Workday/Schoolnight is my experimental recording project. I play and record all the everything as Workday/Schoolnight. I use Apple's idiot-friendly GarageBand for recording software.
Vocal heavy and categorically hard to describe, this Workday Schoolnight album calls to mind the experimental stylings of early 70s heroes; Brian Eno, David Bowie, Can, and Roxy Music—or at least maybe I'd like to think that some of my influences shine through. No matter if they don't - but I was listening to those bands A LOT when I recorded this, so...
Here's a review from Go Triad in Greensboro, NC. The reviewer starts by referencing my first release, Messages, which can be found in an earlier post:
Bart Trotman's last outing, a unique excursion into the strangely intimate world of found answering machine recordings titled "Messages," succeeded in fusing ambient textures with guerrilla samplings to form a Twilight Zone ready-made of striking proportions: at once entirely familiar and incredibly bizarre. His latest project, going under the name of "Workday Schoolnight," is ostensibly more conventional but no less enjoyable, as this time around the music is the main attraction. The difference of this album from his last is immediately apparent in the way the synthesizer that opens "Calling the Shots" predominates. The synth pulse of several tracks combined with Trotman's dispassionate delivery bring Gary Numan's "Pleasure Principle" to mind (the incessant invocation of the automobile on "SafeCar" doesn't hurt, either). Trotman's synth pop groove is less restrained than Numan's, however, as the backdrop of distorted guitar cartwheels that adorn "Of the End, Too Many" remind. This is not to say that traces of "Messages" aren't present. "The Policeman Said" explicitly recalls his previous project by opening with a grainy sample of an anonymous voice repeating a dispassionate reminder about when to acquire our "value-added data." But what seems like a "Messages" outtake quickly changes directions as an endlessly looping marimba part and Trotman's hushed vocals come to the fore. Ultimately less a departure than an extension of his previous work, "Workday Schoolnight" is a thoroughly engaging outing and worth the attention of anyone interested in music -- local, electronic, or otherwise. Contact Daniel McMillan at daniel. soundadvice@gmail.com.
Tracks:
1. Calling the Shots
2. Of the End, Too Many
3. SafeCar
4. the time it takes to read
5. Years on Years
6. the PoliceMan Said
7. Golden Raindrops
To buy a copy of Workday Schoolnight, go here
or search for it on iTunes
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