F.G' s Debut

The Fascist Giraffe went in one Saturday night sometime in early April to record the album. It had been a year in the making so we were all psyched up for our first recording. In the end we worked at break-neck speed and it took only two hours to lay-down the 7 tracks originally planned for inclusion on the album. We were out of the Warehouse and on the streets of Aberdeen by 9.30pm, stoked as fuck with the overall filthiness of the end product. It wasn’t until later that night, at about 11.30pm, that we found out, via a distressed call from Fat Keung (who had recorded it and mixed it with us), that most of the tracks on the master had been deleted. As it turns out, the power had been switched off at the end of the two-hour time-slot we had booked before we were able to save the changes made and finalise the new table of contents. In layman’s-terms, of the 7 we had recorded, only 2 tracks remained. After the initial shock and sorrow we called the Warehouse and complained, graciously they gave us another slot for the next week (but we still had to pay for Alex). And so we repeated the process.

We returned a week later for the second recording session and we were readier than ever to beat the fuck out of the studio, that was exactly what we did. The recordings went along relatively smoothly and again we were out in two hours and happy with the songs.

All of the recordings were done live, vocals at the same time as instruments. This meant that our older/more familiar/easier songs like “Revolutionary Anthem”, “Destroy your scene”, and “The invisible warlock of darkness” were down after our first or second attempt. We gave “Another sin”, “Mafia”, and “Lost” (a song which we had written two days before the first recording session) a few more goes before settling on our pick as the better of the cuts. The benefit of live recording was that we figured it’d catch the ‘F.G experience’ most accurately.

The real bitch of the CD to record was “Soylent Green”. It took us about six or seven attempts to get one that we were happy with. The blame for this could most probably be directed at amin for his ‘singing the second verse when it is supposed to be the first one’, but either way, in the end we got it down. The track also features a special appearance by our good friend from Canada, PAPA DEREK Arthur and Amin went to school with Derek for the first two years of high-school before he was shipped-off to Shawnigan Jock School at Shawnigan Lake up in Canada after a few ‘incidents’ of delinquency. He had only arrived back to Hong Kong for a visit the day before the second session so we invited him along. After hearing him ‘bust out with it’ on the bus on the way to the studio we thought that ‘the Chief’ needed to appear on the CD for posterity’s sake. “Soylent Green” was soon selected for its suitable opening beat and overall fruitiness, and Papa Derek’s barely audible pseudo-freestylin ‘white men can’t jump’ rap verse became its curtain-opener.

Back in the studio for the second session we also decided on impulse to include the ominous “Guitar duel (the initial confrontation)”, and its equally mysterious sequel “(The final conflict)” to beef up the album into a 9 track EP type deal.

The Track listing is as follows:

#1. Revolutionary Anthem
#2. Another Sin (oh no, not again)
#3. Destroy your Scene
#4. Soylent Green (featuring Papa Derek)
#5. Lost
#6. Guitar Duel (the initial confrontation)
#7. Guitar Duels (the final conflict)
#8. Mafia
#9. The Invisible Warlock of Darkness

Tracks 1 and 2 on the album, “Revolutionary Anthem” and “Another sin”, are the survivors from the first session, but the rest of the album is all from the second session. Generally speaking, the quality of the second recording is better than the first, but on some tracks there is a bit too much treble on the guitars. Depending on your speakers/cd player/boom-box contraption, you may get a better sound by cranking up the bass OR cutting the treble on your speakers. But it’s no biggy – all of the songs sound great (but don’t believe us, ask your friends).

If anyone wants to buy the album, it is on sale at the incredibly reasonable price of HKD$40 (approx.USD$5.20). It’s released on Plug Music in Hong Kong, and it’s available at the Plug Music Store, at any of our shows, or anywhere else you see a copy floating around. Members of the band (and their hand picked underlings) also carry copies around on them so just ask! If you’re already privileged enough to have your own copy of this ass-punching release (in our opinion that is) then contact us and give us some feedback. We have a guestbook on this site, a P.O. Box at the Plug Office (details on the release page), and a contact e-mail address at gonads_@hotmail.com. We’re not going to change the music we play but we’d like to hear your thoughts on it anyway.