'Heavy Water' is a collection of the very first pieces of music I ever made on my own, between the summer of 2002 and the summer of 2005.
The methods used to record them were extremely primitive: an old Panasonic tape cassette recorder, an on-board multitrack feature on my old Casio keyboard, freeware and pre-loaded software on my Pentium PC. I was also conducting equipment tests with items that had begun to fill my primitive home studio at that time: different guitars belonging to Andy and Ryan, a digital sampler and an archaic synthesiser.
Many of the pieces from this collection informed more polished works that appeared on My Attorney and Nes Advantage albums from the same era.
Central to all of these recordings were cassette demos I had made on my mother’s piano, while trying to figure out how to play the thing. They were archived, and the best ones were used to form rhythm tracks for this collection.
For the purposes of posterity - and simply because I've recently had time to review all this material - I'd like to share some notes on the tracks on the album.
wdytid?lmts?
That’s a difficult song title, right there. But when you’re self-releasing solo songs into the void, why the hell not?! I flipped this piano demo into reverse using my very primitive PC audio editing software (which also featured the “Haunted Cavern” reverb used to great effect on My Attorney’s Silver Bullet). The original piece lasted for over eight minutes, and was recorded around 2003 / 4 for the Nes Advantage sessions that took place around that time.
Another Organ Demo
Made using the on-board sequencer on my Casio CTK, and choosing to design the synth sound myself rather than employ a preset. Recorded after coming home from the pub, with the keyboard balanced on the old wooden toy box that used to sit by my bedroom window.
A Chemical Aversion
This began as one of the cassette demos from the 2002 wtss summer. It was upscaled into a full song by adding a sampled Fugazi drumbeat (from ‘Closed Captioned’ on their Instrument album). The sample was burnt onto a CD-R, and then played back into the Yamaha MD8 track recorder from an old, knock off discman. The radio sample was recorded live off long wave Radio 4 during Test Match Special, when England won The Ashes… just before launching into the vocal take. All of this was conducted prior to my permanent move to Newcastle. As I didn’t have access to a compressor, I just manually tweaked the volume levels as the track bounced instead.
Quake Demo
Another track made exclusively using the Casio CTK’s MIDI multitrack feature. The on-board reverb was toggled during bouncing. The manually played percussion part was inspired by a similar approach done on Grilly’s ‘Purple Milk’.
Peristroika
Introduction of the Kaoss Pad KP2, using the siren setting that was also employed on Steve: From Fragment track ‘Chino Necker’. Keyboard bass. The piano take was also rinsed through a Kaoss Pad reverb preset. At the time, such small production affectations seemed hugely experimental!
At The Teen Awards
This had originally been slated for release on the Nes Advantage album, but since it lacked any contributions from Ryan it ended up here. Lyrics were culled from dialogue – noted down verbatim – from an episode during Season 1, including the Actimel tagline from the commercial break.
Cellophane Tombstones
Another rather on-the-nose offering, about passing memorials to killed motorists during my commute to work, during my year at a charity in Limavady. I often experienced near-death incidents while driving to work: vans on the wrong side of the road, terrible weather… and on one occasion happened upon a fatal accident seconds after it had occurred. Tom Waits’ Real Gone album – purchased while backpacking in the USA – inspired the vocal percussion that was sampled on the Kaoss Pad. The drums were done on the Casio CTK by hand (and it shows).
Harmonic Echoes
Captured from the cassette demos, that incidentally run to 23 tapes (90 minutes each!).
Satellite
Another slightly cringey moment: with me playing guitar with a coin and using a AA battery wedged under the fret board.
Piano Song #4
It’s clear here that I can’t really play the piano – it’s so deliberate. I was enjoying using Andy’s condenser microphone that he had “liberated” from Coleraine Tech. My first finished composition, apart from the unrecorded piece about Kate Winslett.
Decent FL Loop
Grilly introduced me to the FruityLoops software, long before it became an all-encompassing Digital Audio Workstation that is at time of writing these notes. I composed a very rudimentary loop using an interface that I only vaguely understood. The only way I could transfer the audio of the pattern to tape, was by recording it as it came out of my Creative Labs soundcard speakers into a portable MiniDisc player, again using Andy’s condenser microphone. Hence the room reverb.
Frantic Czech Organ
Interesting that I would – 15 years later – actually end up living in the Czech Republic. This is another Casio CTK piece, done live through the Kaoss Pad – which had a delay effect set manually to the tempo of the playing.
From Hell
The piano track in this piece captures the birds having a bird bath outside the studio.
Old Keyboard Tune
Another Casio CTK piece, using the on-board multitrack feature and reverb unit.
Falling Down The Stairs
This was recorded using the Panasonic tape recorder that would sit on the top octave of the piano at Colerabbey, where old medical cassettes would record my noodlings. The chords were hit, then the record functioned was activated: catching the decay of the chord. This was done multiple times, to create a sequence of chord decays. Ryan’s favourite one of the demos that never made it to the Nes albums.