I still remember, when I had the first contact with Captain Beefheart’s album „Trout mask replica“. Driven by the praise of many critics I wanted to like it. But I needed many, many spins until I understood a bit what’s going on. At first it sounded like noise topped by one of the strangest voices I had heard. I think it’s the album with the longest „growth“ in my collection. Every time I listened to it I discovered more treasures behind the „chaos“: Creative use of timing, contrapuntal, independent lines of the guitars, Free Jazz. It would take too long to explain the unmatched creativity and braveness of this album. The only downside of „Trout mask replica“ was and still is the sound-quality. The brilliant performance of the magic band is buried in the mix and the whole album is too much focused on Beefheart’s vocals.
Therefore my approach for this cover is to raise the understanding of the complexity of this music. If you can hear all different parts equally leveled and all instruments get the space they deserve, you see the complete picture, not just one part and the rest in the background. My cover is close to the original with some minor changes of the guitar-parts, but the sound is very different. As in my previous tracks I use electronic drum-boxes for the drums, the bass is played by a synthesizer and the guitars are much more heavy than in the original. By the way I think, that Chris’ voice is similar to Beefheart, another reason to choose a song of the Captain.
Chris: Vocals
Dirk: Guitars, Programming
Recording notes: I used my Ibanez FRM-100 through the same Kemper-profiles, which I have used throughout the Metal-project. The Ibanez provides less sustain, which is suitable in my opinion for the very complex rhythms here to achieve some clarity. The singlecoils of the Ibanez cause less gain. I applied here a tape-delay to the drums to create more „groove“ with some subtle delays.
Instruments used:
Ibanez FRM-100 with Kemper Profiling amp
Left channel: Maxon OD820->Bogner Überschall->Mesa Rectifier 4x12 with V30->SM57
Right channel: Maxon OD820->Mesa Rectifier->Mesa Stiletto Cabinet with V30->SM57+Royer R-121 Ribbon
Drums: Drums: Logic EXS Sampler with sounds from Teenage engineering PO-12, Roland TR-707 and Samples of real Crash and Ride-cymbals.
Bass: U-He Zebra
This cover-song is officially licensed:
www.idblm.org/35935
That's the reason I don't publish it as "name your price"
released March 12, 2018