Brainstorm Two Earth Zero CD
CD (Australian Dollars) including postage (no tracking)
A$
20.00
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Our second album of songs included songs conceived by Paul and, in what has become our modus operandi, stretched, altered, cut, embellished and dominated in the band's bombastic style of the day to the point where the original idea is replaced with a new creation using parts contributed equally by all members. The lyrics of songs were immune from this process as the band recognised that the initial rain that falls to germinate Paul's songs will dry up if others edit these ideas. Thus, Brainstorm songwriting from this point until the 2000s is based on intensely personal experiences as realised in the dense lyrics of the day with a heavy focus on the space/earth themes that motivate and fascinate Paul. Thus, lyrics have become the responsibility of the writer and are never tampered with by the band whereas the music is open season for band members to suggest changes or invent new sections of music or arrangements. The content of this album included songs written since the first album was released with the exception of the live crowd favourite, Freeway, which was written at the beginning of the second ever rehearsal by Karl about his experience following Gary to the rehearsal room. This anomalous, throwaway song quickly became the band's signature tune at live shows and, frustratingly, remains popular with long-time fans and family members. Phil Shreck also contributed lyrics to 'Slow Train of the Lie' emulating his drum hero, Neil Peart of Rush.
The band had further evolved losing Mick Lukeis who was replaced by the redoubtable Jeff Powerlett on bass. |
The recording of this album, begun in 1993 and completed in 1995, followed the already established do-it-yourself ethic derived from the punk aesthetic that formed much of the musical influences on Karl, Craig, Gary and Clive who had been in punk or punk-influenced bands prior to the formation of Brainstorm and who held tight to the ethical and moral imperative of that music and how it is made and distributed. Thus, recording has long been an interest of all band members and home-produced recordings have been driven by the fun, challenge and control that diy offers as well as the necessity to do so in the time when recording studios were viciously expensive time holes. Thus, the drums were recorded at the rehearsal studio by transporting the entire recording setup to the studio and then the other tracks were layered at leisure at Craig's (next) rented home. This process became extremely time consuming due to the amount of recording required and the ability to re-record parts. Also, the band had long desired to create soundscapes and integrate the songs using links and motifs which took some time to discuss, write and record. The album became a (very) loose concept with the final track a twenty minute space-prog melding of four parts as the basis of that idea. An opportunity to record at AVC studios in Richmond resulted in one song, 'Anarchy', being produced there.
Again, the album was originally conceived as a cassette release but the rapidly changing availability of cd 'pressing' made this a desirable possibility and the band scraped together gig money and chipped in to 'press' a run of cd's, some of which are still in boxes under the beds or in cupboards at the homes of band members. The cover was again designed by the band and James Carter who handled the technical expertise and printed it in his spare time. The cover proved to be as difficult and time consuming to make as the cd itself and the band learned a great deal about the production of cd's. Although selling cd's at gigs and through magazines and the new wonder of the interweb was not to recoup the outlay of making the cd, the band was able to sell quite a few of this album overseas to many different countries and had lots of positive feedback on specialist music websites and publications. |