Songs About My Cats is a 2001 glitchcore album by Venetian Snares

Venetian Snares

Venetian Snares is the main performing alias of Canadian electronic musician Aaron Funk .From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Funk is known for making electronic music often in odd numbered time signatures...

. It is also his first solo album on the Planet Mu

Planet Mu

Planet Mu is an electronic music record label run by Mike Paradinas . It was based in Worcester until March 2007, then moved to London and has recently relocated to Broadstairs, Kent...

 label (Making Orange Things

Making Orange Things

Making Orange Things is a 2001 noise/speedcore album by Venetian Snares and Speedranch. This is also Venetian Snares' first album on Mike Paradinas' Planet Mu label.The entire album was produced over the instant messaging client ICQ...

, released barely one month prior to Songs About My Cats on Planet Mu, was a collaboration with Speedranch).

The album features influence from many separate styles. The most prominent influence is ambient music

Ambient music

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...

, however, certain songs also show influence from jazz music, such as "Pouncelciot", which uses samples from an improvisation by Anthony Braxton, and even influence from classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 and salsa music

Salsa music

Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...

 appear on the album.

Both "Katzesorge" tracks are identical except that the second has a drone akin to a cat's purr in the background for most of the song.

Many tracks contain cat-related samples, including the Meow Mix

Meow Mix

Meow Mix is a variety of dry and wet cat food known for its advertising jingle. It is a product of Del Monte Foods.-Company background:The Meow Mix Company operates from a facility in Decatur, Alabama, and also produces Alley Cat brand cat food products. Originally a product of Ralston Purina,...

 jingle. Other tracks contain other cat references in their titles. Chinaski, Kakarookee, Fluff Master, and Bobo are all cats that have belonged to Funk at one point or another. Nepetalactone

Nepetalactone

Nepetalactone is an organic compound, first isolated from the plant catnip , which acts as a cat attractant. Nepetalactone is bicyclic terpenoid, i.e., it is a ten-carbon compound derived from isoprene with two fused rings, a cyclopentane and a lactone. The structure and the effects of the compound...

 is a chemical found in catnip. Bertha Rand was the infamous "cat lady" of Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Funk's hometown. The final track, "Look", consists of what sounds like filtered static, that reveals several pictures of Funk's cats when put through a spectrogram

Spectrogram

A spectrogram is a time-varying spectral representation that shows how the spectral density of a signal varies with time. Also known as spectral waterfalls, sonograms, voiceprints, or voicegrams, spectrograms are used to identify phonetic sounds, to analyse the cries of animals; they were also...

 program. http://www.bastwood.com/aphex.php

CD

1. "Chinaski" – 4:21 (33/8)
2. "Katzesorge Part 1" – 0:51
3. "Nepetalactone
   Nepetalactone
   Nepetalactone is an organic compound, first isolated from the plant catnip , which acts as a cat attractant. Nepetalactone is bicyclic terpenoid, i.e., it is a ten-carbon compound derived from isoprene with two fused rings, a cyclopentane and a lactone. The structure and the effects of the compound...
   
   " – 4:27 (9/4+17/4)
4. "Poor Kakarookee" – 6:04 (10/4)
5. "For Bertha Rand" – 2:08 (10/4)
6. "Breakfast Time for Baboons" – 3:24 (10/4)
7. "Fluff Master" – 6:12 (11/4)
8. "Bobo" – 3:56 (11/4)
9. "Katzesorge Part 2" – 0:51
10. "Pouncelciot" – 3:10 (15/4)
11. "Kakenrooken Stivlobits" – 4:43 (89/8+7/8+21/8+5/4)
12. "Lioness" – 2:04 (7/4)
13. "Cleaning Each Other" – 3:51 (35/8+9/8+11/8+21/8+11/4)
14. "Look" – 0:31

Vinyl

Side A

1. "Poor Kakarookee" – 6:04 (10/4)
2. "Pouncelciot" – 3:10 (15/4)
3. "Nepetalactone" – 4:27 (9/4+7/4)

Side B

1. "Fluff Master" – 6:12 (11/4)
2. "Bobo" – 3:56 (11/4)
3. "Chinaski" – 4:21 (33/8)

External links

• Official release page