Lifelike

VINYL FORMAT. RESTOCK. Lifelike is the product of a year and a half of real time playing, recording and mixing, hard disc editing, sequencing, sampling and tape splicing. It has 12 songs and fits on one side of a C-90. More than half of the basic recording for Lifelike was done in May of 1997 at Greg Frey's Graphic Sound Studios In Ringoes, New Jersey. In addition to that, Frere-Jones recorded material on digital multitrack over the summer (in his newborn son Sam's bedroom) and did sampler work at his home studio, Remnant; Wright recorded new parts and new arrangements of horn parts at Graphic Sound in October; and Waldmann recorded extra drum parts with Frere-Jones at Remnant in November of 1997. The last two songs to be recorded - "Exeunt" and "Undersided" - were recorded at Graphic Sound in November of 1997 (including the cornet bit). Working closely together, Frere-Jones and engineer Greg Frey then mixed and constructed the album during November and December of 1997.

The material on Lifelike varies greatly in age. "Blood In The Air" is a song that appeared first in Ui's live set in 1993. "Acer Rubrum" had been played live since early 1996. "News To Go Farther" was quoted on "Skeletons" on The Sharpie and has been around since 1993, and "Molloy's March" is a song dating to 1994. "Exeunt" was written in the summer of 1997 for Lifelike while "Laceria" is a brand new sample bed laid under themes from a song played in the early 1990s by Frere-Jones' previous band, Delores. And so on.