''Gravity's Rim'' is the fifth studio album by the American

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

band

Vampire Rodents Vampire Rodents was a sound collage and experimental music ensemble based out of Phoenix, Arizona, although its core members originally came from Canada. The creative nucleus of the project comprised vocalist and composer Daniel Vahnke and keybo ...

, released on May 14, 1996, by

Fifth Colvmn Records Fifth Colvmn Records was a record label based in Washington, DC. The label was founded in 1990 by Zalman Fishman, owner of the nightclub FIFTH COLVMN, located in Washington D.C. The label's first release was Chemlab's debut EP Ten Ton Pressure. J ...

Music and lyrics

''Gravity's Rim'' returns to the pop format of the band's earlier albums as well as a more jazz oriented sound similar to Daniel Vahnke's Ether Bunny project. There are fewer guest vocalists compared to the previous album, with the focus shifting back to Vahnke's vocals and lyrics. Former collaborators contributed their vocals to the music, including

Maria Azevedo Maria Azevedo is an American musician based in San Francisco, best recognized as the lead vocalist of the 1990s electro-industrial outfits Battery and Ivoux. She also collaborated with Deathline Int'l., Razor Skyline and Vampire Rodents. Biogr ...

Boom chr Paige Society Burning is an American coldwave industrial rock band composed of Daveoramma (born Dave Mansfield, aka Dave Creadeau), Twitch, and Boom chr Paige (born Boom Fernandez). The group was founded in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1991 and was orig ...

Dave Creadeau Society Burning is an American coldwave industrial rock band composed of Daveoramma (born Dave Mansfield, aka Dave Creadeau), Twitch, and Boom chr Paige (born Boom Fernandez). The group was founded in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1991 and was ori ...

, Mark Edwards and Jared Louche.

Spahn Ranch Spahn Ranch, also known as the Spahn Movie Ranch, was a 55-acre (22.3 ha) movie ranch in Los Angeles, California. For a period it was used as a ranch, dairy farm and later movie set during the era of westerns. After a decline in use for filming b ...

vocalist

Athan Maroulis Athanasios Demetrios Maroulis (born September 22, 1964) is an actor, vocalist and record producer born in Brooklyn, New York. He is the older brother of singer Constantine Maroulis and also has a sister, Anastasia. Athan Maroulis formed the New Yo ...

also contributed vocals to four songs. Daniel was so pleased with Maria Azevedo's contributions that he considered starting a separate project with her band Battery.

Release and reception

Despite being listed on the back cover, the track "Smartass" was left off due to the label being ready to press the record before the mastering process had been completed.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

critic Amy Hanson gave it three out of five stars, calling it "a triumph" and a "remarkable assimilation of sound, sonics, and scope" ''Aiding & Abetting'' gave it a positive review, saying "Vahnke has managed to vary his beat work even more (perhaps inspired by his recent Ether Bunny project), making the songs even more intriguing." ''Black Monday Magazine'' gave it a positive review as well, noting that "all the classic Rodentia elements are found: heavy beats, cellos, guitar, and it’s chock full of exotic sampling."Gair. "Vampire Rodents: Gravity's Rim". ''Black Monday Magazine'', cited August 26, 2010

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the ''Gravity's Rim'' liner notes. Vampire Rodents *

Andrea Akastia Vampire Rodents was a sound collage and experimental music ensemble based out of Phoenix, Arizona, although its core members originally came from Canada. The creative nucleus of the project comprised vocalist and composer Daniel Vahnke and keybo ...

–

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

Daniel Vahnke Daniel Vahnke (born April 2, 1965), sometimes credited as Anton Rathausen, is a Canadian composer and lyricist. He is best known as a co-founding member of Vampire Rodents, a band that integrated elements of classical, ambient, and industrial mus ...

(as Anton Rathausen) – sampler,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of th ...

(2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 20) * Victor Wulf –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

, organ Additional musicians *

–

(5, 11) * Chase –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, loops *

– lead vocals (24) * Mark Edwards – lead vocals (22) * Jared Louche – lead vocals (3, 9) *

– lead vocals (1, 7, 13, 16) *

– lead vocals (24) Production * Judson Leach – mastering, mixing

Release history

References

External links

''Gravity's Rim''
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

''Gravity's Rim''
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

(list of releases) {{Authority control 1996 albums Vampire Rodents albums Fifth Colvmn Records albums