Russian Linesman is the label head of Loki Recordings. His music has been described as a form of ambient progressive electronica that draws inspiration from the likes of Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, My Bloody Valentine, and M83, amongst others. As a DJ, he has performed all around Europe, supporting the likes of Nathan Fake, Fred Falke, Max Cooper, and Lone.
Today Russian Linesman describes the four-track included on his latest EP ‘Monomyth IV – Apotheosis’ via Loki Recordings.
This EP is the fourth in my ‘Monomyth’ series, inspired by the theories of storytelling laid down by Joseph Campbell in his book ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’. This latest EP deals with apotheosis, which is a hero’s trajectory from their darkest point to their zenith. Think King Arthur pulling Excalibur from the mythical stone….“Seizing The Sword”.
My biography states that I make music by “capturing snippets of vocals, guitars, and pianos, and enclosing them in a digital sarcophagus”. This is a very elaborate way of saying I initially write and record most of my music on guitar or piano. These raw songs would probably be classed as folk music in style. Then, I heavily edit elements of these initial recordings and add layers with synths, to develop and restructure the arrangement into an entirely new song – almost like I’m remixing myself.
My hope is that the essence of the analog recording remains in the finished digital outcome. I use tape saturation on all my recordings to try and claim back more of this analog feel, in what is always a war of attrition.
I’ll now talk you through how I achieved that for the songs on the EP. Each song also features elements of spoken word stories related to each song’s theme. I collated and recorded these from a wide variety of characters.
Track 1 – Ordeal
This song is a story about a friend’s ordeal getting lost, robbed, sleeping in a bin, and finally finding sanctuary while on holiday in Gdansk, Poland. It features field recordings from around the city itself to try and capture the surroundings.
To achieve the lazy warbling bass line that rolls through the song, I applied really sloppy side-chain compression. It has a really low ratio (1.08:1), a short attack, and longer than necessary release for the BPM. The side-chain wouldn’t have been noticeable but I raised the low-end side-chain kick by 6db.
The vocal treatment across all the ‘Monomyth’ EP’s is reasonably consistent. I always use low pass filters rather than fades when introducing new elements to a song, slowly raising the cutoff. I find this method less harsh than simply increasing volume. I wanted a disconnected and distant sound similar to Thom Yorke’s vocals on ‘Weird Fishes’ from ‘In Rainbows’. To achieve this I sent the vocals through a bewildering chain of effects. Firstly, I used EQ to cut out the majority of the middle (500Hz-1000Hz) and boosted the low end and high end. I then applied aggressive compression with a medium response. Next, the vocal went through a 4-voice doubler that panned each new element to separate parts of the left and right channels. Each of these new voices had either a +6, -6 or +12 detune applied. The chain then split into 3, with 1 going directly to the master, providing a foundation. The other 2 chains continued through a mixture of 1/2 left and 1/4 right delay. This all then passed into a reverb unit with max room size and a long 10.1-second decay.
Track 2 – Descent
This point of the Hero’s Journey caused me some of my most creative problems as it’s a song about the sensitive issue of death. I wanted to avoid the trap of making it morose and instead tried to make it a more uplifting celebration of life. I have always loved the glittery sound of the harmonics on an acoustic guitar, so I independently sampled each of the notes I needed for this song. This involved a great deal of frustrating retuning to assemble the required mix of notes and timbres I needed, but it was worth it because these sampled harmonics became the backbone for the main section of the song.
The dark synths used in the intro and outro are heavily influenced by Angelo Badalamenti’s synth sounds from the ‘Black Lodge Rumble’ in ‘Twin Peaks’. In the Jabba’s Palace Rancor scene in ‘Return of the Jedi’, there is a really dark raspy bass line playing that barely registers. This provided another Magpie opportunity for me. I spent far too long putting a foghorn through a series of oscillators, detunes, and LFOs to achieve this. I also found myself crawling behind my fridge to sample the sound of the labored motor, which I then pitch-shifted to get the eerie swooshing sound that can be heard in the background throughout the song.
Track 3 – Rebirth
I owe a lot to the spoken word storyteller for this song existing. There was an incredibly different earlier downtempo version that I sent to her and she hated it! I remember her saying: “maybe it’s because I am a millennial but it just has no oomph to it, it doesn’t sound like a rebirth”. So… I decided I wanted the new version to be a very bass-driven song. As a result I wrote a relentless 16 note bass riff with no breaks for breath, with side-chain compression providing the only respite. To provide some curiosity for every random couple of bars, the last 3 notes in the riff are raised by +1, +2, and +3 octaves respectively.
I wanted to add some texture to the percussion and provide more groove to the song, so I sampled me turning the pages of some old ‘Griffin Pirate Stories’ reading books I had from the 1980s. Maybe it’s the age of the paper, but I was really happy with the rustic sound this created. This allowed me to subvert the path I had been sent down by the feedback. So, thank you, Dominika (the storyteller), you really got under my skin and got the best out of me! I’m considering sending you all future songs I produce so you can act as my curator.
The process of writing this feature has been very interesting for me, as it made me open project files I haven’t opened since I finished the whole project. There are lots of Easter eggs I forgot I put in the songs! The intro also features a recording of the near-empty Nottingham Forest City football ground post-match, the bustle of people leaving, and rubbish being swept up. I totally forgot I had included this till I just revisited everything.
Track 4 – Seizing The Sword
This is the triumphant moment in the Hero’s Journey, therefore I wanted the song to have the brightest synth sound I could muster. The main arpeggio is a combination of 2 different synths, both occupying a hard 70% left or right channel each – one a simple saw wave, with octaves raised. I then applied a high pass filter to remove all low end, allowing it to cut through the mix. To create a more interesting palette, the second synth is a square wave with slight dirt and distortion added to provide an alternative way of standing out in the mix. Both have a constantly ascending 1/4 arp applied, meaning that both synths are constantly arguing for your attention in their respective sonic channels – representing the debate between 2 heroes over who dealt the final blow to the dragon.
The percussion for this song was constructed using samples I took of various vintage He-Man figures being hit, knocked together, and dropped on the floor. The clicks you hear are not stock perc samples but Skeletor bashing chests with Stinkor!
Russian Linesman’s ‘Monomyth IV – Apotheosis’ is now available via Loki Recordings. Stream and buy here.
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