Laudanum Variations, our 6th release and first
EP, represents a musical and personal journey for Cats Cradle Robbers. Over a period of 7 years, this simple song
born out of an improvisation in a tiny apartment has expanded to 9 versions in
9 separate styles. Like Beethoven’s
Diabelli variations, some of these variants differ wildly from each other, but
each retains part of the kernel of the original song, and each further
illuminates the subject.
The following is the story of this evolving musical journey,
told in chronological order. You can listen to the album on our Bandcamp page, or anywhere digital music is streamed or sold.
Laudanum Escapade I / Laudanum Escapade II (2010)
On Dec 16, 2010, we traveled out Interstate 90 to Issaquah,
Washington, to record with Cathy Breshears.
Snake had heard Cathy’s cover of the Grant Lee Buffalo song Fuzzy, and
since he was acquainted with members of Grant Lee Phillips’ band, he had
reached out to try to connect Cathy with the band. After some discussion, Cathy agreed to get
together with Cats Cradle Robbers for a session to create something new.
The way we typically work with collaborators is to start
from nothing, and to improvise new material, words and all. Having nothing when we walk in the room
levels the playing field and ensures that our collaborators have the maximum
impact on the music. This evening was no
exception.
Cathy was nervous about improvising, so we started her out
with some ideas we had for a female vocal for our hard rocker Diablita. Some of
what she recorded that night are in the version of Diablita that we released together with
Laudanum Escapade on Seen and Unseen.
After she was loosened up, we started something new. DJSE laid down some beats using Ableton’s Brainfreeze
kit, and we encouraged Cathy to extemporize over the beat.
While we played, we enjoyed takeout from Issaquah’s Shanghai
Garden – you can imagine the smells of Kung Pao, Pot Stickers, and Chow mein as
you read.
Eventually, we coaxed her out of her shell by dint of having
Snake sing some improvised lines, which Cathy then imitated in a call and
response. While we cut Snake’s prompts out of the final track, you can hear a
small snippet of his voice at 1:43 in Laudanum Escapade I.
Snake has the ability to dip into his subconscious and reel
out stream-of-consciousness lyrics – when he gets into the zone, he just lets
it spill out with little conscious knowledge of what the words are about. First Frost in the Garden and Mydas Touch
are salient examples. Laudanum Escapade
was recorded while the sting of his mother’s death from lung cancer was still
fresh, and the image of a woman strung out on opiates because she just can’t
deal with her life probably stems from his grieving process at the time. It’s hard to speculate on the meaning of the
very specific colors he envisioned while singing the original words (orange,
carrot, cabbage, okra), but in later versions of the lyrics he pulled in the
idea of synesthesia – specifically the linkage between sound and color. Snake had once experienced a powerful
synesthesia while tripping on mushrooms, and the thick, trippy tapestry of
DJSE’s beats and synth melodies together with the Chinese food and a few beers
all contributed to the imagery that night.
Cathy’s dog (mochi) and her cockatiel, got into the action –
you can hear samples of both animals used as percussion elements in the early
versions of the song.
Ok, cool.
Nuh nuh nuh nuh…
The rain is on my windowpane
And I’m feeling no pain, no pain
And I’m feeling no pain, no pain
Orange and cabbage colors
Carrots and okra around
And the rain is on my windowpane
And I’m feeling no pain, no pain
Nuh nuh nuh nuh…
The dog is out in the rain
Birds are flying in the rain
Worms are crawling in the rain
And I’m feeling no pain, no pain
Nuh nuh nuh nuh…
Ok cool.
When the boys got together later to start pulling together
an arrangement, Snake brought some additional samples to the table – animal
sounds he had recorded using his Windows phone while on a family trip to Hawaii
for Thanksgiving the same year. The
frogs, recorded outside Snake’s hotel room in Hilo, White-handed gibbon,
recorded at the Honolulu Zoo, and Monk Seal, recorded at the Waikiki Aquarium,
were used to define instrumental interludes before, between, and after sections
of the song proper.
Once arranged, the original song went up on our website and
we moved on to other things. When we did
periodic reviews of our material, DJSE was ambivalent about the song – Cathy’s
voice had a tentative quality colored by her unfamiliarity with
improvisation and her concentration on following Snake’s improvised melody and
words. Furthermore, the song was mostly
percussion and did not have a strongly defined harmonic center. It was atmospheric and a little emo, but it
wasn’t catchy.
Snake took this feedback and experimented with some harmony,
adding the guitar and keyboard lines that you can hear in Laudanum Escapade
II. While the overall structure of the
song remains the same, the harmonic structure added by the guitar and keyboard
instantly transforms the song into something more listeners can
appreciate. Laudanum Escapade II went up
on our website, and stayed there, side by side with Laudanum Escapade I, for 4
years. We’ve remixed these two tracks
for the present collection, but they are essentially in their original form.
Laudanum Escapade (Album version) (2015)
When we started work on Seen and Unseen, the first thing we
did was to listen to all of the tracks that we wanted to include on the album
and have a discussion about what needed to be done with each track. We agreed that we wanted a better vocal take
for Laudanum Escapade. In the time since
we made the original recording, Cathy had moved – first to Southern California,
and later to a small town in Oregon. We
reached out to see if she was open to re-recording her vocal now that we had
the parts defined. Snake had rewritten
the lyric from the original improvisation, replacing the weird “carrots and
okra around” with the phrase “bright synesthesia of sound.” Cathy declined, so
we started looking for a vocalist to replace her lead vocal. Our first candidate was singer-songwriter
Suzanne Jarvie from Toronto, another friend of Snake’s from high school times. Suzanne was excited about the project, but
busy, so we kept up a correspondence while waiting for her to become
available. In the meantime, DJSE met up with longtime acquaintance Eliza Heery and set up time to record with her.
When they met for the session, Eliza was most excited about bringing her
talents as a bassist to bear on the track, and they spent some time laying down
several bass tracks. Eliza’s vocal was
recorded in a single take in the last 10 minutes before she left the
studio.
Our original intention was to have a new vocalist retrack
the same vocal lines that Cathy had originally sung, thereby leaving the
original track untouched other than an improved vocal recording. However, Eliza took a different path,
improvising a new melody – more casual and jazzy, less alt-rock – and singing
some – but not all – of Snake’s new lyrics. In addition, Eliza replaced Cathy’s “nuh nuh”s
with the word “Laudanum”. It was
beautifully sung, but a departure from the original song.
We were faced with a dilemma. We had a project to finish, and Eliza’s vocal
wouldn’t fit comfortably in the original arrangement. Taking apart the arrangement to accommodate
her vocal could take time and iteration and throw us far off schedule. On the other hand, Suzanne hadn’t yet found
time to track her vocal rendition, and we had no other singers on tap to
help. Eliza was not available to come
back for a second session.
Snake spent part of the next weekend pulling the original
arrangement apart to make room for Eliza’s changes. Once done, we were glad for the effort. The changes required turned out to be less
than we feared, and while Snake had to chop up and rearrange Eliza’s verses,
the result came out sounding natural and cohesive. Eliza’s bass lines were a strong complement
to the original harmonic structure. Once
we reoriented ourselves to the new version, we realized that the song had
evolved and been improved as a result.
(ok cool)
Laudanum…
It’s raining on my window pane
And I’m feeling no pain
No pain, no pain
Laudanum…
Birds are tapping on my window pane
And I’m feeling no pain
It’s raining on my window pane
And I’m feeling no pain
Laudanum…
The dog is barking again
In the yard and in the rain
And I’m feeling no pain
No pain, no pain
Said I’m feeling no pain
No pain
Laudanum…
The Remix Contest (2015)
At SxSW in 2015, DJSE had the opportunity to meet and
socialize with the folks from Splice.com, an online music collaboration site
that we had been using for remote collaboration. Part of Splice’s raison d’etre was to allow
producers to release tracks for remixing.
DJSE proposed the idea of a remix contest to promote the new album and
Splice agreed to create an article for their blog centered on the contest. (Read
the article here)
While a number of producers spliced the track for remixing,
only two producers submitted remixes for the contest. Three of the four remixes were by our own
Snake, who set out to create a trap version - he failed, but wound up with some
interesting and innovative work, even if it missed the trap genre. The fourth version was submitted by UK
producer Lee Christian.
Laudanum Escapade (Dirty Fusion remix)
Snake’s first remix attempt is strongly colored by a teenage
obsession with jazz fusion, and especially Phil Collins’ band Brand X – you can
hear plenty of Phil Collins’ influence in the drums
Snake wrote for this track. Eliza’s vocal is juxtaposed with a remixed version of her bass track, and a middle section builds on her rising bass line, repeated and augmented with additional instruments.
Snake wrote for this track. Eliza’s vocal is juxtaposed with a remixed version of her bass track, and a middle section builds on her rising bass line, repeated and augmented with additional instruments.
Laudanum Escapade (Utopia Remix)
For Snake’s second attempt to bring a trap feel to the song,
he authored an ostinato using the Zubi Tone Generator plugin, and pulled in an
original rap verse. A multitracked
“guitarchestra” adds the final touches.
Laudanum Escapade (Purity Remix)
Snake’s third and final remix of the song starts with the
premise that Eliza’s beautiful vocal stands on its own. Starting on a physical instrument, Snake
composed a solo piano accompaniment for the track, which he then hand-programmed
in MIDI using Ableton Live’s grand piano sample pack. The final result is a beautiful interplay
that comes across like a live performance.
Laudanum Escapade (Lee Christian Remix)
A late entry to the remix contest, Lee Christian’s darkly
brilliant mix brings to bear his immersion in the British trip-hop scene. Check out the interview we did with Lee about
his remix back in 2015: http://catscradlerobbers.blogspot.com/2015/09/producer-lee-christian-discusses-his.html
Laudanum Escapade (DJSE’s House Remix)
During production of this collection, which occurred as we
were wrapping up work on our first house album Every Kitty Dance Meow, DJSE
became captivated by the idea of creating a house remix of Laudanum
Escapade. Snake and DJSE handed the
track back and forth a few times, tweaking and adding creative touches, before
landing on this final version. DJSE is especially fond of the several sets of "vocal chops" that he assembled from syllables in the original vocals.
Laudanum Escapade (Boiled)
A boil is the hallmark of any Cats Cradle Robbers
album. Starting from scratch, we pick a
specific location, and we create music using only materials found there. It’s a process we pioneered, and it’s a
workflow that has consistently resulted in some of the most beautiful and
creative work we’ve produced. This is
our 6th boil, following Salumba Parte, Boiling the Ocean, Honeydew
Waltz, The Dry Sound of Atonement, and Primroses.
For this boil, we continued our tour of Snake’s house in the
Dining Room. The china hutch produced a
glass harmonica instrument, created by sampling wine glasses. Various plates,
bowls, and other glasses contributed to the “glass forest” of tinkling
chimes. Sampled thumps on doors and
other architectural features laid the rest of the foundation for Snake’s voice,
singing the modified lyrics , authored for the 2015 version, that have never
been heard before now.
To keep things different, we set this version in 3/4 time. It’s a unique and beautiful contribution to
the set of variations.
The rain is on my windowpane
And I’m feeling no pain
Orange and cabbage colors
Bright synesthesia of sound
And the rain is on my windowpane
And there’s no-one around
Laudanum
Laudanum
Laudanum
Laudanum
Birds are tapping on my windowpane
And I’m feeling no pain
Laudanum
Laudanum
Laudanum
Laudanum
Where to next?
We’re grateful for the attention that Laudanum Escapade has
received – it’s the song that got us into Radio Xenu’s top 40 listing on New
Year’s Day 2016, and overall one of our most popular recordings. Laudanum Escapade is still available on
Splice for remixing. And we have another collaboration with Eliza already in
progress – a Western-inspired track with the working title Gone Dry, which
will appear on an upcoming album.
Let us know what you think about Laudanum Variations. What’s your favorite version?
Take care,
Nick and Ed, Cats Cradle Robbers
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