recording diaries

horsemouth is done cat-sitting in the hills of walthamstralia and has returned from the forest to his home in the river valley.

the recording goes well - even stuff that horsemouth thought wasn’t happening seems (on re-listening) to have come out ok.

5th august 

horsemouth, successfully (he thinks), put some guitar parts on experiment 2 (currently renamed new jerusalem days - horsemouth added a vocal where he mumbles this) using the resonator and howard’s old acoustic. (ok no there are some problems with the timing that will probably need fixing). horsemouth is a little out of practice with recording to click (his preferred way of doing things). and once his playing is committed to tape playback can be a little harsh on his ego.

next he took a crack at recording pagodas using the resonator (but sadly without click) - it came out very strange. horsemouth will have to give it a listen to decide if he likes it. there’s a strange transition into the second part (the 'sequencer part') and horsemouth couldn’t get the two sequencer guitar parts in sync, so they’re out of sync which has a very brian eno’y effect.

after lunch and a walk horsemouth added a pleasantly messy resonator part to painbirds and a drone organ part (the best he can manage with his limited keyboard skills) in a neil young stylee, howard added a ghost vocal to thicken up the verses and some harmonies on the chorus. (it’s sounding big).

on blue crystal fire they tried the ‘guitar getting louder’ trick - it seems to work ok. ideally they’ll do some duplication of the lead ukulele part with the banjolin. and at this point they hit the wall and had to stop. wonky (now renamed the crooked timber) they pronounced finished and complete.

6th august

having worked on pagodas the day before horsemouth was intending to firm up the rhythm track with a piano playing the bassline habanera style (but ended up adding some chimes instead because the piano sound was a bit rubbish). they then got bogged down in new jerusalem days (horsemouth adding a slide part and a tapping part to the end of the song) but as they thinned it out sense began to emerge from the murk.

then ride on (by the happy mondays) as a waltz - howard recorded the main vocal and ukulele together, horsemouth added the bass drum (a large well-padded chair beaten) and the hi-hat (a bicycle pump) and a woodblock (a pair of birkenstocks). he then added the banjolin, a side guitar (somewhat uninspired) and an acoustic guitar (in dropped d). maybe it needs organ (perhaps the kitchen sink). it becomes somewhat discordant at the end (having been really tuneful until then).

finally with howard singing and horsemouth playing guitar they laid down turn your heater on (today they’ll probably add organ to it) to this they added a ukulele part and more vocal tracks including two by horsemouth - a mid-range one, and a higher one where he tried following howard up into the upper registers (not that successfully). horsemouth added the telephone love rhythm at one point (but he’s not sure if it needs it). the rhythm track is fairly tough that helps stick it together.

finally they had a re-listen to an instrumental horsemouth had struggled to come up with anything sensible to do on the guitar on (using the resonator) - but this time it sounded almost coherent. a good day - now perhaps a lie down before horsemouth goes back to do it all over again.