Massed Gadgets - Pseudo

Welcome to PSEUDO, a tribute to Pink Floyd made by fans for fans. Keep in mind as you listen that this is no slick, high tech record industry tribute to yet another 70's band, handpicked from today's hot (and tomorrow's not) groups and designed to make big bucks. Rather it is an amateur recording done on an old reel to reel, a four track, a couple of cassette decks and a whole bunch of massed gadets. It was recorded primarily in an attic and a living room on almost no budget. We just thought we should do it first lest we end up with Comfortably Numb as recorded by Green Day (or perhaps 50 Cent).

This is the revised version. I recently discovered a copy of this in someone's shares, and was blown away. I gave a few copies of this to people I traded with with strict instructions not to spread it. It was just for close friends. Of course someone betrayed a trust and I found it online. I was angered and embarrassed. This is by no means the quality of recording or performance I'd let out into the public. But since its out there I thought I'd do it some justice and try to make it less harsh on the ears. I can't fix the performances, guitar sounds or bad mixes, but I can make it better. I've edited some mistakes, fixed the EQ, removed as much hiss as I can and beefed up the sound a bit. I also re-edited the segues between songs to make it a more continuous piece. Previously the only songs that connected were the first three. Now nearly all of them do. It still doesn't make me exactly happy, but its better for the ears of strangers.

The sound Quality is as consistent as we could get it (which isn't saying much) but varying equipment and a curse on our master tapes which caused them to attract damage no matter how carefully we treated them have caused some deviances. there is an awful hiss on the electric guitar tracks that comes from one of the amplifiers we used. It was unavoidable and unrepairable, though I removed as much as I could. Apologies for that. There's also a few fluttery spots due to generations of overdubs.

By the way, none of us is a keyboardist. Tho I played piano for three years about 12 years ago, that is the extent of our keyboard experience, so you may notice it is missing from songs you are used to hearing it in (most noticeably Careful With That Axe, Eugene). We didn't even get our hands on one until halfway through the recording, and that was a little mini-key Casio. [ I would have added keyboards for the Revised version, but that would have been unfaithful to the original preformers.] Also, this is pretty much how we learned to use the equipment we had amassed, so there's a lot of stuff which could be done much better now. By the time we recorded the second tribute CD we had learned much and it shows.

Still, I hope you find it pleasant despite its flaws; we do. Enjoy!

MASSED GADGETS IS:

John Peace, Justin Eulrich, Kevin Sharkey,Jon Pittorf and Brian Uebler as follows:

Pigs On The Wing - John: acoustic guitar and vocals
Green Is The Colour - John: acoustic guitar and vocals, Justin: recorder
Careful With That Axe, Eugene - John: electric guitar and vocal effects, Justin: bass and vocal effects, Brian: drums
Goodbye Blue Sky - Kevin: acoustic guitar, John: acoustic guitar and vocals, Nathanael Peace: little boy
Cymbaline - John: electric guitar and vocals, tape effects, Justin: bass and vocals, tape effects, Brian: drums
Childhood's End - John: acoustic and electric guitars, vocals, Justin: bass, keyboards and vocals, Brian: drums
Julia Dream - John: acoustic guitar and vocal, Justin: recorder
Time - John: electric guitar and vocals, Justin: bass and vocals, Brian: drums
Mother - Kevin: acoustic guitar and vocals, John: acoustic and electric guitar and vocals, Justin: bass, Brian: drums
Wish You Were Here - Kevin: acoustic 6 string guitar and vocals, John: acoustic 12 string and 6 string guitars and vocals, Justin: bass
Is There Anybody Out There? - Kevin: Acoustic guitar, John: acoustic and electric guitars, vocals, tape effects
Comfortably Numb - John: acoustic and electric guitars, slide guitar, vocals and keyboards Kevin: vocals, Justin: bass, Brian: drums
Get Your Filthy Hands Off Southampton Dock - John: acoustic guitar and vocals
Echoes: John: electric guitars, vocals, tape effects, keyboards, custom Vox wah, Justin: bass, vocals, keyboards, tape effects, custom Vox wah, Brian: drums

MASSGED GADGETS would like to thank:

Brian Tallmadge for the drum hardware, Chris Bennion for the GSP, Richard Pawlak for the reel to reel, NCCC for the piano, Nathanael Peace for his intro to "Goodbye Blue Sky", Lockport Public Library for some of the sound effects, Lance Drake for his equipment in his absence (even though his amp sucked ass), Bryan, Chris, Julia, Johanne, Mike, Dennis, Beth and anyone else who had to put up with listening to this a hundred thousand times while we recorded and mixed it, and, of course, Pink Floyd for countless hours of inspiration and enjoyment. Without them this would not have been possible.

John Peace would like to personally thank the members of Utopia Rising, especially Justin, for their performances, advice, and for putting up with me. Apologies to Lance for not including him more, but, hey, you ran off to Florida when we had the time schedueled to do this.

Recorded and mixed between 12/31/94 and 4/26/95.

Produced by Eulrich and Peace for Ego Whip Productions.

Added: 04.02.2008