Conspiracies & Racketeering was released in 2000, during my first year in college.

Here I've included the entire album (except for an extra intro to Papparucha that originally was a seamless transition which is harder to control here with this widget). Click the little "Lyrics" button for some commentary about each piece (as originally included in the liner notes).

In 1999, just before entering college, I invested in equipment to do computer-based home-studio recording. I could now record my own guitar, Stick, percussion, vocals, etc. along with the MIDI sounds I'd been using. I also learned about the whole range of complex audio effects that are possible with modern technology. I studied mixing and producing, experimented a lot, and read recording magazines and books.

I explored a large range of styles and ideas, and started to write songs with lyrics and more standard structure as compared to solely instrumental compositions. I learned a lot about modern audio editing in the course of fixing my own timing mistakes and pitch and other issues. In many ways, I was doing similar manipulations as I had previously done with MIDI alone, but I was applying that to recorded audio. None of this was designed for live performance. I'm not happy with all of the performances, but I think the pieces are unique and intriguing enough to share. I don't know if I'll ever get to my dream of re-doing any of this or other older material.

The pieces from this album include blues, funk, jazz, techno, rock, experimental (such as a piece using only sounds of paper, pencil, and pen), and even rap. I had some friends add some extra parts, and one friend did the bulk of the lyric writing. The title comes from a lyric he wrote that was never used.

Around this time, the internet was just becoming mature enough to share music online. I signed up for mp3.com, which at the time was the premier site for sharing one's original music (it later shut down and is now something totally different). Through mp3.com, I produced a third album, and sold a decent number of CDs. The production quality was better than my first album and required less up-front investment than the bulk manufacturing I had done with the second. However, when mp3.com shut down, I had no quick way to continue publishing the album. No copies of this CD are available currently.