RECORD TALKBACK - Electronic Soundmaker (February 84) by Andy Darlington
....continued from page 1.
Light Work
"Now we have a lot more work to do," admits Ian. "There's more opportunity to cheat, but we don't want to do that. The responsibility falls on us to play a great deal more of the keyboard and synth parts live on stage. It now tends to be more a percussion-orientated backing tape. But a lot of the parts on the album which appear to be triggered mechanically and sequenced are actually played in real time. What we've done in a lot of cases is actually to replace certain voices on the Linndrum with real drums which we've set up in the studio. So the sounds are actually original drum sounds triggered through digital delay units. They give the impression of being sequenced because they're quite repetitive and synced up to a particular pulse, but they're not actually done mechanically. They're done live by human beings."
"You can use the TR808 which was once hailed as the best drum machine you could get. It's got separate voices on it and everything. But although it's now been superseded by the Linn still as useful because it has some interesting sounds which aren't obvious Linn sounds. You can use it in conjunction with other triggered sounds, through something like an AMS (which can hold a sample of sound, which could be a live sound, and use that to trigger the machines)."
Ian sits forward for emphasis. "The problem with drum machines is that, because technology's becoming cheaper and is available to almost everybody, they're now so widely used. There's only a certain number of permutations to the Linndrum sound regardless of what chips you put in. But if you actually combine it with this technique of using real drum sounds digitally reproduced, and treated in different ways, you can get away from the stereotyped drum machine sound. There's nothing wrong with certain sounds off certain drum machines. No matter how cheap they are, some of then have an interesting characteristic that can be used in a particular song. But it's useful to have the facility to be able to combine them with more sophisticated things. We've always tried to avoid using the machines in a conventional sense."
The limitations lie with the musician, they infer, not the technology. Donning my agent provocateur's hat (a
Light Work
"Now we have a lot more work to do," admits Ian. "There's more opportunity to cheat, but we don't want to do that. The responsibility falls on us to play a great deal more of the keyboard and synth parts live on stage. It now tends to be more a percussion-orientated backing tape. But a lot of the parts on the album which appear to be triggered mechanically and sequenced are actually played in real time. What we've done in a lot of cases is actually to replace certain voices on the Linndrum with real drums which we've set up in the studio. So the sounds are actually original drum sounds triggered through digital delay units. They give the impression of being sequenced because they're quite repetitive and synced up to a particular pulse, but they're not actually done mechanically. They're done live by human beings."
"You can use the TR808 which was once hailed as the best drum machine you could get. It's got separate voices on it and everything. But although it's now been superseded by the Linn still as useful because it has some interesting sounds which aren't obvious Linn sounds. You can use it in conjunction with other triggered sounds, through something like an AMS (which can hold a sample of sound, which could be a live sound, and use that to trigger the machines)."
Ian sits forward for emphasis. "The problem with drum machines is that, because technology's becoming cheaper and is available to almost everybody, they're now so widely used. There's only a certain number of permutations to the Linndrum sound regardless of what chips you put in. But if you actually combine it with this technique of using real drum sounds digitally reproduced, and treated in different ways, you can get away from the stereotyped drum machine sound. There's nothing wrong with certain sounds off certain drum machines. No matter how cheap they are, some of then have an interesting characteristic that can be used in a particular song. But it's useful to have the facility to be able to combine them with more sophisticated things. We've always tried to avoid using the machines in a conventional sense."
The limitations lie with the musician, they infer, not the technology. Donning my agent provocateur's hat (a
jaunty pork-pie model!) I suggest
that, whereas the
electro-pop format was once vaguely revolutionary in its implications, it's now become the establishment. So much so that a new generation of bands - like Red Guitars from Hull - are reverting back to re-stating the importance of traditional Rock instrumentation.
"There's a case for one or the other," concedes Steve, "But what we've tried to do is integrate all instruments into what we're doing." David nods animatedly. "The thing is, not to put a limit on it," he argues. "Like on those tracks you just heard, we've got things as old as the hills. There's a Mellotron doing some of the parts because they have a distinctive sound that's un-creatable outside Fairlightland."
In Harmony
Voices overlap like a three-part fully interlocking harmony as Fiat Lux warm to the dialogue. "Obviously we still use 'real' bass guitars and guitars. In fact there's a slightly heavier lean towards guitars on a lot of new stuff. Just to give it a harder edge. We had that edge in the beginning because things were more primitive. Now we get it by using a bit more guitar here and there. There's more guitar, but not because we're lagging behind this trend Folks! But because some of the songs nee more zappiness.
Steve sums up. "This whole thing about reverting back to restating the importance of traditional instrumentation is like saying that the only way good popular contemporary rock music can be made is by using the guitar. What did Bill Nelson call it - a plank of wood with wires on? And it is just that. If a song is suitable then sure, use it. But I don't see that that provides any justification for proclaiming "We're a GUITAR BAND". We're not one of those wimpy synthi-pop bands."
"It's exactly the same prejudice that began the whole synth-orientated thing," protests David. "It'll go round trends like that, and I don't think we want to be a part of that. We want to fell that anything we have an inclination to use in a particular context we can use without feeling that we're part of one sect or another. If it need a Hoover - we'll use one."
As the last finely textured notes of the Fiat Lux album fade on my domestic sound centre it becomes obvious that the novelty phase of 'machine music' is a long time dead; bands like Fiat Lux are bringing back human warmth. In the same way that they've integrated their modernist studio into it's rural settings, and mated electric with acoustic sounds, they've humanised their machines, redeployed their characteristics in the perspective of musical considerations.
"That was one of the things that differentiated us from the average synthesizer bands in the beginning," explains Dave. "Most synth bands relied on the monotone-type format, with the synthesizers fizzing away to add the melody. We always went for the melody, with synthsizers adding texture and arrangement." They're restating the importance of the song.
Ian stands to emphatically kill the tape machine. "Things have to change and adapt because times are changing. There's a lot of looking back, a lot of stasis. We're not interested in reviving 60's, the 50's, or even the 40's. We're quite content to rape the 90's."
Fiat Lux boot historical considerations and hit the current moving targets of cult and culture precisely. If you have room in your heart for just one more...
<< return to page 1
electro-pop format was once vaguely revolutionary in its implications, it's now become the establishment. So much so that a new generation of bands - like Red Guitars from Hull - are reverting back to re-stating the importance of traditional Rock instrumentation.
"There's a case for one or the other," concedes Steve, "But what we've tried to do is integrate all instruments into what we're doing." David nods animatedly. "The thing is, not to put a limit on it," he argues. "Like on those tracks you just heard, we've got things as old as the hills. There's a Mellotron doing some of the parts because they have a distinctive sound that's un-creatable outside Fairlightland."
In Harmony
Voices overlap like a three-part fully interlocking harmony as Fiat Lux warm to the dialogue. "Obviously we still use 'real' bass guitars and guitars. In fact there's a slightly heavier lean towards guitars on a lot of new stuff. Just to give it a harder edge. We had that edge in the beginning because things were more primitive. Now we get it by using a bit more guitar here and there. There's more guitar, but not because we're lagging behind this trend Folks! But because some of the songs nee more zappiness.
Steve sums up. "This whole thing about reverting back to restating the importance of traditional instrumentation is like saying that the only way good popular contemporary rock music can be made is by using the guitar. What did Bill Nelson call it - a plank of wood with wires on? And it is just that. If a song is suitable then sure, use it. But I don't see that that provides any justification for proclaiming "We're a GUITAR BAND". We're not one of those wimpy synthi-pop bands."
"It's exactly the same prejudice that began the whole synth-orientated thing," protests David. "It'll go round trends like that, and I don't think we want to be a part of that. We want to fell that anything we have an inclination to use in a particular context we can use without feeling that we're part of one sect or another. If it need a Hoover - we'll use one."
As the last finely textured notes of the Fiat Lux album fade on my domestic sound centre it becomes obvious that the novelty phase of 'machine music' is a long time dead; bands like Fiat Lux are bringing back human warmth. In the same way that they've integrated their modernist studio into it's rural settings, and mated electric with acoustic sounds, they've humanised their machines, redeployed their characteristics in the perspective of musical considerations.
"That was one of the things that differentiated us from the average synthesizer bands in the beginning," explains Dave. "Most synth bands relied on the monotone-type format, with the synthesizers fizzing away to add the melody. We always went for the melody, with synthsizers adding texture and arrangement." They're restating the importance of the song.
Ian stands to emphatically kill the tape machine. "Things have to change and adapt because times are changing. There's a lot of looking back, a lot of stasis. We're not interested in reviving 60's, the 50's, or even the 40's. We're quite content to rape the 90's."
Fiat Lux boot historical considerations and hit the current moving targets of cult and culture precisely. If you have room in your heart for just one more...
<< return to page 1