'Cuttooth' is mentioned in several entries of
Ed's Diary:
tuesday, august 3rd 1999
start by working on
'lost at sea'. thom thinks weve already recorded the definitive version whilst in paris. not sure about that, mind you he admits that thats because of the way hes singing it (which hes only done with a tape alone whilst driving). i really like this new version, as much as anything for its relentlessness and energy. anyhow move onto a new song
'cuttooth' - its got a 'neu' thing about it - long and hypnotic.... finish with attempting to rescue
'you and whose army'...
tuesday, august 31st 1999
kick off with
'cuttooth', the song with little structure and the only certainty is a bass riff. it makes you wonder how 'neu' did their thing - it always sounds spontaneous on those 12 minute epics, but did they have to rehearse intensely? did it require a degree of editing? then move on to the
'c minor song' - jonny thinks that maybe it's getting a little too tasteful and nice and he's right. it sounds too slick. finish with
'optimistic'.
wednesday, september 1st 1999
i read a rumour from the internet [never believe a single nuance - sd] that we are supposed to be collaborating with 'godspeed you black emperor' on
'how to disappear' - this person cited a number of chance occurences, including such impossible coincidences as 'they came to see us at a gig'. if that were sufficient corroborating evidence then, judging on the bands i've seen recently, you can hear us with 'the divine comedy' and the mighty 'asian dub foundation'.
twice around
'follow me around' - mmm. not great, but salvaged by
'you and whose army' - jonny thinks that voice and guitar are all that's needed until the end part; and it sounds right; or at least it's definitely a place to start. run through
'optimistic',
cuttooth', and
'up on the ladder' for nige, who's down for the day to do some wiring and 'studio arranging'.
friday, september 3rd 1999
after only 2 months rehearsal and 3 months recording, it's been concluded that what we should be doing now is trying to get basic arrangements. we're like fucking lasers, us. we spend almost the entire rehearsal working on
'cuttooth' (the song with no arrangements up until now) and surprise, surprise, it already sounds a lot better. when you have a song that does not have the usual distinction between verse/chorus/middle eight, there need to be other markers that define the way the song progresses. and we're getting there.
tuesday, december 7th 1999
spent an hour playing around with
cuttooth. came in and heard phil on drums and thom on rhodes going through it. it's one of those moments when you hear something being played and all you want to do is pick up a guitar and join in. so i did......it's only three chords so not too taxing even on my very limited music theory. looked at
'you and whose army' again from two weeks ago. tried this 'different' vocal idea that thom and jonny had been going on about.....three part but with a very low bass harmony, kind of inkspots-esque. this is always dangerous territory ie there would be nothing more fucking sad than this slick sophisticated 40's vocal group sound... mind you there's not much chance it could be slick....but you know what i mean. anyway sounds alright and the rest sounds better. thom is now doing a vocal comp of
'i will'........it's 2am and this is his idea of fun and relaxation..........strange
wednesday, december 8th 1999
started by playing
'cuttooth' again - the song needs stamina - sounding better than yesterday....just have to keep playing it. one of those days when it doesn't feel as though we've done much. maybe it's because everyone's tired. there was some protool arranging on
'follow me around' and an attempt to do vocal, piano and drums on
'egyptian song'. was sounding ok. tried playing
'keep the wolf from the door but it's too late and needs thom's rant on it. a bitty day. time to go home. saw only four hours of daylight - how do they cope in scandinavia during these months?
monday, february 21st 2000
all back together again, a week off and our studio tans have faded nicely. everybody seems rested and refreshed for the next five weeks..........nigel wants to get his teeth stuck into mixing, so we decided to set up and record
'cuttooth'. this at eight and a half minutes (by the end) is the long one - did five or six takes of which a couple are pretty good. will review further tomorrow. nigel and jonny are at present getting stuck into going through the various string parts on
'egyptian song'. good to be back.
wednesday, february 23rd 2000
listen to
'cuttooth' and it sounds fucking great. graham, our new engineer, earns his spurs by doing some great tape editing......which involves cutting the master tape at a particular place in the song and attaching another piece of tape from another version of the song. a bit more complicated from the days when your tape recorder chewed up your favourite 'madness' tape and you had to get out the old tape splicing kit and when finally fixed there was a section missing in the second chorus of 'embarassment' ......no very different from those days.
anyway coz fixed up his
fantastic driving bass thing....thom did a cool synth pass...and it's quite fast for us.
thursday, february 24th 2000
more work on
'cuttooth'...........jonny did his guitar thing...feedback,backwards guitar.......it was good to hear. it sometimes seems as though not much guitar has been played so far, which is probably bollocks. there has been a fair amount, but in the quest for different sounds we haven't first turned to the trusted and tried six-string. thom did
some work on a track upstairs, which sounded great. lots of editing on the computer to make the track in question more coherent. am i sounding boring?....apologies, just tired that's all....on to thursday...
friday, february 25th 2000
more good things added to
'cuttooth'........sounds. its one of those classic situations where the temptation is to continually embellish whats on there and it's one of those songs that you could get away with it. but in doing that, you often lose the essence of what was great about it in the first place. i guess the trick is to be absolutely ruthless on what is added................so at five in the morning having not savagely edited some of these overdubs the track sounded too overcooked..............
please read "NO LOGO" by Naomi Klein
monday, february 28th 2000
had a funny old meeting last friday..............definitely nursing a hangover from it today.................
nigel was sidetracked last week by
'cuttooth' so he really really wants to do some mixing this week.
'egyptian song' then..........thom plays bass and it sounds pretty much finished. i haven't really been involved in this song so when i hear it i think i'm able to be fairly objective about it.........it has the feel of one of the tracks on the last mark hollis album and it is definitely one of the highlights so far. meanwhile downstairs...................jonny and i are let loose on fucking up phil's drum sound. hours of fun as coz might say. starts off by phil doing some drums on
'kinetic'...................keep getting that ground hogday sensation writing this diary. can't help feeling that this must be an exceptionally boring read except to maybe the diehard muso............
yesterday i wasnt hearing straight
but today everything is in its right place
i have learnt the art of self deduction.
i take a deep breath and walk away.
