Artigos com o marcador experimental

Rub Al Khali é um clássico! Nesse disco a sonoridade jangle é deixada de lado, dando lugar a arranjos e melodias mais elaborados e cheios de experimentalismos característicos do folk dos anos 60 e 70. Se você não conhece, deixe um pouco de lado essas bandas folk moderninhas e chatas e vá ouvir Emily. Super recomendado!

Encontrei um texto bem legal no myspace da banda, em inglês, falando sobre toda a história por trás do disco e seu lançamento:

When we started Everlasting Records we were influenced by Creation and Dreamworld and all those great 80′s indie labels who put out records in little plastic bags.  I was already a big fan of Emily’s thanks to their ‘Irony’ 12″ for Creation (I loved ‘Reflect On Rye’) and their marvellous Esurient 7″, ‘Stumble’.  10″ albums were all the rage and the idea was to ask Emily to record a 6-track mini-album for Everlasting.

Two things prevented this.  The cost of pressing a 10″ album was excessive and all Emily’s songs were nearly ten minutes long and that’s why ‘Rub Al Khali’ is your classic 12″ piece of plastic and this is its story…..

We asked the band to record an album and they invited us to Chester for a gig they were playing with Edsel Auctioneer to discuss it.  They also offered us accomodation for the night.  I still remember flying up the M6 to try and get there in time and worrying about finding the venue when we got there.  But we made it and sat back to enjoy the bands set.  But this was not the band who had recorded ‘Irony’ and ‘Stumble’.  Ollie thrashed an electric guitar, there was no break between songs and the whole thing sounded like it would fall apart any minute!  It was catastrophic but it was also very enjoyable and I had no idea what the album was going to sound like…..

Our accomodation for the night was on the floor of the studio, where Nick (the drummer) was employed as an engineer.  I remember it now, it was called Dead Sound.  The band set up their equipment, lit up endless spliffs and played us the same set again, acoustically.  It was absolutely glorious!  I still have a tape of this set somewhere and it is priceless.  There was no ventilation and by the end of the session we could barely see each other through the smoke!  There was no windows so, when we turned out the lights, it was pitch black.  We had no idea what the time was in the boring real world outside…..

Because of the restricted budget, Emily hired some equipment and set up to record in a barn in Pandy, North Wales.  These sessions offered the sublime ‘The Oceans Coming In’ and ‘Journeyman’, the backing track of opening track ‘Foxy’ and a few unreleased delights, including a version of Richie Havens’ ‘Sugarplums’.  We stayed with the band for the week in a caravan on the farm.  It was half way up a mountain and there was no lighting or heating.  The band played a steady stream of reggae and Tim Buckley before heading in to the village for more weed and then to the barn for more recording.  The band had their disagreements during this week, but everything sorted itself out and I have fond memories of that week with Oliver, Nick, James (bass) and Gian (sax, clarinet, flute, harmonica, etc.) and of visiting Llangollen for the Eistedffod and Port Meirion…..

The album was completed at a Bristol studio.  The band sent us the finished album but it needed a lot of re-mastering before it could be mastered to vinyl and, because of the extraordinary length of the album, one track, ‘Merri-Go-Round’, had to be omitted (it would have been track six fact fans).  Recording had come in at double the budget we had allowed but, in fairness to the band, it was still recorded incredibly cheaply.  The budget restriction also meant, unfortunately, we could not release the album in the red and gold sleeve the band had intended.

Nearly all the copies we made of the album were sold, making it Everlasting’s most successful release by a long way.  I am immensely proud of my involvement in the album and only wish we could have arranged for the band to record a follow up.  Many people have described it as one of their favourite albums, it is one of mine too.

Only recently the news of Gian’s death reached me and left me incredibly sad.  Like the rest of the band, Gian was a fine musician and a wonderful person.

Genre: Folk Rock / Experimental
Based In…: UK
Label: Everlasting
Year: 1991
My Rate: 9/10
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