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Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa
Path: kirkh
From: kirkh@indirect.com (Lee Kirk Hawley)
Subject: Re: Electronic Musician Article
References: <940216234749_555063.0_FHI47-1@CompuServe.COM>
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Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 19:42:49 GMT
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Mike Mendelson (MJM@ZYLAB.MHS.CompuServe.COM) wrote:
: I finally got a shot at the scanner, so here is
: the EM article.  Happy reading.
: -mjm


: Electronic  Musician -- February 1994
: PRO FILE
: ---------------------
: Digital Barn Dance
: Recording Kate Bush and The Red Shoes.
: By Michael Molenda
: [scanned w/o permission by the scan-daemon]
: ---------------------

... lotsa stuff deleted

: Beck,  and  the  Trio  Bulgarka.   Bush
: developed  keyboard  and  vocal   ideas
: over  simple,  4-bar  drum  loops  pro-
: grammed by  Palmer  on  the  Fairlight.
: When  a  song  was  adequately  fleshed
: out, drummer Stuart Elliott was  called
: in to replace the Fairlight loop.
: "All the drum  sounds  on  the  record
: are  Akai  SIOOO  samples   played   by
: Stuart   on   Simmons    pads,"    says
: Palmer.  "The only live sounds  are  the
: cymbals.  If  you  solo  the   overhead
: tracks you  can  hear  the  clack-clack
: of the  drumsticks  hitting  the  pads.
: We  used  samples  because  our  studio
: is relatively small, and  if  we  miked

: acoustic  drums   we'd   always   get the
: same  room  sound,  which  is  not  very
: exciting."

... more stuff deleted describing overdub
    techniques

: practically  mixed  itself.  The  sounds
: on tape were  good,  so  he  just  added
: reverb  and  made  sure   each   instru-
: ment had  enough  space.  As  a  result,
: The Red Shoes  is  one  of  Bush's  most
: organic productions.
:  "Kate  really  doesn't  like   to   use
: samples    or    sequences,"     reveals
: Palmer.  "Everything  on   the   record-
: except  a  few  drum   loops-is   played
: real-time.  We   definitely   wanted   a
: band feel, so  we  didn't  get  obsessed
: with technology.  I  just  twisted  knobs
: until things sounded good."

Does this make sense? The album is more organic
because the drum loops that everything wa built
on were overdubbed by a live drummer playing
an electronic kit? Del Palmer's idea of a band
feel is a drummer playing over loops. Right.

This has got to be the reason for my big problem
with Kate's otherwise excellent output - everything
sounds too artificial and mechanical, especially
on the last couple of albums. I think Kate and Del
have been assembling music instead of playing it
for so long that they've forgotten what a band
sounds like.

And the recorded sound that Del is so impressed
with sounds like shit.

--
The ghost of electricity                                   Kirk Hawley 
howls in the bones                                         kirkh@indirect.c
of her face.                                               Cunning Widgets 
                                                           IPRO, Inc.