This has been a long process with a history that is shaping to have more former members than are in the band.

There have been a number of Ancient Pistol releases. Artwork for CDs can be downloaded from www.ancientpistol.com.

Projects

*Collaborating with Adam Sherman, performing improvisational/experimental music at the Andala Cafe in Central Square, Cambridge, MA. Adam can be contacted at http://www.adamsherman.net/Home.html

*Scratch Orchestra Re-enactment in Boston, an art project created by Eve Essex. For more Scratch Orchestra info see eveessex.com/scratch/index.php?/about-this-project/

Press

From Phosphorescence Magazine (Vol. 9, 2009) The three CD’s submitted by Massachusetts artist, Ancient Pistol, are interconnected, yet each tells a story all its own. The titles of the albums set the stage as to which imaginational path will be traveled during the listening experience. Michael Feeney, the man behind the Guitars/Effects/Loops/and Dissonance, sets up an encounter the likes of which is truly out of this world.

Madame Curie’s Cabinet: A Nuclear Soundscape is an experiment in the intense. The first track, “Prospects,” left no doubt that if machinery were taking over the world, this is what it would sound like - unlikely matches of reverberations combined with an Asian influence, and a guitar, all trapped in a factory. Similarly, if subatomic particles, neutrons, and x-rays could be seen dancing together with the naked eye, “Potential” is the music that would be playing in the background. The mind cannot help but envision scenarios such as white-coated individuals in a quantum laboratory performing a psychedelic brain scan when “Shed Those Neutrons” echoes through your head. Okay, so maybe you’d visualize something else entirely, but this was our listening experience, so bear with us. “Pitch Blend” was the devil himself playing a fiddle, as dissonant as it comes, and closing the album was “Success!,” a hard core rock celebration, and “Potential Released,” an all-out onslaught of energy.

Speaking of energy, the next CD entitled, It’s All Energy To Me, features the sounds of the universe. Seriously, how are we to know if these aren’t indeed the sounds of energy being intuited and channeled through the artist? We can picture Bill Nye, The Science Guy, blissfully explaining what “Control Rods,” “Sieverts,” and “Roentgens” are while the tracks of the same names blare out from their hidden source. And we must mention “Grays,” which is energy personified, with a flat out mad guitar jam and a sweet ending.

Lastly, The Bear Hill Phenomenon, is other-worldly. The first four tracks feature “normal”, recognizable music with only a hint of the disturbances that lie underneath. “Drawer 21” and “The Calgary Photograph” are muted and undercover, as if something is being held back. Then, the otherworldliness steps in, and one is led into the unknown, where “Admilrante Saldante,” propels us straight into infinity, a leap beyond the identifiable. It takes talent to fit all the aspects of a vision such as Ancient Pistol’s together without being led astray. It seems as if Feeney is following where the vibrations take him, not vice versa. This stuff is most definitely:

**** Way Cool!

Experience Ancient Pistol for yourself at www.ancientpistol.com and www.myspace.com/ancientpistol. - Lily Emeralde and Emma Dyllan

From Metronome Magazine (August 2008): Musician Mike Feeney handles all the instrumentation, loops, effects and noises offered up on his lo-fi Bear Hill Phenomenon disc. Just as interesting as his song titles, Feeney delivers a gaggle of sound bytes that whirr, clang and buzz. Not all of the sounds are enjoyable, but Feeney manages to keep things contemplative as he lands his musical spaceship from planet to planet. This album would make a great soundtrack to a B-movie sci-fi thriller.

From The Noise (May, 2008): Michael Feeney is the mastermind behind these entirely instrumental self-designated soundscapes, which in their tonalities bring to mind such examples as very early Gang of Four, PiL, and Wire. But the musique concrete which results, though texturally intriguing to a diehard avant-guardian, ultimately seems more an application of mathematical formulae than a living, breathing entity; I get the distinct impression that this is what two jumbo jet computers might have to say to each other as they traverse the boundless ionosphere. (Francis DiMenno)

From Phosphorescence Magazine (Vol. 4, 2007): "White Sands Memories = A Nuclear Soundscape" is the third official release of Ancient Pistol, hailing from the Boston area. Guitarist Mike Feeney mixes his instrumentals with effects, delays, electronica, and dissonance to create his vision of the experience of a "nuclear soundscape". White Sands Memories consists of five parts, labeled as "The Tower", "The Device", "The Decision", "The Ignition", and "The Consequences". If the listener lets imagination take hold, a post-nuclear desolate, surreal world comes to life (or lack thereof) through a cacophony of sound. It would also play well in a spooky, sci-fi, Twilight Zone kind of genre. Ancient Pistol's "progressive, alternative, experimental" riffs jar the brain and activates the emotions.

*** (three stars)
"Worth a Listen"

From The Noise (November 2006): The Three Pillars of Solar Fusion A Nuclear Soundscape
3-song CD

The replica of music performance was made by one of your kind using guitars and tape loops. This is a one-man popsicle stand, but no tasty milk-derived substances are available. But do not be dismayed. This human, Michael Feeney, influenced by such notables as Robert Fripp as well as such notable beings as Mission of Burma, Wall of Voodoo, Ennio Morricone, and the Ohio Players has produced an instrumental CD of three long songs equaling 47 earth minutes. It is experimental. It is good. It’s not ambient. It is self-indulgent, but in a good way. It does not want to make me dance or copulate. There is other fine music music for such unseemly activity. I recommend listening to this. But do not listen to your leaders, political, religious or otherwise. They tell lies, I do not. Procure this music; it is as scrumptious as milk-derived substances. Yum. (Slimedog)

Music

Ancient Pistol releases can be downloaded from Amazon.com, iTunes, Napster, eMusic, Musicnet and Rhapsody.

https://cdbaby.com/cd/ancientpistol will lead you to all cds for sale.