Chant The Beauty

1993

1993 was a fairly prolific year for VOTR. Sometime in the first few months we had recorded a series of cover versions and from late Spring through the Summer we embarked on a triple release of around 50 songs: one with new versions of songs we had previously recorded in the 1980s, a double cassette of our traditional acoustic sound and one, Chant the Beauty, which saw us plug in and turn up.

A couple of the songs came in a near enough complete state from Rob, whose musicianship, arrangement and recording skills are really to the fore here, especially in songs like The Way We’re Going, Faces and Masks and Sometime. Most of the others were developed from chord sequences or less formed ideas he had on tape and were fine-tuned together in a long Summer of quick-fire lunch breaks and more sustained weekend sessions.

I remember writing and playing a few more bass lines than I would ordinarily, Sense of Time and I Own You are a couple of examples that spring to mind. My real inputs and focus were the lyrics, melodies and vocals though, which, perhaps as a result, are a little more considered than usual and, some might say, none the worse for that.

Richard Knowles February 2015

We’ve been calling this series of releases ‘remasters’ but in fact they had only ever been mixed straight to cassette, reel to reel or DAT without the dynamics processing and equalization that an actual master entails.

It’s probably one reason they still sound reasonable as we didn’t have the equipment to overdo it at the time giving more scope for adjustment today. That I didn’t own a compressor until 1998, and even then was very tentative in its use, was a great help as it’s virtually impossible to put dynamic range back into a recording, particularly the stereo mixes we have been working from.

Robert Boole February 2015

Reissue Track Listing

Coy Mistress 1993
Catch Me If You Can
J Again
Missed It
Sense Of Time
The Way We’re Going
Faces & Masks
Slip Streaming
I Own You
Biba Baby
Succubus
Yes
Sometime

All the songs were written and
performed by Richard & Rob

The cover photograph, ‘Lys (Lilies)’ by Eugène Atget is courtesy of the Getty Trust Open Content Program.