Dead Weather Machine

Last updated
Dead Weather Machine
Dead Weather Machine album cover.jpg
Studio album by
Released2004
RecordedSomnambulab, Glasgow, 2004
Genre Dark ambient
Length73:49
Label Manifold Records
Producer Kevin Doherty
SleepResearch Facility chronology
Nostromo
(2001)
Dead Weather Machine
(2004)
Dead Weather Machine Re:Heat
(2004)

Dead Weather Machine (sometimes abbreviated to DWM) is the second album by dark ambient artist SleepResearch Facility, and is the first of a two-part set, the second part being Dead Weather Machine Re:Heat (also known as DWM Re:Heat).

Contents

Overview

The album is summarised by the text on its cover:

As an exercise in sample manipulation, DWM draws exclusively from source audio generated by swinging a cheap microphone in front of a misfiring heating unit, itself congested with the fibrous dust of advanced decrepitude and exhuming a near death-rattle from its fractured internal respiritory[ sic ] systems.

SleepResearch_Facility made a three-minute recording of the Tango2 heater (manufactured by Dimplex Heating Ltd), [1] and created DWM and DWM Re:Heat from it, "using only about three or four very powerful pieces of software to mutate and mix/layer the sound". [2] The manipulation is so thorough and extensive that it's impossible to guess the original source of the sounds. For listeners who are interested, the original recording is included as a hidden track at the end of the album, and a photo of the inside of the heater was available from the Audio Project Archive page of the official website. More detailed information about the album's creation can be found in the Foreshadow Magazine interview with SleepResearch_Facility.

The promotional text for the album, written by Manifold Records, encourages the listener to imagine being shrunk to microscopic size and "trekking through some enormous, dying mechanical landscape, the sounds of world-sized storms swirling all around you". [3] The album's overall sound is very dark and deep, industrial and mechanical, impersonal and unemotional. The album's main aural components are: smooth noise in various forms, rumbling bass, and droning chords (particularly in "2.5" and "2.7"). At times, the sound is more structured, such as a steady rhythmic element in "2.5" (sounding rather like a dripping water tap), random bleeping sequences in "2.2", and a regular heavy reverberating booming in "2.3". Each track flows smoothly into the next, with no gaps of silence in-between, and as with all of SleepResearch_Facility's music, DWM is very sleep-conducive if played at low volume.

The original release in 2004 was a limited edition only 1000 copies were manufactured. [2]

Track listing

TrackNameDuration
1"2.1"11:54
2"2.2"6:40
3"2.3"13:34
4"2.4"6:06
5"2.5"9:00
6"2.6"8:40
7"2.7"8:09
Hidden track (*)3:12

(*) Follows "2.7" after 6:30 of silence

The following text is printed on the back of the CD box: "untitled x 7 + 1 hidden = sum", indicating that the seven main tracks have no official titles. However, on the back of the CD cover, the numbers "2.1" to "2.7" are printed, together with the duration of each corresponding track in minutes and seconds. This suggests that "2.1" to "2.7" are potential titles for the seven tracks. The use of the digit 2 at the beginning of each title may well be a reference to the fact that DWM is the second album by SleepResearch_Facility.

Miscellaneous CD text

The following phrases are printed either on the inside of the CD tray, or in the CD booklet:

Response and public exposure

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Steve Roach favourable [4]

Steve Roach, a highly respected ambient musician, has written a very complimentary review of DWM on his website, and even sold the album from his online store while stocks lasted. The album has also been highly praised by Aural Pressure, a website specialising in dark ambient, experimental, industrial, rhythmic noise, power electronics and neoclassical music.

In 2005, some of the album was broadcast on Dutch Radio 4FM (now known as NPS Studio 6).

Free audio

The Audio Project Archive page of the official website links to the following relevant MP3 files:

FileDescription
dimplex.01.128kmp3.mp3 The first 9:35 of "2.1".
dimplex.03.128kmp3.mp3 The raw unmixed version of "2.2". On the album, this starts fading into the mix at 9:15 in track 1, and continues until the end of track 2.
dimplex.04.128kmp3.mp3 The raw unmixed version of "2.5".
dimplex.05.128kmp3.mp3 The raw unmixed version of "2.4". On the album, this starts fading into the mix at 11:44 in track 3, and continues until the end of track 4.
dimplex.07.128kmp3.mp3 The raw unmixed version of "2.6". On the album, this starts fading into the mix at 1:13 in track 6, and ends at 8:13 in the same track.
dimplex.00.128kmp3.mp3 The hidden track at the end of the album (the original three-minute source recording).

A 60-second sample of "2.1" is available from the Manifold Records website, although the page incorrectly indicates that the sample is taken from "2.2".

Hungbunny's 50th podcast, Silence is Golden , begins with "2.1".

Related Research Articles

Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art of Noise</span> English avant-garde synth-pop group

Art of Noise were an English avant-garde synth-pop group formed in early 1983 by engineer/producer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, along with keyboardist/arranger Anne Dudley, producer Trevor Horn, and music journalist Paul Morley. The group had international Top 20 hits with its interpretations of "Kiss", featuring Tom Jones, and the instrumental "Peter Gunn", which won a 1986 Grammy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delerium</span> Canadian band

Delerium is a Canadian new-age ambient electronic musical duo that formed in 1987, originally as a side project of the influential industrial music act Front Line Assembly. Throughout the band’s history, their musical style has encompassed a broad range, including dark ethereal ambient trance, voiceless industrial soundscapes, and electronic pop music. They are best known for their worldwide hit "Silence". The band is known to feature female guest vocalists on their albums since their 1994 album Semantic Spaces.

Glitch is a genre of electronic music that emerged in the 1990s. It is distinguished by the deliberate use of glitch-based audio media and other sonic artifacts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Roach (musician)</span> American composer and musician

Steve Roach is an American composer and performer of ambient and electronic music, whose recordings are informed by his impressions of environment, perception, flow and space. His work has been influential in the trance and new-age genres.

Robert Rich is an ambient musician and composer based in California, United States. With a discography spanning over 30 years, he has been called a figure whose sound has greatly influenced today's ambient music, New-age music, and even IDM.

<i>Structures from Silence</i> 1984 studio album by Steve Roach

Structures from Silence is the third studio album by American ambient musician Steve Roach. It was released in 1984 on Fortuna.

<i>Dreamtime Return</i> 1988 studio album by Steve Roach

Dreamtime Return (1988) is a double album by the American ambient musician Steve Roach, based on Australian Aboriginal culture and the concept of the Dreamtime. Described as "one of the pivotal works of ambient music" and "groundbreaking," the album has been included on a number of lists of the world's best music, including 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.

PBK is a composer that works in the genres of Noise, Drone and/or Ambient music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murcof</span> Musical artist

Murcof is the performing and recording name of Mexican electronic musician Fernando Corona. Corona was born in 1970 in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in Ensenada. He was for a time a member of the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective of electronic musicians under the Terrestre project name. In 2000, he returned to Tijuana. Since 2006, Corona has been living in Barcelona, Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Controlled Bleeding</span> American experimental music group

Controlled Bleeding was an experimental music group based in Massapequa, New York. The group was founded by Paul Lemos, the group's only consistent member. Most of Controlled Bleeding's released recordings feature two main collaborators, Chris Moriarty and vocalist Joe Papa, who both died in the late 2000s. In February 2020 Lemos announced that the band had dissolved.

<i>Pomme Fritz</i> 1994 EP by The Orb

Pomme Fritz is a mini-album by English electronic music group The Orb, released on 13 June 1994 by Island Records. Produced to sustain the group during a period of mismanagement, it was their first album with German producer Thomas Fehlmann, as well as their last with input from Kris Weston, who appears in a much diminished role as engineer. The chaotic Pomme Fritz moved the group away from their melodic, ambient sound towards a more abstract, experimental style, incorporating instances of noise, sampling, fragmented rhythms, industrial textures, indecipherable voices, and sound collage techniques. Island Records "hated" the album and "didn't understand it at all", according to group leader Alex Paterson.

Manifold Records is a US-based record label and mailorder store specializing in experimental, ambient and other hard-to-define audio materials. Begun in 1993 by writer and zine-publisher Vince Harrigan, the label has released works by Gravitar, Final, Mick Harris, Lull, Steve Roach, Jeph Jerman, Maeror Tri, Ultra Milkmaids, Maurizio Bianchi, Aube and others.

SleepResearch_Facility Musical artist

SleepResearch_Facility is a dark ambient artist from Glasgow, Scotland, specializing in sleep-conducive beatless ambient music which is both artistic as well as functional.

<i>Nostromo</i> (album) 2001 studio album by SleepResearch Facility

Nostromo is the debut album by dark ambient artist SleepResearch Facility. The original release in 2001 was a limited edition, and has now sold out. However, a re-issue was released on 5 December 2007, which includes a new bonus track called "Narcissus".

<i>Dead Weather Machine_Re:Heat</i> 2004 studio album by SleepResearch Facility

Dead Weather Machine_Re:Heat is the third album by dark ambient artist SleepResearch Facility, and is the second of a two-part set, the first part being Dead Weather Machine.

Thom Brennan is an American electronic ambient musician, composer and synthesist. Active since the 1980s with his first album Mountains (1987), he belongs to the scene of Californian pioneers of electronic music. His style encloses the principal traits characterizing the evolution from Terry Riley's and Morton Subotnick's minimalism to the form of electronic new-age suite.

<i>Deep_Frieze</i> 2007 studio album by SleepResearch Facility

Deep_Frieze is the fourth album by dark ambient artist SleepResearch Facility.

The stutter edit, or stutter effect, is the rhythmic repetition of small fragments of audio, occurring as the common 16th note repetition, but also as 64th notes and beyond, with layers of digital signal processing operations in a rhythmic fashion based on the overall length of the host tempo. The Stutter Edit audio software VST plug-in implements forms of granular synthesis, sample retrigger, and various effects to create a certain audible manipulation of the sound run through it, in which fragments of audio are repeated in rhythmic intervals. The plug-in allows musicians to manipulate audio in real time, slicing audio into small fragments and sequences the pieces into rhythmic effects, recreating techniques that formerly took hours to do in the studio. Electronic musician Brian Transeau is widely recognized for pioneering the stutter edit as a musical technique; he developed, coined the term, and holds multiple patents for the Stutter Edit software plug-in.

<i>Lucid Dreams 0096</i> 1996 studio album by 0096/ Lucid Dreams

Lucid Dreams 0096 is a 1996 ambient album, on the em:t label. It is credited to "0096", but this is merely the sequential catalogue number of the disc, labelled in em:t’s house style – the actual instrumentation on the album was provided by Miasma and Bad Data, two em:t artists.

References

  1. Archived March 9, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 Foreshadow Magazine interview
  3. Archived October 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Steve Roach review