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Last Updated: 4/4/2009

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City: Bristol
Country: UK
Signup Date: 7/27/2005

Blog Archive
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Saturday, June 06, 2009 
Yo Komrades. Me and Honecker are about to master our Stasi Koncept album. The aim is to release it in time for the 20th anniversary of Das Fall. Happy fucking Honecker!

We really should do an album launch in Berlin. Endless nights later, we're very nearly there. It's a strangely dark but beautiful sonic world that we've created – one that we're both immensely proud of.

Full tracklisting and release details coming soon to a Plattenbau near you!

There'll be a rare NSN live outing in September at Das Volk Haus in Bristol so look out for two old, fat guys creaking in leather jackets and creating a bit of Ostalgie.

Mielke
x
Saturday, April 04, 2009 
Komrades, hello.
Honecker and I are meeting next week to put an album mock-up together pre-mastering. We found the darkest piano sound we could find and have sprinkled some of its magic dust into ATDC's darkest crevices.
Mielke
x
Saturday, March 14, 2009 
Finally, six months on and I've been in the right frame of mind to sit down and get the 'Lights in Darkest England' studio recordings in a happy listening space.
These tracks have been neglected for too long, but the good news is that the raw recordings sound great. The weaving guitars remind me of Aerial M.
Meanwhile, ATDC is almost there. I've been experimenting with MIDI to good effect. The final few touches of atmos to a forebodingly bleak canvas.
Thursday, February 19, 2009 
'Among the Dead City' (AT/DC) .. may have started life as an homage to Anna Funder's 'Stasiland' and the film 'The Lives of Others' perhaps, but it has become an embroiled gong-filled Koncept world all unto itself .. wir haben a tracklist that gradually leads you into a terrifyingly dark place .. it's not over yet but me and Honecker are working hard to get this record finished .. soon Komrades.
Mielke
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 
A collaboration between Paul Nash (NSN), Doug Bott (Angel Tech) and poet Joanna Butler for Soundart Radio's First Spark festival.

http://www.soundartradio.org.uk/
 
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 
Read my exclusive interview with artist Guy Denning for Geometer:

http://geometer.org.uk/mag/?p=70
Sunday, November 23, 2008 

Recorded live in rehearsal featuring Doug Bott (Angel Tech): violin, drones, harmonies.

Also from the same session, versions of Grinderman's 'Man in the Moon' and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' 'God is in the House'.

Thursday, November 20, 2008 
Saturday, November 08, 2008 

http://redpropeller.co.uk/section229341_180469.html

Guy Denning's best work yet.

Look out for my exclusive interview with Guy for Geometer Magazine coming soon...

http://geometer.org.uk/

Sunday, August 31, 2008 

While listening back to takes in the studio, I think that we've managed to capture the live sound I was after for 'Lights In Darkest England'. I've lived with these songs for such a long time now, it's impossible to say whether distilling the recording process into two 10-hour sessions has done them any justice until I start putting listening mixes together.

Recording an album under such conditions puts immense stress on you as a musician and as an individual, but I think that helps to hone your performance. I'm not sure whether it's an experience I'd like to repeat but the proof will be in the blood-soaked pudding.

Day 1 (acoustic sessions):
We decided to go for as live a sound as possible, so Jim set us up in the live room separated by screens to get maximum separation. Despite picking up some German radio on my right acoustic mic, the guitars were sounding beautiful - a warm, natural tone, which is so difficult to achieve when recording at home.
It took a couple of hours to set up the live room before launching into 'Dark Pines Under Water'. The day was punctuated by endless cups of tea and listening breaks in the control room. With five songs recorded as planned, we left feeling like we'd done a good day's work.

Day 2 (electric guitar):
After allaying my fears about the radio that had been printed on one of my guitar mic channels, I went about setting up my electric in the amp room. My Mustang definitely benefited from its last-minute set-up. Tim: "Was that your guitar?" Yes, although I did use Jim's Jazzmaster for 'The Blue Girl'.
Despite a delayed start, I managed to get my focus back thanks to imbibing some quality vegan organic beer. Whatever it was, it did the trick. The 'To The Woods' coda has always been a bit tricky to get right so we did a separate take. We got our groove back and committed 'Carnival Won't Sleep' and the title track to binary pretty effortlessly.
Suddenly we found ourselves back on schedule. Time, I laugh in your ugly face. Ha! 'The Blue Girl' was always going to be a bit of a problem child. Getting the speed right is crucial to the song - it makes or breaks it. While warming up, Neil and Tim were playing along together without me and Chip, and it sounded like  the perfect intro. After several attempts, we got the tempo spot on and we felt pretty proud of what we'd achieved when listening back in the control room. The loud section explodes out of nowhere.
Then I had my "close-up" moment as Tim called it, recording my guitar part for 'Atefah'. At least I had the luxury of playing all of my electric-guitar lines in the air-conditioned bliss of the control room. After finding the perfect guitar tone for the song, I tried playing along to Tim's live guide vocal, which allowed me to concentrate on my finger-picking. Like anything in life, the more that you can just close your eyes, switch off and relax into it, the better the performance. I think by about the fourth or fifth take I managed to achieve the performance that I was looking for. It's probably the longest song on the album by far, so getting to the end of that take was the closest I'll ever get to running a marathon.
Before the others did their overdubs, I rewarded myself with a beer in the knowledge that my work was done and Jim cranked up the jukebox in the kitchen, putting on Domenico Mudugno's 'Nel blu dipinto di blu', popularly known as 'Volare'. It was a wonderful moment.
Chipple's cello and Neil's E-bow overdubs complete, it just left us with enough time for Tim to put down some piano on a couple of songs.

We achieved everything that we set out to do over the two days and I think that's all that you can ask for. I still feel mentally and physically exhausted by the experience, as I'm sure the others do, but I believe that the songs are worth it.

I'd like to go back into the studio for a day (or two) to record vocals rather than recording them in living-rooms like we did for the first album. I'm hoping that the listening mixes will come together pretty quickly, albeit punctuated by a much-needed holiday during most of September. I want this album to sound as natural and live (and un-EQed) as possible, so the mixing process should be a lot simpler compared with the 'Stasi' LP, he says.

Meanwhile, here's a lesson in how to relax into a performance (of a lifetime)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-DVi0ugelc