New Monday #51
Happy Monday!
i/o Grammy
Grammys last night. Peter Gabriel’s album i/o won two last night, Best Immersive Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. Tracked at Peter’s studio, Realworld, i/o was worked on by a lot of technical staff, but the Peter Gabriel’s website narrows that down to specifically congratulate Oli Jacobs, Katie May, Dom Shaw, Tchad Blake, Mark ‘Spike’ Stent, and Matt Colton.
i/o features two different sets of mixes, Bright-Side (mixed by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent) and Dark-Side (mixed by our friend Tchad Blake). There’s also a set of immersive mixes called In-Side, which were done by Hans-Martin Buff.
Wow. An entire album mixed by three different people, the mixes discrete from each other, such that you can compare song by song.
Obviously, separating out things by Bright-Side and Dark-Side indicates a bit of what to expect emotionally and sonically, but you don’t have to depend on someone else to tell you the differences, you can hear it.
i/o (title song) - Bright-Side
You’re better off listening to things on Apple Music or something that overall sounds better than YouTube, but the differences are considerable. I’m going to spend hours on this, I can tell.
Congrats all, and congrats, Tchad!
A Wonky Cover
I stumbled across this a few days ago. It caught my attention like a car accident might. Have a listen.
Why would anyone make this? Who thought, “The world is ready for a heavy metal version of Living for the City with someone banging on a piano. ” Ian Gillan is a fine singer, but this is mawkishly emotional and clunks like Eye of the Tiger: a sharp contrast to the deft groove and felt vocals of Stevie Wonder’s original.
The video, set in a classroom, has this wonderful moment in which a large fellow menaces Ian Gillan with a push broom.
Oh man, this kills me! There’s a “broom cam” bit in there as well. And then Ian Gillan is suddenly painted red! What were people thinking??
Luke: pull yourself together. Deep breath.
After finding the cover, I had to clear my palette with the original.
The Brilliant Original
The original is amazing. Listen here.
Stevie Wonder cut a series of five virtually flawless albums, starting in 1972 with Music of My Mind and ending with Songs in the Key of Life in 1976. He won three consecutive Grammy awards: Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life all were named Album of the Year.
Recently free from a restrictive Motown contract, Stevie started working with British producer Malcolm Cecil and American Robert Margouleff, a keyboardist and close friend of synth pioneer Robert Moog. The Brit and the Yank met, hit it off, traded ideas and developed one of the largest synthesizer set-ups in the world at that time. The two cobbled together modules and parts from Moog, ARP, Oberheim, EMS, and whatever else they found interesting, somehow worked out a means of getting the entire thing to play in tune with itself, and developed controllers for it, including using a joystick off a helicopter. They christened the instrument The Original New Timbral Orchestra but called it TONTO for short.
Stevie heard TONTO on an album, contacted Malcolm and Robert, and the three set up shop at Media Sound in NYC. TONTO took up an entire room, the three all working inside of it, surrounded by controls, patch bays, keyboards and the like. Initially it was very much a team effort, with Stevie bringing in songs and Malcolm and Robert creating sounds, suggesting ideas, as well as doing all the engineering, from drums miking to mixing.
Living For the City is a seven-minute extravaganza, an aural “movie” telling of a poor young man from the rural south who winds up incarcerated in New York City. From the socially conscious lyrics and story to the pioneering use of synth and what is now termed “Moog Bass,” to sounds recorded in neighbors in NYC, the song breaks ground in all directions.
The basic track was Stevie on electric piano and vocals. Then he dubbed on bass, which he played on TONTO using Moog modules. This sound alone changed recorded music: it’s everywhere now.
The three had previously tried to use ace session player Bernard Purdie for drum overdubs, but it turned out the only person who could follow a Stevie Wonder guide track accurately was... Stevie Wonder. So, he played the drums. And then more synth from TONTO, handclaps and percussion, and more lead vocals. In fact, the only things Stevie Wonder didn't do on the recording were the voices in the voice-acted sections towards the end of the song.
He played every instrument on it and sang every vocal. EVERY. VOCAL.
So, all the background vocals—the ones that sound like women, the stacked choir at the end — it’s all Stevie Wonder, singing into an Electro-Voice RE-20, the pitch manipulated by changing the speed of the tape deck. I would never have known.
The relationship between Stevie Wonder and Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff eventually soured. By Songs in the Key of Life, the two were out of the picture. They continued to work on music with Depeche Mode, Oingo Boingo, Jeff Beck, Weather Report, Billy Preston, The Doobie Brothers, GWAR and on and on... Margouleff produced a DEVO album, Freedom of Choice, which included the iconic Whip It. I was a junior at a stupidly preppy public high school on Long Island. Whip It provided some very welcome relief from all the Foreigner and Lynyrd Skynyrd blaring from mummy and daddy’s cars.
An interview with Robert Margouleff — he’s an undersung genius.
A video on the making of Living for the City, including a look at TONTO and Stevie playing drums.
Another City
Fire Aid was organized to raise money for beleaguered LA., picking itself up after the recent spate of wildfires. It was impossibly star-studded: Green Day, Dr Dre, Billie Eilish, Katy Perry, No Doubt, JONI MITCHELL !!!, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, a reunion of Nirvana (as much as that is possible), Stevie Nicks, Earth Wind and Fire, The Black Crowes, John Fogarty, Tate McCray, Jelly Roll... who else... Rod Stewart, Olivia Rodrigo and on and on.
The killer performance, though, was by pop singer P!NK. Accompanied by guitarist Justin Derrico, she did a medley that included a wonderful Me and Bobby McGee and an ass-kicking Babe I’m Gonna Leave You! Fabulous stuff from a very underrated singer and her great touring guitarist.
Quick Science
Last week we explored critical distance and losing the car in a parking garage. This week: a quick video from Steve Mould on why you can’t find your lost phone when you call it. Such interesting stuff, and it applies to making a record.
And here we are at the end. Y’all take care.
Warm regards,
Luke