"I could do with another record or two from Mike Fisher. The more I listen to Fellow Prisoners, the more I want to recommend it." - Ear Pollution
"Fellow Prisoners is the best ambient CD for the year 2003. Pure and beautiful soundscapes with driving beats. 10 stars." - CHAIN D.L.K.
-----
Mike Fisher's career in electronic music began with his role as the keyboardist and founding member of Machines of Loving Grace in 1989. Machines' first eponymous album enjoyed success on college radio, and their second album Concentration expanded their audience, with the single "Butterfly Wings" becoming a staple of then-trendsetting stations like KROQ in Los Angeles. 1994 brought the band's inclusion in the soundtrack to The Crow motion picture, with the track "Golgotha Tenement Blues". Machines' final album Gilt was released in 1995. During their tenure Machines released three albums, countless singles, and toured extensively with a variety of artists including Peter Murphy, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, The Swans, Surgery, and Stabbing Westward.
With Amish Rake Fight, Fisher further explores the cinematic feel he first created for classic MoLG songs like "Rite Of Shiva," "Cicciolina," and "Butterfly Wings." Amish Rake Fight's debut album, Fellow Prisoners, is cool and thoughtful, elegant and complicated. Preferring attention to detail over prolific output, and melody over repetition, the Amish Rake Fight sound reveals a fine, even maniacal interest in small details and thematic subtleties. Fellow Prisoners winds percussion from the exotic East and Africa, samples from obscure films, and twisting string sections. Hence, Amish Rake Fight is music that often demands more than one listen - each subsequent examination reveals new details and layers.
A self-admitted analog synthesizer junkie, Fisher draws upon a broad palette of sounds in the creation of Amish Rake Fight. The ambient, evocative textures of Fellow Prisoners were realized with a mix of old and new - from rare vintage synthesizers like the EMS Synthi to modern electronic instruments like the Wiard and MOTM modular systems. And, of course, the occasional electric guitar.
Fellow Prisoners was written & recorded by Mike Fisher, and mixed by Sylvia Massy Shivy (Tool, System of a Down, Machines of Loving Grace) and Rich Veltrop (Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers). The CD includes remixes by Statik (Collide), Chris Randall (Sister Machine Gun) and Trigger10d.
Related release: komposi001
Read more...