Colin Masson New Album

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   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!

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!