Studio Chapter 5: Metal XOR-A

There was a big change in the fall of 1994, Jason and a friend moved into a rental house together. Although Circle IX Studio was only five minutes from the rental house, it was too inconvenient to record music. So it was decided to build a studio in the basement of the rental house and move the equipment from Circle IX Studio to the new studio.

In early January of 1995, the basement was cleaned out and names were considered as the Studio was designed and built. BlakMetal X-OR Studio was an early choice. But by the end of January it was known as Metal XOR Studio, or MXOR for short.

On January 17, the first plywood was cut. The walls were framed and shelves were added for specific equipment. And the power was run. The new studio was progressing very well.

Then February 5 was the first Isthmus jam. The video of the session shows Harry and Jason playing in the unfinished studio, the walls were still just framed and not all of the equipment had been moved in yet. But the jam was successful enough to lead to the first Isthmus album, Electric Field Donut.

Two weeks later on February 19, the final pieces of music gear were installed and the Studio was complete. The first song worked on in the new Metal XOR Studio was called "Bacon". It was music written to accompany a video of a new surgery technique (being demonstrated on a pig body). The song was started on February 20 and finally finished and recorded on February 26.

Other than that special project, the first song recorded that appeared on a Studio album was "Happy Little Squirrel" recorded on March 4. It was recorded by Jason and Jimmy and would end up on their debut ORC album Purging the Great Abyss in 1999.

The last song recorded in this version of the Studio was on October 24, 1995, and was originally titled "Nine Days Wondering". The song was later renamed "At the Last" and appeared at the end of the NueroMud album Nine Days Wonder, which got its title from the original name of this song.

On October 30, 1995, the Studio was moved from the basement up to a ground level bedroom. There were two reasons for the move. The first being the fact that the basement was more damp than expected and it was starting to affect the equipment and recordings. The second was the purchase of the Studio's first computer program to control the MIDI equipment. And since the computer was upstairs in the bedroom, the Studio had to move.

So after eight months, MXOR-A was finished. The Studio moved upstairs and became MXOR-B.

No albums were released under the MXOR-A label. But songs were recorded that would end up on the aforementioned Purging the Great Abyss and Nine Days Wonder albums. There were also a few NueroMorgue songs recorded that have yet to appear on an album.

This period of the Studio's history lasted from February 1995 to October 1995.

This Day in Studio History

It was nineteen years ago today, on March 31, 1989, that the Traveling Deengelburys made their worldwide debut by playing a fund-raiser dance at a small high school.

Please visit the official Traveling Deengelburys website, the most comprehensive site on the internet to find information about the band.

Album of the Week #32: The Deuce

Project name: [early keyboards]
Album name: The Deuce
Release date: unreleased (recorded in 1986)
Release format: cassette
Studio name: none

Tracks:
1. Take the Train
2. Baby Elephant Walk
3. Where Did Your Love Go?
4. City Life
5. Londonderry Air
6. Ioelios
7. Trauma at Barnes
8. Miami
9. Amphition
10. Night Vision
11. Night Vision II
12. Boogie E
13. Soul Rhythm
14. Vertigo
15. Preternatural

This was the first collection of songs Jason recorded that he also wrote. It was recorded in late 1986. During this time he also recorded the Christmas album Merry Christmas to Me. Although most of the songs on this tape are originals, there are a couple of covers that he had learned on the piano and often played. The covers were "Baby Elephant Walk" and "Londonderry Air".

The name of the album comes from the fact that it was the second tape he completed (following the Christmas tape). This method of album naming would continue throughout the early keyboard years.

These songs were recorded using a microphone pointed at the keyboard's speaker and plugged into a home stereo. For songs that have two sounds at once, he would record one sound into the left channel and then play the second sound in the right channel while dubbing the left channel.

This is the only know copy of the tape to exist. It has never been heard by anyone other than Jason.


Next week's Album of the Week: Diversity au Troi from 1986-87.

Collector's Corner #25

Who does this mysterious mask belong to?

Technically it belongs to the Studio. But who wears this mysterious mask? Someone associated with the Studio.

It was created on November 29, 2007, for the first ORC photo session which took place that same evening. The Studio only owned one mask at the time and needed this second one. It turned out to be an image that could only come from the darkest nightmares.

It took about 10 minutes to make the mask. It is constructed of one sheet of printer paper covered in gaff tape and the face is made of white electrical tape.

The mask has been caught on digital film only a couple of times:

http://metalxor.blogspot.com/2008/01/studio-news-orc-session-1.html
http://metalxor.blogspot.com/2007/11/studio-news-orc-photo-session.html


And watch for more appearances of this face as the new ORC album slowly takes shape.

Equipment File #4: Cimar acoustic

Cimar acoustic guitar

This guitar was a Christmas present in 2003 from Jason's wife. Jason had mentioned that he did not like the sound of his Hohner acoustic guitar, so she bought him this one. It is made by Ibanez, the same brand as his bass guitar.

Like the Hohner, this guitar had no pickups either. But Jason was able to mic the guitar and get a good sound on tape. It was most often used playing live to their new daughter at the time. But it was used in several recordings also.

He received the guitar while recording the Mune Mud album Hobson's Choice. So this guitar was used on several of those tracks, including "She Walked to the Fair", "In Search of...", "Puffing Billy", and "Mr. Carpenter".

The guitar is still played on occasion today, mainly to entertain the two kids that now share the house with Jason and his wife. And there are plans to record new music with it some day.

Studio News: Precursory 33 Announced

Metal XOR Studio is proud to announce its newest album...

The earliest Mune Mud recordings date back to June of 1990. This was when a home stereo was used as the recorder. There was no multi-track recorder, no effects, and no bass guitar. The songs were mere experiments with what little equipment the Studio owned.

Many of those early songs were compiled on a tape in 1991 and simply labeled Mune Mud. Then in 1994 the tape was re-released, again as Mune Mud. And now in 2008, the songs have been cleaned up in the computer and the newest version of the album has its own title, Precursory 33. This is the 19th Mune Mud album to be released.

This album makes available again those earliest songs, the foundation of today's Mune Mud. It is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, April 8, 2008. So watch this blog for a preview song next week and other details leading to the release.

Studio Chapter 4: Circle IX

Circle IX was the second name the Studio went by in its long history. Whereas the previous name, Quintessential Disco-Quest, was used just for the recording period of Mune Mud's 1992 album Underwater Problem Factory, Circle IX (C9) was used for two years and covered the release of several albums. The albums released under the Circle IX label were:

Mune Mud Pryme Material [September 7, 1993]
NueroMorgue Devis Tortura [December 14, 1993]
NueroMorgue E. Phantasmata [April 5, 1994]
Mune Mud Mune Mud re-release [August 2, 1994]
Mune Mud Devaulted [August 2, 1994]
Binary Pipedream Binary Pipedream [September 6, 1994]
NueroMud ...Libra 971 [October 18, 1994]

The name itself comes from Dante's Divine Comedy. There are nine circles in the story, the Studio was named after the ninth one.

There were two phases to Circle IX. After Underwater Problem Factory was released, recording soon began on the next album. The Studio didn't really use the QDQ name any more. On May 19, 1993, the Studio was taken apart in preparation for a large amount of new equipment that had been ordered. The equipment arrived and from June 7 to June 10 it was rebuilt from the ground up. But this new version of the Studio had a new element, MIDI. Now the sequencer could be programmed to play back the sounds from the sound module and drum machine. This was a real break-through for the Studio and this is when the Studio actually took on the name Circle IX Studio.

The first song recorded following the Underwater Problem Factory sessions was "Palace" (which appeared on the 1993 NueroMorgue album Devis Tortura) on October 21, 1992, and the last song recorded was the original "Albino Boy" song on November 4, 1994.

After the "Albino Boy" song was recorded, the Studio was slowly dismantled to be moved to its new location. A couple of months later, on January 28, 2005, everything was taken out of C9 and delivered to the new studio. It was the end of an era... but the beginning of another.

This period of the Studio's history lasted from October 1992 to November 1994.