Sunday 5 January 2014

The Wargame - Live. (The Speed Of Sound)

A live recording of The Wargame, 17 November 2013 : here

We went into the studio, set up and played. So the recording was live; without headphones, without being in separate rooms, without layering multiple tracks and without adding anything else later. This is three people in a room making music together at the same time, which is how it used to be done and a return to the traditional method of recording. So, if this sounds like a live recording, that will be because it is, because that’s what we were after.
The amps and drums were mic-ed up separately and we put the vocals through the PA using one speaker as a monitor so we could hear and another one mic-ed, but in different room to give a bit of sound separation and so we were able to mix the track levels later.
Guitar (Rickenbacker 620-12) and vocal – John Armstrong
Bass (Italia Mondial Classic) – Kevin Roache
Drums – Raoul Carrino 

The studio is a multi-use community building so there are other people using the space, we’d booked it for the whole day, but Audrey was still there so we let her watch.
The video of the album version from The Speed of Sound At Tree Level is here and there is an unplugged recording here
The Wargame:
Silently searching cruising fifty feet down
Sealed orders are opened as the sweep-hand reaches high
In the darkness of ocean a wargame has begun

Submariner crouches over green glowing screen
Watching listening
In the darkness of ocean a wargame has begun

Far from alone the headphones are alive
Echoing with herring shoals as the order to dive is re;ayed and obeyed
In the darkness of ocean a wargame has begun

A trawler catches an oversize prize and is gone
A trawler catches an oversize prize and is gone


Copyright 03 October 1989 John Armstrong

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