Tracks
1 Angelignite
2 Dead Dreams Bloom
3 BlackGuard Wolfpack
4 BlackGuard Wolfpack (Franc Tetaz Dub)
5 Cold Star
The Story of Retrospective E.P.#2
Second release in the Fate Razor Retrospective Series, Retrospective EP#2 collects a further 5 tracks produced between 1993 and 1998, including the prototype song that initiated the project – Angelignite; a metallic angst anthem, and predecessor to ColdComfort Logic.
“Heard a Swan-Song promise, Still-night cowering dread Feeling out flimsy front-house doors and fate’s fodder And warm dreams baring their necks and going cold.“ Lyrics – BlackGuard WolfPack
Angelignite, Dead Dreams Bloom, and BlackGuard Wolfpack were previously released on obscure compilation albums during the project’s Melbourne era and summarise accurately the sound and headspace of that period. An account of the prophetic nightmare/dream that inspired BlackGuard can be found in this interview.
The ‘Dub Reconstruction’ version of BlackGuard Wolfpack (previously unavailable) was crafted by Fanc Tetaz and originally intended for the debut Fate Razor album which was in production at the time but never finalised; its an alternate bare-bones stripdown of the mutant industrial hip-hop of the original.
The original version of “Cold Star” was written in Perth in 1998 and intended for release on a compilation of electronic artists by Perth label Divination Records.
Gear and Production
Like the first EP, the songs of Retrospective EP#2 were sequenced on an Atari 1040STE, triggering Roland JV880 and Juno 106 synths, and a collection of Akai samplers with lots of floppy discs. Cold Star was written on the Atari 1040STE and Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler workstation.
Some of the production for the original mixes was carried out haphazardly in a mix studio somewhere in St Kilda, after been tracked into a Roland digital desk that was cutting edge at the time. As per the first E.P, the Premastering and editing was done at the Lightarmour Editions studio, using Presonus Studio One Pro, coupled to a UAD/Apollo system and a MacBook Pro. Sage Audio (a Nashville mastering studio) again handled the final Mastering.