This is a very special mix of two very special songs that I recorded for Jane. 

Apologies to any Depeche Mode or Phyllis Nelson fans that may stumble across this. 

Move Somebody Closer

This song was recorded when we were 'Beachy Head', it was probably around 1986 or some time like that. 
It was recorded on a TEAC 4 track & and Akai 2 Track, we almost certainly mixed 4 tracks consisting of drums bass and guitar down onto the Akai. We would then bounce these back onto tracks 1 & 2 of the TEAC & the remaining 2 tracks on the TEAC would then be used for keyboards and vocals. In effect we had 6 tracks to play with so there was a lot of doubling up on each track. This meant that the mix down was a very busy moment and one that took a lot of takes to get right. This version is taken from a cassette copy so is not as dynamic as the original but I think we did a pretty good job with the equipment we had. 
The drums on the track are a mixture of real drums played by Simon Warren and a backing track from a Sinclair computer running a Cheetah peripheral called 'Spec-Drum' This is clearest in the last part of the song were it is mainly 'Spec-Drum' being modulated by a Boss Micro Rack Delay. 
Alan Heller who wrote the music for the track played bass, guitar and some keyboard part and I did the rest including the production. 
I'm pretty sure that we use a borrowed DX7 on this along with a Mirage Sampler, a JX3P and the System 100, 101 synth. 


Heartbreak City - Beachy Head

More fun with the Minibrute, all monophonic parts are the Brute, the  polyphonic stuff is a Novation KS5. The drums are a Roland MC307. The samples I rediscovered whilst listening to some old tapes, they must be taken off the radio probably back in the very early 80's.

Game Show Revolution by Milkrota 2013

May Contain Boney M - A Milkrota Remix

Instrumental recorded on new years eve / new years day whilst we were battered by some weather.

2014

Full version of Headlines. The main instrument is a Roland MC307 with an SP505 providing the samples and a Novation KS5 doing the noisey bit. 

Headlines

Recorded with a Roland MC307 and a Kawai K1m on a Boss digital 8 track.  

Bag in Flight

The Small Man Who Shouts at the Sea

Recorded in 1983 on a Akai 2 track reel to reel. The rhythm is obviously a Roland Drumatix with the crash sound coming from a Roland System 100, 101 synth. Synth bass & other synth sounds also from 101. Bass and rhythm guitar backing played by A Heller. 

Drumatix

A version of the 80's classic from Bronski Beat. 
Slower, less synthy and without the silly middle eight of the original. 

Small Town Boy

May contain a bit of Dolly P but all vocal parts were sung live (sort of) that means there's no miming involved. 

Dolly Mixture Mix 1

The trouble with recording on your own is that there is no one else to tell you that the riff you're playing is basically a copy of a riff by someone else. This is one of those songs where this happened. 

Thanks to Jane for pointing this out. Stupid is..........

Knock Them Down

Bela

Trellick - Instrumental Version at West London

My version of Showroom Dummies started out as an acoustic cover and then gradually morphed into something a bit more gnarly.

Showroom Dummies

Made the night after seeing Wolfgang live at the Water Rats. 
He was brilliant, really entertaining and clearly inspiring.

Smells Like Milkrota

Wolfgang

First attempt at a version of a Gary Numan song and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Friends

Remix of old Milkrota track (Nose Dive) using MLKJ samples from another Milkrota track (BLM). 


Discrimination

Ice so Thin was originally recorded in 1989. It had been stored away, and forgotton for 30 ish years before I rediscovered the track when I had some old recordings digitised. 
As much as I enjoyed rediscovering the song, the 1989 version was sonically a bit messy so earlier this year, I decided to remake the track. 
The ice is still thin. 



Ice So Thin

The power of the media to manipulate opinion is more potent than ever. 

Step Away

Three Red Cars

Just Racing by Milkrota

Blood Cold by Milkrota 2009

A bit of a Latin thing, no idea why, it just happened to end up like that.

This is from a set of music I did called '2011 to 2012' not the most imaginative title, I know. 

Desperado by Milkrota 2012

My first and possibly only Blancmange cover version, the original is such a great song that I really wanted to avoid trying to replicate it. I was also getting fed up with the sing-a-long version that Neil plays live now so for me it was an experiment to see what else could be done with the song.

Trouble Brewing

Round and Round (Living on the Ceiling by Blancmange cover version)

Written in 2005 recorded early 2006. First time I had linked my analouge synths to the computer. Bass riffs are Roland System 100 , 101 synth & Roland SH09. Other synths used are Novation KS5 and Roland JX3P. Samples are manually played off a Boss SP202 & Beats by a Boss DR 202. 

Watch Out World (original version) by Milkrota 2006

This is from the second set of music I've been working on in 2012 entitled ' The Things That Keep Me Sane' . 

Recycle (Death By Percussion Mix) by Milkrota 2012

Solitude by Milkrota 2009

In Retrospect is an almost all analouge collection. Made just to see how good the old synths  would sound. They sounded good.

TV Personalities by Milkrota 2010

Intro by Milkrota 2009

This song was originally recorded in about 1988 / 89 in the days before Milkrota. The original track was recorded on an 8 track Fostex reel to reel. The instruments were Roland R5 & TR727 drum machines, a Kawai K1m & Roland JX3P synth. 

The samples of the original track were recorded on a Boss SP505, the new keyboard parts are the JX3P, the K1m & a Novation KS5. The new drum track is from a Boss DR202. 

I've lifted the samples from a cassette version of the track as the original reel to reel mix has now degraded to much to play.  The track features my old band mate Alan Heller on moody bass guitar & the rest is all down to me.

Pornography 2013 Mix 2

Trying to prove to myself that the Roland MC303 is more than just the once over used, out dated dance sequencer that it's reputation suggests. I think this is probably the 5th or 6th track that I've used it on and I am starting to believe now that it is worth every one of the 90 pounds I paid for it. A versatile used bargain in my opinion.

2013 by Milkrota 2013

The main instrument on this is the Roland MC303, much derided of course by synth snobs but I think it's pretty good. 

The Things That Keep Me Sane by Milkrota 2012

This was the final song using the Roland MC303 before it went on eBay and the MC307 took it's place. The 307 is a much richer instrument but my gtut tell me that it's the 303 that will become a classic. 
There's plenty of CR78 & JX3P on this track, the rest is most likely the Novation KS5, although I think a bit of Kawai K1m was also used. 

Tiny Horse by Milkrota 2013

I have been trying out the MC307 to get my head around the functions. Really starting to like it, yes it could be a bit more intuitive in places but once you've used it a few times it starts to make sense. I've added a bit of JX3P to the track just as an excuse to use the 'Voice' preset again. 

Just Misunderstood - By Milkrota 2013

Words by Marlow
Music by Milkrota
Inspired by Joy Division

Milkrota

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