Two volumes of restored compilations of cassette tape of DumbWaiters have already been released. There were still archives of material that had not been heard since the band were together at Keele University 1976-1981. Over 30 years had elapsed I had last met up with Jim and it was tragic loss of our mutual friend and band member Brian that brought us together to reunited to bring back his memory and the music we had created. Jim had suggested that he thought it might be possible to squeeze a few more tracks from the archive with a bit of judicious editing.

See previous blog posts:

• The Dumbwaiters, The Keele Tapes Vol.1
• The Dumbwaiters,The Keele Tapes Vol.2

It was the beginning of July 2023; sent a CD with the track he had put up for consideration for inclusion in the new compilation and Jim had already put together an album cover of the original line up.

At the time my partner had been seriously ill since January, and I suddenly become a fulltime carer. I was still working part-time from home, but my social life was non-existent. Daily life was like the COVID pandemic once again, and I had been conducting much of my working and social life online. The Keele Tapes Volume No.3 (KTV3) project was a lifeline for me to indulge in a creative project that could fit around all the other daily commitments.

I started work immediately but did not think I realised the enormity of the task ahead at first. Previous compilation releases of the Keele Tapes had required simpler methods to restore by ensuring the digital copies of the tape were optimised using noise limiters, filters & reverb to attempt bring out the best of was already there. The raw archive material being considered for the third volume comprised of some songs, instrumental snippets as well as a collection musical sketches. Some tracks of the later DumbWaiters material I had little or no knowledge of. These later pieces included many duets written and performed by Brian and Jim. Brian was rightly proud of his later work and had often sought my opinion and had tried to get these songs into the four-piece band repertoire. It was only recently by carefully listening to these pieces that realised the ingenuity and considerable energy, they possessed given the constraints of the limited musical forces available at the time of making the original cassette recordings.

It transpired as KTV3 progressed an increasing amount of construction and reconstruction was needed, so that the final product became a composite of old and new. All the new material Jim and I recorded in isolation before being shared on the band’s cloud drive so we could then both work on the editing and mix with online meetings.

The remaining DumbWaiters Archives were often copies of original cassette tapes of very poor quality. A work was involved trying to find the best available cassette copy to work from. Several hours were spent going through old tapes trying to find better recording, sadly some tapes had become stretched and useable, but a few gems were recovered, notably a complete copy of the “Four Horsemen” unheard for 40 years.

By the end of March the production schedule was grinding to a halt during this time despite weekly production meetings online. Only three pieces had been completed and pre-released ahead of the album to coincide to mark anniversaries of Brian’s Birthday and Funeral.

“A Concise History” was a late inclusion to KTV3 because the original quality recording was considered unusable. The deconstruction and rebuilding took 4 months, reconstructed from 3 separate takes of the song spliced together. It was not until a breakthrough was achieved by using a free experimental Artificial Intelligence tool capable of splitting recordings into separate music and vocal audio files did the pace of the production schedule suddenly speed up.

Splitting the vocals from the instruments into 2 tracks helped balance some of the poor recordings . Unfortunately, the experimental software algorithm was not 100% accurate with music often bleeding across into the vocal track. However, used in combination of adding new material better results could be obtained by fitting elements together. Our jigsaw techniques steadily improved has our experience built up over the weeks and months to the point where the track “A Concise History” was in a form that was acceptable to release. Often referred to as “A Concise Jigsaw” because of its complexity reconstruction often dissecting or moving single words out of the track.

The advantage of digital recording is there virtually no limit to the number of audio tracks that could be built up. The vocal separating AI tool was invaluable to restore some Brian’s vocals in some of latter part of the project notable examples are the songs “4AM” and “Changing Situation”. The original music sketches are very short. Capturing the essence of these songs with some of the original music it was possible to develop the material with modern instrumentation. Using echo and vocal treatments to show Brian voice. I particularly enjoyed working on the development aspect of these tracks with recording a lot of new material to place alongside Brian’s singing, but it was an emotional experience too spending a lot of time listening to sound of Brian’s voice. Jim and I had spent more time with our memories of the happy times we had had with Brian in the recent weeks and months than we had in the last 40 years.

It has been been challenging nevertheless a rewarding experience and I feel that we have both had an opportunity to hone our skills. Jim’s attention to the detail and continual pushing to get the best results has been meant that I had to up my game and adopt a more disciplined approach to the project. We have created a new collaboration that involved the memories and sounds of friends from our university days.

Jim, 2nd November 2023 talking about the song “An Efficient Cog”… “Hi Vic, the rain needs to be faster to match hiss” .

Vic, November 2023 “Are you asking me to control the weather?”

Brian, October 2021 “Vic uses the recording medium is as malleable and manipulable as the wind”