The Lost Instrumentals
Analysis of the instrumental/demo tracks recovered from SoundCloud (albert-liberto account) and other sources. These represent Ray’s solo creative period — ideas that were meant to become full songs but never got the chance.
Many of these tracks also appear on the Flabby Wings compilation (18 tracks, 64.8 min, 8.9 n/s avg).
Overview
| Stat | Instrumentals | All Projects Avg |
|---|---|---|
| Tracks | 45+ | 439 total catalog |
| Total duration | 160.4 min | 1,250 min |
| Avg density | 6.9 n/s | 6.9 n/s |
| Top key | D | E (full catalog) |
The instrumentals are a significant chunk of the catalog. 2.5+ hours of unreleased material. These aren’t throwaway sketches — many are fully developed 4-5 minute compositions.
What’s Different About These
1. The Key Center Shifted
The instrumentals are centered on D and G rather than the usual E. This is significant — D is the 4th string open, not the 6th. It suggests you were writing from a different starting position on the neck, possibly exploring more mid-range voicings rather than your usual bottom-string power chord foundation.
More notably, A# and D# are FAR more prominent in the instrumentals than in any released album. These are the “weird” notes — the ones that don’t fit neatly into standard open-string keys. Without the pressure of fitting vocals or meeting a band’s expectations, you were exploring more chromatic territory.
2. The Density Spectrum Is Wider
The instrumentals range from 1.4 n/s (D.A.F.F.Y.) to 17.2 n/s (Indefinite Diagnosis). That’s a far wider range than any album. Some of these are practically ambient, while others are the most frenetic things you’ve ever recorded.
3. The Outlier Tracks
The Dense Ones (>12 n/s) — things that could have been albums:
- Indefinite Diagnosis (17.2 n/s, 216 BPM) — your densest recording EVER, beating even Eat Shit City
- Miserable Nostalgia (15.1 n/s, 219 BPM) — almost as dense, nearly as fast
- Movement 2 (14.8 n/s, 3.0 min) — longest of the ultra-dense tracks
- Manic Depression (13.8 n/s, 3.3 min) — has vocals (demo), dense and driving
These four tracks alone represent a direction you never released — something denser and more aggressive than even Anyone But Hindenburg. If you’d kept going, this might have been the next Le Rug album’s territory.
The Sparse Ones (<3 n/s) — the other side:
- D.A.F.F.Y. (1.4 n/s, 132 BPM) — your slowest, sparsest recording in the entire catalog. At 132 BPM, this is 60+ BPM slower than your usual. Completely unique in your output. This is almost ambient music.
- Gun Cows (2.8 n/s, 165 BPM) — sparse and slow, another outlier
- New Puritans (3.2 n/s, 168 BPM) — the title is a reference to post-punk (The Fall’s label was on Rough Trade alongside Wire, etc.). Fittingly, this sounds like your most post-punk recording by the numbers.
The Long Ones (potential albums tracks):
- Fanfare (5.6 min, 223 BPM) — your fastest tempo EVER and one of the longest instrumentals
- What You Deserve (4.9 min, has vocals) — a complete song waiting for finishing
- Jumbled Burst (4.8 min, 10.3 n/s) — dense and long, album-ready density
- Forcing The Issue (5.1 min) — your second longest instrumental
- Filthy Coat (4.2 min, 9.0 n/s) — right in the Anyone But Hindenburg density range
The Unreleased Album That Could Have Been
If you were to compile these into a theoretical “lost album,” the strongest candidates based on density, length, and completeness:
- Indefinite Diagnosis — the statement opener
- Filthy Coat — mid-tempo anchor
- Jumbled Burst — the epic
- Miserable Nostalgia — intensity peak
- Troglodyte Replica — the title alone
- Oval Moon — mid-range groove
- Movement 2 — the dense closer
- D.A.F.F.Y. — the curveball breather (your “Conorlude” equivalent)
Plus the vocal demos: Manic Depression, What You Deserve, Don’t Die On Me, Red Light Yellow Light — four songs that are already partway to finished.
What This Tells Us About Your Trajectory
The instrumentals show you were moving in two directions simultaneously:
- Denser and faster — Indefinite Diagnosis at 17.2 n/s is nearly double your studio album peak
- Sparser and slower — D.A.F.F.Y. and Gun Cows explore territory you never released
If you’d continued, the next Le Rug record might have been the most dynamic thing you’d made — alternating between ambient-sparse passages and ultra-dense walls of sound. The ingredients were all there.