Coast is Clear
September 3, 2011 10:16 AM
The Zone was a band I was in for a couple of years in the early 80's. This was for an album originally pressed to vinyl, and just recently re-mastered out at Cedar Creek Studios where it was recorded, by Fred Remmert. I didn't write this song, but we all collaborated on arrangements. Written by my good friend Fred Mitchim.
The band, in retrospect, was kind of schizophrenic. Some of us thought we were Ultravox, others of us thought we were The Grateful Dead, so we never developed a really coherent sound. This song shows our sensitive acoustic side. Theresa Haak, the (amazing) singer, was actually a blues specialist, and was pretty out of place in the band - i.e. she utterly outclassed us in every way. I did some blues gigs with her in the early 90's, and they remain highlights of my musical life.
Unfortunately the drummer was enamored of cheap electronic gadgets that went "boo!", but fortunately, the recording engineer was decent enough to not cover the thing in reverb, so all in all, it still sounds pretty good. I borrowed a Steinberger bass for this session, and am actually still pretty happy with how my track sounds.
I totally love that you can hear a door creak as someone steps out of an iso booth at the end of the song.
The band, in retrospect, was kind of schizophrenic. Some of us thought we were Ultravox, others of us thought we were The Grateful Dead, so we never developed a really coherent sound. This song shows our sensitive acoustic side. Theresa Haak, the (amazing) singer, was actually a blues specialist, and was pretty out of place in the band - i.e. she utterly outclassed us in every way. I did some blues gigs with her in the early 90's, and they remain highlights of my musical life.
Unfortunately the drummer was enamored of cheap electronic gadgets that went "boo!", but fortunately, the recording engineer was decent enough to not cover the thing in reverb, so all in all, it still sounds pretty good. I borrowed a Steinberger bass for this session, and am actually still pretty happy with how my track sounds.
I totally love that you can hear a door creak as someone steps out of an iso booth at the end of the song.
posted by Devils Rancher (3 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
(the 'aural exciter', maybe?)
That, and the piece of kit I can remember Fred Remmert being the most excited about (besides his Neve console) was the Eventide Harmonizer, which is still a pretty amazing sounding unit. When applied ever-so-slightly to vocals, you don't hear it at all until you turn it off, then suddenly everything sounds flat. I think he had an old Lexicon 224 reverb, too.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:00 AM on September 4, 2011
That, and the piece of kit I can remember Fred Remmert being the most excited about (besides his Neve console) was the Eventide Harmonizer, which is still a pretty amazing sounding unit. When applied ever-so-slightly to vocals, you don't hear it at all until you turn it off, then suddenly everything sounds flat. I think he had an old Lexicon 224 reverb, too.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:00 AM on September 4, 2011
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posted by umbú at 8:23 PM on September 3, 2011