Post-Punk Monk

John Foxx in 1980 – the year of Metamatic

[continued from last post]

All of the brief instrumentals were done and disc three concluded with a bevy of demos and alternate takes of familiar material. The demo of “No-One Driving” featured a very Moroderesque synthpulse kicking it into high gear coupled with a dryer, simpler rhythm track. Before the middle eight, everything but the beat drops out for a couple of measures. The four track demo was a little more breakneck than the final album version. If you’ve been listening to this song for 38 years, it’s interesting to hear the differences after hundreds of plays of the LP/7″ remix version.

The early version [read: demo] of “Burning Car previously appeared only on the 2010 “Metatronic” collection but anyone who has not heard it will revel in its heartless, vicious qualities where Foxx seethes with vehement contempt for possibly the only time ever. The shockingly groovy bass synth is the only thing less than harsh here, and when Foxx spits out the word “burn!” instead of the more dispassionate “all right” that the released version sports, you can really believe that he wants to see it burn. I find that I prefer this far less Numan-like version to the one we’ve known for decades.

While having the 1979 alternative version of “Like A Miracle” was shocking enough on disc two, the demo for that one was also here, and the BPM seemed to be much faster for this version. The vibe was still warm and sunny, as opposed to the dour “Metamatic” sound on the album proper, but the arrangement and instrumentation moved along like a peppy example of sterling technopop. What we wouldn’t have given for something that sounded like a less conventional Buggles track without any conventional instrumentation mucking things up.

Then the disc concluded with yet another finished, alternative mix of “No-One Driving.” the biggest difference here seemed to be that the piano was pushed way up in the mix. If one listens carefully, the released version has scant piano hiding in the mix, but it’s subtle. Not so here, for a lusher take on the familiar song. The melody also drops out as in the demo version right before the middle eight, so I’m guessing that this was an interim mix done prior to the final one.

This package is delightful as a Foxx-head who can’t get enough of this material. The album is the 2014 mastering by Joe Caithness. It’s not brickwalled, but it’s moving in that direction. I have screen caps of the waveform of “Underpass” in all of its digital masterings for illustrative purposes so we can discuss the four separate digital masterings of this album. I’ve listened to each of these versions of the song with my AKG headphones on, so you know I’m serious.

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1993 – No mastering engineer credited – 3:56:84
This was the only digital master made by Virgin as they were just about to lose the rights to “Metamatic” after a 15 year period. How Foxx got that reversion clause into his contract was probably due to good management at the time and a desire to have the prestige [and hopefully sales] that he would bring Virgin in his signing negotiation. The 1993 mastering has very dull sound compared to the 2001 mastering. This leads me to suspect that Virgin may have sourced a multi-generational safety copy…or else the mastering engineer was far too liberal with the noise reduction software of the day.

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2001 Chris Thorpe 3:53:76
The Chris Thorpe Edsel remaster was louder than the 1993 version by + 3 db yet it still shies away from any clipping. All the waves stay within the safety zone of 1-2 dB of that  happening. The tape used sounded like an actual multitrack master as there was neormous amounts of detail that was simply missing from the dull 1993 version. The rhythm track bleed on R channel was much more apparent at 0:06 in than 93 master, which almost completely lacks that detail.

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2007 Dallas Simpson 3:57:08
Dallas Simpson has quite a recent history with Foxx, who must like his touch quite a bit. He’s partners with Chris Thorpe and has mastered 41 CDs by John Foxx! The levels on the 2007 Edsel master were -0.5 db from 2001. The sound was still far from brickwalled, but there was nonetheless slightly less detail than 2001 master.

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2014 Joe Caithness 3:56:06
The 2014 master was made for the white vinyl gatefold “Metamatic” LP pressing done for UK RSD that year [which I still need a copy of!] Since that was an LP, I’m guessing that tweaks had to have been made for this CD but in the sonic [and probably actual] end times which we inhabit, perhaps that’s not the case. The sound here was louder than 1993 by +6 db with what looks like some sustained clipping.

The sonics of this album are important, because one of the main reasons why Foxx picked Pathway instead of larger studios he could have used was not only were they close to his home at the time [and cheaper] but that he deliberately wanted to use an eight track studio to get the strongest possible signal on the individual tracks. In analog recording the greater the number of tracks, the lower the signal bandwidth available on the tape. By using eight or less [many tracks don’t use all eight] and not bouncing any tracks, he wanted the most powerful conduit for this analog electronic sound that he could get at the time.

“Metamatic” was a bold statement of intent from an artist who was convinced that not only could he make an album with almost all sound electronically generated, but that he should do so as well. At the time, let it be said that this was a bold sonic statement of an album. It defined a world of “Cold Wave” like nothing else that came before it. Foxx worried that he might have been going too far. But cold and icy is probably a better description of the emotional tenor of the album. Sonically, it’s pretty warm with a rich, round mix that eschews brittleness save for the contrasting “metal beat” of the CR-78 on many of these tracks.

I have purchased “Metamatic” five out of the six times it has been released [like I said, I still need the 2014 white vinyl LP of this] and there’s another LP copy in there since I wore out my 1st LP copy! As long as the releases are as affordable as they have been, I’m fine with that for such an album that’s a standard of electronic pop music like this one is. Foxx moved quickly onward for the rest of his Virgin period lasting until 1985, with nothing sounding remotely similar to any other of his solo albums. But the benchmark of “Metamatic” has stood as the foundational stylistic bedrock of most of the music that Foxx has created since his return to releasing music in 1997. It looms over his modern work like a monolithic tower of intent. It’s right and proper that every few years, it gets the attention of a new mastering with a different complement of subordinate material to delight our ear and eye.

I say eye, because Jonathan Barnbrook’s design work also insures that this is the best looking edition of “Metamatic” yet. Old fans like myself can buy this if they are as compelled as I am, but what I really envy are those ears that might be buying “Metamatic” for the first time in this fulsome form. If you’ve not yet had the pleasure, then by all means… click here.

– 30 –

Metamatic | UK | CD3/3 | META63BX | 2018

John Foxx: Metamatic DLX RM – bonus material disc 3 [2018]

1. A Frozen Moment
2. He’s A Liquid [instrumental dub]
3. Mr. No [alternative version]
4. The Uranium Committee
5. A Man Alone
6. Over Tokyo
7. Terminal Zone
8. Urban Code
9. A Version Of You
10. Glimmer [alternative version]
11. Fragmentary City
12. Metamorphosis
13. Approaching The Monument
14. Critical Mass
15. Almagordo Logic
16. Touch + Go [early version]
17. Miss Machinery
18. No-One Driving [early version]
19. Burning Car [early version]
20. Like A Miracle [early version]
21. No-One Driving [alternative version]

Now we get to the Monk-bait. Having had virtually all of the contents of discs one and two on other CDs, the tunes on disc three were largely relegated to multi-gen dupes passed among the Foxx fan community – which I had not even bothered with. My thought was that if Foxx thought it was material worth selling at this point, then I’ll go for it. Especially at the modest price [£ 14.99] this reissue was going for [though my wife bought it as a gift for me in any case].

It began with “A Frozen Moment,” a brief, tingling sample of the random wave patch that kicked off ” He’s A Liquid,” but extended for slightly longer than a minute. Then that gave way to a brief, two minute dub mix of that same song, which actually came closer to an instrumental mix. It whetted my appetite for more. Much more. I would have liked to have heard a real dub workout on this material by an actual pioneer like Adrian Sherwood. As much as Foxx was inspired by Lee Perry for this album, he does not live in that zone. This was mild stuff. [Memo to self – propose this to Foxx HQ for a genuine “Metamatic In Dub” disc. One that might likely anchor the 4xCD DLX-RM of this album which drops in 2022.]

The alternative versions of familiar B-sides “Mr. No” and “Glimmer” feature alternative mixes that accentuate different elements of the song. In the case of the former, the Elka synth strings are used with block chords that change the complexion of the song, and the fadeout is much more vague than the cold ending we all know and love. In the case of the latter, the two melodic threads have their emphasis switched in the mix. I can understand why both were kept out of sunlight until now.

The cover of this disc shows the tape reels that simply have “Music For Film #1-2-3” and “A Man Alone” was definitely one of these tracks, probably unnamed until this release. The simple 4-track themes developed here seem surprisingly maudlin and kitschy next to the rest of this material. “Over Tokyo” was another cinematic bit of Elka string synth that clearly formed the basis for the coda used in “Touch + Go.” Waste not, want not!

“A Version Of You” was one of the shocking tributaries to the “Metamatic” sound which was kept in the closet until now. That was one of the gratifying things about this release; the way it put the Foxx established within the period within the larger context of his career that cam, in some cases, as much as a quarter of a century later. The music bed here was simple. It was just piano and synth, and while piano is hardly what we associate with the “Metamatic” era, it was buried deep within “No-One Driving” if you listen hard for it. That makes this excursion into Satie-esque soundscape from [presumably] 1979 Foxx all the more fascinating. Particularly because on the B-side of Numan’s best single [there… I said it…] was a then-surprising cover of Satie’s beguiling “Trois Gymnopedies.” As you may guess, I’m deep within a chicken/egg scenario here. I have to wonder if Foxx was riffing of of Numan’s cover or had Numan seen perhaps a Foxx interview extolling the virtues of Erik Satie? Are there any clues out there?

Similarly, on the track “Fragmentary City,” Foxx tips his hand with a full blown trips into Harold Budd territory with piano only. It would be over twenty years before Foxx’s great interest in Budd’s delicate piano work manifested in the Budd/Foxx “Translucence/Drift Music” project of 2003; where Foxx acted as Lee Perry on the behalf of Budd; radically shifting the pianist’s work in time and space.

“Approaching The Monument” was one of the more “Radiophonic” workouts in this collection. Just a foreboding white noise patch with a sub-bass hum that recalled the scenes in “Alien” when the crew of the “Nostromo” were investigating the planet that was the origin of the infection. At nearly 4:00 minutes, perhaps it overstays its welcome by half. Similarly, “Terminal Zone,” “Urban Code,” “Alamogordo Logic,” and “Critical Mass” are cut from similar cloth. These were further excursions in sinister sci-fi soundscaping which one could easily imagine being used as cues  in Doctor Who, but with a comparatively brief run time that leaves them more interesting.

While Foxx has been long an enthusiast of the early work of The Pink Floyd, he’s not really come close to that particular brand of psychedelia until hearing “Metamorphosis,” which to these ears sounds as if Foxx was performing his more sinister take of “Several Small Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict!” The track began with a melange of synthetic insect trills and bird calls that were almost corny until the dread hum that threatened to obliterate the initial mood entirely did so; thus inspiring the tracks name, undoubtedly.

The previously unknown vocal composition, “Miss Machinery,” was one of the more fully realized tracks here in that it actually sorted a Foxx vocal, but looks can be deceptive. The music bed was similar to that which eventually became “20th Century,” but the differences were profound. The vibe here was less severe, with a much warmer, cinematic sound on offer. A far cry from the ping-ponged computer game soundtrack sound of that B-side. The music certainly was well developed; which can’t be said for the vocal, which was probably just layed down by Foxx as a placeholder, since the lyrics seem half-baked [“let me introduce my army…”] for Foxx and seem to have zero in common with the “Quiet Man” scenario which generated almost all of his lyrical content by that time.

The demo tracks on offer here only serve to confirm how tight Foxx’s vision of his art was at the time. The early version [read: demo] of “Touch + Go” was remarkably congruent with the finished eight track final version. Foxx didn’t need much more than the four tracks he had here to achieve his end results. The only thing that this version lacked was high end fidelity. It even had the distinctive synth glissando at the end of the middle eight.

Next: …Familiar Faces