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The Iguanodon Smile Essay Number Six
	Surprised by Recognition
		By Mark Rich Copyright 2003 Mark Rich

  . . . Lately, Martha, Dean, and I have been working on a new sound for Mad Melancholy Monkey Mind.

  New as it is, for Martha and me it feels like a return to the original M4 sound -- the one we tried to create in our kitchen when we recorded Drive . . . which was as much a by-your-bootstraps effort as any to ever come to light, but probably just one of thousands of such kitchen enterprises, musical or otherwise, that sprang into being in the dawning years of the new century.

  What we wanted above all was for M4 to be a rock band. We tried to express this in the CD Drive, but had difficulty expressing it on stage. The money most musicians would have cycled into better sound equipment we had already cycled into recording equipment and materials. It showed. As a seedling band, Martha and I were making do with equipment set-ups that served to get across a seedling sound. We walked and bicycled light-weight apparatus around, and so appeared to the world as a fairly soft-sounding, fairly folksy attempt at a band, and not so much a rock band.

  We played one music in our heads, while a second, different music was emerging from the speakers.

  This never forcibly struck us until recently, when we were in the midst of seeing what kind of sound we could create as a pared-down three-piece.

  . . . We had enjoyed some success as a four- and five-piece unit, one that had a certain amount of rotation in its membership; yet as a four-piece or five-piece, we never reached the point of creating a definite stage sound. No song ever rang so utterly true that listeners would lose themselves in that strange, vibrating place between musician and audience. Whether for reasons of personal or musical differences of outlook, the group never reached the point at which everyone shared a single focus. The music remained good, but diffuse, and never quite rocked.

  When we began exploring the possibilities of a three-piece M4, we were starting to use some better equipment, and were feeling a personal and musical closeness of outlook within the trio.

  Then, as we started pulling songs out of our musical back closet, Martha and I were surprised by a sense of recognition. We recognized our music again. The songs off the CD suddenly took a central place in our song-list again, because those songs were being filled with a spirit that had gone largely missing since the time of their recording.

  While it will take us a while to hone this new and old sound, we are feeling hopeful about this impression we have: that, at long last, we have a definite sound to hone.

  This gratifies us the way a knife will gratify a knife-sharpener.

  Who can sharpen a blade with out one to sharpen, after all?

  The protoplasm of the new three-piece unit presented itself at a recent tavern event, on a damp and chilly day in October. We played the final hour of a long afternoon and evening of music. Our sound, barely formed though it was, earned the band a different reception than any we had received at previous shows. Listeners were paying heed a touch more intently, and responded quickly to both old and new material. We felt a high level of energy during and after the show.

  By the time our first formal show rolls around at the end of November, we should be a bit less protoplasmic. We should have our footing a bit more secure, our energies a bit more focused, and our presentation a bit more precise.

  With any luck, some in the audience may feel what Martha and I did, at hearing M4 in its new state:

  Surprised by recognition.

-- Mark Rich, 7 November '03

Iguanodon Smile Thumbs up!

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