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Chaos Engine
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A weird fusion of deaf metal and slide guitar.
space rock hawkwind heavy rock synth rock
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Heavy Space Rock, a bit progressive possibly in places.
This was a project I recorded in 1999-2000, expecting (and indeed achieving) no financial gain, fame or success. It sold a fabulous 9 copies on dear old mp3.com. Ah, the joys of last century technology- Cubase VST creaking along and crashing frequently on a steam driven 300MHz Pentium II... We won't see those days again. Thank God. The original intent was a kind of metallised space rock, kind of a metallised Hawkwind. I modelled the vocals very poorly indeed on those of Martin Walkyier (then of Skyclad), largely because I can't sing to save my life. What I learned was that I can't bark convincingly either. Also, strangely, despite the hundreds of hours I spent recording and tweaking these songs I was reluctant to lay down vocal tracks, and on more than one occasion I just left the guide vocal on the finished masterpieces. Which was just plain silly. Other memories that leap unbidden include the hopeless quest to make an AWE32 kick drum poke through the mix, and the frustration caused by the fact that, having had most of my gear stolen some time before, all I had to work with was a guitar, a microphone, and whatever the poor struggling PC could come up with (and thanks to Steve Watson for the loan of his keyboard, his compressor/limiter, his outboard reverb, his ears and his considerable patience). So anyway, here it is, in all of its naked glory. Be kind. It was only for fun.
Song Info
Charts
#3,102 in subgenre Peak #8
Charts
Peak #47
Author
Ian Bland
Rights
Bland
Uploaded
August 22, 2004
Track Files
MP3
MP3 5.8 MB 128 kbps 0:00
Story behind the song
Right at the start of recording "Moon Rock", I intended to create a concept album called "The Chaos Engine", a title I'd shamelessly stolen from a novel, about a mysterious metaphorical device that seeds war, discontent and such on Earth. Then I discovered that just about every other bugger had nicked the same idea, including for a computer game, so I laid the idea to rest. This track alone remained, and the previous paragraph hopefully explains why a song with lyrics about the first world war suddenly mentions this "Chaos Engine" thing for apparently neither rhyme nor reason. Most of those I heartlessly forced to listen to my works thought this one of the better tracks. The vocal is less bad than most, and the slide guitar (performed using a short section of 22mm copper water pipe as a slide) adds a nice aura of chaos to the proceedings. Even the vaguely Floyd-ish atmospheric middle has its moments, even if it is sadly let down by yet another sampled drum, which is supposed to sound like a Drum Of Death and instead sounds like somebody throwing a rugby ball against a plastic dustbin. That's what you get for being too cheap to hire a drummer.
Lyrics
I was a child of sixteen the day I went to war, We were all smiling as we marched through the recruitment office door, They told us shiny faced lads we would be home by Christmas, Before the first snow's falling, before our mums had missed us, They took us to the country to teach us to be men, Made us fit for the heroes' land that we'd return to once again, We learned to march in straight lines, we learned to murder sandbags, We packed up all our troubles into our khaki kitbags, The Autumn leaves were falling, back home by Spring we reckoned, Beyond the far horizon from France the trenches beckoned, They talked about the Empire and the never-setting sun, They told us they were born to rule and we were born to fight the Hun, We stood upon the dock wearing our uniforms with pride, Before the day was done we were washed out on the tide... I saw the Chaos Engine RISE! Hup, two, three four, hup, two, three, four...
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