Post by Pipperoo on May 4, 2020 23:15:15 GMT 1
Birthday: May 4th, 1982. (Today 38 years ago)
Feel free to discuss things about this album as a whole in this thread.
Some words about this album from Phil Thornalley from RAK Studios FB page.
"a french college professor wrote a book on this album. he really got into every detail, even the tiny drum machine we occasionally used. ( heard thunderously on the track 100 years -check it out )
‘pornography' was recorded and mixed almost entirely in studio one. some percussion bells were recorded in the empty concrete room that would one day become studio three. the room had a natural echo.
the first day of recording was a day of demoing all the songs. one or two of those demos were so good they made the album.
one fact often mentioned is the band were on an existentialist hedonistic journey. living the artistic life and mood that they wanted to capture on the album. there was a massive box full of beer empties in the corner of the control room that they insisted on not being tidied away.
studio one was like a recycling plant with a mixing desk.
thankfully there was barely any A&R. the band’s manager tried to butt in with ideas but we all ignored him. we were all 21,22. arrogant and right.
one of the master tapes was snapped by the crappy lyrec 24 track 2” machine whilst rewinding. a diet of coffee, cocaine, LSD, hash, vodka, fosters and occasionally chocolate. there was no catering. just the RAK biscuit budget.
mike nocito ( soon to become johnny hates jazz member ) was a new assistant at the studio for the whole album.
mike would later engineer for pink floyd, big country, mickie and others at RAK.
the drums were recorded with lots of ambient mic techniques ( that i had learned from the boss, mickie most, and steve lillywhite). i was a big fan of todd rundgren’s AWATS album and this was my first chance as a producer to try some of those overcooked sounds. hugely compressed and distorted drums. delays and reverbs everywhere. far out as we used to say. took the API to the edge. haha.
robert is a terrific musician and the band, lol and simon, were well rehearsed so the recording was usually quick and the ideas spontaneous. some days disappeared in the acid.
on the title track i tried something that david byrne and eno had experimented with on their ‘bush of ghosts' album. ‘found sounds’ it was called at the time. soon to become known as ‘sampling’. there was TV upstairs near the maintenance room ( there was no TV lounge in those days ). we ran a mic up to the TV and recorded whatever show was on for ‘found sounds ambience’ - a bit of vibe. coincidentally the show broadcasting was a highbrow discussion on…..pornography…. with germaine greer as a guest. synchronicity or what?
about a year later i joined the band for 18 months and i co-produced ‘love cats’ a wildly different record to ‘pornography’. recorded in paris but with one day of overdubs at RAK one.
i could go on."
Feel free to discuss things about this album as a whole in this thread.
Some words about this album from Phil Thornalley from RAK Studios FB page.
"a french college professor wrote a book on this album. he really got into every detail, even the tiny drum machine we occasionally used. ( heard thunderously on the track 100 years -check it out )
‘pornography' was recorded and mixed almost entirely in studio one. some percussion bells were recorded in the empty concrete room that would one day become studio three. the room had a natural echo.
the first day of recording was a day of demoing all the songs. one or two of those demos were so good they made the album.
one fact often mentioned is the band were on an existentialist hedonistic journey. living the artistic life and mood that they wanted to capture on the album. there was a massive box full of beer empties in the corner of the control room that they insisted on not being tidied away.
studio one was like a recycling plant with a mixing desk.
thankfully there was barely any A&R. the band’s manager tried to butt in with ideas but we all ignored him. we were all 21,22. arrogant and right.
one of the master tapes was snapped by the crappy lyrec 24 track 2” machine whilst rewinding. a diet of coffee, cocaine, LSD, hash, vodka, fosters and occasionally chocolate. there was no catering. just the RAK biscuit budget.
mike nocito ( soon to become johnny hates jazz member ) was a new assistant at the studio for the whole album.
mike would later engineer for pink floyd, big country, mickie and others at RAK.
the drums were recorded with lots of ambient mic techniques ( that i had learned from the boss, mickie most, and steve lillywhite). i was a big fan of todd rundgren’s AWATS album and this was my first chance as a producer to try some of those overcooked sounds. hugely compressed and distorted drums. delays and reverbs everywhere. far out as we used to say. took the API to the edge. haha.
robert is a terrific musician and the band, lol and simon, were well rehearsed so the recording was usually quick and the ideas spontaneous. some days disappeared in the acid.
on the title track i tried something that david byrne and eno had experimented with on their ‘bush of ghosts' album. ‘found sounds’ it was called at the time. soon to become known as ‘sampling’. there was TV upstairs near the maintenance room ( there was no TV lounge in those days ). we ran a mic up to the TV and recorded whatever show was on for ‘found sounds ambience’ - a bit of vibe. coincidentally the show broadcasting was a highbrow discussion on…..pornography…. with germaine greer as a guest. synchronicity or what?
about a year later i joined the band for 18 months and i co-produced ‘love cats’ a wildly different record to ‘pornography’. recorded in paris but with one day of overdubs at RAK one.
i could go on."