UnEarthed

The second Arezzo album was recorded around 2003ish, probably. By this point we had found a place to live and I had managed to create a little recording corner.

The sound seems to grow out of the previous album with layers of hissy analogue guitar arpeggios.

The musical arrangements on some tracks are unpredictable and the songs focus on everyday reflections or friends, such as Pete the ex 261 bus driver. Judging by the sounds I think I must have managed to bring the Ibanez analogue delay pedal I saved from Headjam’s drummer to Italy at this point.

In general, there is a wider range of instruments compared to Orange Chess Set, and a drum machine (probably Alesis SR-16) plays quite an important role in parts. This electronic sound was complimented by the dulcet tones of the Yamaha Portasound VSS-30 occasionally.

Ric had also lent me his squire bass, which I ‘decorated’ and still have hanging on my wall, so no need to pitch shift the guitar anymore. Not sure he was so pleased with the design initially. 🙂

The piano, played with various objects, was from Claudio’s house, just some rich guy with a piano and a pool table, and a Mercedes, and a nightclub, and a permanently bored look on his face.

Most of the songs where put together for busking and I’d been playing them everyday to the poor ‘Aretini’. In the beginning I was slapped round the face for playing the same 5 songs for hours, so was quite motivated to write more.

It wasn’t all songwriting though, sometimes it’s just nice to record sounds.

Other tracks were born out of jams with Titto and Marianna. Like these two, amongst others.

Marianna is singing on the last track.

I’m pretty sure a minidisk, the 4-track, and maybe a fridge-sized PC were involved in this recording. Some of the recordings were made in different locations on minidisk, added to the 4-track, then the whole thing was mastered with T-racks, probably. Here is the whole thing!