human player already makes me far less inclined to lose focus while listening to the track in progress - despite the fact that, on the face of it, the parts are almost identical!  I suspect that the difference is only perceptible on a subconscious level, but this only serves to illustrate the power of the subconscious.

I do find it appropriate to be thinking about this in the context of an album whose central theme (to the extent that it has one) is the layered nature of the mind...