Album #3

File Under: Drone / Ambient Drone

This was originally released in May 2022 on Werra Foxma Records' SubClub. Sadly, WFR have called it a day. As such, I'm making it available here.


PLEASE NOTE: It's exactly the same audio as the WFR SubClub release, so if you were a WFR SubClub subscriber, you should already have this.


Back then, they said:

"The WFR SubClub is thrilled to bring you a slice of Lancashire-tinged Kosmiche. A departure from the previous 2 Synthetic Villains releases, Through A Crack Of Light eschews the drum machine and overdub-heavy off-kilter synth-pop of those albums in favour of drone/electronic raga/ambient pieces."


And this is what I said about it then:

"For this release, I wanted to record in a more instant way. With the acquisition of the Korg Minilogue XD, it was now possible for me to create and store my own patches, something I couldn't satisfactorily do previously. It also allowed me to play more sequenced pieces, plus with the arp/latch function I could generate interesting patterns that I couldn't (and didn't have to) play by hand. I split the output signals and used a series of different reverbs, delays, valve amps and room mics to create multiple versions of the same thing manipulated in real time. This created some at times disorientating and otherworldly soundscapes. Most of what you hear was done “live” in the studio, using other synths as drones and mostly put through other valve guitar amps and a bass amp. Most tracks got an overdub or two at a later session.

One of the influences on the form of the album was Sunroof's Electronic Music Improvisations Vol.1. That album was done with modular synths, and therefore quite different in character to my own. But I liked how they had set out a rough 6 minute limit on the track length of each piece, and how that gave them a sense of form and structure, rather than the endless synth jams that can easily happen on your own that end up a nightmare to edit into anything coherent for repeated listens. So, I literally set the stop-watch on my phone to keep it from going over. In some cases, it felt better to cut it shorter, one goes over slightly. Another Sunroof idea was to avoid overdubs. There are some, but very minimal.

Musically, I've been a fan of drone music since I was 15 – the End by the Doors, Venus in Furs by the Velvet Underground, seeing Ravi Shankar at the Monterey Pop Festival, the raga-rock of the Byrds and so on. I subsequently got in to the drones of other Indian Classical Music, Fursaxa, Charalambides, David Bowie's Berlin period and eventually a whole world of electronic music, of which we seem to be in a very fertile period.

Since recording the album, I've discovered the delights of 80s Japanese ambient music (such as on the Kankyō Ongaku compilation), which seems to do a similar thing to what I was trying to achieve, but more successfully!"



For the gear nerds:

Korg Minilogue XD, Korg Monologue, Korg Microkorg, Waldorf Streichfett, Yamaha PS2, Stylophone Gen-X1, bowed electric guitar, bowed bass guitar, bowed bouzouki, and autoharp, effects pedals and amps.