Artwork redesigned by Cheri Freund
I remember “On the Wire” came together pretty quickly and contained a lot of influences – Nine Inch Nails, Nitzer Ebb, Cabaret Voltaire, Thomas Dolby, Ultravox to name a few.
My Waldorf Blofeld was used a lot throughout the album. I bought it to use live when touring with Mesh. It’s a small unit, but has a massive sound and the wavetable type synthesis gave the sounds a nice edge. Which I don’t doubt added to the 80’s vibe that runs throughout this album.
Anyway, I thought I’d dig out the old hard drive that all the album files reside on and make a few notes for each track…
Blinded By You – created 12th May 2009 8:41. The bass line was a riff that I played on the Blofeld after buying it. See if you can spot the sampled drum hit from, ‘All Stood Still’ by Ultravox. Some of the rough lyrics I sang for the demo remained for the verses and chorus.
Visions – created 28th August 2009 9:56. Original title, ‘Doodle -1’. It then changed to Espionage, then Challenge Response and eventually Visions. I remember my original vocal for the verse was, ’You made me work for everything I have and filled me up just like a hoover bag’. Pure gold! A big favourite of friend and follower Howard Reeves, who is sadly no longer with us.
On the Wire – created 5th Sept 2009 10:10. Originally called, ‘Doodle -2’. The chorus vocal melody and lyrics were taken from the chorus of a song called, ‘On the Wire’, that I wrote with my old school friend and band mate, Gary Cantini back in 1987. I remember the initial inspiration for this track was the Cabaret Voltaire track, ‘Just Fascination’ – note the brooding synth sound in the verses.
The Grid – created 14th Jan 2010 12:37. This was something I started inspired by the Nitzer Ebb album, ‘Industrial Complex’, hence it’s original title Ebb and Flow. Big drums courtesy of XLN Audio’s Addictive Drums and nasty synth sounds from the Blofeld and a Native Instruments Pro 53. The drums originally started off quite grungy but ended up sounding like something off a Robert Palmer track!
Field of View – started 15th Jan 2010 12:38. Originally called, ‘Fiddle’. I remember the original vibe for this was kind of Cabaret Voltaire with the early drum machine vibe and the choice of synth sounds for the bass and synth riffs. The chorus lyrics were what I originally sang in the early stages and they remained.
Photo by Ed Fielding
Loose Connection – 8th Jan 2010. Originally titled, ‘Step In Time’, which was created 31st March 2008 and contained the chorus progression. Note the homage to Billy Currie of Ultravox!
Losing Something – created 18th Sept 2009 11:31am. Original filename ‘NIN’. Trusty Blofeld on the main synth riff. I was quite intrigued by the recordings of the weird and spooky Spy Channels, which I remember hearing on the radio when I was a kid. It was quite cool to integrate them into a track or two.
The Art of Evasion – created 10th April 2009 11:36 and wasn’t worked on until 22nd March 2010 14:43. Originally called Blofeld and features a lot of – Blofeld! I remember we were very pleased with this one!
Under My Skin – created 23rd March 11:07. Original title, ‘Fusion’ named after Pete’s acquisition at that time of an Alesis Fusion synth that was used for the 5ths sound among others. I particularly remember when we first did the radio effect on the outro with the piano playing, it was quite emotional.
No Time for Fighting – created 7th Nov 2008 13:38. Original title ‘B-Side’. I’ve not any particular memories of the process of this one, but I remember the remix was fun. I was using a plugin called Live Cut that stuttered the audio at random rates and times. I used it on the entire mix, recorded it, then selected the best bits and pasted it together.
Photo by Ed Fielding
Higher Ground – created 23rd March 2009. Originally titled, ‘Crazy’. The demo version had a more ethereal vibe with some tasteful piano stabs in the choruses reminiscent of Billy Currie of Ultravox.
Synchronise – created 4th Dec 2007. Originally titled, ‘Glitterfrapp’ – (get it?!) named for it’s 1/8th triplet beat. The original idea (just a drum beat) didn’t get used until 17th Sept 2008 when it was developed further with vocals and the gritty synth riff.
*This album is now available in DIGITAL format ONLY via our BandCamp page or other digital stores!
As always, we thank our fans for your ongoing support!
-Geoff
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*To learn more about Geoff’s side projects ->
www.geoffpinckney.com
www.silent-unseen-productions.com