BUY
THIS
Peter Hammill
1. Ferret & Featherbird
2. No More (the Sub-Mariner)
3. Tapeworm
4. Again
5. Faint-heart and the Sermon
6. The Comet, the Course, the Tail
7. Gog
8. Magog (in Bromine Chambers)
Bonus Tracks
9. The Emperor in his war-room
10. Faint-heart and the sermon
11. (No More) the sub-Mariner
(all BBC sessions)
Recorded at Sofa Sound, Worth, Sussex, Dec 1973 - April 1974 (4-track analogue)
Overdubbed and mixed at Trident Studios, London W1, April 1974
Produced and engineered by PH.
Overdub/Mix engineering & ARP programming by David Hentschel
Musicians: GUY EVANS drums (3,7)
CHRIS JUDGE SMITH percussion (8)
PAUL WHITEHEAD percussion (8)
otherwise all PH
Cover design by Frank Sansom/PH
Photography by Mike van der Vord (front)
Gordian Troeller (inner)
1973. A time of flux, as always, as not before. Two
post-VdGG Mk I albums had been recorded, "Chameleon" and
"The Silent Corner"; both contained elements of band playing
and the first truly solo-recording efforts. Tours had been
done, both solo and band. Time to mark out another
blueprint...time to get serious about solo recording.
By this time Sofa Sound, as a home recording unit, was fully
established in a spare room at the cottage in Worth. This
was, at least in part, the "Camera" to which the title
refers. The recording machine remained 4-track, but I think
I might have had something more of a mixing/recording desk
by this time, and possibly some better microphones and
outboard stuff. It was all still pretty primitive,
though.
Anyway, even at the outset it looked as though this was
going to have to be a project which I'd get on with by
myself...and that this would be a certain blueprint for the
future. At this point it seemed inconceivable that there
would be any future VdGG activity and so...this was going to
be my career. You can tell just how on the case I was about
that from the subsequent song notes....
I was accustomed to solo recording by this stage and
unabashed by any potential restraints. It seemed to me that
the form should and could encompass everything from simple
guitar tunes to pure noise. Obviously I still stand by
that!
"Home" recording at the time did not allow for the luxury of
limitless time or options. No click track, either, so
sometimes the bar lengths got pretty abstract. I had already
decided that a number of things, including, for the most
part, lead vocals, were going to be overdubbed at the
Trident stage of proceedings. Very, very open.
Additionally, I went into the sessions with only two songs
in a finished state: "Ferret & Featherbrid" (written in
1969) and "Tapeworm" (1971). The rest came to me along with
the recording; another blueprint for future methodology.
When I did get to Trident there was a certain amount of
incredulity about what I was attempting and a stream of
engineers came in to check out the lunatic with a (domestic)
4-track overdubbing onto 24-track using the then state-of
the-art ARP synth. At the time synths were monophonic, so
every harmony line had to be played in, rather than being a
mere shift of patch. The synths and vocals were all done
Very Fast...but I suppose I knew what I was doing. I'd have
a great deal more trepidation about attempting the same kind
of thing today...a certain audacity was involved. And today,
of course, everyone brings in work they'ce done "at home" to
be buffed and polished ready for release.
There are lots of mistakes, imprecisions,
almost-but-not-quites on these recordings. This was, I
suppose, always inevitable in view of what I was attempting.
I'd put it down as one of those which are learning-curve
rather than finished product, at least in a sonic sense. I
mean this neither as excuse nor admission. I think I've
always been fairly clear about learning in public?Anyway,
I've no problem with the brutal bits...just that the
beautiful ones could be a bit sweeter. You can't have
everything. But check out that COMPRESSION on the guitars
and bass! Not very correct but damn good fun....
Guy's drums were overdubbed at Trident, though I can't
remember in which room. Possibly not the main studio area,
but somewhere mre off-beat. He had a hell of a job, anyway,
in view of my somewhat liquid approach to timing...at the
time. David Hentschel also did fantastic work programming
the ARP. It was always something of an unstable beast; but
it fully satisfied my somewhat imprecise aural desires.
Nearly all of the vocals were done in a small overdub room
in the Trident mix suite. No time for preciousness there.
This was all in the land of slap it down and print it.
The cover? Some thought it was a tad Gary Glitter at the
time; certainly it doesn't seem to have much to do with
what's inside, apart from actually showing my mug for once
in a while. I did wear the cloak, though, usually while
scurrying through Gatwick Airport at three in the morning
after having been dropped off at Victoria after a Northern
show. In any case, I think my feeling of the time was simply
"look, here I am, this is this....". The inner shots (not
visible in any form on the - ludicrously simplistic Virgin
CD release) were taken by Gordian - at the Aerosol Grey
Machine sessions!
In any case, all of this is somewhat by the by. The most
important thing, personally, about these recordings is that
shortly after I'd started the Sofa Sound end of things my
brother got knocked off his bicycle in Brighton and was in a
coma for the rest of the recording and mixing. Nothing to be
done but to get on with what had to be done. To the best of
my memory I regarded it as my responsibility - my effort to
make him well - to do the best work I could....in the room,
in secret, in private. It's for this reason that, alone in
all the work, this album came with a dedication, to my
brother.
So, the songs:
"Ferret and Featherbird" was, if I recall correctly,
something of a late entrant to the lists. I felt that
something approaching a "sweet" song was needed to balance
the other stuff. It had, of course, originally been recorded
for "Aerosol Grey Machine". Wish I knew where my old lap
steel disappeared to....
"No More (the sub-Mariner)" and "Faint-Heart" are united
both in their subject matter (to a certain
extent...reflections on past self/faith/identity &c.)
and in their full-on use of synth overdubs. I must have
known that something like these versions would emerge from
an intensive spate of overdubbing in Trident, but I was
definitely pushing the envelope a bit here.
"Tapeworm" is evidently the most conventional song here and
wouldn't have seemed out of place being done (in a "Rock
& Role" style, perhaps) by one of the groups on the
preceding two albums.
"Again" and "The Comet" have been live staples of mine for
years since these recordings. I suppose that means they have
a self-evident strength as pure songs. Here, both were
approached somewhat architecturally. "The Comet", in
particular, was conceived as something of a guitar quartet
(all self-played of course): bass, acoustic, electric,
12-string.
"Gog" was the high point in the recording of my Harmonium
and was one of the tunes with which it graced me. Many of
the others appeared, eventually, on "Usher".
It was also, of course, taken into the live VdGG pantheon of
toons. Maybe in the course of making this I broke free of
whatever chains I still had left about
not-really-being-a-musician? This is wild, swirling,
edge-of-control stuff. I still love it.
And then "Magog". I stuck Paul and Judge in the bathroom and
fed them prepared and not-so-prepared tracks. Two passes of
tape, I think...and then a lot of work. It didn't seem that
odd to me to stick concrete stuff like this together with,
say, "Ferret". The rules are the same: tension and release.
Use of accident, captured on tape. The "sproing" (for want
of a better term) sound which occurs at the end (and is the
release of tension) was, for instance, a once and once only
effect of hitting on the button of the bass compressor. As
if you needed to know that. Such accidents are strewn all
over these recordings and contribute, I think, both to their
charm and to their other-worldly menace.
They don't make 'em like this any more. Actually, they
didn't at the time. Then, you were a serious concrete
artist, or a sensitive singer-songwriter, or an all-out
rocker, or a Progmeister, or whatever. Weren't you? As
now...aren't you? Get in your cage or box!
I begged, I beg, to differ.
Fair to say that some kind of future for me started here.
Future, interrupted.
In the mixing room I got a call offering me a couple of
(solo) supporting shows to Genesis in Canada. I'd been well
away from all that band, big stage stuff for awhile by
now.
You'll know what happened next....
Only what you hear on the CD is to be taken as approaching the truth.