Pangolin-Beneath These Darkened Trees,CD,1998,Sweden
Here's another Peter Scion project,and one of my favorite CDs of this psych mastermind.Pure psychedelic rock full of lysergic vibes.Great organ work,wonderful P.Scion 's vocals,acid guitars,some eastern influences.Let your mind melt with these great recordings!Reminds me a mixture of early Paul Roland recordings with early Pink Floyd and HP Lovecraft(the band).A masterpiece.Here's what Peter Scion says:
The Pangolin album just happened. It was basically recorded just to get an aural document of what the band sounded like. But the recordings turned out so well, that we started thinking of releasing them. At one point early on, it was suggested to make a sort of mini album using only the songs that hadn't been on my solo albums, along with the songs that was most obviously different from the solo recordings, such as 'Cloak of Shame' and 'Is It Raining in Seattle?', but that idea was soon abandoned in favour of full length album including everything we had recorded. There were no outtakes, unless you count a never finished, and rather bad, version of 'In the Forest'.
All of it was recorded digitally in our rehearsal space, with guitarist Mikael Ljung as engineer. (He's a wizard. I just know it. Things could break down and as soon he entered the room, they would work. He's my opposite.) All basic tracks (drums, bass and most of the rhythm guitars) were recorded live. Solos. vocals and Anna Glans' organ were added later. The basic tracks were recorded in one day. I can't remember many second or third takes.
We called in additional musicians for a couple of tracks. Rasmus Hägg was the guitar player in Evil Knievel, a band that also featured Anna Glans and Pangolin's bass player Jonas Elgemark. He provided some fantastic noises for 'Permanent Green Light'. He's the one that makes, for instance, those odd, fiery West Coastish Cipollina freak outs and the strange sounds at the end. Carita Forslund added flute to a few tracks, as well as background vocals on the title track. The guitar player of Gothenburg's excellent progressive outfit Grovjobb, Jerry Johansson, showed up with his sitar and helped us out on the instrumental 'Caravan Thing' as well as 'Cloak of Shame'. Another friend and fan of the band, Gustaf Bengtsson, was staying in town for a few days during the recordings, and blew harmonica on 'Tombstone Eyes'. I loved having all these people coming in and doing a great job. It was like one big family.
The arrangement for 'Is It Raining in Seattle?' was the idea of Sara Pang, our drummer at the time. We had originally played it similar to the 'Sweet Sorrow Man' version, but Sara never really liked that country beat, so instead she came up with that driving, rolling rockabilly groove--which of course was a strike of genius since the song improved a lot.
The vocals demanded a few takes for a couple of the songs. It was hard to find the right growl for 'Lover's Crime', and I constantly lost breath during 'Tombstone Eyes.' We had never played it so fast before, and it has a lot of words! The first vocals for 'Cloak of Shame' were lousy, so they had to be done again. Unfortunately I was quite hungover that day I was to do it, and every time the melody reached for the higher parts, my head felt like it was going to crack… I've learned my lesson now. Never another hangover day when recording!
During the the solo section at the end of 'Cloak of Shame' you can hear three solo guitars. It starts with only one, then another one comes along, then a third one. At the end, one by one they drop out of the mix. One of them was reversed. You don't hear that typical otherwordly whine of a backwards guitar because of all the fuzz I used, but it created different harmonies and adds a lot to the overall multilayered feel. 'Is It Raining in Seattle?' also uses several guitars at the end. We had more than one solo to choose from, and we couldn't decide which one was the best, so we put them all into the final mix!
The album was recorded in long sessions spread over a couple of weekends. We more or less lived in the rehearsal room. It was a real low budget job. Mics were taped to whatever available--there weren't enough real mic stands! It involved a lot of hard work recording 'Beneath These Darkened Trees,' but it was a wonderful time. At that time, Pangolin was the band I had dreamt of being a member of. It was wonderful. Really fun.
All of it was recorded digitally in our rehearsal space, with guitarist Mikael Ljung as engineer. (He's a wizard. I just know it. Things could break down and as soon he entered the room, they would work. He's my opposite.) All basic tracks (drums, bass and most of the rhythm guitars) were recorded live. Solos. vocals and Anna Glans' organ were added later. The basic tracks were recorded in one day. I can't remember many second or third takes.
We called in additional musicians for a couple of tracks. Rasmus Hägg was the guitar player in Evil Knievel, a band that also featured Anna Glans and Pangolin's bass player Jonas Elgemark. He provided some fantastic noises for 'Permanent Green Light'. He's the one that makes, for instance, those odd, fiery West Coastish Cipollina freak outs and the strange sounds at the end. Carita Forslund added flute to a few tracks, as well as background vocals on the title track. The guitar player of Gothenburg's excellent progressive outfit Grovjobb, Jerry Johansson, showed up with his sitar and helped us out on the instrumental 'Caravan Thing' as well as 'Cloak of Shame'. Another friend and fan of the band, Gustaf Bengtsson, was staying in town for a few days during the recordings, and blew harmonica on 'Tombstone Eyes'. I loved having all these people coming in and doing a great job. It was like one big family.
The arrangement for 'Is It Raining in Seattle?' was the idea of Sara Pang, our drummer at the time. We had originally played it similar to the 'Sweet Sorrow Man' version, but Sara never really liked that country beat, so instead she came up with that driving, rolling rockabilly groove--which of course was a strike of genius since the song improved a lot.
The vocals demanded a few takes for a couple of the songs. It was hard to find the right growl for 'Lover's Crime', and I constantly lost breath during 'Tombstone Eyes.' We had never played it so fast before, and it has a lot of words! The first vocals for 'Cloak of Shame' were lousy, so they had to be done again. Unfortunately I was quite hungover that day I was to do it, and every time the melody reached for the higher parts, my head felt like it was going to crack… I've learned my lesson now. Never another hangover day when recording!
During the the solo section at the end of 'Cloak of Shame' you can hear three solo guitars. It starts with only one, then another one comes along, then a third one. At the end, one by one they drop out of the mix. One of them was reversed. You don't hear that typical otherwordly whine of a backwards guitar because of all the fuzz I used, but it created different harmonies and adds a lot to the overall multilayered feel. 'Is It Raining in Seattle?' also uses several guitars at the end. We had more than one solo to choose from, and we couldn't decide which one was the best, so we put them all into the final mix!
The album was recorded in long sessions spread over a couple of weekends. We more or less lived in the rehearsal room. It was a real low budget job. Mics were taped to whatever available--there weren't enough real mic stands! It involved a lot of hard work recording 'Beneath These Darkened Trees,' but it was a wonderful time. At that time, Pangolin was the band I had dreamt of being a member of. It was wonderful. Really fun.
From Tree Music website
get it here
4 comments:
this little comment to thank you for your blog & your rich & various music!
omg. thanks again!
Thank you so much for this Masterpiece !
One request maybee posible :
Gianluca Galli - Back Home “Lucretica Records”
cheers Theo
Very nice discovery ! Thanks !
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