Tales from the Engine Room

Released by Racket Records: 21-Jan-98

Details:

Credits:

Produced by Marc Mitchell and Mark Daghorn at Aspect of I Studios, Jersey, Channel Islands December 1996 to November 1997 Graphic design by Bill Smith Studio

Website- http://www.marillion.co.uk Email Mailinglist- Freaks@ax.com The Web UK, PO Box 533, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 2EX The Web Holland, PO Box 208, 2740 AE Waddinxveen, Holland The Web USA, PO Box 5530, Elgin, IL 60121, USA The Web Germany, c/o J&A Baecker, Postfach 1148, 53581 Bad Honnef, Germany Real to Read, c/o Monica Aprea, Via San Dionigi, 42/62-20139 Milano, MI, Italy If you would like a list of other available Racket CD's, write to: Racket Records P.O.Box 252 Aylesbury HP18 0YS You can also telephone the Racket Hotline on +44 (0) 1296 770839

Tales from the Channel Islands

I've been a Marillion fan since the very early days. I will well remember buying the twelve inch of `Market Square Heroes´ which had just been released, on the day before going to my first ever gig, so making this album allowed me to realise a long held ambition.

Marc Mitchell, on the other hand, had never really heard much Marillion, but I played him `Afraid of Sunlight´ whenever possible and when I suggested the idea of remixes, he was up for it. So, we approached the band's management and eventually a meeting was arranged between the band and I to discuss remixing `This Strange Engine´ instead of `Afraid of Sunlight´ as they were working on TSE at the time and had just changed labels.

It seems silly now, but I don't think I've ever been as nervous as I was on the day I was driving up to that meeting. It all went very well though, and we agreed to remix one track over Christmas 1996, which ended up being `Estonia´ and to do the rest if everyone was happy with the result.

We decided to do the album at Marc's studio in Jersey, mainly because he doesn't like leaving the house, let alone the island!

I was slightly less nervous than for our first meeting when I was driving to Steve Hogarth's house to play him "Estonia" but, once again, it all wen well and we eventually got to go ahead and do the album.

We resumed work in mid-March on "Memory of Water" and then "This Strange Engine". Steve H came to Jersey for the weekend whilst we were working on it and I succeeded in getting caught speeding while driving him back to the airport (I say 'speeding' but I was doing 42 m.p.h.). He ended up missing his flight but claims he doesn't hold  it against me, and I was fined £30.00 at a bizarre ritual called a "Parish Hall Enquiry".

We eventually completed work on "This Strange Engine" in early May, half an hour before I had to fly home. I went to the band's Norwich gig the night after and played them the track which got a uniformly good response.

A while later we resumed work only after I had got stranded in Poole for a night and a day due to the 'wave piercer' ferry not being able to sail through waves more than seven feet high! (Does that make sense to you?.. I ended up in a hotel where I was the only person there without a zimmer frame, and incredibly damp head waiter was plastered in fake tan and tacky jewellery.) I got there in the end and we started work on "One Fine Day".. During this mix, Hong Kong was handed back to China - it was a strange feeling watching the news footage of tanks rolling in to Hon Kong whilst we were working on a song about ideals, dreams and changing the world ... and then giving up on all of those things. It brought home to me  that we must not give up on our dreams, no matter how unreal they might seem - rather than fall asleep dreaming that dream we should wake up and do something about it.

Marc's desk packed up in the middle of working on "Man of 1000 Faces" so I came home and left him to it. It felt abit strange not being there for the last track which, after four attempts, mutated into "Face 1004" - the lack of vocals on it doesn't indicate any disrespect for the original - we just wanted something a little different.

So there you have it - a somewhat unlikely crossover of styles that we're very proud of, which I hope you get as much pleasure listening to as we had making.

Mark Daghorn, December 1997

Vows.

We vowed we'd never let anyone do this.

I'd heard reconstruction's and remixes before and it seemed to me that the purpose of the artform, at best, was to produce some kind of cerebral trip, attained through dance in the tribal sense ... often with a bit of help from `substances´. At worst, though, I thought it was just a way of imposing a dance rhythm to a previously arranged song in order to hit another market and make money.

When Mark Daghorn succeeded in breaking down the closed doors and playing "Positive Light" to us, we thought again. PL seemed to have an element in their work that we hadn't often heard on the genre before... - depth of emotion, empathy, soul or whatever you want to call something which elevates music above mere entertainment. We packed him off back to Jersey with a lead vocal, and a guitar sample from "Estonia". A month or so later, he appeared at my door and played to me "Positive Light"s reconstruction... and I love it. We all loved it. And so the experiment was born. If, like me, you're intimate with Marillion's original, it takes a while to get your head away from that and get into this. There's even an argument for hearing this album first! The reconstruction of the title track, "This Strange Engine" reduced me to tears. I would advice you to listen to it on a Walkman whilst walking through the town on a Saturday afternoon. It makes everyone move in slow motion!

You might not like all of this album, but you're going to LOVE some of it. Which tracks you love and hate will depend on what you're into and who you are. If you love ALL of it, Congratulations! - you're genuinely devoid of prejudice. Vows are often made in a state of innocence and broken in the light of experience. Of this, I'm positive.

Steve H. Dec '97

For more information on The Positive Light contact:
Top Knotch Management
P.O.Box 2665
Colchester
Essex
CO4 5BL

(p) 1998 Racket Records © 1998 Racket Records

Back to Marillion with Steve Hogarth Menu.

Last Modified: 31 Jul 2003