Column: Gordon Raphael #17, May 2004
By: Gordon Raphael
Hello rock and roll; how has the epic peyote ritual of 2004 been treating you?
I am pecking at my mac-laptop from a high hotel in Nachon Rachissima, Thailand, sorting through the events that have made 2004 one of the best times ever in my life. Shoplifter Records, my little baby label, is now full of karate-chops and nuclear warheads... but on a musical level, which can be fun and exciting - not the George W. Bush kind.
Our first release will be at long last the epic and mind-expanding 'Soviet Kitsch' by that musical marvel called Regina Spektor. 11 tracks of pure imagination and little novels for the inner ear and eye. Lots of gorgeous piano, an elastic voice that metamorphoses between many dimensions, even one punk-rawk noise barrage courtesy of the UK's smashing Kill Kenada. Toss in a string-quartet or two, add the craziest stories - melting the boundaries of rock 'n' roll lyrics - and you can now imagine one drop of what it's like to experience this record. Yes, there will be some tours coming up and most probably you've heard about her music from a friend or through many palpitating media articles. It's all true.
After beginning initial tracks for an upcoming album at the Silver Transporterraum of London, my dear friends (and definitely my favorite loud-fast band in England) Kill Kenada have, like a thorn in my heart, chosen to avoid Shoplifter Records and are making their own way, now having some success with a G Raphael-produced track called 'Massachusetts Murder Medallions', and a very interesting video for that tune being shown on MTV2. I feel cheated, robbed and partially destroyed by the loss of such a creative and insane band, but karma is a funky and funny thing sometimes. I'll keep their page on my site till they ask me to remove it, cuz they were seminal in helping me get my ass moving to start this label in the first place.
The next two months of this year were dedicated to my absolute superstars of visionary rock 'n' roll, Satellites - from Mallorca. They completed 14 tracks, many of which were recorded in a cave on the island of Mallorca, the rest of which we cut here in London at the Silver-T-Raum. I went to Mallorca to work on this project in the middle, doing some 24-track tape-mixes in Puter's (tall and brilliant bassist) basement there. In January and February, with even some final details last week (April), we mixed and discussed and hung out for many days, making this, their third album a true masterpiece... Well, it would take a freakin' work of art to follow 'Soviet Kitsch'... no?
It's very hard to describe what makes the Satellites so very special, but they have been playing many low-key London dates, the most stunning being at Camden's Barfly/April 20th. I've seen them about 20 times and have recorded two full-length albums and seven bonus tracks - beginning in 1999 - and I have never seen them deliver such a knockout performance.
Their singer Jordi still has that devil-angel vocal quality tinted through and through with that 'Ocean storm off the coast of Spain' accent, but now the words (in English) are so clear and pronounced that they are unmistakable. Bizarre images filtered through unsane and dramatic moods, but effortless to understand. There are some new songs on the album sung in Satellites' native Mallorcan language (not Spanish!!) and these are relentless in their poetic beauty, floating us to other worlds and levels of emotion; tangible and taste-able. Everyone in the band (see previous Satellites-Mallorca article) has evolved into a veritable powerhouse on their instrument as well. Joantoni's (Nyo Nyo) drumming is super-stellar, and both Michael and Jordi demonstrate just how far guitars can go in terms of style and sheer electricity. A masterclass for budding rockers? Well I for one am taking notes...
That brings us to the thing I have been waiting to talk about for years. My own band, based in London, is now called Black-Light, after working for a year under the name Crystal Radio. Dave Davies from the Kinks called us to say he already used C.Radio and told us to try again... so after moths of thousands of the dumbest names in rock (Bird's Nest, Spaceship, Atlantis Crash, Head Case, etc.) ad-infinitum, finally Black-Light emerged while watching a documentary about Jimi Hendrix's Band Of Gypsies phase and philosophy. It vaguely refers to the undercurrent of American blues players who influenced the volcano of UK rock bands in the first wave of that artform's birth. A bit complex for sheer freaky music, but we like it. It was also a popular party light especially during the 1960's and 70's at my house. Along with the strobe.
Well, after completing 'Room On Fire' with the New York posse, I took the proceeds from that effort and built the Silver Transporterraum of London. A fairly simple, but spectacular-sounding recording studio in the Limehouse area of the Docklands, London, it has metallic silver brick walls, a barrage of artwork on the walls and a few scattered platinum and gold records hanging about as any good studio should. Inside the tank is Pro-Tools HD and classic preamps as found on early Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd recordings. It combines the best of modern and ancient techniques giving the slime and filth of the old-school and the digital punch and clarity of the technological space-age. Not to mention the superb dynamic range of hearing a pin drop, a whisper and the loudest blast of a drumkit with pristine definition. OK, enough of that - it was into this sonic environment that I invited my band-mates back in September 2003, and just finished this April of 2004 the new collage of songs that will become Black-Light's 'The White Album'.
To say that I am chuffed and a bit freaked out by this record would be a tremendous understatement! I feel as if I have burst through a huge wall of fire, been initiated into certain holy mysteries and come out of this process significantly rearranged. The luxuries of coming to London as a mildly sought-after producer and minor celebrity have been a double-edged sword to me: on one hand, it's great to be working all the time - meeting amazing bands and fabulous rocker-babes - and the flipside of the coin was that my musicianly skills (I play keyboards, guitar, bass and sing - oddly enough) and composerly functions that I have nurtured all my life in a very precious and obscure manner were taking a major backseat to all the fun and activity here. To make matters worse: I was finally able to afford all the guitars, 808 drum machines, Hammond organs, Wurlitzer electric pianos, Leslie Speakers, Fender Twin 1970's amps, Moog synthesizers and fuzz-pedals I've been dreaming and crying about my whole life, and there they were laughing at me and taunting me for the insane amount of dust they were collecting in my studio as I recorded band after band, and went waltzing from party to gig to social function, et al. Well, somewhere in the month of March, I had had enough of their evil taunts and decided to take advantage of my lifelong dreams, immersing myself into a baptism of unselfconscious, no-holds-barred creation: a musical journey past all the obstacles that had previously held me back.
The tracks Black-Light had recorded in September were extraordinarily solid and powerful songs which I believe can be played on radios and TV's and people will think they are very cool. These include 'Seven Stars', 'Strong', the upcoming first single and video, '2 Track Mind'. I would say that these songs are the most traditional rock songs I have ever composed with the influence of The Rolling Stones, T-Rex and Iggy oozing everywhere. With the 'responsible' section of the album in the can, I decided this season to completely go off the deep end and try to remember what it was about the exploration and creation of my own music that really kept me so much on fire that I have been recording stuff day and night for most of my life since I was about 20 years old.
Yes, I have recorded well over 2-3,000 things of my own, ranging from short blips of synthesized moaning, 30 seconds in length, to: long electronic meditations; gothic-disco soundtracks; guitar rock songs played on small college radio-stations back in my hometown of Seattle; twisted mythological odes composed and recorded on the Greek Island of Corfu; and tons of MIDI-sequenced little nightmares all through the 1990's. In the old days, I had no job or money (as I refused to work for the man, preferring to couch-surf and abuse people's hospitality to the max) so I performed my secret recording rituals on any equipment - usually Teac 4-track reel to reel tape recorders that I could beg or borrow from friends. With my Arp Odyssey synth and Solina String Ensemble, echo-machine, a microphone, someone else's (Danny Reed's mostly!) Stratocaster and Rat Distortion, I never ever tired of discovering just how many strange sounds could be invented and mashed into completely unique songs, often in odd-time signatures with equally bizarre lyrics and melodies jammed on top.
So, here in 2004, with all the same instruments at my disposal, with the added bonus of unlimited channels to record on, it only took the sheer determination to stop the London sideshow for a while and dive in headfirst to my own world of songs and words. I must admit that I am grateful to someone at my studio for providing some great units of hashish, which were very useful in achieving the focus and madness required to re-enter this very private world of performance and creation. It was as if I had to fight to get back to where I left off when the role of Producer started to kick-in as a successful career - back in New York City in 1999. That was the year that some of my obscure self recordings were heard by musicians there and my first job recording 'someone else' turned into an all-day/everyday stream of bands and musicians coming down the stairs to the basement environment of the Chateau Relaxo studio.
After the basic drums (Matt) and bass tracks (Tim) were recorded, I worked from 8pm 'til 6 or 7am everyday in March and April, sometimes 'til 3pm, when endless barrages of piano-notes, new harmonic discoveries and pure hashish-fueled mania drove me past the barriers of sleep and common decency! I felt the rewards of these nights as breakthroughs in understanding my own songs, learning new chords and bringing my singing, guitar-ing and keyboard-playing way past where I have taken them before. Our keyboard player Pete (from Sheffield) filled out some areas, and sang backups, and there are some jaw-dropping moments when our guitarist Toni, from Finland, just let loose with precisely the kind of epic riffs that will still take me years to learn.
On many of these days (before the 'nightshift'), however, I was still recording/producing other bands as well: La Momo, Todd, Zen, C33X, The Alpha Males, Sara Hawley, John-Libertine's new group Yeti... these are the ones I can remember. Oh wait; there were also five days of working with one of my rock heroes, super-vocalist Ian Astbury of The Cult fame, now singing with The Doors. He came in to record three of his own songs, utilizing the skills of Toni, Tim and Matt from Black-Light, and Becca from C33X. G Raphael sang a little backing choir action, and we all loved the experience of meeting and making music with Ian. His voice is still unmistakable and overflowing with power and emotion. During these two months, I also tried to be there, in some cloudy form, for my own company Shoplifter Records during this important phase of getting started and working to sign artists that I truly believe in.
Twelve songs later, and 'The White Album' is complete. It starts off and ends with two new modern variations of the first song I ever recorded by myself (mmm, January 1st 1980!), a piece I call 'Substitute Music', based on the idea of 'one note!' and invented as something that might be useful when real music was inappropriate! Another intention I had when first composing this, was to make a song that people just couldn't talk over while it was being played; I wanted something so disruptive that conversation had to cease and people might be forced to pay attention to these sounds. I shall not go into the details of the rest of the record, but I intend to release Black-Light's 'The White Album', and Satellites' 3rd album (as yet untitled) on the same day on Shoplifter Records some time in early-July, and hot on the heels of the groundbreaking Regina Spektor record 'Soviet Kitsch'. If I can get Kill Kenada back on track, I will, and the identity of the label will be extremely focused and right on target for injecting a healthy dose of imagination, weirdness, magic and intense voltage back into music.
Do well, Britain; open your minds and ears. From Thailand, I venture back to London for a week, then over to New York for another interesting summer of music and adventure. Mega-sweet.