|
|
The Touchables |
Written by Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh and Philip Adrian Wright. |
|
Speaking of which, what is your choice |
| Title |  |
The Touchables |
| Songwriter | Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh and Philip Adrian Wright | |
| Vocalist | John von Ahlen | |
| Backing Vocals | ||
| Production # | 219 | |
| Engineer | Juan del Toro | |
| Producer | John von Ahlen | |
| Dedicated to | Ruby Wax | |
| Studio | Subterrane Recording Studio | |
| Software | Cubase | |
| Instruments | Linn Drum LM1, Fairlight CMI IIx, Arturia Matrix Brute, Moog Voyager II, Roland Jupiter 4 and Jupiter 8, Oberheim OBX-a, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5. | |
| Time | 3:51 | |
| BPM | 135 | |
| Copyright | Subterrane Records 2023 | |
| Appears on |      |
|
| Additional Info: Recorded for our cover of the classic Travelogue album, which The Human League originally released in 1979. Released on Compact Disc on conzoom Records. The Deluxe Edition includes 3 Limited Edition CDs. Sunday 9th of August 2257 hours. I finished rock n Roll / Nightclubbing and had dinner and watched a few episodes of Deep Dpace Nine. Then I had a second wind and went back into the studio and started work on this track. As always, it's tempomapping and arrangement. The songs on Travelogue and reallly fast and really slow, so it's a challenge to make them fit with contemporary styles, which is kind of good because it's forcing me to be creative. I get the feeling I want to do something different with this one, but time will tell. Background visuals: The Prisoner (1967), Kolchak The Night Stalker. Monday the 10th of August 2005 hours. OMG I got the phonie call this morning. I was officially offered a position as Hospital After Hours Coordinator. I am so excited and thrilled. It's such amazing news. It really all feels surreal. I spent half the day on the phone again, talking to Sharyn, Angus (multiple times again), Paula, Kirsten, Annette, Costa and Chris. I started work on V2 at around 1630 hours and finished the arrangement. I was trying to get a vibe for the song and out of nowhere I thought that Yazoo - Nobodys Diary style drums and bass would sound interesting. So I finished the musical arrangement and programmed a similar beat and bassline and I think it works. Then at 1820 hours I started recording BVs and finished them all around 1900 hours. I was going to call it a day, but thought I may as well record the lead vocals, which I did. So now it's 2009 hours and I'm writing these notes as V2 is printing. I think that's just about it for the song. I just need to do some tidying up of the vocals as I can hear a few clicks and pops. I might add some arpeggios in the prechorus, but the song is really 98% done. Which is good because I really want to get at least one song a day done this week. If I spent more than 2 days per song it's going to blow out the production time, and Ingo wants to start pre-ordering next week. OMG I just remembered that Costa is going to make a Greek Lasagna for me this week. I feel so blessed. So much good news today. As always, my darling Jack is sitting on my lap as I type this. Actually, he was sitting on my lap the whole time I was recording vocals. Background visuals: Deep Space Nine, Doctor Who (The Robots of Death) Tuesday the 11th of August. 1730 hours. Felt like I should keep going with the song as I really wanted to push it to the next level, so I added a bunch more BVs. I imagined what it would have been like if Martin Rushent had produced Travelogue in 1981 instead of Colin Thurston. So I took some liberties and added some extra BVs in the prechorus. It really brings out the emotion in the song, and makes me realise how underrated it is. They really could have released it as a single. I hope the fans agree when they hear the final version. As I was mucking around doing the mix I noticed how good it sounded without drums, so I printed an "Ambient" version without the kick and snare. It really lets you hear all the detail in the song. I might include that as another bonus track. Or possiblly rework the ambient version as a proper mix in itself. Background visuals: Alien (Director's Cut), The Twilight Zone (1953) Wednesday the 12th of August. 1014 hours. Was on the phone with Paula for an hour this morning, just chatting about SVHOP HAHC etc. I wanted to start the day doing a new Travelogue track, but it was just playing on my mind about the mix for The Touchables. So I'm in the studio now doing a few final tweaks. Namely the synth riff that starts in the intro. It was way too loud in V3. I think the music mix is balanced really well now, so I might use this as a template for Marianne, even though I've already started that track. I guess I will have to scrap it and start again. C'est la vie! Background visuals while working in the studio: The Outer Limits (1963) |
||
