Not as commercially successful as its predecessor Vulture Culture,the album is structured differently from earlier Project albums:containing three lengthy tracks ("Stereotomy" at over seven minutes,"Light of the World" at over six minutes,and the instrumental "Where's the Walrus?" running over seven and a half minutes) and two minute-long songs at the end. It is a full digital production and both the LP and CD releases were encoded using the two-channel Ambisonic UHJ format. Stereotomy earned a Grammy nomination in 1987 –for Best Rock Instrumental Performance:Orchestra,Group,or Soloist –for the track "Where's the Walrus?"[3]
The word "stereotomy" is taken from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe. It refers to the cutting of solid shapes into different forms,and is used as a metaphor for the way that famous people (singers,actors,etc.) are 'shaped' by the demands of fame.[4][5] The short track "Chinese Whispers" also references "Rue Morgue" in that although an instrumental,it features Eric Woolfson’s daughters Sally and Lorna reciting a sequence of words from the story.
Whereas previous Alan Parsons Project albums had been recorded on analog tape and mastered digitally,Stereotomy was recorded digitally from the onset. The two explained that they made this decision to retain the same level of fidelity throughout the recording process,regardless of how many overdubs and playbacks were conducted. Woolfson discussed this method with Dave Zimmer of BAM magazine in 1986.[4]
No matter how good the original tracks were, we discovered there was an actual physical deterioration of analog tapes. Just the physical process of running the tape across the heads caused a few molecules to get lost and we'd be left with something less than powerful. But with digital, we found the original excitement just never went away.[4]
—Eric Woolfson
Woolfson's role as a lead vocalist and keyboardist was also reduced on Stereotomy. He reckoned that his vocal contributions on the album spanned "about 30 seconds".[6] Richard Cottle, who first worked with the Alan Parsons project on Vulture Culture, reprised his role as the band's dedicated session synthesiser player.[7] Woolfson thought that Cottle's role was "more dominant" on Stereotomy due to the band's increasing reliance on a more synthesised sound rather than acoustic keyboards.[6]
Cottle's keyboard rig consisted of a PPG Wave 2.3, Emulator II, Fairlight CMI, Yamaha DX7, and two SequentialProphet 5 synthesisers that were retrofitted with a MIDI interface.[7] Parsons believed that the strengths of the Fairlight paled in comparison to the Emulator and the Yamaha DX7, which were his preferred keyboards on the album.[6] Cottle commented that it was "time-consuming" to operate the Fairlight and achieve sounds that were compatible with other keyboards in his setup.[7]
Cottle primarily used the PPG Wave as his master keyboard and used the Prophet and DX7 for chordal pads. Parsons's TX Rack, which was positioned in the control room, also connected to some of Cottle's instruments, including the DX7. The Friend Chip SRC synchronizer was used to delay the feed to various instruments to overcome latency issues associated with MIDI. Cottle's keyboards mixes, which were treated with audio effects such as reverb, were sent directly to the mixing console.[7]
"...The larger links of the chain run thus – Chantilly, Orion, Dr. Nichol, Epicurus, Stereotomy, the street stones, the fruiterer."
The titles of "Urbania" and "Where's the Walrus?" can be attributed to Lee Abrams, a radio programmer and friend of Parsons and Woolfson. Eric Woolfson remembers:
"He was really quite inspirational in this album [Stereotomy] in telling us what we'd been doing wrong, in his view, on the previous albums... 'Urbania' was one of the words he came out with during the course of a long conversation. Another title he's responsible for... is 'Where's the Walrus,' the other instrumental, 'cause he was really giving us a hard time, I must tell you: 'Your guitar sounds are too soft, and your whole approach is, you know, slack, and your lyrics—there’s no great lyrics anymore! I mean, where's the walrus? I don't hear the walrus!' Referring, of course, to John Lennon's 'I Am the Walrus'..."
The original vinyl packaging was different from all the reissues: it featured more elaborate artwork of the paper sleeve supplied with a special color-filter oversleeve. When inserted, the over-sleeve filtered some of the colors of the artwork, allowing four different variations.[9] In the reissues, only one variant remained. The artwork was nominated for Best Album Package at the 29th Annual Grammy Awards,[10] but lost to Miles Davis's album Tutu, designed by art director Eiko Ishioka.[11]
Release
Arista Records established a release date of 19 December 1985 for Stereotomy, which was reported in the 2 November 1985 edition of Billboard magazine.[12] This date was established for the release of Stereotomy in the United Kingdom.[1] In the United States, CD copies of Stereotomy were still in the manufacturing stage by early February 1986.[13]
The band was involved in a dispute with Arista over royalties from CD sales. Woolfson said that the band had originally agreed to a royalty rate equivalent to that of vinyls during the nascent stages of CD marketing and that the royalty rate would increase once CDs were more established in the marketplace. Within the contract signed between the band and Arista on 5 December 1985, a 30-day negotiation period was established to allow for royalty restructuring. Once the 30 days lapsed, Woolfson maintained that the band's royalty rates would automatically increase. Woolfson told Billboard that Arista had threatened to cease production of the band's material if they did not agree to the concessionary rate, which the label denied, saying that "Eric Woolfson's statements are completely wrong and inaccurate. It is not appropriate for us to discuss each of the inaccurate points, except to emphasize that the Alan Parsons Project CDs are available in the marketplace."[14]
Stereotomy generally received negative reviews from music critics. Music Week wrote that with the exception of "Real World" and "Light of the World", the album failed to live up to the potential of the band's previous work, resulting in an album that they found to be "frustratingly commercial, meandering and sadly disappointing."[16] Writing for Sounds, Roger Holland called the album "dreadful" and a "monstrosity" and believed that the album's pre-programmed, computerized technique and self-professed sophistication" came at the expense of "any semblance of human emotion."[17] In his review of the album, J. D. Considine of Musician wrote simply: "Unnecessary surgery."[18]
The Canadian music trade publication RPM said that Stereotomy had "a unique blend of electronic pop and rock vocal styles with fine guitar work from Ian Bairnson."[19]AllMusic felt that the album "came up short" and was only partially salvaged by some of the instrumental compositions, which created "some musical buoyancy among the blandness of the other tracks."[15]
↑ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1sted.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
↑ "Classifiche". Musica e Dischi (in Italian). Retrieved 30 July 2024. Set "Tipo" on "Album". Then, in the "Artista" field, search "Alan Parsons Project".
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