Xenomorph Collectors Edition

by Andy Pickford

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Peter Hutchinson Finally! If ever an album needed remastering it was this one. Having bought the original “collectors edition” back when it was released in the mid nineties with the misprinted running order, I always felt that it lacked the oomph of previous releases as everything seemed tinny with no depth. This version essentially now feels like a completely different album as after repeated plays I am still finding new elements that I didn’t know were there in the original.
Thanks Andy Favorite track: Sisterwulf (The Sky Breaks).

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1.	Xenomorph 06:18		buy track
2.	Night of The Long Knives 07:10		buy track
3.	Topaz 06:16		buy track
4.	Apocalypse of Love 08:46		buy track
5.	Space to Breathe 08:16		buy track
6.	Annihilator 07:41		buy track
7.	Sarcophagus 04:21		buy track
8.	Solitude's Shadow 12:00
9.	Reflections 05:56		buy track
10.	Xenomorph album whole file @ 16bit 01:06:47
11.	Sisterwulf (The Sky Breaks) 08:06		buy track
12.	Skydiver 04:53		buy track
13.	Sarcophagus (live) 04:30		buy track
14.	Solitude's Shadow (live) 11:02
15.	UFO Part 1 (live - with David Barker) 07:56
16.	UFO Part 2 (live - with David Barker) 04:51
17.	UFO Part 3 (live - with David Barker) 06:13
18.	Le Pamplemousse 08:22	info

about

Xenomorph. I could actually just leave it there and bugger off for my lunch, but you guys would be a bit disappointed I suspect ;-)
Album-wise, it was my first off the Centaur label and therefore the first not to be over-mastered at The Townhouse. It was instead under-mastered in the far outer-reaches of the grim North ;-) In subsequent years I attempted my own mastering efforts but still wasn’t really able to bring back the low-end and the transient punch to go with it. Hmmm… this go does pretty well though. I’m not Giles Martin and I don’t have Abbey Road minions to help me out. I do have ProTools though and I was told a few years ago by one of their engineers, that after this long I almost certainly know more about it than most of them do. I regularly evolve my mastering strip and although the latest iteration is producing awesome results (esp. on the Harmonics series which I’m doing at the moment), it’ll probably change again over time. I could bore you with all the technical details of it but bollocks to that. In short I mastered it using all my best shit, 25 years after it was initially done. So unless the engineer’s a tone-deaf marmoset on crack, it’s going to sound better anyway. There, I’ve saved at least a page of BS :-D

Xenomorph
Title track. This thing exists in at least three versions as far as I’m aware. I think this was one of the less-cooked versions I’m not sure. I remember having a lot of fun assembling the dialogue in the track. I still wasn’t able to resurrect all the punch and bass clarity I wanted but I’m not able to go back to the original and change the mix. It’s fine as a scene-setter as it was designed to be.

Night of The Long Knives
Sheesh! I sure did like some nasty gritty sounds back then. Mind you, that lead guitar sound I created on the JD800 was damn good and used an expression pedal to control the LPF for an ace wah-wah effect. You get a lot of it in this album.

Topaz
A nice bouncy happy thing which again showcases my lead sound of the moment! I got the JD800 while making Maelstrom and it’s used a whole lot more on Xenomorph. New master does come out nice and punchy and well proportioned.

Apocalypse of Love
Version made for this album, not the same as previous versions from a year or two earlier. Amazing amount of punch brought out on this mastering. You’d struggle to hear it on the original.

Space to Breathe
Remains one of my favourite pieces from this era. I remember it being a phrase used by a partner I was splitting up with at the time. So I don’t think anybody was having a real fine time then. There was clear purpose in me carrying on with the music though, especially as it let me escape the hassle a little bit. So Space to Breathe really was space to breathe :-)

Annihilator
Something for Big Bob! If you’re too young to remember Big Bob, just think of a cloud-blocking viking transforming over several years, into something like Jabba The Hut. Sure, I’m just an irreverent piss-taking git but he really was a top bloke who gave me a ton of help back then. He liked this in-yer-face hardnose electronica a lot. He was rather impressed with this one. Sound upgrade is nice too.

Sarcophagus
Some text from the Egyptian Book of The Dead with some equally ominous music put to it! I have been asked in the past if I know much about this Esoteric stuff. Yes, in short and I could lecture on it but music gives me better things to think about than that shit when you’re trying to pass your day.

Solitude’s Shadow
More splitty-uppy stuff from the Space to Breathe section of things. Very ambitious production from me and I recall it taking a good deal of time and thought not to feck it up.

Reflections
Oops! I guess shit got bad then ;-) Must have been for me to compose this sentimental dirge. But it does accurately round off a period of time so nah, no problem.

Xenomorph album whole file @ 16bit
If you just want to hear the whole things without the gaps.

Sisterwulf (The Sky Breaks)
Composed originally for Ashley Franklin’s charity project The Sky Goes All The Way Home. Note that on this and Skydiver the lead line seems a little glitchy at times. That was the AtariST literally running out of power as I kept getting loading more work onto it.

Skydiver
This also was initially on another CD and I found it again many years later. Quite likely the last track I did before losing the Atari midi-studio / 8tk portastudio aspect of production and going to multitrack HD.

Sarcophagus (live)
As it says on the can. Me being a tit on stage and hammering out my esoteric dirge in front of an unsuspecting audience, at The Guildhall in Derby.

Solitude’s Shadow (live)
Now we move along to me presenting a good argument in favour of Autotune. I played those synths very well though. Live at The Guildhall, Derby.

UFO Parts 1 / 2 & 3
Me accompanied by David Barker of Asana, live at the Derby Guildhall again. This recording ended up with a shit-ton of room ambience on it and was always very hard to master at all. I may have got the best result here so far, by effectively removing as much of it out as I could, having found its frequency. I managed to correct some other small glitches and sound errors.

Le Pamplemousse
This isn’t on general release because I didn’t manage to find the thing in time! After I lost the midi-studio / 8tk arrangement I briefly went more drum machine / arpeggiator. I actually can’t remember what I was using as a sequencer, it must have been so crappy! Anyway, this is one of two pieces I made like that, the other being M-Space on the Nemesis CE.

credits

released April 15, 2022

All files uploaded as 24bit wavs unless stated otherwise.
New design by me. I think it's had a new design each time it's been out this album! Remastering and other tweaks performed Spring 2022.

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about

Andy Pickford Derby, UK

I make immersive synth music, create my own art, eat, drink, shit and exist. I'm not famous but everybody knows my name... like shingles.

andypickford.uk

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