The album that didn't happen.
There were always plans. In 2003, before the
release of the second Saloon album, ideas were coming together for what might
follow. We were getting tired of the pick-and-mix
approach, where our records would contain elements of electronica, krautrock
and folk all thrown together in a big melting pot.
By mid 2002 I was already thinking that
album four should be a big pop
record, focussing on pop hooks, more synths and a move away from the post-rock
slant. While gigging in Spain in 2002 I came up with the idea of writing a
Kraftwerk influenced song called ‘Autovia’ to open the fourth record. Of course
the band split and none of that ever happened. The Arthur and Martha album was
something akin to what I saw Saloon #4 would have been like, and Autovia ended
up opening that record.
Before any of that, was a consensus amongst
the group that the third album should be something smaller in scale than the
first two records, and should concentrate exclusively on one part of our sound,
notable our ‘folk’ side.
Saloon in 2002. |
So in early 2002, at the same time as
mixing ‘If we meet in the future,’ Matt and I began sketching ideas that might
make up the third album, and it is some of those very rough ideas that are heard
here.
Now these are not even demos; they are
pre-demo sketches and I am loath to really call them Saloon songs. While clearing
out the archives I found a minidisc containing recordings of 9 these ideas. There
was only one song that featured Amanda and there was no contribution at
all from Mike and Alison. In many ways that was a true reflection of the state of the band in 2003. Mike had a new girlfriend and, mainly as we still hadn’t made it to America,
his interest in the band was waning. Alison was playing in several other bands,
most notably Tompaulin. And Amanda was busy with her university studies (she got a first).
It was really Matt and I who were driving forward this project, which is why
most of the recordings were just the two of us.
But, like stumbling upon a missing vintage
Pat Troughton Dr Who treasure in the archives, my brother found alternative
versions of ‘Castle’ and ‘Demonology’ with Amanda singing on them. With the
addition of ‘Brockley Cross’ from roughly the same period and which does feature Mike, this little collection of
ideas, which oozes wth atmosphere, started to feel a bit more Saloon, and gave
an indication of how Saloon #3 might have shaped up.
The four ‘fragments’ plus ‘The Maze’ are
all ideas that Matt had. ‘Brockley Cross’ was an improvised jam recorded to
tape recorder in our dining room (Mike, drums; Amanda, gloch; Matt, guitar; me, bass) possibly recorded before a La Jette rehearsal.
Damon and Naomi Gig Flyer |
‘Demonology’
was just me and Amanda. This recording, made by my brother Dom, along with ‘The
Castle’ was from the only session we did in the year between Mike,
Alison and Matt leaving and the official split. I had completely forgotten
about this little semi-acoustic session (and I still don’t remember why we
recorded it) which also featured rather poor versions of ‘2500 Walden Ave.’ and
‘Victor Safronov’. ‘Demonology’ was
inspired by reading “The European Witch-craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries” by Hugh Trevor-Roper, although I think the actual title came from
within “100 years of solitude” which I know was on our bookshelf.
A Study in Demonology |
The title of the album was Alison’s
contribution. When we came to name the first album, none of us could come up
with anything decent. Alison made two suggestions ‘This is what we call
progress’ and ‘Speak softly, a dream sleeps here’ (it may have been 'tread
softly', but lets not knit-pick.) Both titles we thought were brilliant
and this project became known as ‘Speak softly’ from an early stage.
All these recordings are as I recorded at the time on the MTX-8, with the exception of the birdsong in ‘Fragment #1’, the Melodica and bass on ‘Sleep Laboratory’, the bass on Castle and I’ve done a tiny bit of snipping and added some reverb. Other than that it’s all as recorded in 2002-2003.
I have included also, in a separate playlist, the original demo versions of 'Castle' and 'Demonology' along with another recently unearthed sketch of my own from the same sessions called 'The Black Death' .
These recordings are not the third Saloon album, they are just a collection of raw ideas, several tinged with regret and sadness. But I hope to any of you that listen to it, that they might be a small reminder of friends and family loved, lost, never forgotten.
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