Promo Video: March Of The Rads & Radioatomic Playlist

Delayed somewhat due to a reformat of the studio computer, here is the promo video for March Of The Rads: the opening atmosphere from the Radioatomic album.


Technical commentary about the audio can be found in this post. The video features footage from one of my favourite locations: the abandoned diatomite quarry. It has featured in many of the posts on this blog, many of my videos, and in my cover photography. The footage used here was collected over a period of three years, with the wobbling bar and yours truly walking in the foundations being among the most recent.

This being the final promo video for the Radioatomic material, I've grouped them all into a playlist that follows the album's running order. The only tracks not included are the two versions of '96MHz,' which I didn't feel needed illustrating. When you have a spare hour and eight minutes, why not give it a spin?

Promo Video: A Robot In Every Home

I'm currently completing the extant promo videos for the Radioatomic album. Here's A Robot In Every Home. This time I tried my hand at mixing stock footage with footage from the studio. Up until now the two styles have been kept separate. I sourced scenes from three public domain films: Leave It To Roll-Oh, The Middleton Family At The New York World's Fair, and The Last Word In Dishwashing. Studio footage includes my trusty tin robot Mini Radiocon, the Parker Brothers' Merlin game, the Roland HS-60, and Novation K-Station.

To give you an idea how much effort goes into these promo videos, I devoted one to two hours to the editing each evening over the course of a week. The studio footage was accomplished in a couple of afternoon sessions, and sourcing and converting digital film stock about the same again. Rendering the finished film took roughly six hours. It would go quicker, but my system isn't optimal for the task.

So, without further ado, let's see what kind of future we might've had if atomic power was all it was cracked up to be ...

Video:

Field Recordings: City Junkyard

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I take a Zoom H1 digital recorder with me pretty much everywhere I go. My job often presents opportunities to record all sorts of interesting sounds. I also have an affinity for junkyards, and waste places where junk accumulates, and seek these out in my free time. They also offer up photo opportunities, and a lot of my album artwork is shot in these locations.

This summer I was able to visit a site that was new to me: the city junkyard, which is hidden from prying eyes behind the city gravel pit. This is home to anything the City Works dept. doesn't have room for in their yard: lengths of various sized pipe and culvert, pieces of machinery and equipment that are obsolete or 'in reserve,' temporary signage posts, old electrical boxes, pumps, dump-trucks in various states of disrepair, giant petrol tanks (the kind usually buried beneath petrol stations), and miscellaneous other odds and ends. It all adds up into junk heaven for someone like me.

One of many electrical boxes left to the elements.

I spent a couple of hours going from one end to the other with my camera, digital recorder, and my trusty striker: a valve rod from a car engine. I mostly concerned myself with the various lengths of pipe, many of them over a foot in diameter. One of the coolest sounds I captured was throwing pebbles into the largest of these. The giant petrol tanks were also a source of impressive sounds.

Pipes!

I found that placing the microphone in the mouth of the pipes yielded the most interesting results: it picked up the optimum amount of reverberation. The mic placed in front, a foot or so distant, gives a subtler effect, and above merely accentuates the sound of the striker.

More pipes!

Among the iron/steel pipes were some of comparable size made of thick plastic. These produced good pinging echoes. If you've ever tapped on an irrigation pipe you'll know what I mean. They're somewhat tricky to record at a decent volume, so more experimenting is in order!

The end of the larger petrol tank. Both were largely obscured by brush.

A little about the petrol tanks. There are two at this particular location, and both, as far as I could tell, were sealed - which is a shame, because there's one at another location I frequent that has a gaping hole in the side, turning it into an excellent reverb chamber. So, I wasn't sure if my recordings would pick up the tremendous reverb that results from hitting one. The sounds resulting from holding the mic near the end and striking it weren't all that impressive. I had better results micing the space between the two tanks, which are cylindrical and lie side by side. But the best sounds by far resulted from micing the 2" threaded pipe that leads into the tank (and lets the sound ouuut!).

Part of both tanks can be seen in this pic.

One downside to this location as a source of audio recordings is that it's situated next to an MDF plant, which produces a constant low rumble. Its frequency is such that when I scrub it from the audio it strips more of the lower frequencies away than is ideal. It's a constant battle to preserve as much of the original sound as possible while making it clean enough to be usable.

Digital Album: Radioatomic

At last, the album is complete. Releasing it in stages has been an interesting process, but I always intended it to be a cohesive work. Ladies and gentlemen, the first 'proper' album by The Manitou since 2008: Radioatomic.

Bandcamp player:

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that Radioatomic has been inspired by radioactivity and the Atomic Age. Production began in early 2013 and has taken over a year and a half to complete. That isn't to say it was my sole project during that time: two (as yet unreleased) soundtracks were tackled, and a handful of songs that didn't fit the theme are waiting in the wings for the follow-up.

The songs herein range from 'atmospheres' and experimental pieces to synthpop/electropop with a dark edge. They were created with a host of analogue and analogue-modelling synthesizers, virtual instruments, digital sampler software fed with 'found sounds' (field recordings, etc...), and a handful of drum machines and electronic toys (a track-by-track list of these devices can be found in the PDF booklet accompanying the release).

Track listing:
1. March Of The Rads
2. Electro Magnetic
3. Isotopes For All - Part 1
4. U235
5. Isotopes For All - Part 2
6. 96.1 MHz
7. Half Life
8. Global Warning
9. Nibiru
10. Radium Smile
11. Reactor Four
12. Atomic City
13. Cathode Ray
14. Fukushima Fifty
15. 96.2 MHz
16. A Robot In Every Home

These sixteen tracks all but fill an 80 minute CD, but the deluxe digital download on bandcamp includes seven bonus tracks: the single edits of five album tracks, an instrumental version of Half Life, and the electro mix of Atomic City. Thus every track released as part of the series of free singles is included in the package.

Also included is a 30 page .PDF booklet with liner notes, lyrics, and track-by-track artwork and instrument lists. For more detailed commentary on each track I suggest searching this blog for the keyword 'Radioatomic.'

The artists Atomic Shadow and Kraftwerk deserve special mention, as both heavily influenced this album. Specifically, it was #9 by Atomic Shadow that inspired me to browse the Prelinger Archive for public domain film reels, resulting in 'Isotopes For All' and 'Atomic City.' Kraftwerk have been an influence on my music from day one, but during production I realised that their 1975 album Radio-Activity had more than just its subject-matter in common with this project. If you haven't heard it I urge you to follow the link and do so.

Digital Single: A Robot In Every Home

The final free single from the Radioatomic project looks at the bright future promised by the advent of atomic energy that didn't quite live up to expectations. Sure, there were advances in many industries, but where are our personal jet packs, flying cars, and robot butlers? This was my inspiration for A Robot In Every Home.

Bandcamp player:

A Robot In Every Home [single edit] is drastically pruned down from the eight minute album version to serve up the essence of the track. It retains most of the intro, consisting of French horns, found sound, and a snippet of processed audio from a fun little film called 'Leave It To Roll-oh.' I was thinking of old RKO Radio Pictures black & white b-films, complete with a menacing mechanical man. Next come some synthesizer parts, the bulk of which were created with the Novation K-Station this time around. HS-60 is also present, and Gmedia M-Tron choir. The Korg Monotribe was used on the bridge, but that particular part was cut from this version.

Video:


Audio:

Like Radium Smile before it, this song started with the lyrics. Then came the melody as heard on the intro: something to set the tone for the Radioatomic album's 'big finale'. I spent some time last year sampling an electronic game called Parker Brothers' Merlin (see this post) and this seemed a perfect place to use the sounds. As well as the usual DR-550 tom-toms and synthesized percussion, there's the odd found sound in the mix, including a hand-clap with tight reverb recorded in the corner of a concrete foundation, and a pebble being dropped (into a drain pipe, if memory serves).

A Robot In Every Home [electro edit] rather than include the album version on the single I created this alternate mix, which omits the French horns and some of the samples. It has the same shortened bridge as the single edit.

There's currently no video for this track, but it's forthcoming. (updated 12/11/14). This release is twinned with the full Radioatomic album. Stay tuned to the next post for details!

Digital Single: Radium Smile

My intention was to release the Radioatomic album tonight, to coincide with my birthday. But the booklet and liner notes aren't quite finished. Thankfully, the seventh single from the album was ready to go, so here it is: Radium Smile.


Radium Smile is inspired by the plight of the 'Radium Girls', who unwittingly poisoned themselves working for the Radium Dial Company in the early 1900's. Though the lyrics are tongue-in-cheek, I like to think this pays tribute to them in some small way. Musically, it's one of the poppiest from the new album (insasmuch as I write that sort of thing!). Unusually, the lyrics were written first. Once I had an idea of how I was going to sing it, I programmed a bass arpeggio on the K-Station. That synth provides most of the sounds and melodies. The Roland HS-60 makes a brief appearance on the chorus, and string chords from the Crumar Performer give what is a fairly bare-bones track a bit of meat. All percussion is either created from scratch or sourced from found sounds, with the exception of tom-toms from the Boss DR-550. Most of the sounds had already been added by the time the Korg MS-20 Mini arrived, but I managed to sneak it in on a bit of percussion before the mix-down. AnalogX SayIt provides the computer voice.

Audio:


Video:


I hope to release the album before the end of the month. Stay tuned!

Digital Single: Atomic City

Production on the Radioatomic album has slowed due to summer activities, but hasn't come to a standstill. I present the latest track intended for the album: Atomic City, plus a remix.


Atomic City was a last-minute addition to the album tracklist and slow to crystallize. For a long time it existed only as the treated film clip passages and atmospheric sound effects. It was only when the arpeggios and chorus melody came along that things fell into place. The bulk of the sounds heard here were realised on MS-20 Mini, marking its debut on the album material. The K-Station provides the arpeggios, HS-60 the main melody, and tom-toms were sequenced with the SamplePad as usual.

Video:

Atomic City [electro mix] came about when I sent the original track to my friend and collaborator Jimmy Aaron. He was curious to hear what it would sound like with a 4/4 beat behind it. The notion had also crossed my mind, so I gave it a shot. I turned it into a full-blown electropop track, and added some ideas that didn't make it into the original: such as the cut-up vocals towards the end. The new percussion elements were all created on MS-20 Mini. Also featured is the Lounge Lizard electric piano VST.

Video:

The treated monologue and film clips are taken from the film 'Magic Of The Atom: The Atomic City,' courtesy of the Prelinger Archives.