The Black Tar Cafe Demos

by Robert Ferent

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Black Tar Cafe Demos, 2500, Vermilion Sky, Secret Ghosts, Titian Delusion, Binary Signals, Blood Perfect, We All Fall, and 6 more. , and , .
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1.	* (Demo) 01:24	buy track
2.	Black Tar Cafe (Demo) 06:24	buy track
3.	Everything / Nothing (Demo) 02:48	buy track
4.	Rabbit Hole (Introspection) (Demo) 02:46	buy track
5.	Where Walls Climb You (Demo) 03:37	buy track
6.	Nag (Demo) 02:18	buy track
7.	Circulation (Demo) 03:36	buy track
8.	The Cracks Are Starting To Show (Demo) 06:02	buy track
9.	Numb (Chemically) (Demo) 05:13	buy track
10.	Mantra (Demo) 04:56	buy track
11.	Displace (Demo) 06:42	buy track

about

After I had completed "Vermilion Sky", I began work on what was going to become the follow up album. I wanted to try to create the feeling of deep introspection, especially the kind induced by things like depression, anxiety, and drug addiction. The title came to me before any of the tracks, "Black Tar Cafe".

Like many people who suffer with mental health issues, I degraded significantly during the 4 year tyranny of 45. My creativity was dead, as was most desire to do much of anything beyond breathe and sleep. The album demos, which had sat in a very unfinished and incomplete state for a while to begin with, got shoved to the side and remained untouched.

Then 2021 broke. Nothing was perfect, but things were looking better. Some hope returned, as did some of my will to exist. I pulled up the demos and began tweaking and twisting, cutting and scratching, and splashing distortion... ripping out parts that were originally softer piano type bits and squeezing in far harsher static abrasiveness... things were finally moving in the right direction.

Alas, my computer decided it had other plans for "Black Tar Cafe", and the bulk of my master files from 20+ years of creative output, and in a flash decided to fail hard and take everything with it. "Black Tar Cafe" now was lost to time. So, I said "Fuck It", and essentially gave up. Boo hoo/woe is me.

Then, I found it. For whatever reason, I had a version of "Black Tar Cafe" on a USB stick. The songs were rendered WAVs, they were demos (and not even the most recent ones that were made), and they featured tracks that were much shorter and emptier than their finished versions would have been. After speaking with some friends recently, I decided to say "Fuck It" again and release these demos rather than let fate win and toss it all away into oblivion forever.

This is not what "Black Tar Cafe" was meant to be, but it's all that remains of the recordings. Better than nothing (I hope).

I hope you find some enjoyment in these tracks, and I hope some of what I was trying to convey comes through.

-Robert

credits

released June 11, 2022

R. Ferent: Existential Dread, Anxiety Arrangements, Noise, Disappointment

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Robert Ferent Weymouth, Massachusetts

Musician, Photographer, Artist, Whatever.

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