New Lucy Album: Wordplay for Working Bees

[patrickg]

The new album by Lucy is one of the best things I've ever heard. New age, IDM influenced techno with incredible sound design and an incredible vibe. I can not recommend it enough.

http://www.factmag.com/2011/02/25/st...-bees-in-full/


Anyone know anything about his production? Definitely a lot of field recordings in there, does he have any outboard?

[DSK]

Woah thx for the heads up.. been waiting for this album to drop...

Lucy's Stroboscopic Artefacts label has been dropping some really forward thinking techno out there pushing the boundaries while remaining in the well established dogma/foundation...

On the production side it's surely Ableton ITB but they get that nice 3d sound from clever use of eq, send return (dub techniques) sending a whole bus to a return channel and playing with it there... It's like organic resampling but focused more on atmosphere rather than choping up samples...

RA: Label of the month: Stroboscopic Artefacts
Here's his setup from (pic from the interview above):


Excellent field recordings are the key thumbsup

I recommend using plugins that use binaural 3d fx (like longcat H3d) and the whole bunch from BrainWorx that use Mid and Side processing... also DrMS is good for this ambiental soundscape..

Anyway on the hardware side I think he has a good room with good speakers that fill nicely the room..

On the mastering side the label uses a analog digital hybrid chain:

ARTEFACTS MASTERING // Music Studio

[patrickg]

nice one!

I've been learning as much as I can about Lucy and SA. This one and the Shed album are the cream of the crop as far home listening techno lately.

Its funny how a lot of the Berlin guys are totally itb, especially the ones that only spin vinyl or cdj. I know Lucy's using Traktor, but people like Klock and Dettmann are using vinyl/cdj, while making their tracks all itb. Its kind of Ironic one the hand, but if you think about it, they're utilizing the best medium for the each task.

[patrickg]

Hmm I thought more people would be into this album.....

[giorgio]

picked it up just haven't had a chance to check it out yet... will tonight... on weed

[DSK]

I think the thread title isn't so attractive... I mean Lucy isn't exactly mainstream.. so a troll hunting more controversial title like in the vein off:

"NEW GROUNDBREAKING NEW AMAZING POST-TECHNO ALBUM THAT PISSES ON EVERYONE'S MUSIC FROM AN ITALIAN GUY IN BERLIN"

...should spark more interest and give more exposure.

Shall I contact Reptil for a thread name change or will you Patrick?

The album is pretty good at a first listen but requires a more in depth approach to see if it really is a gem or not... (or groundbreaking or amazing or pissing on everyone's music)..

Nevertheless I really like the esthetic of it a lot!

Also the laidback feel of it makes it perfect for home listening.

Anyway, so for this post to actually be of any use I shall embed some tracks from his album as it's really convenient to get a listen from here :

http://soundcloud.com/lucy/10-mas/

http://soundcloud.com/lucy/6-eis/

http://soundcloud.com/lucy/9-es/

And one club BANGER for the dancy slutz out there

http://soundcloud.com/lucy/lucy-beautiful-people-mote-evolver-019/

[patrickg]

hmmmm well I thought more people were into the techno scene to know Lucy, but he is still pretty up and coming. People seem to like the linear, non 4/4 tracks in this forum, so it seemed like a good thread....go ahead and change the title.

I think you're right about the aesthetic, it definitely tells a story through the tracks. I think anyone can get into this kind of music, or at least some of the tracks, hence the thread. This video is sick, I don't think its his studio, but its nice to hear him talk about his aesthetic vision and hear him drop a few tracks too.

[KK_AM]

Hi, quite suprised to find this thread on GS, thanks for the roses.

I did part of the production, post and mastering for Lucy album,
we have some outboard pieces like the classic API2500, some secret compressors and preamps weapons, amazing speakers ATC SCM50 ASL, great ADDA converter and all the bling bling, but if you like the songs, it´s because he spent one year in composing and recomposing the tracks.
As for the 3D and depth, check your side channel, you´ll find some good shit in there... he didn´t have amazing room and speakers, but we have all of that in our mastering studio, and he trusts us completely, so we can do our magic tricks to his tracks without limits...
I´m happy people like what we do, we spend everyday in the studio, without groupies and funny powders, and getting some recognition makes me feel I didn´t waste all that time and energies.

Bless,
gio

[patrickg]

Originally Posted by KK_AM

Hi, quite suprised to find this thread on GS, thanks for the roses.

I did part of the production, post and mastering for Lucy album,
we have some outboard pieces like the classic API2500, some secret compressors and preamps weapons, amazing speakers ATC SCM50 ASL, great ADDA converter and all the bling bling, but if you like the songs, it´s because he spent one year in composing and recomposing the tracks.
As for the 3D and depth, check your side channel, you´ll find some good shit in there... he didn´t have amazing room and speakers, but we have all of that in our mastering studio, and he trusts us completely, so we can do our magic tricks to his tracks without limits...
I´m happy people like what we do, we spend everyday in the studio, without groupies and funny powders, and getting some recognition makes me feel I didn´t waste all that time and energies.

Bless,
gio

I've been getting reeeeally into this kind of sound lately. No 'groupies or funny powders' here either. Its the cream of the crop as far as I'm concerned; Lucy, Xhin, Sandwell District, Luke Slater, Shed, etc. All different, but in my opinion carrying a strain of similar aesthetic.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'side channel'....?

Quick question: you seem to be suggesting that you took a little more creative licensing with the mastering than is standard, especially if you're calling what you did 'post'; so did Luca give you the 2-track, or just the whole session for you to mess with as you please?

Thanks,

Patrick

[KK_AM]

For a quick explanation of mid-side signal encoding read this
It´s a powerful tecnique, WHEN needed.

For the mastering of Lucy´s album, we worked on the stereo mixdown of the tracks, no stems were harmed during the process. And for all the releases of Stroboscopic Artefacts, we can go a little more beyond the normal limits that are considered "politically correct" in a mastering context, it´s almost a post-production and mastering job... dangerous, but looks like we´re going in the right direction.

If you´re interested, here´s an interview I had with Todd Burns.

All the best,
ggg

[DSK]

Thanks for chiming in glad to have you over here!

Rest assured in many circles your work is highly regarded. Lucy's album really is flowing nicely, organic yet urban/industrial at the same time. I think you put his compositions in a beautiful light.

I have really good speakers but an untrated place and even so the album is really spacey and fills out the room nicely with no issues whatsoever.

Anyway thanks for sharing some "secrets" (and confirming the mid side processing tehnique).

What I am really curious is how much can you affect a mixed stereo track...

Do you do parallel processing for further modifying the sound while keeping it Intact?

How can I hear some before and after?


For the record this is a moment in time where boundries rather than pushed feel more like they're joining in a mobius strip and the emergence of mastering units like yours are the proof. Good job and hope to see you guys contributing more often here.

[KK_AM]

Hi,
check this thread for more info,
there are a couple of quite long posts from me where you can find some answers:

Techno Mastering Guide

ciao!

[greenears]

From what I gather, most of the people in this forum don’t really care much for techno. I think this is a great, explorative LP from Lucy.

Speaking of Dadub, they have a new podcast on www.fwd.dj that is super tits!