Album of the Week #3: ...Libra 971

Project name: NueroMud
Album name: ...Libra 971
Release date: October 18, 1994
Release format: cassette
Studio name: Circle IX Studio

Tracks:
1. Shut Up!
2. Can't Climb Out
3. A Dreamworld
4. Brittle Side Bones in Your Eyes
5. Dusk Channel
6. Pathos
7. M45/NGC1432
8. Up in Wind
9. Pedestal Song
10. Celluxism
11. Dead Clown
12. For All Sheep (Pt III)
13. Chaos of the Credit Fix
14. Grave
15. Stormfrunte
16. Remembered for Living
17. September's
18. Air
19. Jhwy

This was the first NueroMud album released. NueroMud was a project for music that did not quite fit into the Mune Mud or NueroMorgue styles. It was the "strange" music that often had to do with astronomy or astrology. The above scan shows the track list that was used to figure out the order of the songs. The final order was slightly different than what is shown on the scan.

This album, as would the second NueroMud album, had a real limited release. But it did make it somewhere that no other Metal XOR album has. Jason had applied as an intern to a local radio station and this album was used as part of his "portfolio". So his music was at a radio station for a while. Side note: he did not get the job.

This was recorded at the time when the Studio was known as Circle IX Studio. It was the Studio located at Jason's parents' house.

There were a lot of experiments in sound and recording on this album. A lot of background sounds or sound effects were used to create sounds previously unheard at the Studio.

A few of the songs worth mentioning:

The opening track, "Shut Up!", was actually a faster version of the song "Hush" that appeared on the NueroMorgue EP E. Phantasmata.

"Pedestal Song" featured guest vocalist Jimmy in what was one of his earliest contributions to the Studio. This is what led to the project ORC (with Jason and Jimmy) that released their own album in 1999.

"Stormfrunte" was inspired as a mean-looking storm approached the Studio. As the strong winds and heavy rain arrived, the song was recorded and named.

The tape jacket was mostly done on a computer. The symbol on the front is, of course, the zodiac symbol for Libra. And have you ever wondered why every song has its running time listed except "Grave", it just lists (x:xx)? It is because the inside of the cover was typed up away from the Studio and the running times were not known. So every song had the (x:xx) placeholder. When the times were added to the cover at a later date, "Grave" was accidentally overlooked and it was not noticed until after the album was released.

And what exactly does ...Libra 971 mean? Jason was born on October 9, 1971. The sign for October is Libra and 971 is the 9th of '71. So the album title is actually Jason's birthday. The scan below (from September 6, 1994) shows various phrases that were considered for the album title. Moonless Voyage was the working title for quite some time, then it was changed to ...Libra 971 at the last minute. Also notice the sketch of the Libra symbol in the upper-left corner. That became the front of the album cover.

This was the first of only two NueroMud albums. Their 10th Anniversaries were missed, but there are still plans to re-release the albums on CD some time in the future. There were several unused tracks recorded too, so there will probably also be bonus tracks on those CD's. There was an effort several years ago to re-record each song on this album in a different version and release the songs on a CD, but only a few songs were finished and the project was abandoned.


Next week's Album of the Week: Nine Days Wonder by NueroMud from 1995.