Since I first saw them live at Midstock in 2015,
Fatherson have been one of my favourite bands,
and the production of their records have been fresh and exciting. Produced by Bruce Rintoul, ‘Open Book’ was the first Fatherson album I listened to in full, and it is still one of my favourite albums to this date. However, in this blog I’m going to analyse ‘Sum of All Your Parts’ which is their 3rd album, produced by Claudius Mittendorfer. This album holds all of the creativity heard in the previous two albums, and I often use tracks from the album as inspiration for production ideas in my projects.
Track 1 – The Rain
The album starts off quietly with a simple piano ostinato. The old school projector sample brings an element of interest that could otherwise be quite a slow start. The first unusual part I hear is the Rhodes electric piano. Normally this is used to add a bit of twinkle in the higher frequencies, however, in this song it is used an octave lower. This fills up the frequencies without overpowering where the vocals sit. There is good use of word painting. The lyric “and like violins” is followed shortly by a very unusual almost synth sounding string part that pans from left to right. This again adds interest to what could be a slow-moving section where nothing really happens. The washy reverb guitars are characteristic of Fatherson, and they help the song sit in a vibey space instead of sounding like a lot of harder rock which is very in your face in terms of guitars.
This track is always very sparse, yet somehow
punchy. When the driven bass comes in, the instrumental intro to the main part of the song just involves bass, drums, and guitar. This reminds me that the band is made up of Ross Leighton, Greg Walkinshaw and
and that when they play live, it won’t be too difficult to re-enact, which sometimes can be a problem with overproducing songs. This song sits perfectly in the almost live sounding area of music production. If you listen to the outro, again it is very bare, and the drums are very isolated. Coming from a drummer, this can be an absolute nightmare, however, in this track the drums are left sounding very natural and not snapped completely to the grid. This is unusual as nowadays most rock songs are sliced to sound like they were played perfectly in time. This can become an issue as the groove won’t be as good and it can sound overproduced. This song grooves.
Track 2 – Making Waves
The first thing I notice is the slight tempo increase from the guitar and vocal intro to the whole band coming in. This gives a greater sense of energy. This is one of the heaviest tracks on the album with its dark chord sequence, and the cool falling synth lines. This creates a load of dissonance heading into the verse. The held guitar chords while being trem barred out of tune ever so slightly and put back in tune is another small technique that can’t really be heard unless you really listen. This altogether gives a really gritty vibe that fits the rest of the song. I’ve found Fatherson are really good at utilising a vast variety of dynamics. The verses generally stay quite quiet, however at the lyrics “fingers on it tell me that you”, there’s a very sudden dynamic change. It’s these little techniques that keep the production really interesting and keeping the ever-decreasing attention span of a consumer focused on the song.
The return of the heavy in this song comes at the sort of middle 8 section. A simple guitar riff takes centre stage, while trashy drums keep the beat. Everything in this section is heavily saturated. This makes a simple guitar line really punch the listener in the face. The fact the heavy saturation is just in one section instead of the whole song really helps it stand out which is why it works so well.
Track 3 – Gratitude
This is the first track on the album to start with a bang. The intro quickly dies down into one of the quietest sections of the album. Once the first half of the verse is done, drums and bass join in with a very traditional rock groove. This is almost a simple rock song all the way through. When the chorus hits, there is a slight difference in the drums. It is almost like there are fills between each hit, however this is just the beat which goes well with the strange chord changes. Since the track remains pretty loud after the first verse, there are a couple of things done to break up the volume. The first is a quick link which is a lovely guitar run. There is also a very quiet chorus near the end. To make it more interesting there is a couple of loud stabs. This again grabs the attention of the consumer and it’s very effective.
In the “ooh” section there is a super cool guitar effect which almost sounds like an anvil. Little fillers like these are very common in electronic music, however less common in more acoustic genres, so it’s really refreshing to hear little pieces of ear candy throughout this album.
Track 4 – Nothing to No One
‘Nothing to No One’ is one of the most interesting tracks of the album. Starting with dissonant string instrument pedal to set the groove of the track, it has one of the more experimental starts. A lot of Fatherson’s music is heavily drum led. Greg Walkinshaw is an incredibly creative drummer who comes up with amazing linear grooves that I, and many others, wouldn’t think of. This track shows this with the drums bringing in the main bulk of the track. The tom groove which has a lovely slap back delay sets the dark and calm tone for the rest of the song.
The tambourine which is brought in along with the spacey reverb guitars brings a big layer of energy which contrasts the chorus which immediately follows. Only the reverb guitars stay in with a very distant vocal. Normally when mixing, vocals are front and centre, as clear as day, however in the chorus, they are panned hard left and right, distant and quite muffled. This effect made me listen harder to try and make out the lyrics. This track is the only one to feature another vocalist. Bryde and Ross Leighton’s vocals complement each other well, and it doesn’t sound like the song doesn’t belong in the album which can be a danger when featuring artists. The last chorus is a lot clearer in terms of vocals. The two vocals in unison sounds powerful yet calming at the same time.
There is then a dramatic silence which can also be a danger due to people skipping empty silence at the end, before a powerful ending and a drum outro with an increasing slap back delay.
This is a very risky track in terms of production techniques, but it is really refreshing to hear and works perfectly. This is one of my favourite tracks.
Track 5 – Oh Yes
This is the first quiet track of the album. During the vast majority of the album, the vocals are very natural sounding. This is because Ross Leighton’s vocals are so strong and don’t need to be buried behind lots of reverb. This song starts with a very reverberous vocal which is more an ambience in the background than putting the vocals into a space. The reverb has a slow attack and large space, but not too long of a decay. This means it sits nicely behind the vocal and fills up any empty space that would make the track sound small.
When the rest of the band come in it sounds almost Oasis like. Again, there’s a really nice natural snare slap back delay which makes the drums sound huge. The guitars are very clean in this song which gives a different dynamic, especially in the solo. The track is sparse but filled up with lots of reverb and space effects. One of the sparsest sections is during the speech section. It starts with double tracked guitars left and right, with quaver ride cymbal hits that keeps the song pushing forward.
Leading into the last section, this song builds up to be massive, however the use of acoustic guitar instead of a driven electric guitar means it has a different sound to massive sections in other songs. It ends as quietly as it starts giving a perfect dynamic shape.
Track 6 – The Landscape
‘The Landscape’ starts very quietly. This means that there’s a strong and loud intro when the whole band crashes in. Again, there is great use of spacious guitars strumming in from the start. This particular guitar has a modulating reverse reverb which links the intro very nicely into the first verse. In this song you can really hear the nice blend between clean electric guitars (or at least only lightly driven) and heavier distorted guitars. This blend packs a punch whilst not overpowering the rest of the band. This song has the first section not in 4/4. The link into the second verse features a very nice stacked drumstick click which drives on the otherwise quiet section. The 7/4 gives an uneven yet catchy feeling to this section which returns much heavier as an outro. The bass is heavily distorted and maybe even layered with a saw synth. This directly contrasts the first 7/4 section as it is far punchier and sounds more compressed overall. The group vocals also give more energy. Apart from those sections, this is quite a simple song, but the mix and subtle techniques make this one of my favourites of the album. The double tracked vocals in the chorus give the vocals more punch, and again you can hear the low Rhodes sounding e-piano which is panned left to oppose a guitar panned right.
Track 7 – Ghost
Ghost is one of the only tracks where Ross Leighton’s vocals have audible space effects. In the verses you can hear a strong slap back stereo delay which fits him into a nice space in the verse. Going into the bridge his vocal becomes extra dry and filtered. This effect allows the chorus vocal to sound so much more powerful. This is a much busier bass and drum line than most of the other tracks in this album, yet they both sit in their own space very well. After the first chorus there’s another excellent use of foley. A very strange sounding printer sound effect or something similar pans from hard left to right. This invokes interest to what would normally just be a link. The second verse has an uplift of energy due to the driving stereo tambourine rhythm. This song also has a slow section involving bass chords as the main accompaniment. This is a gutsy production technique because it has potential to lose the interest of the listener. This is remedied by a large final chorus that catches the listener off guard. The ending has a large unlimited echo which pans around the stereo field. Normally this wouldn’t be a clean ending, however it works well and leads directly into the next track seamlessly.
Track 8 – Reflection
‘Reflection’ has one of the most unusual drum grooves I’ve heard. The dual drum gives a different feel to anything else in the album. It’s laid back but still really full. The continuous snare is nice and open which is unusual for rock tracks. Normally they sound quite choked. This song has a really nice ambience created by the sparse guitar parts that are soaked in reverb. The acoustic piano at the start adds a nice contrast to the album. There is a lovely tambourine hit along with the snare before the continuous snare drops out. In the build-up section there is a nice high pass filtered reverb which fills up the high frequencies. There is then another example of a double tracked vocal to make the build-up sound even bigger. The dual drums in the last section don’t overpower the rest of the track. The outro Is quite electronic with sampled drums, and a very robotic vocoder. I would say this track is the furthest from the overall sound of the album, however in my opinion, it works really well and can give a nice break to what is a very rocky album.
Track 9 – Charm School
This song is one of the heaviest starting songs. Instead of the usual guitar mixing approach of stacking clean and dirty guitars, this song starts with heavily fuzzed guitars. The dynamics of this track. The drums feature another stick click groove during the verses which do the same as hi-hats do, without the super overpowering high frequencies. The guitar parts in the chorus are doubled by vocals which is a very cool effect that I hadn’t heard before.
Track 10 – Building a Wall
Starting off with a reverb guitar part and a very filtered strange drum groove, this song has the most interesting start in my opinion. You can hear a lot of panning guitar reverb swells that keep the song moving forward and constantly changing. There is a link before the first verse where you can only hear the gated reverb of the drums which is hardly ever heard in songs. There is another use of a tambourine to build energy as this doesn’t necessarily have loud and distorted guitars. The main guitar constantly plays plucked rhythm which takes the place of a constancy of either a ride or hi-hat rhythm. You can hear a nice unison section as a link going into the second chorus. The frequencies filled in this section are lows and mids. This allows a lift when the big section comes in afterwards. The outro seems to have the opposite effect as the rest of the album, every instrument is heavily saturated, however it’s not as large as the rest of the album. The outro of the album is just bass and vocals with a call response where you can hear a vocal that sounds like it was recorded in a small bathroom echoing the main vocal.
The song ends with the lyric “sum of all your parts” which rounds off the album nicely.
Analysing this album I’ve heard many more techniques and ideas that I am keen to implement in my next project which is a Chameleon Lady EP which is far rockier than their current stuff, so I am looking forward to implementing some of these ideas when we record on December 18th.
You can listen the album below.
Comments