The author was kicked out of high school, then graduated top of his class, & proceeded into an infamous existence. From working class digging ditches in North-east New Jersey, to saving lives as a counselor, & inspiring lives teaching high school English. After thousands of hours researching history, literature, philosophy & religion . . . This book is a cumulative exposition of knowledge & experience reflecting the harsh absurdity of our times—turning darkness into light.
Anthony is a musician/guitarist, performing in bands, including the Earthman band, Gandalf Lebowski & the international Giant Enemy Cancer Cult, & formerly of the legendary Fellowship of the Ring projects. Influences & styles range from Jazz, Rock, Funk, Prog, Blues, Classical & Avant Garde with the radical & disturbing improvisations of Giant Enemy Cancer Cult.
Solo albums such as Atlantis to Zardoz & Tolkien’s The Epic of Beren & Luthien, with an entire series set to follow, available on: Band- camp.com under FOXTROTSKY OMEGA.
Link: Music | FOXTROTSKY OMEGA (bandcamp.com) Atlantis To Zardoz is the first of a series of experimental albums consisting of instrumental compositions which fuse genres & disintegrate boundaries of conventional expectation—to lend the ear an absurd 356positive Zen experience: of unexpected organic & geometric changes, shifting mystic journeys, of impressionistic sound melody rhythm and color. This recording conveys aesthetics of melodic exposition and unconventional voicings, such as a Medieval-Jazz expressionism, as well as influences of Progressive Rock, Psychedelia, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, Zappa, Jeff Beck, John McLaughlin, Stravinsky, Blues, Metal, Classical, Folk, Sci-fi & the intrinsic Avant-Garde pursuit to play with these forms and transcend into unique pieces unheard before through a constant modulation spanning poly-rhthyms & poly-tonality.
Working with the group Giant Enemy Cancer Cult also contributes an inspired influence (after 200 hours of sessions & shows recorded since Covid) due to its modus operandi of composing purely in the moment, creating inspired & ever evolving new creations (warning: this is painfully radical Post-punk Freak-Jazz. Not for the faint of heart!!!) . . . This contrasts with the original soulful song writing conveyed through the epic funk & rock of the Earthman Band, currently performing (1st album: Let Your Freedom Ring, out shortly, with Paradise Fire to follow). Whereas much of Atlantis to Zardoz is in a clean crystalline heavy tone—pleasant to the tranquil—while jettisoned into flights of strange & curious explorations of sonic myths & warping vivid distortions for the imagination to play in . . .
Some call it purgatorial in its perverse twists from beauty to the daily angst of American pain—the post-2020 surreal grit of pandemic lockdowns & socio-political hysteria & devolution, the stark consequen- tial perversity of polarization . . . This music destroys illusion as we know it. A dance of Shiva. Its subversive vibrations are a danger to almost all of what we think is real. Some will vilify it as Madness. Nevertheless, an honest depiction of reality, whilst questing towards the sublime. After visiting The Rocky Mountains, Atlantis to Zardoz was the first thing I recorded as soon as I walked in. The epic cavernous scope of unending articulations, of massive rock sculptured earth—textured pan- oramic mountains, ravines, vast canyons of snow & the detailed chasms and crevices—all resonate in the stories the music tells. Please give these compositions a chance. If you like the electricity of guitars melting in your brain—whilst driving through misty fog as laser-like beams of sun cut through the haze, or while elevating one’s consciousness in between trips to the office . . . from soulful meditations to cranking at maximum volume, these albums are for you.
Regardless, if you’re bored of the mainstream, of the radio & what you’ve heard since a kid, please check it out. These were recorded 357American Fool’s Day while writing & editing the book, and provide a background soundtrack to American Fools Day.
The Epic album “Love Story” of BEREN & LUTHIEN takes the form of unique interpretations, this being the chordal melodic form in mostly solo acoustic composition, neo-classical/Celtic-Medieval— originally created with a psychedelic Post-Progressive Rock band called The Fellowship of the Ring (of New Jersey) . . . Many Legendary performances at theaters, clubs, bars, colleges, amphitheaters, cafes, barns, basements, & the woods.
Musical inspirations on Beren & Luthien include: Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Stravinsky, Bach, Coltrane, Rush, Black Sabbath, King Crimson & The Mahavishnu Orchestra . . . This album is a blueprint/demo of a developing electric SYMPHONY orchestra coming to fruition . . . retells the dark & esoteric tale of the mortal Beren & the elvish Princess Luthien Tinuviel, during the 2nd age of Middle Earth, thousands of years before the Shire & the Rings of Power . . . An alchemical journey of transcendental Mind, & visceral, transformative, Imagination.
The Epic of Tolkien’s Beren & Luthien (Acoustic/Electric Prog Symphony) | FOXTROTSKY OMEGA (bandcamp.com) Why? Why listen to these? (Why Tolkien & Sci-fi Dystopia? Why Progressive-Art Rock? Why Avantgarde Jazz?) This isn’t Rock n Roll, nor Pop, it’s Art. (As all music is a craft, respectfully). This is a vision- ary offering, to provide a medium & vehicle to see the world differently. Even to see guitar as an instrument differently, a unique musical trans- formation. On the one hand, evoking the pure range of what’s possible for the many stringed voices, live through the amplifier, mostly without effects, while provoking sounds of sitar, lute, an orchestra or a Miles Davis quintet. To innovate. Expand. To break patterns and cliches. To stimulate thought. To affect consciousness. As both a meditative, & a mental journey, that is unorthodox, unconventional, but evoking this inventive & serious imaginative landscape, however fun as it is—fun! A maximalist mirth.
This isn’t just a fantasy of psychedelic decadence, but Myth, us- ing structure & form, composing in the moment with intuitive curva- ture, harmonic surprises, of existential frictions & transcending angst. However intellectual, the layers of these vehicles are, this is a raw, visceral sound, pure energy, to be played quiet & relaxed, or blast at maximum volume. Not some overproduced auto-tune. The history 358of the world, the spectrums of our psyche, religions and philosophies, the conflict of good & evil, the fritctions of overcoming our limited or strangling environment, overcoming ourselves, our ego, our neurosis & illustrating the very nature of reality, & the quest for beauty in an im- perfect & dangerous world. Give it a chance & journey. Whether you interpret it as spiritual, mystical or transcendental chaos, this is a bardic seer’s channeled message from the space time continuum. See you there.
