American Music Club - "Mercury"

[Alex Niedt]

Hi Tchad, I'm very curious about your approach to this album and its "spacious mercurial claustrophobia", in general. It's a mind boggling (and magical) sound to me, and I'm guessing it wasn't Mark Eitzel's idea. Any info on the overall atmosphere, influence, or specifics on these sessions would be forever appreciated...even if it's just "I wanted the album to sound like mercury". Thank you.

-Alex

[sloanfiske]

beat me to it.

one of my favorite albums...ever.

[tchadb]

Originally Posted by Alex Niedt

Hi Tchad, I'm very curious about your approach to this album and its "spacious mercurial claustrophobia", in general. It's a mind boggling (and magical) sound to me, and I'm guessing it wasn't Mark Eitzel's idea. Any info on the overall atmosphere, influence, or specifics on these sessions would be forever appreciated...even if it's just "I wanted the album to sound like mercury". Thank you.

-Alex

I like that record very much.
I used my binaural headgear (2Xecm50 place in ear) for some things and had also just got the Hughes SRSak100, so I probably overused it.
I remember taking two Eventide instant phasors set for painfully slow modulation, sending them(one left, one right) through the SRS set wide, piping the drums to the phasors and mixing it all in just a little so the sounds changed timbre very slowly, an almost imperceptable twirl around your head.
I use that same idea quite a bit since, only I do it with the 'buenos notches' patch in an old H3000. Something no plug I've found can do yet.

[C/G]

Mercury is definitely the best sounding and my favourite AMC album. Absolutely amazing album and recording.