New Songs Sessions

It starts off still at Duncan's Cantley Home but moves for the last few tracks.
We'd been listening to even more Front 242 than before and we borrowed a few synthesisers from Andrew so we went very electronic.
There's also a TR808 here which was borrowed from another Duncan entirely. He'd also lent the MS-20 to us previously.
Nice chap. I recall his first listen to the 'live' JDB stuff and he was shocked at how 'dark' it was in comparison
to our Octamed stuff. He was in a band that was originally called Agent Orange until he discovered that was some
nasty nerve agent or whatever it was. Then they called themselves Fat Ugly Nation but they decided that upset fat people.
So eventually they became Fast Ugly Nation. I saw them playing live once at a free gig in Sheffield. They were awful.
But he made a living buying and selling synths. We bought a TR-606 from him (well Andrew did) which features on here as
well as a Juno 6. By the time this album finishes, I've bought a reverb unit and another mixing desk. This album was recorded
on a TDK AR90 tape. These tapes were lower noise and higher quality but the construction of them causes the tape to stick
and bind. As such the tape has eventually snapped and is spread over two repackaged tapes. Silly TDK.

My Life With Her

The DR-110 providing the drums and sequencing Andrew's SH-101 (which was doing the bass squelch). This was controlled by Alex.
Though I'd programmed it, I'd chosen to play Andrew's Jen SX-1000 which does the alternating lead line. I go out of time
quite frequently and have to reset myself sometimes. Everything pretty much goes to pot at the end timing wise. Still it's a
damn good track and I like Duncan's rapid phase vocal. This lyric was written by Duncan's Amiga. I really like it.
Alex was positioned near the TV and I was more in the middle of the room while Duncan was behind the armchair again.
This had been recorded several times but was horrible quality. This version was definitely the definitive one. Previous ones
had often been a bit too busy beat wise.

I Need To Cough

Duncan needed to cough.

Flux (Descent)

Still hadn't got out of that Front 242 habit. This time it has some relevance because Alex's Lyric (which I believe can be found
in the H R Giger book, was called Descent and the beat I'd written on Octamed was called Flux. So we just naturally stitched
them together because it sounded quite cool. Or at least we thought so. I put my vocals through the flanger pedal for this one
and once again cupped the mic. Breathing sounds a plenty. This certainly is very noisy. Of course due to this you can't really
hear much of what is being said because it's so muffled and distorted. Duncan is adding some hard to pick out SH-101 Bass noises
and Alex is adding random noises. I got quite excited toward the end of this track but really there isn't much to commend it.
It's just a load of noise. Rather amateurish noise. Like someone trying to be noisy without really knowing how to do it properly.
Hmm. Yes that's what we were. The lyric was really too short and I repeat lots and lots of it. Fun to perform but not to listen.

Monodistortion

I'd discovered how to make a nice noise sound on the SH-101. This is something I did many many times from now on. I also started
using the sequencer on it. Mistakenly, we let Alex play bass again. Somehow he turns playing very few notes into a complete
distaster. Something of an innate skill I guess. I'm playing guitar and Duncan is playing a rather demanding arpeggio. That's
why it sometimes falters and goes out of time. He's playing the arpeggio on the Jen SX-1000. The title was inspired by GusGus's
album title Polydistortion. I found it fun to call it that anyway. I rather like this but it does fall apart a lot. It would be
nice to have a more together version. I think for a change I'm about the only thing which is properly together here.

I Hate Her

A masterful performance from Alex here. Duncan was out for some reason so I programmed this beat for a while and dragged Alex down
from upstairs to sing. The lyric is rather personal and written by Duncan. He was a tad upset when he knew we'd recorded it, but
it's such an awesome track that I think he got over that. I believe the lyric was written when Janine had upset him once at school.
I'm playing a nicely chorussed bass. The chorus effect was now being provided by a Carlsboro chorus pedal which plugs into the mains.
This is a beautiful and awesome track. I'd like it to be clearer but it would probably be rubbish if I re recorded it.

Valentine's Day

A 4 Track recording by me done entirely on the SH-101. Apart from the vocal obviously. For some strange reason I thought that I could
keep recording the SH-101 over and over and keep it in time. For some strange reason I could. Highly unusual. The lyric is utter crap.
It was made from cut ups from the Doncaster Advertiser newspaper. The vocal performance is equally awful. The music however is classic.
Yet again I use that noise effect from the SH-101. The bassline is brilliant and rather inspired by the various industrial I was
listening to at the time (such as Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft).

System

This is a very odd one and I like the uncomfortable feel of it. I deliberately programmed the SH-101 bassline to a different number
of beats to the drum pattern but it really doesn't seem to matter. It is no particular chord either. It was tailored to suit the
lyric which was written in a stream of consciousness session at about 3am the previous night. My 2 chord guitar thing works very
well in its deliberately jangly crap way. I love the bit where I go staccato at the same time as Duncan for the Insect Farm bit.
The first track about Jhenge? Maybe. The lyric was written in an orange book which was quite thin and had squared paper I think.
A bit of this writing appears at the start of Newsreel cities. A nicely different track. Oh and this is the first appearance
of my new CR-8000 drum machine. I'd bought it from Cash Converters I believe for about £30. Shame about the SH-101 volume being
a bit dirty and causing crackle as it is turned down. Oh and the ART FXR 2 reverb unit makes its first appearance here. Only
subtle though on this track.

Newsreel Cities

The intro vocal to this was written by Duncan in his stream of consciousness thing I believe. The reverb appears for the second
time with a much stronger presence. I don't know quite why the vocals have such a terrible noise behind them but it's probably
that they're being flanged and distorted and that caused lots of noise to be picked up with the high gain required for the mic.
I'm pretty sure that by this time I'd also bought the Altai Condenser mic from Cash Converters for about £28. I still use it
today as it's pretty good and very convenient. More so than the rather expensive mic I bought from Electro Music more recently.
It's in many ways a classic track despite its recording problems. The lyric after the intro was mine written in the same stream
of consciousness session. It's largely inspired by Steve Severin's bit in the Siouxsie and the Banshees appearance on Channel 4's
Play At Home in 1983. He did this Assassin's script thing. It's where the Play Dead Baby Play Dead comes from anyway. It's a good
rocker in a rather distorted Synth way. The DR-110 is sequencing the SH-101 which has had a small sequence programmed in by Duncan
and is being fed through a distortion pedal. The bit that happens at the end was something entirely different but I kind of like
it and always refer to it in my mind as the aftermath.. I often think of tracks having aftermaths when they have a bit of extra stuff
behind them. It also makes me think of fire engines or other emergency services. This is definitely a track with fire behind it. I love
that bit sound to the heavy reverb on the drums. This also inspired Julie to write the lyrics to Defile track Obetydlig.

The 'stream of consciousness thing' was written at a goth gig at the NMB in Sheffield? We went there to miss the Rosetta Stone play.

My bit was definitely written in Cantley. I remember it quite specifically. It was written at about 3am. Quite on purpose at such a time.==I Was Christ

Lyric credit once again goes to Duncan's Amiga. Though all words are sourced from our various stories. This was a bugger to record.
Thing just kept going wrong. Hence the bit that follows it. But we cracked it in the end. For the first time I use my Jean Luc DeMeyer
voice in er.. 'tribute' to Front 242. I think it kind of works. This is the first appearance of Andrew's Juno 6 on a JDB recording.
Duncan's playing it and controling the Sh-101 which groans nicely for the most part until the dying shot bit, after which it does
the most delightful distorted swoops and wails. The distortion on the Juno is ace too. We were definitely establishing more of an
identity separate from Rit-C. The synths of Andrew's were at Duncan's because we'd been doing a recording session for Rit-C a few times
that week. A couple of sleepovers which were excellent fun. In case you want to know, the Sh-101 and Juno were positioned in front
of the fire. We remade this for Ultrabeliever but it didn't work. This remains the definitive version.

Glassite Globe

I had at one time borrowed a Tr-808 drum machine from Duncan of Sheffield. I recorded all of the distorted drums you hear here in a
session with the 4 track. I did some other stuff to go with it musically but it was pretty awful. I had the 4 track tape with me so
we muted the other parts and just recorded this haunting music over it. I say we but it was pretty much all Duncan's work. I just add
the occasional crap sound effect with the Sh-101. In retrospect Duncan's clicky noises at around the 4m30 mark onwards are a bit crap.
However this is great stuff for trancing out to when you want to go to sleep I find. You just drift off into it. The beat is good
and you may notice that some of the knobs were dirty on it early on when I fade in some of the sounds. A top notch track and I think
it owes that status to Duncan's talent. The title was taken from looking through an encyclopedia thing. I can't remember the exact
thing but I seem to remember something to do with an old early hot air balloon nearby. But I could be wrong. Like a Victorian sketch.

Unbidden Song (confessions of a gun romantic)

Lyrics from Doodlebook 666 part 2. Written by Duncan. Not that you can make out a word of it due to the excess reverb. Doesn't matter
though it's still ace. The Dr-110 is in tap write mode (The 606 allowed me to tap in the extra drum noises later, it's a miracle they
are in time) and is sequencing the Sh-101 which is using my new discovery; sample and hold effect on the filter. I used the key
transpose facility a couple of times. The Juno 6 sound is lovely. Really pure synth strings. A delightfully dark and cavernous
recording which will never be equalled despite the mess of a recording that it is. Distorts a bit toward the end. Though I always
associate it with the confessions of a gun romantic page in 666 pt 2 I think this lyric was on an entirely different page. Oh and
I musn't forget to point out that those lovely synth strings are being played by the highly keyboard talented Alex.

YOU

Time for a bit of noise. In fact it was an excersize in pure noise. Taking it to the limit. I think it was partly inspired by some
Sonic Youth and Age Of Chance. Trying desperately to get feedback on the guitar but it doesn't really work too well with bass guitars.
Not even when you put it on the speaker. Duncan stood up for this one, shouting muchly. Alex played the Juno 6 very well under the
circumstance. Duncan does remark near the end "Ooh. That was a nice bit.". Silly shouty fun. We didn't really kill a speaker despite
Duncan thinking we did at the time. He just happened to knock the 4 track which was still being used as a mixer. This slightly
dislodged a loose connection at the back. I love this track just for the sheer fun of it. Sadly, I'm not sure other people can get
the joke as well.

She's Fantastic

I can't remember the exact origins of the lyrics but I recall them being random nonsense by Duncan. Ah yes I think they were "The Opposite You"
The delicate guitar is slightly at odds with Duncan's frenetic bass but it still kind of works. I was quite pleased that I'd been quite delicate
and melodious on the guitar for a change. This was one of those times when you think you've finally got good. I was sat on the settee playing
this. Duncan was stood. Alex was sat on the floor. I've always been a bit disappointed that I caught a string when I didn't want to at the end
when I slide down. It was meant to be just one strike and a slide but I caught the next string a long. Still, no one but me knows about that so
it's okay. Oh no! Duncan has always remarked that it's brilliant how Alex managed to make such utter nonsense sound so nicely sentimental. It's
just a shame you can't really hear Alex properly.

Soul Music (The Party)

A long time ago (we used to be friends but I haven't thought of you lately at all.. - Veronica Mars Intro Music) Ahem. No. We wrote a track using a
sample of a crowd cheering, as featured in this one. We slowed it down to half speed so it sounded like the voices of the tormented in hell.
Or something. That track got lost in time somewhere. So we used the sample again for this live recording. The lyrics are where the Party title comes
from. Again randomly created by Duncan's amiga and taken from our Vigilante stories. Depressing sounding though it is, I dare say most people would
fail to spot the certain humourous elements of random over pretention. The lyrics are complete nonsense but Duncan performs them entirely deadpan
goth/dark ominous music stylee. I'd call it Dark Futurist myself. This track certainly is more fun than a baby's head. I'm sure that people
would try to find the meaning in these inscrutable lyrics if we were famous but they remain just random nonsense dressed up as something clever and
significant. Just like modern art really. Oh ho! I'd learnt two new chords on the guitar! C and B minor! So I used them for this bit of crap playing.
It's that heart beat sound as used in Now and Never as well! Despite the guitar playing being crap I think it somehow works and shock horror! You
can actually clearly make out the vocals! First time ever! Can you spot Duncan's blade runner tribute piano playing near the end?

Fill (The Void)

More brackets! 30 seconds of me messing about with the vibrato function on the Carlsboro chorus pedal. Duncan didn't know I was recording it and
picked up the mic and made a strange noise. It sounded a bit like 'The Voiooooiid' to me so this 'fill' got that appended. Thus also making a bit of
a play on words. Sort of.

No Flesh

I'd written this lyric after seeing PJ Harvey in Leeds. It was whilst Duncan was at University and residing in Boddington hall. I thought I'd write a
crappy lyric about metal fetishism. It's way too obvious and a bit crap but don't think it really matters tha much. Very industrial. My decision to
distort and cup the mic did it no favours as you can't tell a word I'm saying "No.. flush? a tale of toilet woes? No...flash? a tale of a faulty camera?".
Nice work on the SH-101 from Duncan. I like the distorted Dr-110 drums too. I was stood up and moving about quite a bit to this one.
The last track to be recorded in Cantley.

Hereafter Lies

A reworking of our first Octamed song. Two vocalists! There was a lot of practising for this but it still turned out crap. I'm using a huge
chain of guitar effets to create quite a nice sound but that also resulted in a lot of buzzing. The two vocalists thing didn't work too well in
the end as Alex is so quiet voiced. This is really quite painful to listen to. I suppose it was quite a nifty idea to have two vocal lines saying different
things but it just really didn't work. The practice sessions ended in completely hillarious disaster in such away as we couldn't bear to record over them.

Ron (Alex Derek Duncan)

I wrote the lyrics in my Blue Folder at my grandma's in Woodlands. That is ,the village Woodlands and not some actual woodlands. For example.
I don't know quite what was going through my head but I think it was a mix of couple older lyrics. I mixed and matched where I thought appropriate.
I know some of the lyric was at least partly inspired by Siouxsie and the Banshees' cover of Hall of Mirrors by Kraftwerk. It's called Ron because
when I read Ron the lyric, he decided they were about him. Alex's vocal is really odd here and absolutely brilliant. I love my 100mph bass playing as well.
Very driving. I programmed the drum sequence and I think it's possible that I did that Sh-101 sequence as wlel but I wouldn't like to say for sure in case
it was Duncan and I'm taking credit for what he came up with. I know he dewfinitely controlled the kechange button for this performance. We did another version
of this with me on vocals and using two mics. But I'll talk about that later.This was the second track to be recorded at Balmoral Road.

Hereafter Practicing

The somewhat silly and amusing practicing for Hereafter Lies (live). It really doesn't work to talk about it. It's something you can only understand
by listening to it.

Take Flight (hidden bonus track)

Janine's only appearance on New Songs is hidden for obvious reasons. It was terrible. Duncan always thought it horrible of me that I included it
at all. I see nothing wrong. I'd just as happily make myself seem terrible. I leave enough of my awful vocals on the album. Her previous performances
were great but when she tried to sing it didn't really work. She complained that she didn't really have much backing to sing to. WELL THAT WOULDN'T
IMPRESS SIMON COWELL. It's a shame it didn't work out but the whole thing was a mess. It reminds me musically of Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.
Only much much crapper. I believe Duncan was playing the piano and I was on bass with Alex on the keyboard. That metronome didn't really work
either. Janine wrote this lyric which is about the only good thing about it.