Radioinactive: words, vocals, programming,
songwriting, additonal production
MidiMe: mixing, production, drumkit,
electric bass, piano, electric piano, additional
songwriting, additional programming
LA JAE: scratches
 Under
the influence of home-brew Kombucha
probiotic culture, Radio looped some Ethiopian
jazz, slowed it down to a little less than
half speed and chopped the rhythm to create
a new chord progression. He programmed an
MPC
drum loop and added cuica
and synth sounds and mushed it together
on a computer. He then freestyled vocals
dealing with the single-mindedness and reliabilty
of major appliances as a metaphor for his
style, and this became the hook.
MidiMe reinforced the hook chords with a
broken player piano at half speed, and a
tape-flanged Fender Rhodes. While recording
a 1980 Fender P Bass direct through a Quad
Eight PE 442 mic preamp, he observed
commonalities between Radio's hook progression
and the 1982 Satanic masterpiece "the
Oath" by Danish metal pioneers Mercyful
Fate. Further extrapolation, along with
some Roland S-50 orchestra stabs, yielded
the verse chords - over which Radio then
busted some warp speed lyrical observations
on the interconnectedness between ideation
and manifest reality.
MidiMe then played a 1976 Gretsch all maple
trap kit with now-banned-by-the-EPA
cherry red finish over the drum loop. The
acoustic drums were chopped and conformed
to the original MPC rhythm. JAE cut some
vocal samples for the intro and bridge. The track
was finished with looped slide whistle and
los
gritos del torreo.
Radioinactive: words, vocals, songwriting,
programming, additonal production
MidiMe: mixing, production, drumkit, electric guitar, organ,
additional programming
LA JAE: scratches
 Radio
recorded vocals in an Omni
Hotel room over a month's stay in downtown
Chicago, which consisted of binge
drinking coupled with experimentation
with NASA
EMF repulsion/ left right brain activity
balancing technology pouch. Production sound work on the Fox reality
television flop "My
Big Fat Obnoxious Boss" inspired
the basic midi skeleton track.
 Later
on, MidiMe added a detuned 1979 Gibson
Les Paul standard electric guitar (the maple
neck one which is really heavy and poorly
balanced, after 1981 they started boring
out the body to make it lighter, but the
tone suffered for it) through an original
Tom Scholz Rockman. More acoustic drums
were added along with a half-speed Hammond
A100 organ.
 MidiMe
then reverse-engineered a bridge, and Radio
re-recorded the chorus vocals. JAE added
cuts.The vocals were processed through a
eventide H910 and an electro-harmonix small
stone (the crappy reissue). The sequenced
drums and step-written fill were distorted
by clipping the mic input of a Calrec
1061. The stereo mix was paralleled
in mono through a Teletronix LA2A leveling
amplifier (the first 1979 reissue version,
modified to the original 1950's spec.) and
added to the center of the mix.
 Radioinactive: words, vocals,
songwriting
MidiMe: mixing, production, songwriting,
programming, electric bass, Roland SH-1
Khilmony Downs: additional vocals
LA JAE: scratches
Radioinactive: words, vocals, songwriting,
additonal production, clarinet
Eliot Lipp: songwriting,
various analog synths, production, programming
MidiMe: mixing, Roland SH-1,
Hammon A100 organ, additional production,
additional programming
LA JAE: scratches
The track was written by Eliott Lipp. He
cut the break beat and played a variety
of analog synths. Stylistically, Radio took
vocal inspiration from 60s psychedelic/
quasi-folkster icon Donovan, whose song
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" features an
oscillating vocal effect, generated by a Leslie
speaker cabinet . For the effect on
Radio's vocals, MidiMe wanted to try using
a Morley Rotating pedal, but could not find
one (even on ebay).
Radio's vocals were treated through an improvised
"reverse Leslie" set-up: a countryman
B6 microphone transmitting through a lectrosonics
411 digital hybrid wireless UHF system was
mounted to the blade of a ceiling fan. The
vocal parts were played out through a Fostex
6031B speaker, which was placed proximate
to the fan on a ladder. The resulting signal
comprised doppler, volume, timbre and phase
shifts generated by the motion of the microphone
relative to the speaker source. This signal
was then blended with the original to create
an oscillation effect whose frequency was
equivalent to the rotation speed of the
ceiling fan. Further tempo synchronization was
accomplished by varying the sampling frequency of the digital recorder.
MidiMe played a smidgen of Roland SH-1 and
contributed some arrangement ideas. The
"French cafe" section was recorded
with Radio singing and playing clarinet
and MidiMe attempting to simulate an old
scratchy optical soundtrack harmonium by
running an organ (along with everything
else) through a 1968 Fender twin reverb.
 Radioinactive: words, vocals,
songwriting, programming, additonal production
MidiMe: mixing, production, additional
programming,
drumkit, electric bass, electric guitar
LA JAE: scratches
Radio wrote this song after breaking up
with a former girlfriend, and pitch-shifted
his voice to accentuate his mood at the
time. He pays tribute to Nice and Smooth's
early 90's classic, “Sometimes I Rhyme
Slow”.
Radioinactive: words, vocals, programming,
songwriting, production
MidiMe: mixing, additonal production
Manikemist:
upright bass
Radioinactive originally recorded "Trouble"
for Harlem-based german instrumentalist
Monsieur Leroc. Radio went on to remix this
track, as a study in the batucada rhythms of Brazil. Leroc liked Radio's remix
so much he would go on to remix the remix.
Radio's electronic production is complemented
by traditional surdo, pandeiro and performance
of upright bass courtesy of Manikemist.
The remix of the remix of the remix is pending.
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