The Assessment:

The overture to the album – bookended by “Conclusions” – very simple, just one guitar loop created on the repeater, a bass drum sample, some guitar “slices” created in Logic and treated with the Logic Autofilter and the melody which is a combination of a “regular” guitar sound with a haze of pitchshifter from the G-Force and a synthy sound from the VG-88. All these elements were taken from “conclusions”. Robert Dean’s voice completes the picture.

Roswell:

The first tune i recorded for this album – a real “kitchen sink” job. The drums are a loop originally played by the funkmeister Clyde Stubblefield which i chopped up and re-grooved with Phatmatic Pro. Tons of layers and loops in this one, with a mixture of regular guitar sounds and sounds from the VG-88. The intro contains two of the only three synth sounds on the album – a rhythmic one from the FM7 and two notes from Absynth. The voice is the original newscast reporting on the Roswell crash.

Alienation:

A tune in two halves. The first half – pads and textural guitar loops provide the backdrop for drums and percussion from the Battery drum sampler and Robert Dean’s voice. The second half – a massive d’n’b drum loop chopped up and re-grooved with Phatmatic Pro, two bass sounds courtesy of the ES-1 and the EXS-24 and lots of guitars - and that’s about it!

Thirty Metres Across:

Groove central. After some heavy univibed chords treated with delay and pitchshifter, the drums and bass kick in and we’re off. We start in a phrygian tonality with more guitar slices and clean and dirty chords to set the mood and then we change to a mixolydian tonality while Robert Dean talks about a UFO that crashed near the Baltic sea. I used a “whammy” patch in the G-Force to push the solo up an octave. Lots of v-wah in the rhythm guitars (cool piece of kit – thanks Vikki!). Pretty basic apart from some plugin automation to filter the drums before the coda.

Area 51:

Did this one at the last minute – took about 3 hours from start to finish. No bass, but massively compressed drums with a bass drum that’s almost tuned to C#. Two loops in the background, one very low one created with the Repeater and a pad created with the D2 delays. Soloing with the VG-88 over a mixture of real and VG-88 chords. I like this one – i had the idea and just went ahead and did it. Tantalisingly short tune!

Reverse Engineering:

This was recorded as an extra track in 2004 at the request of Alternity Records. It has a reaming keyboard solo by Tom (Shur-I-Kan) Szirtes and some pretty tough grooves...!

Intron:

I wanted to use an exerpt of Robert Dean saying “genetic manipulation” on this one, but the audio just wasn’t clean enough – shame...would have been nice...but still a good tune anyway. Starts with an uber-loop created in the Repeater with some nice overdubs from the VG-88 and heavily treated sounds created wih the G-Force. Then it’s a d’n’b groove with a melody played with one of my favourite G-Force sounds and some choppy rhythm guitars. The solo is a G-Force sound which uses the formant filter to get that vocal “talk box” quality. A nice change in tonality from major to minor and back again. chuck everything back in for the coda after a brief ambient breakdown – nice.

Cosmic Top Secret / Sacred Geometry

Two tunes crossfaded here. Cosmic Top Secret just lays down a funk groove after a nice opening texture from the Repeater and some treated chords. Pretty simple tune – a Phatmatically sliced up drum loop, funky rhythm guitars, a bit of a solo and a phrygian chorus. Then Sacred Geometry gives me the opportunity to soundscape for a few minutes...

Conclusions:

The bookend to “The Assessment”. The drums are roland TR-808 samples laid out in the Logic arrange window. Three ambient guitar parts and a synth bass drone complete this simple but effective tune.

Human Origins:

The opening delay repeats are courtesy of the D2’s – they’re filtered, so they gradually lose their higher frequencies and they’re treated with the massive Ohmbboyz delay plugin. Then it’s loop central – two loops created with the Repeater – both dry and treated with the Logic autofilter. A high melody and some very low notes pitchshifted by the G-Force. Robert Dean’s voice and that’s about it.

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