For this piece I forsook all my spacey laminal layers.
I wanted to get primal, primitive; the very raw and basic sounds which always excite me to brutality.
It is just bass and guitar.
When making this track, everything I tried to add I then removed, as I kept coming back to the basic track, which we have here.
Something about the silence which surrounds the edge of the guitar blitzkrieg reminded me of a woodcut: - Germanic Expressionist woodcut.
I am someone who takes Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Music' to be easy listening.
The bass used was an active 5 string Crafter bass, and the guitar an Ibanez GAX70.
avant metal noiseguitar and bassopressive sonicsdistortionprimalprimitivism
This guitar part sounds absolutely wicked
- wicked in every sense of the word - wicca too. That there is harmonised ebow - pretty statuesque before the coming mayhem
sweet heavy noise.
- those three words sum up what I was after with these sounds; I wanted to make a heavy noise, but I wanted a timbre that wasn't too brittle; I wanted some warmness in there, some sweetness
Think the choice to not add anything past these tracks was the right one - anything else would detract from the cut and the edge.
: I think that must be a sonic law along the lines of 'two's company, three's a crowd', when it comes to heavy sounds. Of course, the three piece is the optimum heavy number, but I'm thinking from doing this piece, and listening to you, that drums actually detract from heaviness - bass and two guitars being a better use of the law of three. It's intriguing that once one gets into making a big heavy guitar sound there is very little room frequency wise for anything else. And it is not just that the heavy guitar crowds everything else out [3's a crowd'] but those sounds become diminished themselves. How many classic heavy tracks start great with the single riff [such as Rock Bottom, by UFO] and then lose some power when the second gtr bs and drms comes in?
Yep, or it's a very very tricky mixing game if it can be done - the additional instruments have to occupy specific spaces, the drum and everything pan placement has to be perfect, etc. And the one thing that will get lost totally is any sense of space that's not absolutely exaggerated.
If MMMusic isn't easy listening, what is? :) More than adequate crashing here!
any more and it could be too much
Great duet passage.
Yeah, it gives variation in texture which is necessary when you putting down what is basically a full on barrage.
Nice switching. I sometimes call that Townsend Morse Code.
: Yeah! I was going to mention Townsend below when I talked about the use of the selector switch here - Pete was probably the first to feature that - he was the first to do a lot of things, even before Beck, Jimi, Eric etc. - and his use of the basic SG with the wraparound bridge - they're made for selector switch mayhem - but no dared before Pete to use it that way - or abuse it. With this piece i spent a long time trying to get a sound on the guitar, one that I liked and had that warmth - there was a lot of minute touches of the vol and tone pots during it - and then the ebow was brought in with respect rather than venom, although the partial chords were crunched out. I added some kaoss pad on the bass at the start for those squelchy things, and I harmonised the guitar part - but it is still essentially one guitar and one bass
you wield that ibanez like a man with lots of experience, a master's touch
Thanks - but it is purely spontaneous and brutal - there is no attempt at finesse [obviously!]
My point exactly, when pure spontaneity and raw intent yields such a result, the native touch and sensibilities of the player are laid bare. I was praising yours.
Finesse is overrated. Sometimes you gotta just attack the damn thing.
and that gurgling envelope-followed bass when it gets down low, so low.
The five string bass is down to low A - the guitar down to D
Sludge City.
Yeah, has to have those low notes there; so the job then becomes, 'how to use all that low end with out ending up with a total mush? That's what I was trying to do here with the bass tone - low but not mushy [or not too much]
Crash and waves and become your own reverb!
I just listened to some Electric Wizard who make a virtue of the mush - how do they make it work? Is it because in each wall of sound there is enough divergence to make a tapestry?
A case of complimentary things, and diligent mixing, and just learning to work with it. Different gear, settings, amps, etc. will get a good baseline to make the mush manageable, rest is in how it's handled at the desk.
i'm liking the metalica of this (i refer not to the band)
: Astute comment - there's something about 80s metal tone I don't like, and I try to avoid it here [however successfully or not] - it is that brittle sound I've mentioned before. I'm trying to get here a heavy metal sound which has warmth - tube warmth
Like syrup. From a snake.
: nice contrast metaphor
paws of living stone
: Monoliths
Like a distorted train pummeling over gravel rail road tracks. Crazy synth type stuff after this too!
: 'synth-type stuff' is actually an ebow used on the same crunch guitar
Incidentally, why I like this Ibanez for heavy distorted sounds is because it retains that liquid woman tone even when you are using a different voice - I was alble to go from huge partial chords to wooing ebow at the drop of a metal plectrum - of course I altered the vol and tone on the guitar a lot during this - I also use the selector switch - at one point I turn one pup off and toggle between the live one [which is roaring] and the dead one [which is silent] -
Ohh ok, that definitely makes sense. Wow. I will say Ibanez in general seem to be more liquid like. Crazy ways to use dynamics with your equipment.
I'd like some tech dude to take apart the essence of the liquid tone found in some instruments like that - out of all my guitars, only the Ibanez has that sound ... I've heard some LP Juniors have it too in crazy amounts - the sound that Leslie West had on those Mountain albums is near it, but much tighter
I have a 'low price point' Gio, and it's my smoothest by far. The only thing I've figured is its something with their neck.
yeah - it seems that luthiers are now finding that the neck is more influential on an electric's sound than the body! I have a very cheap lefty Strat [used it on Floating Liquid Gardens] which sounds great, and that has a very meaty neck with a strange striped grain fingerboard - wow man, the variables are mind boggling and tempting - you could spend a lifetime on Tone alone
Exactly, which is why I don't believe in writers block!
two searing suns of the savannah!
Ah - you've seen it!
Roar!
A challenging piece, Bill..intense and unpredictable, brimful of menace, aggression and calculated repetition. .soundpainting with a machete! :))
Even though this is kind of metal, I had been paying especial attention at the time I played it to the origins of free jazz - Ornette, Ayler etc. I think it was that removing the meter, but retaining a pulse, that adds the unpredictability. Whereas in straight metal you enjoy the moment when everything hits the one, here the hits happen in the cracks, the are like a surprise punch, catching you unawares -
So engrossed I forgot to comment thus far. .. these sounds convey all the reflex movement and instinct of a lion.. brutal and economical
I'm glad you found this piece so soon Nick - I'm kicking myself for not dedicating to you, as it was inspired by your playing. You have that chugging palm mute metal riffing down [invented by Mr Iommi?] and this piece is based around that move. I've always liked the way cellists get a similar sound by slicing the bow, and think it is akin to that.
That staccato muted riffing is echoed in a lot of predator's calls - it is very similar to that of a stag. As with all my stuff it is a one off free improvisation. As I say in the notes, I found I could add nothing to the basic track. Everything I added I erased because the basic sounded better. I even toyed with asking you to put one of your incredible solos over it [feel free to do so Nick if you want, and call it a collab] I am surprised at how the whole piece, no matter how basic, still has form and shape and interest
lyrics
The Lion’s Way
This way is the first great transformation of the spirit.
Here, one finds oneself in destruction, conquest, onslaught and cruelty.
