The albums on this page are currently out-of-print as compact discs, but I made them available here for you to download at no cost. Please see the download links below.
While My Guitar Gently Annihilates: Electric Improvisations by Matthew Howard.
75 minutes, 13 tracks
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE MP3 ALBUM PLUS THE ALBUM ART AS A ZIP FILE.
While My Guitar Gently Annihilates is a seven-year sonic journal of the quest to play the ultimate mind-bending guitar solo. These improvisations ignore conventional song structures. They employ drones, soundscapes, and layered guitars through a loop pedal. This album appeals to fans of heavy, progressive, and post-rock.
Sample Tracks:
Kipp’s on Register One contains samples of my bassist buddy Kipp Koren, who also sampled me for his original tunes. We rocked this one on stage a bunch of times with various drummers. It starts out pretty then takes off.
The Wind and the Steam Train is an extended guitar solo improvised with a looper. It borrows the basic melody of Jethro Tull’s Locomotive Breath, against a slow reggae beat. This was fun to do on stage and see just how much weirder I could make it each time.
Seven Crescents: Instrumentals and Guitar Solos by Matthew Howard.
73 minutes, 17 tracks
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE MP3 ALBUM PLUS THE ALBUM ART AS A ZIP FILE.
Seven Crescents’ hard-rock tracks show progressive and experimental influences such as odd time signatures and exotic scales, slide guitar, and two-handed tapping with electronic effects and a loop pedal. These recordings span five years of performing, recording, and jamming with friends.
Sample Tracks:
Anima is a short solo piece I composed while learning two-handed tapping from Joe Satriani transcriptions. It’s pretty.
D-Type Planet is where my jam buddy John Meloy liked to say I lived. This improvised solo on my Wechter Pathmaker is in a variation of open-D tuning to prove him right.
Tadpoles is an open-tuned acoustic jam composed on a trip to Flagstaff, Arizona. For this version, I added a fretless bass, multiple acoustic and electric guitar overdubs, and backwards recording.
Country Hate Machine: The Lost Years by Matthew Howard.
67 minutes, 20 tracks
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE MP3 ALBUM PLUS THE ALBUM BOOKLET AS A ZIP FILE.
Country Hate Machine began as a side-project to record hillbilly versions of songs by Nine Inch Nails, but it became so much more. This album’s 20 tracks represent 20 years of acoustic performances captured in concert and informal settings with friends. They contain strong language and adult subject matter, and they might be inappropriate for children or any other form of mammalian life. Consider yourself warned.
In Search of the Monster Riff: Remix Experiments by Matthew Howard
15 minutes, 3 tracks
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE MP3 ALBUM PLUS THE ALBUM ART AS A ZIP FILE.
The three audio collages created for In Search of the Monster Riff are comprised of song samples chopped up, layered, and re-arranged using only the free software Audacity. The result is a brutal barrage of drum fills, guitar riffs, screaming, unforgettable lines, and more madness than you can possibly imagine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Kado Jones Project, featuring Matthew Howard.
3 tracks, 12 minutes
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE MP3 ALBUM PLUS THE ALBUM ART AS A ZIP FILE.
My bassist buddy Kipp “Kado Jones” Koren and I took turns sampling each other to create new tracks and push our creative ideas even further. We performed together on stage many times with a revolving cast of musical characters who kept things fun and occasionally blew our minds. The three tracks presented here were easy stuff for me. All I needed to do was show up, plug in, and play my ass off. Kipp did everything else, from production and keyboards to mixing and arranging.
Sometimes, people took pictures.
Mars Will Send No More 