Tracks (MP3):
Released 8/29/04
Non-commercial limited run of 100 records in hand-printed package
Produced by Maxwell Horse with Wally Sound
Recorded and mastered at Wally Sound, Oakland, CA
songs by Maxwell Horse.
words by Daryl, ©Tender Entropy 2003 * 2004.
artwork and packaging by Daryl.
horse drawing based on cave paintings from Lascaux, France.
Daryl Shawn * singing, guitar, echoes and loops, melodica ('Heart of the Ground'), xylophone ('Sapphire').
Atsushi Murase * bass guitar, singing, baritone guitar ('Act of God'), piano ('Sapphire'), Hammond organ ('Monotone').
El John * drums and percussion.
MORE DETAILS
The point of the record was to make something as succinct as possible which captured the sound of the three of us playing together in a small room. To achieve this, all tunes were recorded "live", with all of us playing at once in the same room, without headphones. Vocals were added after, but there were no other overdubs on basic tracks except a second guitar in some sections of "Act of God" (it was difficult finding the right tone to blend the first-position arpeggios of the chorus with the baritone guitar). The other overdubs were a xylophone and piano on the chorus of "Sapphire", a Hammond organ (playing one note through a cranked Supro amp) in Monotone, and a melodica on "Heart of the Ground".
Guitars are always a challenge as the primary sound is from two amps, set just between clean and dirty, and close-mic'ing the speakers accentuates the harshness of the typically trebly old Fenders. (Amps used for all MH recordings - a '67 Princeton running a 1x12 Boogie cabinet, and a '68 Bandmaster into a 2x12 homemade cabinet. For this recording, loops were sent through a 70's Twin, placed beside the other two amps). Engineers are often leery of using distance-mic'ing, as it increases bleed when the band is playing loud and close together. For this recording, we took a few steps to minimize bleed, putting a low wall between the amps and drums which were only about 12' apart, other we let bleed happen naturally. There was a stereo pair of mic's about 3' in front of the two amps. It's the best guitar sound we've ever had.
As always, there were no digital processes involved, except some old delay pedals in the guitar chain. Any added reverb ambience was created through a nice old plate, or through blasting tracks into the tracking room with a mic at the other side (speakers used were the Ampex monitors that came with the 2" machine, mic was an Earthworks omni). Delays were created with a Roland tape delay or an Ibanez analog echo. Everything was recorded to 2" 16-track analog tape, and mixed to 1/4".