Colin Masson New Album - Progressive Rock Music Forum

....and my review is live! http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=606407

More good stuff Colin, keep up the awesome work! Thumbs Up

Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime

I always bring her breakfast in bed! Tongue

(or at least a cup of coffee).

Andyman1125 wrote:

The Liner notes were really cool to read - such a cool story behind the album!

It was a roller coaster of a time, when I wrote the stuff. it had to go on the back burner because everything was focused on the Morrigan, which at the time was the right thing to do. But it is fantastic that it is now possible for people of relatively modest means to produce professional albums.
For the record "The Southern Cross" and the "Mad Monk and the Mountain" were both recorded in a (small) bedroom, whereas "Isle of Eight", and all the Morrigan albums after "Wreckers", were done in a garage high up on the Wiltshire downs.

The words of South Australia are from a traditional sea shanty, probably from the late 18th/early 19th century, I sent a leaflet with info about the concept to those that asked for CD's, and it's also on the website, but for those that are interested I'll put a copy of it here too! Big smile

About the Southern Cross

This album requires some explanation. It is at the same time brand new, and yet

the material is mostly from 20 years ago. Famous rock musicians, especially of

advancing years, very often get accused of recycling and rehashing their old

material. I however am in the fortunate position of being relatively unknown, and

so is my back catalogue. When I originally recorded this, it was on to a four track

cassette portastudio, which in the mid 1980s was the best that an amateur

musician could aspire to. Recording studios were by and large beyond what I

could afford. Therefore I made do with what I had. It was a great way of getting

down ideas very quickly, but unfortunately the quality of the recordings generally

did not live up to what was required for a professional release.

These days, everybody can have a multi track in their bedroom courtesy of the

humble computer, and as I have a back catalogue going back many years, some

of which I think still stands the test of time material wise, I am now in a position

to release some of this old stuff.

So here for your delectation and enlightenment is a rundown of what this album

is about.

The Morrigan (which is the band that I play in), was formed in the second half of

1984. I was not the original guitarist, being a replacement for Tom Foad. This was

the time when I first met Cathy Alexander (the singer and multi instrumentalist) who became my long-term partner. At the time we

were both living in Basingstoke and I had never been further west than Burton Bradstock in Dorset. Cathy suggested on one of our

early holidays, that we should go and visit the North coast of Cornwall. I was completely blown away by the rugged Cornish coast

and having recently joined the Morrigan, was having my first real encounter with folk music at the same time as finding my feet as a

guitarist. I was also very keen to incorporate all the things that were happening around me into my music. This is the background to

the songs on this album.

The Concept

I think the Southern Cross is guilty of being a concept album, the concept

quite typical of someone in the first flush of youth. I had the rather

melancholy idea of two ships separated by a thousand years in time, both of

which came to a sticky end. Side one would be taken up with the

adventures of the original Southern Cross, some time in the 18th century

(Perhaps a little like the journeys of Captain Cook, but in a strange

alternative universe). The second ship was a starship that had an

unfortunate encounter with a black hole.

This idea rattled around in my head about a year and during this time most

of the material here was written. It has to be said that I do have an

unfortunate habit of straying off the original subject and so by the end of it

the concept is only fairly loosely adhered to. But this is how it all began.

The Tracks

Here is a list of the tracks and some interesting information about each.

Never Come Back

This began life as an attempt at a traditional song. I was in very much into the guitar playing of Martin Carthy at this time, and so you

find detuned acoustic guitars and a somewhat Humpty Dumpty style of playing, along with a call and response vocal style

reminiscent of sea shanties. The four track version is a bit cringeworthy these days, but the track had a considerable re-work when I

recorded it this time, including a much more sinister chorus, which seems to have brought it back from the brink.

Sails of Silver

This remains largely unchanged from the four track version. The two electric guitar breaks were originally played on a keyboard, with

the tape turned down to half speed which enabled me to do a fair imitation of Rick Wakeman (which of course was cheating

horrendously). In the intervening years my playing on the keyboard has improved somewhat (though I am not a good keyboard

player). However for the new version I thought it would be interesting to see if I could reproduce the keyboard lines on the guitar note

for note, and that is what I have managed to achieve. The bulk of the track is an acoustic instrumental, in which I am happy to admit I

was considerably influenced by the playing of Gordon Giltrap. I still perform this as a party piece at folk clubs on occasion.

South Australia

This track is named after a sea shanty which was later recorded by the Morrigan on the Hidden Agenda album. It is not however the

same song, it uses a fraction of the traditional lyrics but unlike the Morrigan version is entirely original in the composition of the tune

and the arrangement (In fact it predates the Morrigan version by some years). It was one of my earliest attempts at an orchestral

arrangement. At the time the only keyboard to which I had access was Cathy's Juno 6 synthesiser, which I believe was one of the

earliest polyphonic synthesisers on the market. There were no sequencers in those days, other than the primitive step sequencers used

by the likes of Tangerine Dream, so it all had to be laboriously multitracked. By the time I used the Juno it had been through the wars

a bit, but although some of the woodwork was missing it worked perfectly. As there was no multitimbrality in those days, I had to lay

up the tracks on the four track, three tracks at a time, then bounce them onto the fourth track, then start again with two tracks at a

time, bouncing them onto the third track, and so on. Musically the track came out really well but from a technical point of view it

sounded like it was recorded in porridge. On the current version It got up to 46 tracks in Cubase, also these days the keyboard I use is

a Triton Extreme (things have moved on a bit).

The Wreckers

Those of you who know the Morrigan's back catalogue will recognize this track, as it first appeared on the Wreckers album. In fact it

was originally written for the Southern Cross. So please forgive me for doing it again. The Morrigan version was done in a recording

studio but the whole episode was really rushed and the end result did not see the song at it's best (it was a long time favourite in the

Morrigan's live set). As a result I do'nt feel too bad about doing it again, and this version finally does the track some justice. I must

say a heartfelt thank you to Cathy for singing it again after all these years. Initially she was quite reluctant but in the end I persuaded

her; she completely rearranged the vocals and I think she is also happy with the final result. We won't be doing this one again!

Compass Rose

A short guitar instrumental. The original inspiration to this was a combination of listening to Jeff Beck and getting a Boss distortion

pedal and feedbacker as a birthday present. In the original version, the feedback came out of a little box. Now I have a Roland GT5

multi effects unit, which I couldn't have dreamt of affording in those days but which I picked up three years ago on eBay for £150 and

which I adore. It also has a feedbacker, but this time I went into a padded room and turned the guitar up, which was much more fun.

(Many thanks to my employers at the school where I work).

Interlude with Moon Cycles

This is simply a reminder to those people too young to remember glorious vinyl, that this is in fact the start of side 2 of the record, and

the story of the second ship. Moon cycles is the name of the patch on the Triton.

Cathy played that while I grumbled. It is mercifully short.

The Heart of the Machine

The idea behind the lyrics of the song come from the fact that a lot of exploration was carried out by people escaping from oppressive

regimes. At the time of the recording we were living not very far from Stonehenge, and the year before had seen the 'Battle of the

Beanfield'. It is generally considered that the police used excessive force on this occasion. And it did indeed feel very strange and

intimidating to be walking through the countryside and finding policemen everywhere.

On a technical note, I cordially dislike the kind of drum sounds used during the 80's but I remember that we had recently bought our

first digital reverb around about this time and of course, with any new piece of kit you end up mucking about with it. On the opening

section there is the typical 80's snare drum sound. But this time it was produced by climbing up a chimney (quite large) and hitting a

TDK cassette box (empty) with a spoon. Afterwards putting the whole thing through said reverb. Now the original four track tape is

still with me, and I was able to isolate one of those drum hits and so it appears here 20 years later sounding as horrible as ever, but I

had to put it in for old time's sake. The original version of this track made much more use of the original funk line, but somehow this

time it ended up sounding like ZZ Top, (such is life).

Ocean of storms

This is the only track that is completely new, largely because the original version was utter rubbish. The only similarities between the

two is the title, and that they both attempt a Berlin school type of electronic sound (I'm a big fan of Tangerine Dream's early work). I

also have Cathy to thank for some excellent vocals on this track. They were done on the same day as we finished the Wreckers vocals,

but where on the previous track we had spent many hours honing everything to perfection, this time we went down the pub and then

when we came back she sat and did the whole thing in a single take. I then did a bit of editing, and it was finished in about two hours.

(Mind you I did spend a while doing the sequences in the first place). Another note of interest is that the Triton has a vast library of

sounds (over 4000) and when I recorded this track I was able to stick to using patches of instruments exclusively from the 70's,

including electric piano, mellotron, Solina string machine, clavinet, and some sawtooth waveforms that would have not been out of

place on a Moog synthesiser. In fact pretty much the same as German bands of that era would have used.

The Southern Cross

This is the most interesting track from a technical standpoint. The original echoplex guitar part that opens the piece is something I

wrote as far back as my days in the Gestalt, a band I played in many many years ago. The four track recording that I did of this has

remained in good condition and I used it as a technical exercise in learning how to clean up material from tape on a computer. As a

result large parts of the original recording still remain here. This includes almost all the bass, the first keyboard solo (once more done

at half speed on the four track tape machine), the short piece of vocal, and several of the guitar solos. By a combination of careful

editing and timestretch, I was able to fit the old parts to new accompaniments. It was an interesting technical exercise. I rerecorded

this track originally about two years ago, so it was already done at the time that I did the rest of this album.

So there it is, the story of the Southern Cross. If anybody mentions Pirates of the Caribbean I would like to point out that I did it first!

First review posted tonight. A really good album, I have thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org

Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time!

Phideaux wrote:

I like the youtube song. Great stuff!

Thanks!

I did that mostly in the bedroom Geek

I like the youtube song. Great stuff!

Andyman1125 wrote:

PM sent Smile

Ditto

Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org

Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time!

Ok, I think that I’ve thought of everything. Confused The album is up on iTunes and Amazon, CD’s are available, the website is (mostly) functional and I have a 320kbps download available for reviewers that don’t want a CD. The main cause of the delay is that I have rather gone to town on the artwork this time and I had the wizard idea that as a CD is a bit small for decent artwork, I’ve arranged that it can be downloaded (free) from the website as a selection of screensavers. Additionally I have written a short history of this album, because it might be of interest. This comes with the CD in rather small writing but is also available on the reviews page of the website, which you can cut and paste from if you require extra detail for the reviews. To those that have already requested CD’s I shall send them, if I run into problems I will pm you. To those that prefer downloads, please let me know and I will pm you the link. Either way, could you also visit the website and download the artwork, as it is part of the experience!

Finally, thanks for your patience, and I really hope that you enjoy the album, (though I hope for honest reviews, and promise not to injure anyone who doesn’t like it). Ouch Tongue

I think it is quite different from the last album, hopefully not too much but enough to make it interesting. Lastly I’d like to thank Cathy, who has worked on this almost as hard as me, as well as having to listen to it for the last six months.

Here is the link to the website.

http://colinmasson.co.uk

I am really sorry about the delay on this (I should have kept my mouth shut in the first place. Ermm

)
Anyway the eta will be next Saturday, I'm having trouble getting the website up on the server and have decided to wait until then so that I can have a whole day to get it sorted. I am not releasing until everything is in place, there is a lot of info on the new website, and I want it there from the word go, so that it can be referenced. I've been jumping up and down with frustration as all the simple things seem to have got complicated, but I will not let the b*****ds get me down!

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