Super Audio Mastering Monks Withecombe
09.19
Super Audio Mastering Monks Withecombe, Chagford.
A morning of mixed Dartmoor weather: sun, eruptle rain, sun.
Our morning begins with a through-listen of yesterday’s work…
10.17 Superb. Astonishing. I have never heard Starless And Bible Black sound this good. And what an achievement! Half the album is recorded live, mostly in Amsterdam, one track in Glasgow, one track in Zurich, half-written and half improvised. All this by young men on a hectic and unending schedule.
A transitional album, the bridge between LTIA and Red. Moving away from the background of the counter culture with its elements of Back To The Land, Romance and fantasy, and moving into a grittier experience: of taking Utopian and idealist ideas and aspirations onto the road; into a sweaty, grimy and hard life as-it-is-lived-by-the-working-player; with its oppositions and ambiguities (cf the whole tone of Fracture). The driving, remorseless inevitability presented by Red was already present and beginning to appear; but not to all.
Now, to the 5.1 version of SABB.
10.45 On the Guestbook…
Punch?:: Posted by cantspelldiKc on June 08, 2011
…I would rather see KC carry on under any circumstances than disolve.
A prime characteristic of a creative group, any creative grouping, is that it ceases to exist when it has served its purpose; and/or when the window of opportunity for it to act creatively closes. If the group is creative in its nature, its work continues to resonate and move outwards into the world. If the group serves purely professional imperatives, it may carry on endlessly and even profitably, while on a declining curve: its aim has changed.
Currently, in 2011, live KC is at its highest potential income-earning level – ever. But, to receive large increments of the hard-earned pay of innocent audients, consumers with rights and mobile ‘phones, would be to buy-into performing situations and conditions that militate against creative musiKcing (as I understand it). Alternatively expressed, the professional opportunities for KC are greater now than they have ever been, but the price of accepting them is too high.
11.46 First pass at The Great Deceiver: front line in the back speakers and the nominal back line (ie the rhythm section) in the front. Which is pretty much as it was, and part of the brief for the band: equality between instruments/players. One example: it is not the function of the drummer to keep time for the other players (nevertheless, good that the drummer can keep time). Good also that an interesting drummer may step forward into the front line and comment; noting that the “front line” might also be the line of a circle, and what goes on within the circle being concentrated, building intensity, even transforming the energy. If and when that happens: lift off. A performance to re-direct the course of lives.
14.04 A tasty lunch in the farmhouse.
16.36 Lament, We’ll Let You Know, The Nightwatch stomped flat. Starless And Bible Black being fine-tuned.
17.35 SABB now fine-tuned. On the night, the guitar was driven by fuzz through a wah-wah, translating as a thin-and-piercing-sound on tape; now somewhat richer.
A pause for Janet Stott’s Bredonborough Fruit Cake Of Wonderment: the best fruitcake in Albion, and perhaps all known universes.
The SAM website has information on
hi-res audio and a new initiative:
Sam-lite. This is an ace idea for beginning and indie groups.
17.52 Fracture. Terrifying. The young guitarist stumbles his way through this unplayable piece, his struggles fully revealed in 5.1. Technical standards are higher today. Strange, then, to recall that this young guitarist was criticized 40 years ago for a concern in establishing a technique. Nevertheless, Fracture remains a challenging piece.
18.12 Trio: we don’t have the original multi-tracks so we are looking at various pieces of new technology for auto-surround options.
18.56 Enough.
An evening of computing ahead.
