Ferrochrome

Ferrochrome is a strange album, but it is also one of my favorite records I have made. It was never really intended for release. It began as a selection of tracks from late 2022 and 2023, and in 2023 I compiled them onto a cassette and named it Ferrochrome. After that I barely thought about it for a long time, until I found the tape again in 2025 and realized it still holds up, even if my own nostalgia plays a role.

At first I planned to release it digitally, but I could not find the original files for many of the tracks that were on the cassette. I considered releasing only the tracks I still had, but that would have removed about half the album. Around that time, after releases like New Authorities and 2 FDCK Angel, I also noticed how much cassette warmth can add. That turned out to be true for Ferrochrome as well. I think the album is musically unique and enjoyable, but the mix and master are fairly flat, and the tape saturation gives it more body.

That is why I decided to make a tape sourced version of the album. Several important tracks only existed on that master cassette. The title track Ferrochrome was only on tape, and the same was true for eyes closed forever, DSC_787 (feels like yesterday), and the “outro after the outro,” death take my hand. I first tried a version where the tracks I still had remained digital while the missing ones came from the tape, but the contrast was too obvious and it did not feel right.

What is interesting is that for some tracks, including Ferrochrome, I did find digital files, but only very early versions and not the final master I used for the cassette. At the time I worked in a very chaotic way. I would export random WAV files to my desktop with random names, record some things to cassette, and later clean up my desktop and delete files, sometimes by accident and sometimes deliberately.

The digital release is also not identical to the original master cassette. I removed two tracks. One was a second copy of Abstraction redux, which I think I accidentally recorded twice on the tape. The other was a track that did not fit the album’s sound and used copyrighted samples. That track came from a one off idea where a friend and I bought random thrift store LPs to sample and made a track from them. I almost never work like that, so it did not belong on this album.

For the digital version I also boosted the volume of some tracks, because parts of the tape were recorded very quietly. Beyond that I did not apply noise reduction, EQ, or other processing, except in a few cases mentioned below.

I remember that the original master cassette was recorded on an Akai GX M10. I currently have a GX M10 again in my cassette deck collection, but it is not the same unit. The one I used back then needed some warm up time, otherwise the left channel would not behave properly. I did not let it warm up, so the first tracks on the tape were recorded in a slightly odd way.

The track INTRO is missing its beginning because I started recording too late, and it has extreme wow. I actually like what that does to the synths. It makes the sound more dreamlike.

stimulant psychosis ended up on a bad section of the tape and was in very rough condition. Normally I would keep tape transfers close to what they are, but I could not leave this one. For me it is a crucial part of the album, and it is also one of the rare, possibly the only, real house tracks in the whole DSC_0001 project. I repaired it as much as I could with stereo techniques and a lot of work, and it ended up in a better state.

Neurogenesis is also connected to how I learned guitar. It started as a guitar track, which is why it is in 7/8. I taught myself guitar without YouTube because I did not like the idea at the time and I was stubborn. I ended up learning to play mainly in 7/8 because I liked it so much, and that stayed with me. Even now I almost always play in 7/8 or 5/8 when I play guitar. In hindsight it would have been better to take lessons, because I still have habits and techniques that are hard to unlearn. On the album, Neurogenesis uses the same fairly dry saw, square, and sine waves that appear throughout the project.

acid burn is short, but it is very satisfying to me. If I remember correctly it is in 7 EDO, and the tape compression helped the drums a lot. You can hear that kind of drum impact across the album. Track 6, distort me, does not have much of a story attached to it.

The title track, Ferrochrome, is in 31 EDO. The sirens you hear throughout the track are real. The monthly air raid test went off while I was working, and I recorded it on my phone. This is also one of the few tracks on the album that is not built around dry saw, sine, or square waves.

august schleicher is also in 7/8, and it also began as a guitar track. On the album it is built around dry saw waves in a pulsing pattern, and I like how it sits.

DSC_787 (feels like yesterday) is different again. It is a guitar track that was actually recorded with acoustic and electric guitar. Personally, it is one of the most beautiful tracks I have made.

in the loops uses an extreme delay with near infinite feedback. eyes closed forever was recorded live, and its core is a very fast arpeggiator, a sine wave, and delay, controlled from a keyboard, with a few extra layers underneath. It is relatively simple, but it works for me.

OUTRO started as a piano composition, mainly in 11/8, but on the album it becomes dry sine and saw instrumentation. After OUTRO comes death take my hand, which takes you backwards through the whole album. Ferrochrome remains one of my favorite albums I have made. Using the master tape added a lot to it. The warmth, and the way flutter and wow interact with dry waveforms, makes the sound feel alive to me. I can understand that other people might hear less in it than I do, but it has become the album I have listened to the most, and it has had a good reception so far.

The album cover was made with camera feedback.

Alternative artwork studies are available in the Extra content section below.

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