Name: "Better Days" by Hate Dept
Duration: 4 min 24 s
Description: This was the first song written for the album 'New Ghost'. So, it's pretty old. We recently adjusted the recipe to taste more like violence.

killing joke all over the place. love it.

well worth the wait and the hopes to hear new HD

amazing vocals as always! you put a lot of people to shame!

Great vocals. Well put together.
Nice work.

'Technical Difficulties' - 1998

We all stand in line
Upload our minds
Sys-op grows each time
Just like man-kind
Disks just store your lives
We don't down-size
No-one lives or dies
No smiles, no cries
I just watch the sky
Blue fills my eyes
Space-man on your ship
Take me with you

Technical Difficulties - 1998

In Your Defense

Just Being There

Red Pandas, Dragons, & The Foot

We start this off a bit RATM before settling into a groove with a hypnotic bassline.  This tune is typical of what we come out with when jamming ideas together in rehearsals until they merge into a beast of their own.  Our favourite way of writing songs!

Hold Me Till The Morning

No Rules Tonight

Electronic Saviors, Vol. 3: Remission

Biggest Fan

This is one of those happy accidents of the recording and mixing process. The original music tracks were recorded by Scott in early 1987 using a Korg DW-6000, a Casio SK-1 (on loan from the Fiber family), and recorded onto a Fostex X-15 Multitracker 4-Track Cassette Recorder.

Later in 1987, the infamous DSL sessions were recorded. For these mind altering sessions, Scott and I ended up using the other side of the cassette from the Idea H-2-12 recording.

Now, jump forward 2 years to the Summer of 1989 when I was mixing tracks for final release of The Secret Society project. Though most of the songs for The Secret Society release were recorded during the Summer of 1988 at Horse &amp; Buggy Highway Studios, I was looking for additional material to include on the final master. This is when I stumbled upon the cassette with Idea H-2-12. I popped the cassette in the X-15 and hit play.

Here's where the happy accident occurred...

The previous song that I had been mixing was a 4-track song and had all the levels wide open so, as the 2-tracks for Idea H-2-12 started to play, the 2-tracks from the other side of the tape were also audible. However, those 2-tracks from the DSL sessions were playing backwards! I thought it sounded "so cool" that I mixed it all together and we created our first (and only) backwards masking song.

Now you can be the judge of whether or not this song is as "cool" as I thought it was at the time and you'll also get bonus points if you can decipher the backwards masking vocals and sounds from the DSL sessions. But be warned, you may not want to know what the backwards masking vocals and sounds are!

The Secret Society

Idea H-2-12

During the Summer of 1989, affectionately referred to as "Vizator Summer" (more on that in future posts), I had a very uncertain future and was at a personal crossroads. I had just finished my first year of college at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) where I was majoring in Music Education and I was in the process of transferring to West Chester University to continue my studies.

While trying to make sure that my transfer went through, I continued to play in a band called Vizator which was located in Pittsburgh, I was looking for an apartment with Scott in the West Chester/Philadelphia area, and, in between, I would unpack my car for a day or two every week in Shippensburg where I was "officially" calling home for the summer. I was also struggling to keep a long distance relationship alive with Mitzi Moyer (my girlfriend whom I met at IUP). I even managed a trip to Meadville, PA during that time to visit her.

Needless to say, I was stretched very thin, on the edge, essentially living out of my car with the last of my student loan money, and trying to pull it all together. Luckily, while in Pittsburgh, I was able to crash with Dave Irish (Vizator) and his mother and, while looking for a place to live with Scott in the Philadelphia area, Jackey's (Scott's future wife) parents (Pat and Gloria Dickey) gave me a place to stay and food to eat. This was pretty remarkable considering the fact that, at that time, I was really only a friend of Jackey's boyfriend. I owe them many thanks for what they did for me that summer and for the years that have followed!

Now, since the backdrop for this tumultuous time has been laid, I'll get to the song that I want to share. While staying with Scott, Jackey, and her parents sporadically over the summer, I was working on mixing the final release of The Secret Society cassette. In between mixing sessions, I created my very first complete song. Up until this point, I had worked on song ideas and completed songs as part of a group effort but never had I completed a song from start to finish on my own. It was done entirely on an Ensoniq ESQ-1 and was the first time that I had ever used a keyboard for sequencing. My previous sequencing experience was limited to my Korg DDD-5 drum machine.

The song that I created was simply called "Untitled Song". Though it is very raw and, obviously by listening to it, I didn't know how to quantize on the ESQ-1, it probably remains the most "emotional" and "personal" song that I have ever written. The crescendo of choir strings, Minimoog lead, and analog drums which is reached during the chorus of the song still evokes very vivid memories of this time in my life.

I wish to thank everyone that I mentioned above for helping me through my "Vizator Summer" and, as cheesy and clichéd as it may sound, this song was for Mitzi though I don't think that she ever had a chance to hear it. Maybe she'll stumble upon it now...

Unreleased

Untitled Song

This was the first song written for the album 'New Ghost'. So, it's pretty old. We recently adjusted the recipe to taste more like violence.

"Better Days"

Hate Dept

Recent comments

Evil Blacksheep

Jessica is dangerous

Angry Red Planet

Cardinal Dreams

Related tracks