As a recording engineer, programmer, composer and producer, Ian Tregoning has worked with a multitude of international artists on scores of different studio projects.
Starting with the ingenious remix of the YELLO Bostich 12” in 1981, here’s a brief introduction to the undersea world of Inky Blackness.
Bostich still sounds like the fuse is lit. The original track is two minutes of demonic joy and the title comes from Dieter Meier who thought the driving sequencer reminded him of a Bostitch office stapler. DO-IT Records had just released the debut album Solid Pleasure, I thought this track was a gem so I hired a studio in Zurich to try and remix it for a 12”. Back then, this was an adventurous new format.
It’s about 10am, Dieter and I arrive to find Boris is already busy, overdubbing some unusual sounds for DAILY DISCO. I notice Boris is playing live keyboards, no MIDI, direct-to-tape, something I realised is a key component of Yello. Boris and Dieter were nearly finished with CLARO QUE SI and were reluctant to go over past material but they finally agreed to look at Bostich. However, there was a problem with the drum track from Felix Haug as it was only in sync for about one minute. Not ideal as we’d have to build the mix in sections.
Ursli Weber, the engineer, was calmly focused on the job. Boris starts working on the drum track but he’s not looking at the desk, he’s looking upwards and listening. The combination of live drums, timbales and electronic sequencer is mesmerising. Dieter approaches a typewriter. They’re both in great humour, the remix wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
I first met Fela in London at the Addis Ababa studio where his live engineer Cliff Whyte and I used to work. Fela was about to record two albums back-to-back in Paris and needed an engineer familiar with 48-track digital recording. He dreaded working with modern studio technology and used to call computers “the devil moschine”. I got the gig but his intuition about this studio was uncanny.
We had two assistants and both of them were so useless we had to sack them. The desk was a 60-input SSL4000 G-Series but the system software was very buggy. During one of the sessions, Fela announced that he needed to talk to the band and led them off to the studio so I joined them. As they picked up their instruments, they formed a circle round him. I remember he was nearly naked, wearing just his undies and a big fur coat. He didn’t say a word but gave each of them a musical phrase as walked round the room. Slowly, an enormous African colossus was coming to life, a wall of rhythm and brass. Fela walked over to an electric organ in the corner and started jamming the keys with fingers wracked with eczema.
Suddenly, he stopped. The band stopped. He turns round and says ‘Now I’ve got your attention!’.
This was the first session for MC Harg’s excellent ‘King of the Cut Outs’ exhibition and later appeared on the ROCK ART album. The extremely talented Richard Norris was co-writing and producing. It was a fairly chaotic session as Keith Allen and Damien Hirst were in the room next door, keeping the vibe flowing with an impressive array of comestibles.
I love recording the human voice and try to get it down in the first or second take. There’s something about the red light that can throw a performance so, for this session, I set the mic up in the back of the control room and then masked all the RECORD lights on the tape machine.
I told Joe we weren’t ready but go ahead and start warming up. After 3 takes, I invited him
to listen to the results. He was ecstatic, he started throwing a few boisterous punches and so I had to return the favour. Minutes later, Richard Norris looked in and saw us rolling on the floor and drily said “Everything OK boys?”
After months of limbo, Jono Podmore the revered CAN collaborator, rings up to say that Jaki has finally listened to the demo of ‘Robot Rhythm’ and suggested I come over to record with him in Köln. What a day
JAKI LIEBEZEIT, the visionary drummer has agreed to add his endless evolving rhythms to the MAGNETIK NORTH album I was producing. Recording started in an old jazz studio in the south of Köln with Professor Pod at the controls. Jaki arrived with a minimal kit including some customized cymbals and a big Gretsch floor-tom from the CAN years. Jaki doesn’t use a kick-drum or hi-hat, preferring the African tradition of hands-only. Evidently, the hi-hat was invented for the Charleston a 100 years ago and he was never a big fan.
Although he was in his 70s, there was a stealth and youthful agility as he moved effortlessly around the drums. He could play with his eyes shut.
After the fifth take when he was finally happy with ‘Robot Rhythm’, he turns to me with his radiant green eyes and says ‘OK, what else have you got?..
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