There may be life out there!

[edit 06/02/2023] NOW WITH VIDEO! - https://vimeo.com/793448249

Uncle Sam's Robot On Mars - Hawkwind (SteamAbacus remix) 6'24"

Samples taken from ...

UNCLE SAM'S ON MARS
           (HAWKWIND - TAKE ME TO YOUR FUTURE. 2006)
UNCLE SAM'S ON MARS (EARLY VERSION)
           (HAWKWIND - QUARK, STRANGENESS AND CHARM, ATOMHENGE REISSUE 2009)
ROBOT (FIRST VERSION)
           (HAWKWIND - PXR5, ATOMHENGE REISSUE 2009)
ROBOT (LIVE)
           (HAWKWIND - ASTORIA LONDON, 19/12/2007)
THE FIRST LANDING ON MEDUSA, SNOWFALL, CATERPILLAR
           (ROBERT CALVERT - CENTIGRADE 232, 1986)
PERSEVERANCE MISSION LIVESTREAM
           (NASA-JPL MISSION CONTROL, 18/03/2021)

Uncle Sam's Robot On Mars

This is a way too fast version of my song, with me singing. It was, as a result, a bit of a nightmare for me, especially when Dave Brock 'broke a string' and had to leave the stage, therefore not being able to do the high octaves and harmonies, as we'd rehearsed. Strangely enough, it was also the very first time that I'd ever sung lead vocals to a live audience - in this case 4.5K people! 

That's Alan Davey on bass (not difficult to tell) and Huw Lloyd Langton on lead guitar, perhaps Jerry Richards on rhythm guitar. Who played the weird tambourine  - why didn't he just play on the offbeat instead of shaking it around in a meaningless fashion?  The harmonies were by Ron Tree, in the absence of Dave Brock.  The keyboards are way too low in this monitor mix. But the multitrack recordings are safe.  One day...

Words and music by Steve Swindells © Warner Chappell Music.

Shot Down In The Night.  Hawkestra. Brixton Academy. 2000.

8th November 1994

A twice weekly Triptych rehearsal in the small front room of a rented
terraced house in Ladywell, South London.

Money was needed for petrol, guitar strings, drum sticks, even food
sometimes ... the band could not afford the cost of rehearsal studios,
let alone recording studios. But the latest line-up needed to develop
new musical material and wanted demo recordings that represented
the band's new 'Space Fusion' musical direction.

Jeff was a friend who had one of the new-fangled DAT recorders and
brought it (along with a rackmount compressor and a couple of PZM
'boundary affect' microphones to attach to the walls) over to one of the
regular daytime rehearsals in order to capture some live run-throughs
of the current tunes, some of which were still in a developmentmental
stage.

Amps hummed. Snare and cymbals resonated sympathetically.
Windows rattled and the two PZM microphones attached to the walls
vibrated under the assault of cranked guitar, hammered drum skins
and Fran's thunderous bass tone. The recordings were rough and
ready but would do for the time being.

Money was too tight to afford to buy the master DAT cassette from Jeff
so a copy onto a normal cassette tape was created - it is that tape that
provided the source audio for this remaster. The original DAT stayed
with Jeff so he could re-use it.

Now, 30 years later and with the help of modern computer-based digital
audio production, these recordings have been 'massaged' into a more
listenable form.

Meanwhile, back in 1994, the band continued to rehearse twice a week
in their South London base for several months - after all, nobody had
complained ... yet.



Steve Baker, 22nd April 2024

<>

Guitar & vocals - Steve
Bass & tremors - Fran
Drums & expletives- Chris

<>

Recorded in rehearsal in the front room, Ladywell, 08/11/1994

Remastered Spring 2024 on the Steam Abacus

© Triptych 1994 / 2024  


FREE album available at https://steamabacusproductions.bandcamp.com/album/you-can-hear-it-down-the-street

TRIPTYCH - Naming It / Dissentropy (1994) (from 'You Can Hear It Down The Street')

Blessed Relief

texte Luciole Langevine
guitare:deep man

texte:

Miss Anthrope est vraiment très malade
Un 10 sur l’échelle des douleurs
Les humains lui font mal au cœur
Malgré les pilules les pommades
Miss Anthrope est vraiment très malade
Miss Anthrope veut fermer les yeux
Sur une terre à sang et à feu
Elle s’invente de très jolis rêves
Dans sa tête vivent Adam et Eve
Jamais leur amour ne s’achève
Au paradis un chant s’élève
Et l’harmonie est si profonde
Miss Anthrope veut quitter le monde

Miss Anthrope se rêve en garçon
Un genre de chevalier du bien
Plein d’amour pour le genre humain
Phil Anthrope ce serait son nom
Miss Anthrope se rêve garçon

Miss anthrope,,,Luciole Langevine and deep man

kjbvafsivuregfrei

Live in one take out of ProTools; Omnisphere II "Inside Grandfather Clock"
Typical of music inspired by the timbre of the patch.

I want a Gamelan Hat, and a Gamelan Bopper.

Collected Journies

Gamelanesque

After hearing my Plutobot track ( https://soundcloud.com/steam-abacus/plutobot-06052017 ) Paul (aka DeeplyDazzled in these here parts)sent me a message about an idea he was working on - "I like this vibe, I have a Conservative Dalek vocal track waiting for your lead guitar". So he sent over a link and I had a creative afternoon splashing somewhat more than just 'lead guitar' over the rudimentary idea Paul had sent. There were a couple of bass phrases floating around at the end of the vocal snippet - I extracted and looped these and added a drum loop in order for me to have something to play lead guitar along to. I also put down some semi-random rhythm guitar chords and then sprayed whole-tone scale angular guitar over the top.

I sent these back to Paul with the usual message of 'use as little or as much of this material as you see fit'. He generously suggested I should carry on and do the final mix myself with the parts I had come up with. So I did a lot more work on the arrangement (mostly drum programming) and produced this final mix.

Paul - original concept, vocal treatment, bass loop
Steve - arrangement, guitars, drum sequencing

DEEPLY DAZZLED/STEAM ABACUS - Dalek Confusion (2017)

A curiosity that I discovered in the Steamy Vaults.

Back in 2011, DeeplyDazzled had begun to relate the epic saga of The Donkeys. He asked me to contribute some guitar to a track and sent over a rough, unfinished backing track over which I layered various guitar parts. I sent the separate parts for DD to 'fold, spindle and mutilate'* however he saw fit in the final piece but I also included a rough mix of all the parts I'd recorded and how they lined up with each other just in case there were any synchronisation issues.

This is that rough mix with all the stinky** guitars to the fore.

Original idea, drums, synths and programming - DeeplyDazzled
Guitars - SteamAbacus

*© FZ

** "The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar: now that's my idea of a good time" - Frank Zappa

(The finalised track may still be on SC although DeeplyDazzled's original page is no more and he can now be found as DeeplyDazzled2. I'm not sure if this track survived the transition)

[edit] The finalised track is still available here ...

https://soundcloud.com/deeplydazzled1/the-non-sacrificial-ritual-tap

Look at all those comments! Those were the days. :)

eMissions

DeeplyDazzled/SteamAbacus - The Ritual Tap Dance of the Two Missing Donkeys (Stink mix) (2011)

Quality is a bit dodgy, but it's the real deal.

It was recorded onto cassette, I think!

Brock, Bainbridge, King and me.

The pic is of me in the porch of Rockfield studio's  Mill House, where we recorded this first demo, in the beautiful adjoining, linked ex-chapel, where we rehearsed.

Words and music by Steve Swindells (c).

Shot Down In The Night. Original demo. 1979.

Hey, folks--Hanklebury here. I have, at last, assembled a first volume of the works of my musical alter ego, Uncle Hassell, for your downloading and listening pleasure. I won't say much about it--just listen to this short message from the man himself!

Find the album here: https://hanklebury.bandcamp.com/album/uncle-hassell-delta-drone

"Delta Drone" album by Uncle Hassell now available at Bandcamp.com

Steve Baker, Producer/Guitarist, London, UK

Guitars, guitars, guitars.....and some more guitars! With a few other devices thrown in (notably, a Line 6 DL4 looping pedal).

All the tracks here are emissions from the venerable 'Steam Abacus' - once a wheezing old pentium-powered antique (Windows 98SE!, mainly utilising Cubase VST 3.7, Cool Edit Pro and T-Racks), now resurrected as an only-slightly-antiquated younger specimen (Windows XP, Cubase SX, et al).

Much is initially recorded direct to minidisc before being edited/compiled on the Steam Abacus.

Some older tracks even started life on Compact Cassette. 

State-of-the-art this ain't!