Drumlin by Takla Makan
Drumlin represents my musical output from around 1994 to 1997 and was originally released in late 1997. It was my first album to be released on CD-R. My previous albums had been available as cassette tapes, each one recorded one at a time on my own cassette recorder.
The first run of white label Drumlin CD-Rs, I think I had thirty made initially, were made by a local supplier. Thankfully I managed to sell enough of them to cover my costs. However, best of all was the amount of positive feedback I got from listeners. Primarily I make music for my own enjoyment, that other people liked it as well was a wonderful bonus.
The gear used to make this album was very limited by today's standards. I had a Roland D-50 keyboard & D-110 module, a Yamaha TX-7 module, a very limited Akai S-01 sampler, and then later, I added a couple of homemade analogue synthesisers. It was all sequenced via midi from an Atari Mega 1 running Cubase and recorded direct in one take onto a minidisc in stereo. Any vocal work was replayed under midi control via the sampler. The only effects I had were those that were built into the D-50 and D-110, although later I added a Yamaha FX500 multi-effects rack, mostly for reverb and echo.
In 2002 I re-mastered Drumlin to make better use of the new equipment I then had. Unfortunately, the resultant album was, in hindsight, not as good. All in one mastering software was all the rage back then and I over processed everything. I compressed. I excited. I EQ'd. I turned everything up to eleven. And now I cringe when I listen to that version of the album. But worse than that, I no longer had a copy of the original 1997 version of the CD, nor I thought, the two track master recordings. So when I was asked to release Drumlin and 2002's Arcsin on Bandcamp a few years ago, I held back.
Fortunately, earlier this year I managed to find the original minidiscs that were used to make the original album and most of Arcsin too. Almost as fortunate was that my old minidisc player still actually worked and I could 'lightpipe' the tracks into my computer.
The tracks you hear in this re-release are therefore from those original minidisc recordings. All I have done to the recovered audio files is a little light compression and EQ. I hope you enjoy Drumlin.
This version released 4th April 2020
Tracklist
| 1. | Mars Landing | 3:50 |
| 2. | The Plough | 4:38 |
| 3. | Drive | 10:37 |
| 4. | Rainstorm | 7:11 |
| 5. | Eden | 4:30 |
| 6. | Drumlin | 4:58 |
| 7. | Stonetrance | 4:18 |
| 8. | Raindance | 8:02 |
| 9. | Dreamstate | 6:18 |
| 10. | Aber | 7:20 |
Credits
Written and produced by Tony Allgood
Cover picture shows Blencathra in Cumbria, England.
