CWQ Delivers Ambient Lo-Fi Recordings, 20 years in the Making

Posted on Dec 6, 2011

In the early 1990′s, Creamy Water Quiz (CWQ) experimented with an early music software program named Aegis Sonix on a Commodore Amiga 500 computer. Recording Sonix on a 4-track, with some synths and an assemblage of effects, they created some unabashedly unconventional psychedelic music.

Creamy Water Quiz - It’s All Your Vault: The Early 90′s Reinterpreted

Fast forward almost two decades, to August 2011, when these sessions are ‘re-discovered’ by Ryan ‘Delano’ Davis. CWQ decides to remix select tracks from this bygone analog era. “It’s All Your Vault: The Early 90’s Reinterpreted” is a modern perspective on some pre-millenium lo-fi reverberations. The goal of “It’s All Your Vault” was to preserve the linear and analog qualities of the original recordings, while infusing some new moxie via the digital domain with filters, compressions and an ambient approach to mixing.

We caught up with Adam ‘Miracle Kitty’ Walker, the other co-founder of the project and asked him a few questions about this new release.

Brent: How is “It’s All Your Vault: The Early 90’s Reinterpreted” different than Flojo, Loco y Enigmático?

Adam: Flojo was generated over a weekend and contained quite a bit of guitar and bass. Vault is a trip through the early 1990′s, spanning 4 years and is from 6 different sessions. Vault is heavier on synths, a little more minimal with instrumentation and mixing, and is decidedly more ‘analog’ than Flojo.

Brent: Describe your technical process for creating this album?

Adam: First, we listened to over 80 recordings form the early 90′s when CWQ experimented with an early music software program called Aegis Sonix on a Commodore Amiga 500 computer. Then we narrowed it down to some specific sessions that we extracted our favorite segments from. Once the ‘tracks’ were selected, we took the original 4-track mixes and transferred them into Logic Pro. No new sounds were added, and very few edits were made, however, there was quite a bit of equalization, compression, reverb, filters, and delays. CWQ decided to try and preserve the linear and analog qualities of the original recordings, while utilizing an ambient approach to mixing.

Brent: What is the one tool that a CWQ album couldn’t be made without?

Adam: Ryan. He is the ultimate tool.

Brent: What is the oddest sample used in the recording?

Adam: The sound of a squeaking office chair. We were recording one night and this chair was overpowering the mix with it’s creaking and screeching, so we decided to ‘play’ it for a while and archive it properly. It pops up in Miracle Kitty: Soma Swap.

Brent: What do you see when you hear these songs?

Adam: Irrationally evolving soft insects sweeping across foggy fields.

Naturally occurring right angles.

Triumphant wonderment of re-purposed robots.

The old analog future.