Player #1: an array of effect pedals and electronic trickery anchored by a theremin as the main source blended with what I think were samples from discs, maybe even shortwave radio and other electronic sound sources and what sounds like some shamanistic vocal improv, though that might just have been the theremin 'speaking'. I honestly didn't look at the gear too closely and I'm not actually sure what he was doing since I was behind closed doors during the recording, but he had a shitload of stuff going on. He admitted that he didn't even know what was going on half of the time. They alternated by pounding on two floor toms in a tribal fashion at certain points in the session. This is all running through a tiny 3-channel Roland keyboard amp. He self mixed in some fashion, by bringing the layers on the three channels in and out for some decidely 'out'...WAY out sounds. The toms looked like they had been wailed on by the Butthole Surfers two decades previous before passing them on to their little brothers to use in their John Cage inspired industrial-punk band. One of them had a contact mic strapped to the bottom head, though he didn't hook that up for the recording session and these were miced seperately and recorded acousticallly...ended up taping a big chunk of the heads up with paper towel to dampen and get a different sound out of them.
Player #2: he used a drum set consisting of a kick drum, floor tom, and a snare drum that was mounted on top a plastic trash can (this is part of their sound) with a china cymbal, a high hat and a crash cymbal. Mostly played on with mallets alternating with a little bit of stick. He also had an old, borrowed Realistic brand Moog synth clone on a stand next to him and an old Fender guitar at his side. He would alternate between these instruments, sometimes playing two or three simultaneously. The drums were actually pretty nice Tama drums and the cymbals were decent Sabians, although the snare was a well worn relic from way back yonder - 75% ring mixed with a little *shhpicckt*!!
Pretty crazy...you really had to see it to appreciate it. Fortunately I was totally in to it. I used to be in a band kinda like this and appreciate the experimental side of things. I was told that they wanted monolithic, 'caveman' sounding drums so my basic intent was to get a kind of primordial distant pounding with a more present and up-front layer of electronics kind of floating atop the whole brew. It's the kind of session that would give your average straight laced recording engineer nightmares. Fortunately, I'm not a 'real' studio or a school trained engineer so it was all good to me. Overdubs consisted of some Sonic Youth/Loren Mazzacane style guitar overdubs at two points to replace the guitar recorded as a DI scratch track during the session, a layer of hair-dryer treated guitar w/ effects over one section, bugle, and a spot of bowed brass bells which were mounted on a plank. The vocals have yet to be done, though I'm told it will be an 'alien-speak' banter run through a huge layer of effects. This is all one continuous thirty minute piece.
Listening back to a basic mix I did to get an idea of what happened, prior to vocals, I'm actuallly pretty pleased with the results. It's kind of lo-fi, but nicely layered. Maybe I'll make experimental punk/noise bands a recording specialty.
The playing levels were ALL over the place and I had to freakin' saturate the recording with compression...which goes way against my general grain. Liberal doses of tube compression gain were also applied to various tracks. Overall, a really kind of cool, processed sound...somewhat mystifying at points and riddled with happy accidents that merely enhance the vibe.This was all pretty eclectic, but I'm sure some folks out there have some good and even better stories about freaky recording sessions. Let's hear about them...
