Congratulations!  You are the proud recipient of "In Our Country"...six new
and exciting tunes from the Crimson Twins who, more often than not, appear in
the guise of Peter Kreutlein and Randy Stack.  The songs - "CT go West...",
"CT Scenes", "CT Shanty", "...CT at Rest", "CT Trouble" and "CT Reprise" -
were designed to be played on Roland's Sound Brush/Canvas combination...
although any sequencer that can read Standard MIDI File Format 0 and any
GS-compatible synthesizer will do just fine.  The "GS" part is important,
since we make use of many of the controller mappings and alternate voices/
effects only available on instruments conforming to Roland's GS standard.

It's been quite a long time since we left our country (about ten years...
although I believe Peter's been back to visit since then), but our lasting
impressions provide us with constant inspiration for the Crimson Twins' music.
We'll keep writing as memory serves.  But for now...

"CT go West..." is a joyful tribute to the cultural diversity of our land.
Those of you who knew us back in our "if God had played the trombone once, it
would have sounded much like this" Blues Resolution days know that we used to
include complimentary sticks of clove chewing gum to go with our music.
This proved to be surprisingly unpopular.  Gum is a good thing...as is floss.
Scissors and glue are not as good yet equally useful.  Warm but fluffy ice
cream is not bad.  Too much aspirin (an analog sound) can make you sick.
These are the sorts of wondrous things we encounter in our many travels.
We tried to provide a glimpse of our culture beyond the music, but alas,
it went unappreciated.  We received scathing reviews, such as: "By the way -
thanks, but no thanks for the clove chewing gum." [Music Technology, January
1990, p49]  Nobody wrote and said, "Hey...gum! Thanks!"  Well, that's it.
No more gum from us.  From now on, you just get the music. 

"CT Scenes" offers a look at the mildly chaotic existence we enjoy from day
to day.  I was walking through Palm Court amidst the perpetual festivities.
I had just recently left The Room Where The Conversation Was on a quest to
refill my gravy boat with java.  I knocked on a door.  Two older gentlemen
answered, adorned in large blue foam-rubber cockroach costumes.  One was
holding a full carafe of freshly-brewed coffee, and the other a recently
filled styrofoam cup.  "Hello, Bugmen," I queried, "Do you have any coffee
in there?"  They looked at each other, and then at me, and replied, "Nope,
sorry, you'll have to go next door."  I left.  My life was forever changed.

"CT Shanty" is a typical scene from our country.  Complete this sentence:
"While driving through the wilds of the Antare mountains, Groggy Roger
suddenly fell into a deep..." - no - on second thought, imagine yourself
arriving in our land by ship.  After a long and arduous journey through
stormy seas, you reach port with the sun shining and birds chirping.  As
you make your way onto land, you are suddenly accosted by Peter and myself
wildly playing M'bira and Concertina (respectively...although we have no
earthly idea where the conga player came from).  You try to run away, but
we are just too darn agile, catching up with you at every turn.  Finally,
as if struck by a sudden burst of combined frustration and inspiration,
you offer us money.  We thank you heartily and go off to buy doughnuts.

"...CT at Rest" provides the backdrop for the latest CT dance craze.  It's
easy and fun, and doesn't require a great deal of effort.  All you have to do
is stand there and wait for the 13/4 measure to come around.  Then, when you
hear the high resonant feedback sound come in, grit your teeth and tilt your
head back as faaaar as it will go.  That's it!  You're dancing!  Simple, huh?
I tried this once, but Peter, in a fit of crisis, took away my shoes.  Before
I could object, he handed them back to me...but they were somehow changed.
"Damn you Peter Kreutlein," I exclaimed, "Damn you and all your crises.  Damn
you Peter Kreutlein, they'll never be the same.  They were different, but now
they'll never be the same."  He wholly agreed, wrapped himself up in a blanket,
and ignored me for the rest of the evening, leaving me to ponder this question:
Can you disguise yourself so well that no one can tell it isn't you?

"CT Trouble" represents yet another a significant breakthrough for CT Labs: a
song that's fundamentally in 4/4 time!  Granted, this won't win the Kreutlein
Research Award for Extreme Cleverness, but it does serve to bring to light some
of our misplaced prejudices with regard to CT's music.  Misplaced prejudices,
however, are but the least of our concerns stemming from this composition.
To quote Peter: "As near as I can figure, we've managed to misplace several
tables, two coffee machines - which I really got upset about - and, just last
week, I had the greatest difficulty finding my car."  The car was, in fact,
eventually found serving as a support for the left side of a table at CT Labs.
Apparently, the table legs were misplaced several weeks earlier when they were
removed in order to illustrate a point in a discussion on the indeterminacy
of miraculous intervention.  The subsequent successful resolution of this
discussion cost the life of a perfectly good Fairlight CMI Series IIx.

Finally, "CT Reprise" is a simple but happy tune to bring things to a close.

What more can be said?  Well, now that you ask...

Special thanks to Roland for the splendid little Sound Brush & Sound Canvas
boxes, Roger Powell for his Texture sequencer, Don Buchla for his wonderful
controllers (Lightning & Thunder), Casio for their strangely versatile DH-1
Digital Horn, Krups and Gevalia for excellent espresso, and, as always, the
Bugmen for their constant inspiration.

CT strongly believe that music is not so much a commodity as it is a tool
that shapes our culture.  That's why we're releasing our music in the form
of MIDI sequences - a medium easily transferred via networks throughout our
virtual world - and encourage others to do the same with their own music.
Feel free to share these songs with others, either in the form of sequences
or audio recordings.  If you upload "In Our Country" to a network or BBS,
please be sure to "zip-up" this text file along with the six sequence files.

If you feel any compulsion to write us, our internet e-mail addresses are
"RandyStack@aol.com" and "peterk@odyssee.net" respectively. In return, you'll
get the profound satisfaction of knowing you've brought a glimmer of joy into
our somewhat peculiar lives.  And remember...in these days of ever-increasing
complexity, it's nice to find two musicians who look so much alike!
