A napokban raktam újra össze a hifimet, most hallgatgatom a Talk Talk Laughing Stock albumát 91-ből. Hát, mit ne mondjak, volt honnan ihletett meríteni an Unsound Methods albumhoz.
Ezt most nem teljesen értem, hogy lehet ma 25 éves, hát ott van a cikkben, hogy március 21-én jelent meg, nem?
Aznap akartam is írni ide róla, mert egyébként nekem nagyon nagy kedvencem ez a lemez, egyértelműen a Recoil projekt legjobbjának tartom, sokszor hallgatom újra.
Alan utolsó zenei közreműködése, a zongorajátéka Dede "Calling the Clock" című száma közben most is kap még bőven kommenteket és az előadó, Dede szokott is válaszolgatni rájuk, elárulva néhány dolgot a felvételről.
Azt írta egy 2 hónappal ezelőtti kommentben, hogy Alan zongorázása fel lett vége, utána ő lett a vokál felvételének rendezője is. Viszont kifejezetten kérte a stábot, hogy ne csináljanak róla videót.
Ez megmutatja egyszerre azt is, hogy még 2016-ben is mennyire bevonódott egy dal felvételébe, hogy rendező is lett, viszont azt is, hogy mennyire el akart menekülni a kamerák elől.
"It only took the better part of a year - the source used by both Recoil and Future Sound of London is 1991 BBC sound FX CD Essential Hi Tech Sound Effects track 35 "Pretty Theme And Sting". A separate sample from the same source, track 33 "Various Stings (Acoustic Recording)" is also used sporadically throughout "The Defector". The sounds featured on the 1991 BBC CD originally featured under slightly different track titles on the 1984 LP Hi-Tech FX - Sound Effects No. 29 (though the 1991 CD is more likely to be the direct source used by Recoil/FSOL).
A few weeks ago, my dear Alisa Airapetian (who runs the well-documented Instagram account @tastethetracks) acquired a rare Alan Wilder interview, given for french Rock & Folk magazine in 1992. She asked me if I could translate it into English, and here is what your servant did. ;) (Je peux aussi fournir aux francophones le texte de la version française, tel qu’il apparaît dans le magazine). Good reading! Audrey Pennel ‘Recoil: A l'écart des Mode’, Interview by Pascal Raciquot-Loubet, Rock & Folk, may 1992 What do you do when you belong to one of the most successful pop band of the decade, when you're discreet and courteous and you've got ideas? You change your name and make a solo album.
Depeche Mode on holiday after four singles, Martin Gore indulging in the joys of fatherhood (it's a girl), chapschka (it's a hat) and Tsing Tao (it's a beer), Dave Gahan to the joy of being Dave Gahan and Andrew Fletcher to... - Alan Wilder reactivates Recoil, the pseudonym under which he indulges in his personal experiments. Recoil: Detent (of a spring), backlash. A :It's just a question of doing something, without using my own name. Recoil relieves me of my frustrations. Being in a band is always about compromise, if only to push your own ideas forward. Depeche Mode's songs are two and a half minutes long, commercial and poppy. I like them a lot, but I also want to do more. Thirty-two years old, facing a sabbatical year, self-effacing, with Venetian red hair and discretion bordering on shyness, Alan Wilder nevertheless doesn't like to sit idle between a Music For The Masses and a Violator. A :I always feel creative, so why not continue working on my own? The idea was to work with other people, start making music and see where it would go. I realised that my songs were soundtracks that needed singers. It became a new challenge, because I'm not used to working with lyrics, it's more difficult. For example, on ‘Bloodline’, it wasn't until I'd done the mix that I realised I needed a singer, and I chose Toni Halliday from Curve. ‘Edge To Life? It's a hit. A :Really (blushing)?Thank you. Solo albums by members of big bands always suffer from the prejudice of being ‘by-products’… A :It's very different from Depeche Mode, where the songs come first. When I work with DM, I'm more of a producer, because Martin arrives with a demo that's always ready and we arrange it together. We're more of a production team than a band as such. In general, the lyrics and the vocal line stay the same, but everything else changes. From being the producer of Depeche Mode to the producer of Nitzer Ebb, that mustn’t have been very different for you? A :Nitzer Ebb became friends after they opened for us last year. They wanted to become more melodic, to add depth to purely rhythmic songs. Their album was my first outside production. Satisfied? A :Almost totally. Why ? A :I'm never completely satisfied with what I do. It's a good thing to remain dissatisfied. It allows you to progress. ‘Faith Healer’, on your album, sounds like an escaped clone from the Nitzer Ebb menagerie... A :That's possible, but the track was recorded before their album. ‘Faith Healer’ is me, having fun doing Nitzer Ebb. I like their rock'n'roll attitude. You've also worked with Moby... A :He sings the rap on the album. And also with LFO - like pretty much everyone else these days... A :I didn't know LFO were in such demand! They have a very fresh approach. Their five mixes were all very rough, so I edited them down to one. When I called Mark and try to talk to him about it, the only thing he was interested in, was me telling him when Depeche Mode were going to make an album... It was like speaking to a Depeche Mode kid fan on the phone... So what did you say? A :That we’ll soon start recording the skeleton of the album in Madrid. The Recoil album is rather dance-oriented. Do you want to reach a wide audience? A :I thought it was possible to make it quite dancey. In fact, the reason we did so many mixes of ‘Faith Healer’ was to take advantage of the new Regulation 12. Previously, the limit for recording a single was thirty minutes - beyond that, it fell into the ‘album’ category. Now you're allowed to put up to forty minutes on a single, as long as you only include one song. That's marketing... A :Some remixes are excellent, when they are witty. But many could be described as ‘forgettable’. What kind of music do you listen to at home? A :Lately, I've been finding it hard to find anything to my taste... Lou Reed's last album, perhaps? I still remember ‘Berlin’, which was an excellent album. In general, I stick to my own values: DAF, Kraftwerk... Kraftwerk? Come on... A :I feel a lot of affinity with what they do. They have a very personal notion of space and minimalism, and they never take the easy way out. They also know very well how to seduce. They're very skilful. Too skilful, in fact. Don't you think it's easy to imagine them working, coming up with a brilliant sound and then stopping to look at each other and say: ‘That's very skilful, isn't it?’ And apart from Kraftwerk? A :Nitzer Ebb, of course... And also Philip Glass and Steve Reich, a few classic things. Curve is my favourite band at the moment. But it's very guitar-heavy... A :There's always something good to take from everything! In most records, I manage to find something enjoyable, even in trash or country. Or rock'n'roll? A : Rock'n'roll? I don't really know what it is!
"Focus on a modified audio section in the introduction of “Red River Cargo”
Today let’s take a look at one of the most cinematic pieces from the album Unsound Methods (1997)… I call “Red River Cargo”!
“Red River Cargo” is based on the gospel song “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” written by Thomas A. Dorsey in 1932.
Interviewed in November 1997 by Andy Jones for Future Music Magazine, Alan Wilder talks about his artistic process, as well as the historical and social context in which this piece is anchored: “There's a track called 'Red River Cargo' which is about the 60s' civil rights movement in the American southern states. As soon as I had that idea, it immediately conjured up all sorts of sounds that evoke that time and place - swamp sounds, oppressive weather, gospel singers, dogs barking - and that's when the track started to develop” (1).
This recreated bayou atmosphere, these speeches made under the pouring rain and the thunder, visually depict the history of the social struggle of black people of Mississippi in the 60s’ (Mississippi Civil Rights Movement), threatened, moreover, by the representatives of a dangerous racist extremism. The theme is intertwined with that of the film Mississippi Burning, the first part of the soundtrack by Trevor Jones of which being used as a sample in the introduction to “Red River Cargo”.
Among the other sound additions included in the sampling, a manipulated audio section, derived from “Zaar”, by Peter Gabriel, is also utilized prominently into the introduction.(2)
“Zaar” appears in the soundtrack of The Last Temptation of Christ (also called Passion), directed in 1989 by Martin Scorsese. Musician with a vast universe, Peter Gabriel produces throbbing rhythms and captivating sounds, coming from a mixture of traditional instruments and synthesizers.
Few music notes particularly catch attention, a modification of ambient elements from "Zaar", notably at 0:46, which, reshaped by Wilder's sound genius, turn into a brief but striking dark blues, at the thirtieth second of “Red River Cargo”.
This short sequence modified by Alan Wilder will be strangely deleted in the beginning of the remaster song, produced for Selected in 2010. The evocation of brass will then be replaced by gospel voices. As a listener, it’s very interesting to ask why.*
The reissue of Unsound Methods on vinyl in 2022, however, restores the instrumental sequence of the original “Red River Cargo” version.
Audrey Pennel
(1) Future Music Magazine, November 1997. Interview by Andy Jones.
