recording diaries 2

recording day four

tranche two has been completed. horsemouth has a CD of the demo tracks (er. excepting katie cruel which in the rush to get in a curry and get up the pub was forgotten ).

but an unfortunate discovery has been made - much has been recorded in 16 bit wheras it could have been recorded in 24 bit (don’t ask horsemouth he can’t hear the difference). this means much of it will have to be redone audiophiles.

in a way horsemouth and howard are well ahead in the recording stakes - they know what tracks they are interested in pursuing, they know what tracks (despite initial promise) do not work for them (or rather for who musicians of bremen imagine themselves to be) and frankly horsemouth would relish the opportunity to record some of the stuff he has done already better (and again).

on the day horsemouth recorded wondrous love and and am I born to die? (which by the vagaries of the alphabet are placed at opposite ends of the demo CD). now horsemouth has great fun singing these but he doesn’t know if they are keepers.

 and am I born to die? is just is two guitars tuned open G, horsemouth droning on and the organ droning on (ok at the line waked by trumpets sound three notes are played on the banjolin). it probably needs to be redone with more space. it may be a keeper (it may be portentous enough).

blind spot (what would I say) is one of howard’s - horsemouth just added a little guitar. possibly what it needs is bass. there’s a place where the uke can be pulled out. really it sounds to horsemouth like a song in search of a second part.

blue crystal fire sounds great with the increasing volume acoustic guitar a banjolin part has been added but it’s way to fried in flanger and delay to make sense. a translation of the robbie basho version of the tune.

confiding in the evening star (demo) sounds good (but it will have to be redone) - nonetheless better can be got from it. horsemouth is enjoying the understated lap steel part (there’s a rattle in there that will have to be fixed). both of these two are howard vocal and ukulele pieces basically. there’s an instrumental second half that horsemouth would like to make use of in some way (if he can just work out what it is).

the crooked timber (fka. wonky - ok no, maybe wonky is a better title for it) is a howard slide guitar and vocal thing. like blue crystal fire (and, horsemouth hopes, pagodas) it is a homage to the american primitive guitar scene (this time late era john fahey).

ride on (happy mondays) - well they certainly had fun recording it and (surprisingly) it sounds pretty decent. howard has doubts about it.

new jerusalem days - well this is a portentious monster (and a half). fueled by a giant distorted organ chord and two beats. horsemouth is reasonably pleased with what he’s done here.

storm - this is powered by by a shifting malevolent keyboard part (and sundry john carpenter horror movie noises), horsemouth bodges along as best he can on the resonator. like he said he hated recording this but it sounds pretty fucking good. at the end the keyboard goes off to be malevolent elsewhere and horsemouth plays the change through a few times on (time for a fade). horsemouth is keen to rename this one (maybe howard will let him).

pagodas - this was recorded on the resonator (several resonators). this is horsemouth’s solo guitar piece for the record. he fluffs the first main theme but he thinks it’s fixable (in fact it will all have to be fixed). it has a habanera rhythm running through it which it would be good to get stronger (bass or piano - maybe both). there is a transition into the second part of the tune that’s probably going to have to stay in 16 bit (because horsemouth has no idea how he did it). the 16 bit debacle may enable horsemouth to get the two ‘sequencer’ guitar parts in the correct place (and thus enable him to get rid of the current, and somewhat bodged, ending) and replace it with something arty.

painbirds - (mark linkous) now this sounds like a keeper (mostly because there’s an adequate main vocal performance by horsemouth) and the harmonies work well.

turn your heater on - (keith hudson) now this is great fun (but horsemouth is not sure it’s a keeper). if it’s a keeper it’s a country song and his vocal should probably come up (he modestly opines). rather than risk re-recording the main guitar that should just be left in 16 bit (it’ll live). perhaps they’ll re-record it differently.

wondrous love - one of the horsemouth songs from the day. it will probably bear redoing (but horsemouth’s not sure it’s a keeper).

after that they had a curry to celebrate (thank you curry hut) and then went for a swift pint (in howard’s case two) at the gentrifier’s arms.

recording day three  work proceeded on the new musicians of bremen album, howard added some particularly fine vocals to confiding in the evening star (which they’ve redone for no good reason which now means horsemouth has to redo his parts to get them as good as they were on the previous version - sigh). on the other hand the new vocals are great so it’s progress.

they added an organ part to the end of turn your heater on - well two in fact, a small skanking one (that was endless trouble) and a big churchy one for the end chorus (that was only marginally quicker). the organ sound is a good one though. howard added a melodica part based on the telephone love rhythm (and an echo on it) - that sounds good too.

nonetheless horsemouth was grumpy and out of sorts - hopefully it will shift soon. in any event they have the weekend off for reflection.