Structures

13 January, 2012

Session #23 last night to listen back to Байконур and Wolves before tracking some guitars. Both are sounding pretty accomplished now and we worked on Wolves all night, there's a prog section right near the end that is going to have a ridiculous solo on it and what appears to be the sound of the world ending in feedback at the end. Expected? maybe, but fuck it. Sunday will see Dickie take to the bass for the second time while he rewrites and rerecords some of his previous takes. It's hard to get a handle on the songs playing from a guide track. I seemed to struggle on one easy riff again, it's always the three note riffs! Move on, move on. Anyway, i'm listening back now, it's bliss, we sound like Structures, we've moved on, it's darker now than before, it's heavier and it sounds great.

04 January, 2012

Boo Instruments is a new pedal company from the UK, i've recently purchased a Boo Tremolo from them and it's awesome. If you are in the market for a new Tremolo i'd definately recommend speaking to them and getting them to hook you up with one. Boutique pedals that don't hit your wallet too hard, while being made here in the UK is a rarity!

03 January, 2012

Happy New Year people, we're back in the studio now, and after spending the entire night last night recording I have now put all the guitar tracks down for 'The Man Who Wandereth...', it's sounding fucking massive, a much different animal to what we play live that's for sure; a sprawling epic of beauty and evil all wrapped up in (probably) about 15 minutes. I can't wait to start mixing it and dropping in the samples we're choosing! What made me happiest was that I got a really decent sound from my Big Knob Black Metallic pedal which is what I use live, the last session didn't sound too good with it but a few hours tweaking and it's singing.

31 December, 2011

Our new Bandcamp page has been launched, and you now read lyrics and download tracks from our 'Signals' boxset that we launched in 2010. Soon we'll be putting up a brand new track so you can hear the quality of the recording of our new album. We've always made sure that we'd only release physical CDs, and more importantly not use iTunes; but we agree with the Bandcamp ethos, and tracks can be downloaded for 99p each, or the full album for 4.99.

22 December, 2011

Back from Finland in time to catch local band Driven Like The Snow launch their album after a 5 year wait. Modern folk, Colin Brown is a great songwriter and the album really shows that in spades. Merry Yuletide everyone, catch you in the new year!!!

21 December, 2011

Ian got down his parts for the ambience at the start of 'Man Who Wandereth....', i'm assured it's great, however, i'm in Finland crashing snowmobiles and trying to get a glimpse of the lady that is the nothern lights......

08 December, 2011

I've spent most of the evening tracking the lead parts so that when I make the journey over the Finland in the next couple of days the rest of the guys (or just Ian) can carry on recording. We pretty much got down an entire ambient piece ready, aswell as putting down the intro parts for the 'Man Who Wandereth....'. We tried using my splendid Big Knob Black Metallic pedal for the distortion parts which didn't sound too hot so we moved on and used an OCD clone; a great pedal, and it's really bought out the sound of the Fender MT HH; thick, meaty and aggressive. Exactly what we want. I also finished all of my parts for 'Байконур' which was pretty hard going. 'Байконур' is looking to wrap up at around 14 minutes which is alot longer than we expected.......especially as it's the only song we have that moves at more than a steady pace.

04 December, 2011

It's been another busy afternoon in the studio; Ian has tracked all his guitar parts for 'Байконур' (Baikonur) now and it's sounding really meaty, there really isn't anything we can do on this track now apart from listen back and see what's missing before we reamp all Dicky's bass parts again and record all of my guitar. The new amp is sounding very pure.

03 December, 2011

Guitar amp shopping, Ian has decided to buy a new amp, we tried a few but decided on an Egnator Renegade for it's pure clean tone, it's a great amp and can be really pushed hard without breaking up too early. Onwards to recording guitar parts, I might get my Grainger Head back for good now too now there isn't as much noise on the two channels on Ian's rig.

27 November, 2011

We've spent alot of today recording bass parts, Dicky has worked tirelessly to get all his parts to two tracks down and committed to tape, and apart from one more, he's pretty much done so far. The bass has been recorded straight into a DI and we're going to reamp it later through his actual amp and cab, it's just important to get it down for now, and we can really fuck about with the tone and compression to make sure that it sounds perfect on the final recording.

24 November, 2011

Jon's come back up from the operating theatre and his operation is apparently successful; pending further surgery. Good news, i'm sure he's hopping around like an idiot right now, or playing Battlefield 3. On the recording front, i've found some great samples to use on the recording from an archive of space stations and satellite recovery beacons.

20 November, 2011

Progress on this recording is going far-far easier than last time, we've sat in comfort all evening as Jon has tracked his final drum parts before his operation. Hard work for him, and frustration too as we scream 'no' down the talkback at him and force him to play parts until his arms fall to pieces. It's sounding awesome though, a few re-records from the last session due to the drums sounding dull, but other than that, it's sounding fantastic, the cymbals are really sparkling too. That's it, onto the other instruments now.

13 November, 2011

Guide tracks are now down for 'Wolves', Iain's got a copy of the guide tracks to help him write a guitar solo. Yes, a guitar solo, first time for everything, but this is the first time we're purposefully writing a solo that isn't noise, a cascading riff or accompanyment to a vocal section.

10 November, 2011

We've finally finished writing a new song, currently titled 'Wolves'; there's a new feel to the track that we've never explored before, and like the single track on 'Array' it sounds very prog, in a very modern way. It has more than one section, with repeated themes and a fusion-styled middle-eight. Currently sitting at around 16 minutes I think it's the tune we are least prepared to record, but we've hoping to write as we record and see how it evolves.

03 November, 2011

Recording has started in ernest now, we've tracked the guides for two songs now, 'Байконур' and 'The Man Who Wandereth...' (working titles), you've heard them before, they are the heaver tunes in our current set, and both are pretty dense and lengthy. We've borrowed a massive snare from one of Alan's mates too, to beef up the sound of the kit. More notes soon......