New album - Crash-Scan - Repeat Until False (Post-Industrial Metal)

[moliere]

Just back from our release party/gig, and I get to share the new album finally. 80% Reaper production (demos are done by someone else in acid), mainly reaper/stillwell/schwa plugins and hardware synths, and my live synth/samples/backing/vocoder/lighting rig is all controlled by Reaper as well. Solid as a rock.

Some themes are sure to offend some people, so please don't listen if you're thinking of having a rant about how we're corrupting the youth of today or some such silly thing that happened last time I posted one of our videos.

Free to download :
https://crashscan.bandcamp.com/

and our new video that our friends put together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfT22XftG3k

[OpIvy]

I'm offended! You are corrupting the youth of today with this!

But well done. Nice and heavy that's for sure.
There's some good screaming in there...

BTW, curious as to what the 'karaoke treats' are?
Would love to see someone put this on at a party and start singing along karaoke style..

[moliere]

Originally Posted by OpIvy

BTW, curious as to what the 'karaoke treats' are?
Would love to see someone put this on at a party and start singing along karaoke style..

There's all the album tracks without vocals, and all the album tracks without guitar so you can either play or sing along

Also, we took our first video, did a new mix without the vocals, and then redid the video with lyrics and a bouncy ball. It's quite amusing.

I'm pretty sure it'll get pulled out at a party sometime soon, and hilarity will ensue.

ps. Cheers for listening!

[zoso2]

Nice! I enjoyed the last Crash-Scan album quite a bit, I even played it on my college radio show. looking forward to spinning this one!

[moliere]

Wow, thanks heaps! We definitely appreciate it.

[Devotio]

Wow! Fantastic stuff my friend!! I'm really loving this stuff.
Great to hear some good Industrial Metal from the Southern Hemisphere!
Love the guitaring and the almost Fear Factory-esq vocal sound. Awesome atmosphere and great production dude!

[Garrick]

Brilliant Moliere!

Sorry i couldn't make your opening night, im stuck in featherston for another month, but i probably would have walked out with my ears ringing after the third song (being old and stuffed)

I listened to choke and pure so far and choke sounded bloody good and polished, nice surprises and changes in there, light and dark.. etc

Big well done

[moliere]

Originally Posted by Devotio

Wow! Fantastic stuff my friend!! I'm really loving this stuff.
Great to hear some good Industrial Metal from the Southern Hemisphere!
Love the guitaring and the almost Fear Factory-esq vocal sound. Awesome atmosphere and great production dude!

Cheers man, thanks for the kind words! There's not much down here in Australasia ( a heap more in Australia than in NZ though), but there's a couple of us trying to do our thing Funny you mention Fear Factory, we're just deciding on a cover to do for our live set and going through a bunch of FF to see what might fit. We've done a few covers before in the past (Skinny Puppy - Tin Omen, Dimmu Borgir - Puritania, White Zombie - More Human Than Human, NIN - Wish) but they were all a bit rugged, haha.

Sorry i couldn't make your opening night, im stuck in featherston for another month, but i probably would have walked out with my ears ringing after the third song (being old and stuffed)

Ha, all good man, definitely let me know if you're down here for a show and I'll make it along. Our bass player is living in Featherston right now, Ezekiel, and my partners family is out Greytown way. I lived in Masterton for 4 years around 99.

I listened to choke and pure so far and choke sounded bloody good and polished, nice surprises and changes in there, light and dark.. etc

thanks heaps for the comments, it's really great to get some positive feedback after sitting on it for so long.

[Devotio]

Originally Posted by moliere

Cheers man, thanks for the kind words! There's not much down here in Australasia ( a heap more in Australia than in NZ though), but there's a couple of us trying to do our thing Funny you mention Fear Factory, we're just deciding on a cover to do for our live set and going through a bunch of FF to see what might fit. We've done a few covers before in the past (Skinny Puppy - Tin Omen, Dimmu Borgir - Puritania, White Zombie - More Human Than Human, NIN - Wish) but they were all a bit rugged, haha.


Ha, all good man, definitely let me know if you're down here for a show and I'll make it along. Our bass player is living in Featherston right now, Ezekiel, and my partners family is out Greytown way. I lived in Masterton for 4 years around 99.

thanks heaps for the comments, it's really great to get some positive feedback after sitting on it for so long.

Very impressive!!! If you guys ever come to Australia, I'm coming to see you guys!! Love all of those bands/musos you mentioned. I'm doing an industrial/gothic rock album right now to, hopefully it's this kind of stuff that infiltrates the airwaves very soon!

[moliere]

Originally Posted by Devotio

Very impressive!!! If you guys ever come to Australia, I'm coming to see you guys!! Love all of those bands/musos you mentioned. I'm doing an industrial/gothic rock album right now to, hopefully it's this kind of stuff that infiltrates the airwaves very soon!

Pretty sure we'll try and make it over at some point, one of my friend's bands was just over playing FiendFest. I'll keep an eye out for your stuff, make sure to post it on here!

[stee1e]

I immediately like this, gonna download and listen at work tomorrow. Nice work, huge sounds.

Actually it's on the iPod now, very heavy, right up my ally. How did you track the drums?

[moliere]

Originally Posted by stee1e

Immediately like this, gonna download and listen at work tomorrow. Nice work, huge sounds. How did you track the drums?

Cheers, Drum sounds are a combination of layered drum machines (lots of 808/909 samples, some Roland R5, Kawai R-100 I think, it's hard to remember - There's a couple of sampled Sisters of Mercy snares layered in there as well) along with manipulated field recordings and percussion (ie hitting random things with other random things until they sound good). The recordings (other than than the drum machine/samples) were recorded on a little Tascam DR-05, or through an AKG C3000 and Cascade FatHead into an RME Fireface800.

[Fergler]

HEAVVVVY, LOVE IT. I was sorta like 'ehh... meh' on repeat until false and then :29 happened. You did that just so I'd turn my speakers up didn't you.

[moliere]

Originally Posted by Fergler

HEAVVVVY, LOVE IT. I was sorta like 'ehh... meh' on repeat until false and then :29 happened. You did that just so I'd turn my speakers up didn't you.

Ha, yeah, learnt that trick from Stone Temple Pilots first album Still catches me out.

[Devotio]

Originally Posted by moliere

Pretty sure we'll try and make it over at some point, one of my friend's bands was just over playing FiendFest. I'll keep an eye out for your stuff, make sure to post it on here!

That'd be awesome!! Thanks man, i sure will! Good to have ya on facebook to

[suleiman]

That is some fukin heavy shit right there...good to see this in Reaper land. Crushing godflesh / zaraza vibes !

[moliere]

thanks suleiman! While we're all fans of Godflesh (as most right thinking people are), I'd never heard of Zaraza, so will be checking them out tonight, cheers!

[kindafishy]

Just watched the video. Very cool effects. Sounds great too. I wish the vocals were up more in the mix, but I understand the role they play as 'just another instrument'. Still, wish they were up a bit.

This song in particular has more of an 'epic' vibe to it than most industrial stuff I tend to come across. I really like it.

[moliere]

Thanks kindafishy, I appreciate the listen! yeah the vocal mix in that song was definitely a deliberate decision, the rest of the album it's not quite so back in the mix. I think if I'd spent a bit more time on some creative eqing to give it a bit more space it would have worked slightly better. Just pulling the level up on it pulled it too much out of the mix, it felt a bit out of context.

[moliere]

New EP from my band Crash-Scan, free to download.
about 90% reaper production, still a bit of acid thrown in there for demos. Stillwell/Schwa plugs, Reaper plugs, Valhalla reverbs, Fab Filter EQs (brilliant). Mix of soft synths and hardware analogs.

https://crashscan.bandcamp.com/album...rmicophilia-ep

[Nizhny Tagil]

Very, very cool.
It reminds me of some classics of the genre, like Red Harvest.
I detect a slight hint of shoegaze in the guitar sound, though: it's more akin to the "wall of noise" guitar sound of My Bloody Valentine and The Angelic Process than to the sharp, staccato riffs of Fear Factory, Red Harvest and more traditionally considered "industrial" bands.
I think there's some "nineties" feel with it, also. Maybe it's the genre, I don't know.

Great production, too.
I would recommend this to my friends (those few with good taste in music, at least)!

[moliere]

Cheers for that! I agree with the guitar assessment (at least for most of the tracks), we've been consciously moving away from riff based things to more textural things (and using less and less guitar overall).

Haven't come across Red Harvest in my travels before, just having a listen now, and might have to dig into the back catalogue, sounds great. Any suggestions for a point to start with?

[Nizhny Tagil]

Originally Posted by moliere

Cheers for that! I agree with the guitar assessment (at least for most of the tracks), we've been consciously moving away from riff based things to more textural things (and using less and less guitar overall).

Haven't come across Red Harvest in my travels before, just having a listen now, and might have to dig into the back catalogue, sounds great. Any suggestions for a point to start with?

Yes, "textural", that expresses what I had in mind. Kind of works for the synths as well.
About Red Harvest, "There's Beauty In The Purity Of Sadness" it's a great cross-over between Fear Factory and the more metal side of Ministry. "Hybreed" is also one of their best.
As I've said, they're not "textural", though, more of the aseptic, cold, mechanized industrial metal kind.

If you want some more suggestions on the genre, I'm at your disposal. I'm very fond of monolithic industrial metal and I've been scouring for years in search of more projects of this kind.
Obviously, Crashscan certainly qualifies.

[Dimaension X]

It's funny - I was just posting that I've been listening to a lot of Bowie, and the mellower parts of the intro to "Descent" remind me of Bowie, then it transforms into Red Harvest. Very cool.

I must now listen to more.

[moliere]

Originally Posted by Nizhny Tagil

About Red Harvest, "There's Beauty In The Purity Of Sadness" it's a great cross-over between Fear Factory and the more metal side of Ministry. "Hybreed" is also one of their best.

Thanks for that, will go have a listen.

If you want some more suggestions on the genre, I'm at your disposal.

Always keen for some new recommendations. Stuff I'm enjoying recently has been on the doomier/noisier side of things, but up for a listen to anything that I haven't heard before.

[moliere]

Originally Posted by Dimaension X

Very Cool. I must now listen to more.

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback.

[Nizhny Tagil]

Originally Posted by moliere

Thanks for that, will go have a listen.


Always keen for some new recommendations. Stuff I'm enjoying recently has been on the doomier/noisier side of things, but up for a listen to anything that I haven't heard before.

Well, there's a lot of interesting projects on the same lines you're moving along with your own.
The fact is, most of them started basically as clones of Godflesh and Ministry when they were still going strong and are now defunct or their releases are out of print and hard to find.

Anyway, when I was listening to your stuff some came to mind: ...And Christ Wept are harsh, monolithic industrial metal relying on programmed drums and samples more than guitars; so are Zaraza, which I've seen mentioned in earlier posts; Aborym mix black metal with aggressive electronics; finally, if you dig textural, monolithic, noisy and depressing stuff there's The Angelic Process.
For a Godflesh fan I couldn't recommend enough early Pitchshifter albums and if you want a version of them even more noisy, chaotic and stripped down, there's Halo.
Crashscan even reminded me a little of Alec Empire and the so-called "digital hardcore", too.
I could go on forever, but this is what came to me when listening to Crashscan

Anyway, if you have time, it would be interesting if you could elaborate a little more about the production of your material, especially what relates to Reaper.

[moliere]

Originally Posted by Nizhny Tagil

Anyway, if you have time, it would be interesting if you could elaborate a little more about the production of your material, especially what relates to Reaper.

Anything in particular you'd like to know?

Here's our basic production/songwriting process :

1.Vocalist/CoProducer - Creates lots of little interesting 10 second snippets of guitar or bass riffs or beat progressions, or a synth line in Acid.

2.Together - Go through each Acid snippet and determine if it's got any potential in a song, discard most of them.

3.Me (Keyboards/Samples/CoProducer) - Start mapping out some structures from the snippets, build beat and part variations (samples/recordings on the timeline) for various sections of the song based on original snippet ideas, but reinforcing with drum machine samples/previously manipulated field recordings. Come up with some interesting synth lines (Normally via hardware Novation K-Station/MKS-50/Moog Sub-Phatty initially, then moving to soft synths: Olga, Diva, Chimera, Korg MS20 to add layers and textures). Sometime Vocalist will work on some stuff at the same time, expanding ideas they'd put down originally.

4.Me and Guitarist - Listen through the stuff and figure out where guitar/bass should go in parts not already written. Loop through parts and audition guitar ideas, generally recording rhythms through a Tech21 Sansamp PSA-1 (but we did some on my Bogner Uberschall (SM57 and Cascade Fathead on Mesa 2x12) recently) and tracking left/right and where textures/non-riff bits are needed through my pedal board and fiddling with lots of different pedals.

5.Me and Guitarist - record live bass parts to match (Normally through a Tech21 GT-2 or VTBass Deluxe and DI'd)

6.Me - evaluate song and add extra synth parts where necessary, chop up guitars and bass into different parts if necessary,

7.Me and Vocalist and Drummer/Percussionist - set up some things to hit (washing machines, steel plates, heaters etc. hit them in time with the already recorded tracks filling in space and adding interesting things (Tascam DR5). Process the results of this, normally through some filters and distortion.

8.Me and Vocalist- Recently, it's mostly me, but we decide what each song should be about based on how the music is feeling, and I start writing some lyrics. These are normally refined into verses/choruses while looping through the tracks, getting some phrasing and vocal flow together. I do my best imitation of the vocalist and record how I think it should go dynamics and phrasing wise.

9. Vocalist - listen to previous recordings and do keeper takes of vocals (SM7b into RME Fireface800).

10. Me - mixing, make it sound 'good'. Love FabFilter Pro-Q2 for eq work, love the Stillwell compressors and Valhalla reverbs. Quadrafuzz and Ohmicide for messing things up. Delays via ReaDelay, Limiting via Barricade. Lots of volume automation and some multiband compression via ReaXComp (although I've never been happy with that - need to try FabFilters one). I use a LOT of folders for organising and bus processing etc.

Replicating it all live is a bit more of a complex process, haha. I do keys, samples and vocoders live while playing extra guitar on a few tracks. We have bass, guitar, vocals and a drummer live (DDrum triggers on tom shells, some roland pads and live cymbal stacks)

[Nizhny Tagil]

Originally Posted by moliere

Anything in particular you'd like to know?

Here's our basic production/songwriting process :

1.Vocalist/CoProducer - Creates lots of little interesting 10 second snippets of guitar or bass riffs or beat progressions, or a synth line in Acid.

2.Together - Go through each Acid snippet and determine if it's got any potential in a song, discard most of them.

3.Me (Keyboards/Samples/CoProducer) - Start mapping out some structures from the snippets, build beat and part variations (samples/recordings on the timeline) for various sections of the song based on original snippet ideas, but reinforcing with drum machine samples/previously manipulated field recordings. Come up with some interesting synth lines (Normally via hardware Novation K-Station/MKS-50/Moog Sub-Phatty initially, then moving to soft synths: Olga, Diva, Chimera, Korg MS20 to add layers and textures). Sometime Vocalist will work on some stuff at the same time, expanding ideas they'd put down originally.

4.Me and Guitarist - Listen through the stuff and figure out where guitar/bass should go in parts not already written. Loop through parts and audition guitar ideas, generally recording rhythms through a Tech21 Sansamp PSA-1 (but we did some on my Bogner Uberschall (SM57 and Cascade Fathead on Mesa 2x12) recently) and tracking left/right and where textures/non-riff bits are needed through my pedal board and fiddling with lots of different pedals.

5.Me and Guitarist - record live bass parts to match (Normally through a Tech21 GT-2 or VTBass Deluxe and DI'd)

6.Me - evaluate song and add extra synth parts where necessary, chop up guitars and bass into different parts if necessary,

7.Me and Vocalist and Drummer/Percussionist - set up some things to hit (washing machines, steel plates, heaters etc. hit them in time with the already recorded tracks filling in space and adding interesting things (Tascam DR5). Process the results of this, normally through some filters and distortion.

8.Me and Vocalist- Recently, it's mostly me, but we decide what each song should be about based on how the music is feeling, and I start writing some lyrics. These are normally refined into verses/choruses while looping through the tracks, getting some phrasing and vocal flow together. I do my best imitation of the vocalist and record how I think it should go dynamics and phrasing wise.

9. Vocalist - listen to previous recordings and do keeper takes of vocals (SM7b into RME Fireface800).

10. Me - mixing, make it sound 'good'. Love FabFilter Pro-Q2 for eq work, love the Stillwell compressors and Valhalla reverbs. Quadrafuzz and Ohmicide for messing things up. Delays via ReaDelay, Limiting via Barricade. Lots of volume automation and some multiband compression via ReaXComp (although I've never been happy with that - need to try FabFilters one). I use a LOT of folders for organising and bus processing etc.

Replicating it all live is a bit more of a complex process, haha. I do keys, samples and vocoders live while playing extra guitar on a few tracks. We have bass, guitar, vocals and a drummer live (DDrum triggers on tom shells, some roland pads and live cymbal stacks)

That's pretty impressing.
A lot of people, gear and effort involved and a lot of layering too, it appears.
Honestly, I didn't think there was that much going on just by listening. The overall sound seemed pretty neat.

So the drums are miscellaneous percussions/samples/loops from various sources, nothing is the real thing or emulation of real drums?
I'd also like to know if/how much you guys layer synths, guitars and vocals and how you process those things.

Also, any suggestion about JS plugins? I don't know them very well although I'm always trying to use them as much as I can so it's good to hear them in action.

Anyway, though what I do is on a very amateur level, I'm impressed by how differently I do things despite the fact that the genre is somewhat similar.
I basically just do everything in the box, write "traditional" songs based on guitar riffs, except for some purely electronic experiments, and my arrangements are really really sparse.
I also rarely use "embellishments" like automation and multi-band compression, but I guess with that much going on it becomes almost a necessity.

Thanks, it's interesting to know more in-depth how that kind of music can be produced.

[moliere]

Originally Posted by Nizhny Tagil

That's pretty impressing.
A lot of people, gear and effort involved and a lot of layering too, it appears.
Honestly, I didn't think there was that much going on just by listening. The overall sound seemed pretty neat.

We try and make an effort to involve all the members in the creation, and that's hard to do all ITB. I think for us the process itself is part of the enjoyment, especially in terms on 'industrial' music.

So the drums are miscellaneous percussions/samples/loops from various sources, nothing is the real thing or emulation of real drums?

The drums are generally based from a few sources, 808/909 samples (I don't own an original), "Driven Machine Drum" samples, and samples we recorded ourselves from hitting things with other things. I've got some fantastic kicks and snares from stomping on various things in an old WW2 tunnel here. There's normally multiple layers of samples on kicks and snares, trying to bring out the bits I like of each sample/recording. We don't use any drum sampler software or anything, we're definitely not trying to sound like real drums, I'm all about taking other recordings and trying to recontextualise them into that situation. For me, it's part of the 'industrial' process regardless of sonic outcome. I'm much happier/content if I'm using a recording/sample that I've made and manipulated myself than using sample libraries, so I'm trying to move further and further in that direction.

I'd also like to know if/how much you guys layer synths, guitars and vocals and how you process those things.

Synths I generally only have a couple of textural things going on, and a a lead synth where it feels like it would be useful. Not much layering on those.
They don't get much processing apart from a touch of reverb and eq generally.

Guitars are generally double tracked at least in rhythm parts (sometimes quad).
Where it's a bit more textural there may be a layers of appeggiation and a layer of straight chords to try and definite it more. Something like 'Choke' from the previous album 'Repeat Until False' though has heaps of layers of guitars, with octave effects aplenty, just to make it sound huge.
Processing wise, Reverb and EQ mainly. If there's a bunch of low palm mutes, then a multiband compressor to try and tame the bass on that.

Vocals are generally double-tracked, sometimes the same just to make them thicker, or sometimes with a different character. I normally edit them quite tightly and run those through compressors (ReaComp/Rocket/Major Tom) and a plate reverb (IK/Valhalla). Depending on the vibe I want I either leave them at that and they're good to go, or I run them through a fairly extensive chain of tremolo (JS),
Distortion (Ozone Trash/Quadrafuzz) and Filter/Modulation (Schwa Oligarc)

Also, any suggestion about JS plugins? I don't know them very well although I'm always trying to use them as much as I can so it's good to hear them in action.

I've used a few in the past, (Bad Buss Mojo, Chorus, Event Horizon, Exciter, Major Tom, Mid/Side Encoder/Decoder (when recording stereo percusssion)) but now that I'm using the Schwa/Stillwell stuff that most of those JS effects originated I don't really touch them anymore.

Anyway, though what I do is on a very amateur level,
I'm impressed by how differently I do things despite the fact that the genre is somewhat similar.
I basically just do everything in the box, write "traditional" songs based on guitar riffs, except for some purely electronic experiments, and my arrangements are really really sparse.
I also rarely use "embellishments" like automation and multi-band compression, but I guess with that much going on it becomes almost a necessity.

Well, we're certainly on an amateur level ourselves, but you know, trying to learn new stuff and new methods. I'm sure everything we do could be done ITB, and probably easier, but it makes us feel better, haha. And occasionally we get some interesting quirky stuff out of the process that we wouldn't have got otherwise.
Automation and multi-band compression are essential to our process when we start layering bass, kicks and bass heavy synth/palm mutes. It gets out of control real quick. Automation is mainly to push various elements out front when it gets too crowded (like pushing the drums in the choruses etc), fixing uneven vocals, interesting panning effects.

Thanks, it's interesting to know more in-depth how that kind of music can be produced.

No worries, I love reading about other peoples processes and gear myself, you can always learn a new thing to try (or not to try, haha).