Author Message

<  baby snakes  ~  Introducing ellul... (mp3)
drumnjazz
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:09 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 1050 Location: Long Beach, CA.

photo by Adriana Lucero-Schlarb and Chuck Anderson (no pattern)

ellul is San Francisco-based duo Joel Brown-Tarman and Joel St. Julien. On May 15th Sounds Are Active will release their self-titled debut album. Every week from now until then we will be posting a remix from the album.

We thought this would be a good way to introduce the band to the world: out of context.
Remixes first. Album last.

As we mixed the album down we realized it was the perfect canvas for remixing. You could listen to the tracks as instrumentals and there would still be tons of things to listen for. So we enlisted some amazing artists to give ellul their treatments.

Week One:
ellul- esophagus (album track)
ellul- esophagus (Thavius Beck Remix)

Week Two:
ellul- freedom (Mickey Eats Plastic Remix)

Week Three:
ellul- maniacs collide (Radius Remix)

Week Four:
ellul- blood (Heezen with Xn. Remix)

Week Five:
ellul- fragrance (Siamese Sisters Remix)

Week Six:
ellul- enamel on iron (Blevin Blectum Remix)

Week Seven:
ellul- around the bend (Bookworms Remix)

Week Seven 1/2:
ellul- swamp king (album track)
ellul- swamp king (Deneir Remix)


Last edited by drumnjazz on Tue May 15, 2007 7:53 am; edited 7 times in total
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address
drumnjazz
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:15 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 1050 Location: Long Beach, CA.
About ellul
When the dust settled we had traveled up and down the California coast four times: twice by car, twice by plane. We recorded in a church on top of a hill in San Francisco and in the darkness of an industrial warehouse in Carson. We collaborated with artists from Argentina, Italy and Spain. We had recorded an album of considerable complexity (with some songs dedicating ten tracks to percussion alone) in five different locations hundreds of miles apart. Then we lost it all.

In September of 2004 musician and vocalist Joel St. Julien sent over a few early demo recordings with the hope of receiving some artistic feedback. After listening I told him to keep in touch with me and let me know when he had an album of material he could send. After moving from Philadelphia to San Francisco, Joel introduced himself shortly before Justice Constantine and I performed at The Hemlock Tavern during our Xn.+ tour with Castanets. Shortly thereafter I received a disc of fleshed out demos in cut up paper packaging with a few notes and song titles written in pen or pencil. By this time the still unnamed group included two Joels: St. Julien and co-vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Joel Brown-Tarman. They asked if I could refer a Bay Area producer to help them realize the potential of their songs. In hopes of visiting San Francisco again and working on a little bit of music, I volunteered. I never did see the city.

In late January of 2006, we recorded for three straight twelve hour days. Working out arrangement ideas, textures, and getting everything recorded. We accomplished a surprising amount of work: all of the album?s ten tracks were present. Some dangerously close to being finished. We resolved to finish vocal tracking and add some legitimate rhythm section heavyweights a few months later in Long Beach.

At the end of April Joel and Joel flew down and we started finishing. After recording all the final vocal tracks in my living room we drove to a nondescript warehouse in Carson where Adam Garcia had his drum kit set up. Adam had the unenviable position of laying drums down after everything else but the combination of natural reverb and Adam?s drum sound was magical. The final day of recording in Long Beach consisted of masterful acoustic and electric bass overdubs from Anthony Shadduck, murky mixes, minor audio glitches and catching a return flight back to San Francisco. Between the 23rd of April and the end of the year the album would be mastered and remastered at least ten times.

Then the hard drive containing the masters died. Somehow, neither the group, nor I had a single hard copy of that final, fateful master. We would have to remix the entire record. We reconvened back in Long Beach on January 21st 2007 for three tortuous days of mixing, transferring, mastering, remixing and remastering. Since the original recordings were made I had converted my entire studio to running on my Mac. We would now transfer everything from the portable multi-track recorder and reassemble the album track by track and song by song. We put in three more ten hour days before arriving mixes that sounded noticeably brighter, cleaner and fuller than the ?lost master.? The album was being reborn. We even added a few new tricks to make things fun. Finally after one eight hour mastering session (which contained six separate master attempts) the album was finished. In early February I flew back to San Francisco and hand-delivered the final, magnificent master and started work on these very liner notes. Which promptly disappeared from my computer.

Personnel
Joel Brown-Tarman- vocals, acoustic piano, organ, synthesizer, melodica, programming, percussion
Joel St. Julien- vocals, electric & acoustic guitar, electric bass, percussion, programming
Adam Garcia- acoustic drums
Chris Schlarb- electric guitar, electronics, percussion
Anthony Shadduck- electric & acoustic guitar

Produced and engineered by Chris Schlarb
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address
mr egalli
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:34 am Reply with quote
Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 17 Location: australia
that photo is cosmic!

i really like the songs i've heard on ellul's myspace... might have to get this album! cool story about the recording too.
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
lars
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:14 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 189 Location: Washington, D.C.
drumnjazz wrote:

ellul- esophagus (album track)


I've listened to this song about 5 times today (a few other times when ellul friended me on myspace). I'm so intrigued by it. The vocals don't always hit quite like I want them to, but I looooove the mix, Chris. Lots of great sounds in my headphones, especially the live drums at the end. That bass kick is really something else!

Don't particularly groove on the remix. It's the pitchshifted vocals that kinda ruin an otherwise doomy pyschedelic remix.

Looking forward to more!

(Funny aside: on my itunes, the next song after the remix is "Fooled Around and Fell In Love" by Elvin Bishop. hi-larious both in sequence and the fact that it's there in the first place!)

_________________
"Make a mistake, and do something right." -Sun Ra
Ancient Mariner
Thor's Rubber Hammer Productions
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website AIM Address
drumnjazz
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:16 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 1050 Location: Long Beach, CA.
Week Two: A remix from the Six Dreams/Divided Contest winners, Mickey Eats Plastic!
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address
Deneir
Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 5:22 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 35
wowee zowee
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail AIM Address
drumnjazz
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:35 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 1050 Location: Long Beach, CA.
Week Three: A beautiful piano/guitar reworking of "maniacs collide" by Radius.
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address
Deneir
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 11:52 am Reply with quote
Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 35
Nice...
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail AIM Address
drumnjazz
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 6:48 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 1050 Location: Long Beach, CA.
Week four presents a collaboration between Heezen (from Castell?, Spain) and Xn.. Their remix is a complete deconstruction of ellul's "blood".

Also of note, this remix represents the first new Xn. material in a few years.
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address
Deneir
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 35
Xn.!!!
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail AIM Address
drumnjazz
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:12 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 1050 Location: Long Beach, CA.
Your humble remixers at large Siamese Sisters, fresh off of their My Brightest Diamond re-working, take apart ellul.
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address
mr egalli
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 12:57 am Reply with quote
Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 17 Location: australia
i like the last two the most so far. looking forward to more and for the album.
are siamese sisters doing anything of their own at the moment?
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
iambicfivepoetry
Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 9:20 am Reply with quote
Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Posts: 167
These new remixes going to be posted up in the SAA Catalogue on the official website? Might make it a bit easier for me to keep track of 'em, as I think I may have downloaded one of these three times thinking I hadn't snagged it yet...

_________________
"We're decomposing as we go."
-Tom Waits
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
drumnjazz
Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 7:42 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 1050 Location: Long Beach, CA.
iambicfivepoetry wrote:
These new remixes going to be posted up in the SAA Catalogue on the official website? Might make it a bit easier for me to keep track of 'em, as I think I may have downloaded one of these three times thinking I hadn't snagged it yet...


Just to answer this question, yes, I'll be putting up all the tracks in the Catalogue on the website...
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address
drumnjazz
Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 10:55 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 1050 Location: Long Beach, CA.
Today's remix (enamel on iron) is from the brilliant Blevin Blectum. She has cut time and turned ellul into microhouse heros. Fantastic stuff.
Back to top View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address

Display posts from previous:  

All times are GMT - 7 Hours
View next topic
View previous topic
Page 1 of 2
Goto page 1, 2  Next
sounds are active bbs Forum Index  ~  baby snakes
Post new topic

Jump to:  

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
R.I.P. Sounds Are Active BBS (2004-2007)
Powered by phpBB // Template by Mike Lothar