Four Enclosed Walls - Music

Frogtoon Music - Song Info: Four Enclosed Walls

Public-Image-Ltd. - Flowers Of Romance

'"Four Enclosed Walls" Was Made Around Martin's Watch And Its Ticking. I Could Hear It Through The Mike So We Recorded It. That's What The Basic Metronome Is. So Then He Comes Up With This Dun-Da-Dun-Dun Dun-Dun-Ba! Which Was A Ridiculous Beat But I Recorded It. I Made That Backing Track And With A Fantastic Drum Sound. We Definitely Accomplished Something There- It Was A Real Production Experience. John Comes Up With This Vocal And I Told Him To Go Ahead. He Used This Saxophone Thing For This Neeeee-Eeeeeewwwww Thing. So I Reversed It And Did All This Weird Shit To It. I Thought It Was Really Cool- Drums A Watch And John And The Backwards Sax That Sounds Like A Cat Being Stretched. That Set The Tone To The Simplicity Of A Lot Of The Tracks.' Interview With Keith Levene July 2001. It Was Unusual When I Think Back But At The Time It Just Seemed Like Fun. It's True Keith Told Me To Record Everything. They Came In With NO Songs. On A Typical Day Martin Atkins Would Turn Up First. We Were Both Into Big Drum Sounds So He Would Go Into The Stone Room And Play A Big Bohnam-Esque Rhythm I Would Fiddle With Controls And He Would Tailor His Playing To The Sound I Fed Him In The Headphones. Sometimes I'd Add Delays And Echoes And He'd Play To That. On 'Four Enclosed Walls' For Instance We Placed Martin's Mickey Mouse Pocket Watch On A Floor Tom So It Would Resonate And Have More Tone Then I Added Two Harmonizers With A 15 Second Delay Fed Back On Themselves. One Paned Left One Right. I Recorded About 7 Minutes Of It Ticking Away . Then Martin Went Out And Played That Amazing Beat To It. The Toms That Come In At The Very End Were An Overdub. I Remember John Came In And Said "All Right Let Me Hear What You Two Wankers Have Been Up To!" Sometimes I'd Push Play And He'd Say " That's Fucking Pathetic ERASE IT IMMEDIATELY. I Don't Want To Hear It Ever Again." This Time He Heard It And Calmly Said "Oooo I Think I Like That... Lets Hear It Once More!" And Sat Down And Scribbled On The Inside Of A Cigarette Packet. "All Right... Is There A Mic Up I Think I'll Have A Wail" And One Take Later The Vocal Was Done! We Then Added This Strange Instrument Called A Violumpet. Which Looks Like A Violin With A Large Trumpet Horn Sticking Out Of It Like Those Old Wind Up 78 Gramophones Have. It Sounded Like An Arabian Flute. I Added Backwards Reverb To Make It More Snake Like! I Think The Whole Thing Took Maybe Five Hours. Keith Came In Heard It And Said "That's Fucking Amazing It's Done". Many Of The Songs Were Done This Way. Someone Would Turn Up And Do Something Then Another Would Get Inspired And Add To It And If John Put A Vocal To It It Was Done. The Band Had A Very Distinct Range Of Sounds The Dynamic Drum Sound Keith's Ringing Guitar And Of Course John's Voice. Nick Launay