Titan Agronomist Project (TAP) is an instrumental, progressive, sci-fi project from filmmaker (Howl of the Underdogs, The Dragons of Jim Green) and bassist (This is Not an Elephant, Tanertill), Randy M. Salo. The project is based on the life and work of his grandfather, Jim Green. The project combines Salo’s bass stylings with his love for instrumental prog and film scores. Volume 2 features solo vocal and guitar performances from Caro Kelley, Jakub “JD” Dwornicki, Andreas Krebs, and Merwyn Christopher.

The story which the project is based on can be explored in more detail in the feature documentary, The Dragons of Jim Green. Where that film sought to find out the scientific truth behind Jim Green’s claims of an ancient civilization that destroyed itself, the Titan Agronomist Project sets Jim inside of his own story and seeks to retell the stories he told his grandson in a grand, cinematic fashion. In the bonus content, you will receive liner notes which describe what is happening in the story in each song (also listed below).

Watch the documentary Dragons of Jim Green now: youtu.be/oobL6MTjoJg

A story over 35 million years in the making, Volume 2 was written and recorded during 2022, except for parts of the tracks War! (2011), When a Szzrg Loves an Mmm (2011) and The Jackson Sea (2011) with the following gear: Yamaha RBX-JM2, Tech 21 pedals, Mesa Engineering Subway DI, Empress, Darkglass and MXR pedals, 2006 Fender MIM Strat, Ibanez RG, Cubase 12 Pro, Native Instruments and Arturia Keyboards, Nakedboards controllers, plugins from Neural DSP, Soundtoys, Waves, Toontrack, IK Multimedia, Native Instruments, Arturia, u-he, MOTU, Eastwest Composers Cloud, BBE, and Klevgrand.

Special thanks: Monika and Maya, Eva Nöth, my family, the Stengel-Lewis fam, the Pillers, Andreas Krebs, Erdem Engin, Kai Metzner, and Dario Albrecht.

Dedicated to my grandparents (MJG + PLG, RIP).



TRACK DESCRIPTIONS

1. War!
Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 left off, as Jim Green’s battleship approaches Guadalcanal. Air raid sirens ring out as the men are shuttled to the shoreline in transport boats. As Jim’s boat smashes against the waves, him and the other men sit anxiously inside, fearing what may await them on the shore. The sound of distant bombings on the island can be heard. With each approaching explosion Jim begins to see another war raging. One that is happening on an earth-like planet but with flying ships and strange reptilian beings unleashing firepower from weaponry Jim has never seen. Back in realtime, Jim’s unit storms the beach. To their surpise, they are met with silence. As the men make their way into the thick jungle towards their goal, a airfield, they pass cautiously. Meanwhile the battle in Jim’s minds eye is raging. Massive destruction seems to shake the ground as the dinosaur-people seem intent on destroying the whole planet.

2. The Eocene Epoch: Descent to the Core
As Jim’s platoon rests in a grove, his mind takes in an epic race against time many millenia in the past. A rag-tag group of rebels are flying at high speeds into the heart of a giant military base. They fire lazers and rockets at enemy ships aimed to stop them. They are on a suicide mission to reach the core of the base, a reactor which is powering the entire enemies army. Their mission to destroy the core. One by one, the rebels are picked off, their ships smashing hard into the corridors of the massive air shaft. One ship survives in time to reach the great hall where the core pulsates and glows. As the reptilian crew joins hands, nodding a silent command to one another, the ship fires an atomic weapon into the core destroying everything. Meanwhile, back on Guadalcanal, Jim’s platoon is being attacked. The men take cover.

3. A Rather Normal Teenaged Kami Named Szzrgy
35 Million Years ago, during the Eocene Epoch, in what is now Central South Carolina, a strange band of evolved Rhynchocephalians and other humanoid serpents are tuning up their instruments in a beach-side dive bar on the outskirts of a desert town. Bagpipes, sitars and bass-like instruments rumble the walls of the old place. Outside, on the distant horizon, a green haze is forming. A young Kami-reptilian teenager (120 years old), Szzrgy lies daydreaming in his farmhouse bed. His father outside tilling the soil of “Little Gray Farms”, is oblivious to the omnious green clouds forming in the distance. Szzrgy is thinking about the death of his mother many years ago during the 3-way war. A victim of a terror attack, today would have been her birthday. Szzrgy’s father whistles and chirps from outside (these saurians speak through their sinus cavities) and Szzrg suddenly realizes he is late for work. Quickly freshening up at his mothers vanity, he notices the ring on his small middle finger, of which he only has three. His kind is small. 2 feet tall by todays measurements. Gray toad-like skin. Giant eyes with no lids. After a moment of faraway thought he bounds out of the house to his hovercraft. His father calls after him to talk about planting grass (Szzrgy is studying Agronomy at the local school), but he has no time. Off he flies, catching up with his friend Orgh, a hadron mountain giant, the kind that were a part of the war. The two race one another down an irrigation canal. The loud speakers inside the canal begin to sound the alarm. It is illegal to trespass, but it’s the fastest way to get to work. As Szzrgy looks over his shoulder for potential security forces, he notices the peculiar glowing green cloud on the horizon. Strange that no security forces have begun to chase them. He arrives at the beach bar to start his shift just as the local dance band begins to start playing.

4. When a Szzrg loves an Mmm
Jim lies against a stump under the cover of the trees. He clutches his rifle as the sound of the firing begins to subside. In his other hand, a picture of his childhood sweetheart, Phyllis. Meanwhile back at the beach bar, Szzrgy flicks his eyelids at his sweetheart, Mmnn, a pretty teenaged (125 years old) Kami Reptilian, who stands a bit taller than he. He remarks her ring, the match to his. He recalls that 100 moons ago they traded the rings after fulfilling their Tunnel Homeland Service Obligation, which is required of the youth. The tunnels run through the great mountain ranges to the West. Stretching 20,000 feet into the air and therefore requiring great power to cross by ship, the tunnels act as a transport system through them. The only thing visible of these great towers of earth today are the humble Appalachias, having rolled underneath themselves across millions of years of geologic time, the tunnels could still be visible if one were to travel deep enough, but they would be sitting upright. As we return to Jim, we see him helping building a base camp deep in the dense jungles of Guadalcanal.

5. The Sky is Falling!
A great big explosion startles Jim awake in his bunk. He and his soldiers rush out into the dark night to see one of their transport trucks arriving. A hole the size of a small car has been blown into the side of the truck. In the light of the headlamps, a young private steps out of the cab and approaches Jim. “Can you believe it? I didn’t even get a scratch”. He stumbles forward into Jim’s arms as blood begins to creep out of his eyes and ears. Bombs begin to cascade around the camp and we are suddenly back inside the beach bar where the mountain giant, Orgh, has just blasted Chief Bosun Fzzsss. The two would have been enemies in the past wars, and they still are. But a drunken discussion during peace times leads to bloodshed. Szzrgy quickly rushes out to help clean up the mess and wait for the police. As Szzrg heads to the door after Orgh, who has rushed out, a strange ash-like dust wafts into the bar from sea. Silence. If Szzrgy knew what snow looked like, he could compare the silence to that of a fresh fallen snow. Suddenly, Mmnn rushes in from the darkness screaming (well, chirping and whistling), “The sky is falling!”. At that moment the sky lights up with the sight of burning pumice raining down on the desert shoreline. Mmnn jumps into Szzrgs arms, a look of fear and dispair flashes between them. The band stops playing.


6. A Civilization Snuffed
The rebels hit their mark, thousands of miles away at the power plant deep inside the core of their enemy’s base. Not only were these unlikely heroes vaporized immediately, but the ground around the core was obliterated and forced skyward. Like a thousand atomic blasts shooting out of a volcano, the pyroclastic cloud spewing from the great wounded earth would quickly envelope the planet. Far away on a desert coastline, before the majestic Crested Mountain range, two lovers ran for their lives. Their small three-fingered hands locked together, their ceremonious rings grinding together. Szzrgy and Mmnn were running for the parking garage. Partially submerged, the most possible underground they could achieve in the sandy terrain, they hoped for a chance. All around them, sailors from ships out on the great Jackson Sea were gasping for air. Collapsing and suffocating. Inside the beach bar, now covered with ash, the band said their last goodbyes, huddled together underneath the stage. Darkness and stillness came quickly. Pushing past the parked hovercraft, Mmnn and Szzrg grabbed one another as the ash poured into the carpark. Too late. They held one another and took a breath. Their ringed hands wrapped tightly around each others chest. And then stillness. As Jim dove into the ditch, his eyes gazed skyward, machine gun fire and the sound of bombs being released from a plane above left him puzzled. An American flag was painted on the side of the plane. For a moment, there was only the sound of whistling and then everything went black.

7. The Jackson Sea Remembers
On a darkened shoreline, everything as far as the eye could see, if any living being remained alive to see it, was covered in ash. The pelting pumice had subsided leaving only small plumes of smoke rising from a dead landscape. The beach bar, the band, hovercraft, the irrigation canal, Little Gray Farms, Szzrgy’s choked-out father, everything. Everything was dead. As Jim came in and out of consciousness, he could see simple vignettes. He awoke to the loud rumbling of a great machine and could see the rivets along a metal wall slowly turning, rattling out of their screw holes. And then darkness. He woke again and was lying in his childhood bed in the shed outside the farmhouse. Two small beings stood staring at him from the end of the bed. Gray skin and large eyes. They couldn’t have been taller than 2 feet. For a moment Jim is frozen in fear. He bounds out of the bed and runs out of the shed, across the yard and into the big house. Jumping up stairs to his parents bedroom he springs into the bed startling his parents. And then it goes black again. After a time, Jim wakes again. He can now see where the loud rumbling is coming from as he looks out of the portal to the wing of the cargo plane. He reaches his hand out of the medical cot to the moisture on the window. He’s on his way home. To Phyllis.

To be continued…