THE NOTORIOUS HIFI KILLERS "We had the great fortune to befriend Tim Cedar from the band PART CHIMP, who in the autumn of 2005 was moving into recording and production at his Eight Track Analogue based DROPOUT STUDIOS in Camberwell, South London. We were big fans of his band, and when he offered us some time we jumped on it. The place turned out to be amazing. Classic British Heavy Metal Amplifiers and Beautiful sounding Drums everywhere you looked. Most importantly there was a crew of people all moving in a similar direction. We had come home." Imagine MC5 taking a stab at Spacemen 3 or Blue Cheer doing Loop and you're close to what London's The Notorious Hifi Killers offer up on their debut album. "Which Side Are You On?" will be coming out on Rocket Recordings, a label whose pedigree you can trust when it comes to blown-out psych and burly fuzz. The band has a killer, fuzzed-out guitar sound propelling their heavy-blues edge, but they also sport a primal rock-n-roll /stoned / psychedelic side. The track "Near The Final Destination" is a stellar example of the Hifi Killer's take on psychedelic bliss -- thanks to the added assistance of Alexander Tucker, Duke Garwood and members of Part Chimp, while "Queen O' Fuck and "Don't Want To Know" showcase their penchant for ferocious biker-punk anthems. Words | Jonathan "Which Side Are You On?" was written and recorded over and around a year and a half. We were smoking pretty much all the time, so please forgive me if my memory is a little hazy. So, here's the story. Ahem. We had the great fortune to befriend Tim Cedar from the band PART CHIMP, who in the autumn of 2005 was moving into recording and production at his Eight Track Analogue based DROPOUT STUDIOS in Camberwell, South London. We were big fans of his band, and when he offered us some time we jumped on it. The place turned out to be amazing. Classic British Heavy Metal Amplifiers and Beautiful sounding Drums everywhere you looked. Most importantly there was a crew of people all moving in a similar direction. We had come home. The initial sessions happened in December that year over a couple of weekends and had mixed results. See, we only had about ten songs and not all of them were working for us. However, some of them did. "Queen O' Fuck" killed us. Tim used an old Four Track to distort the Drums and it nailed the tune together. Beautiful. The late night session for "Near The Final Destination" running at eighteen minutes and featuring extra Drum Kits, Basses, Horns, Percussion and Electronics was fantastic. More like a party than a session. And so so high to boot! After mixing and listening back for a month or so, we felt that there wasn't an album we could release and feel good about. So we returned to the studio and recorded one new tune, "Reverberation(Doubt)" by the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and used two existing recordings to be released as an E.P "Into The Light" "Queen o' Fuck", "Near The Final Destination" and another, "Don't wanna know" would be the only tracks from that first session to make it on the record. We then took stock and all agreed that the Albums that impressed us most were the ones that at least seemed to contain songs written specifically for the purpose. Instead of a bunch of songs just thrown together. A Lightbulb went on. This time we could compose an album start to finish and record it ourselves, using a mixing desk, a bunch of mic's and a Four Track Machine. We could digitize at home later on. Then we could spend as long as we needed on mixes, EQ's, Vocals, Guitar overdubs, or whatever. Costing us no more than our stupidly cheap practice rent, weed and as many chrome cassettes as we needed. Punk Rock! It also freed us up enough to start moving forward. Now, where are the songs? Riffs come quick and easy to me but lyrics don't, so we'd record four or five instrumental songs at a time and then catch up a month or so later with the vocals. That gave us time to talk about subject matter and stuff. I guess we worked like that for most of the next year, always returning to tweak and tune because, truth be told, I think we got a bit hooked on the whole process. It was mastered by Jon Hamilton AKA Drumm Chimp from Part Chimp who really brought the whole thing back to life for our rather tired ears. He rules at that stuff. Like I said, we smoked a hell of a lot of weed, so I can't remember a much more except that we were laughing, sometimes fighting, but mostly laughing. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? > On to the songs... National Crisis Obviously, since September 11th 2001 the world has seemed significantly wierder. And the attacks on London in July 2005 stepped that up for us even more. I became interested in the notion of having an enemy that you have no personal war with and only know about through the mainstream media and Government and, how this might affect the mental state of all of society. I see paranoia, fear, mistrust of all but peoples close associates... all thinking "Who will try to blow me up next?" All the while, new laws are being passed all the time which only serve to inhibit our personal freedom but are dressed up as ways to protect us. The album's title serves as another train of thought for this one. Quite simply, in a world of truths and untruths, who can we trust? And can we even trust ourselves? Lost in the Modern World We messed around with a sort of early Led Zep thing and could've sung about mountains or eating pussy but... well. Youth culture in London seems to be about wanting everything NOW! But we spend so much energy wanting clothes, glamour, sex and drugs that we end up dressed in some kind of hyper sexualised chemical fog in where it is no longer possible to be truly alive. Queen O' Fuck Some people believe in their own superiority, be it beauty, wealth, class, power or whatever they've got going on in their heads. But handcuff them to a bed with a muzzle over their mouths and they're pretty much as helpless as anyone else. It's a dirty, stupid song for dirty, stupid people. Stars Explode We play a warm sounding ode to the ones who keep on keeping on. You live. You die. The end. Don't wanna know Tried to get some kind of MC5 feeling into the music on this one. Again, Government lies and the paranioa and mistrust they cause are at the heart of the lyrical sentiment. Just wanting out of the picture all together, dig? The Distance Between Us A rehearsal tape we'd lost then found again. Initially completely improvised, we added overdubs at a later date and tweaked it into a song about infinity and the common genetic thread that links all things in the universe. No one is an Island. Babies Blossom A southern fried boogie inspired by a rapid succession of children born into our ever growing extended family and the promise that came with them of a brighter and groovier tomorrow. Like Canned Heat with no condoms? Feel Like I'm Fading Away An electrifried country blues in which our protaganist finds himself incapable of all recognition, within and without. As the song progresses, he begins to realise that he has wasted his time. But it's too late. He is alone. The ones he loved but never told are gone. And now, isolated, with his existence rapidly diminishing, he must \come to terms with his own mortality. Going Down We love playing around with other musicians songs. It has always opened up new horizons for us in our own music. Maybe we have a bright future playing the hits of the day on some Oceanic Cruise Liner somewhere. We first heard this blues tune being played and sung by the late great Freddie King. His version blew our tiny minds and we all agreed that this was one of the finest examples of Rock 'n' Roll ever made. If you've never heard it, may we suggest that you check it out. It really is on fire. She Plays With Light and Crystal Roses A down beat "stoner" Hymn to the limitless power and beauty of woman [don't you dare forget!]. I imagined The Beatles, drunk and singing harmony with Sleep. Oh yeah, and we have a reverse tape of Ravi Shankar, singing bowls and electronica preceding the track. NOTE: It's wierd, but when you reverse a guitar it sounds a bit like a Sitar, but when you reverse a Sitar, it still sounds like a Sitar. Curioser and curioser... Near The Final Destination We had a bunch of friends meet us in a bar at the end of our days recording. Had some fun there and then returned to the studio. Drummers from Part Chimp and Shit and Shine, the fantastic free jazz horns of the Garwood brothers, electronic manipulations, drones and choral voice courtesy of Alexander Tucker to name but a few. Eleven of us all I think. Just beautiful. We tried it out for the first time, got loose and then pressed record. Afterwards we all let out this wierd group cheer before falling about laughing. It felt like love. We have an eastern feel with guitars and drone but offset by a very american sounding military drum figure. We put off mixing this for well over a year but on the day it was really kind of effortless. Funny. Over eighteen minutes, the song has Angels deciding to destroy the Human life. Laser beams shoot all over the place and are followed by an Apocolypse. Then still, before Insect and Reptillian life forms begin evolving into bigger and better things. All the while, overseen by the Angels in UFO's who eventually fly away laughing. I think I was trying to say something about the transient nature of life and how we really have no control over when or how it ends. But who really knows anyway? Love! WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? > Albums of Influence... MC5 - "High Time" When I was seventeen, this was an absolute revelation. Sonics, grooves, menace, free horns, lyrics full of character and fun. The polar opposite of flower power. We listened to this and the others a lot while putting this record together. Yeah, we took some ideas but, dosen't everybody do that? "Order is my attitude. Beauty and perfection are my attack..." Happy Mondays - "Bummed" We are a fucked up british band but these guys were one of the most fucked up in history. Ultra cool funk, like Can but their singer Shaun Ryder is some sort of pervert poet who can get into all sorts of unsavoury characters minds at the same time as preaching an ecstasy fuelled gospel that makes you believe in a glorious future. Just so important to us for their approach and complete lack of discipline. The 13th Floor Elevators - "The Psychedelic Sounds Of" We partied quite a lot to this record. Got freaked out by Roky Erickson perfect narrative of the psychedelic experience. Guitars sound soooooo cool and the electric jug has never sounded so good. We recorded a version of "Reverberation(Doubt)" on the second band of our debut single. Such is our love and respect Dr Octogon - "The Octagonecologist" All the guys in the band listen to a wide range of musical styles and as Hip-hop is the biggest genre of music in the world at the moment I think it fitting to talk about this one. It's wierd because it actually sounds like purple smoke curling out of a mouth. His mastery of the english language is out of this world. The grooves and loops are as dark and as strange as the numerous figures he invents. Someone stole my copy of this while I was working on a porno movie last year. Was it an "Actor", "Actress", Mule or a Midget? I guess I'll never know. Various Dub and Reggae Artists Not an album but it would be impossible to talk about influence without talking about these guys. Black Uhuru / Bush Chemists / Sly & Robbie - We love dub music and took a lot of inspiration from it while we were mixing this album. Where we live in South London you can hear loads of Jamacian music coming out of the Snooker halls, Taxi ranks and Market places and Patty houses. It sounds and feels so natural and it's so very, very psych as well. 80's slick production - BAD! Tripped out 70's spiritual space music - GOOD!