the album was produced over a couple of days ,mark fox did the music and johnny v did the vocals in two takes nothing was rehearsed and most the lyrics came straight out with nothing prepared. hence the odd strange lyric that appears. steve hardy did the intro to clownaphobia. track 4 is an instrumental called lighthouse.

These songs were recorded in the summer of 2010 during frenzied months of creativity that became distracted by births, deaths, economic gloom and festival performances.

Influenced by communist radio transmissions from the former Soviet Union, folk art from eastern bloc countries and researching grim memorabilia from failed cosmonaut missions.

I had been toying with some old unfashionable synths that my friend Bill Bentley (immortalised in the Kilburn and the High Roads song) had loaned me along with some delay units that wouldn't be out of place in a dub studio in Kingston.

The half melodies and disjointed beats are my little ode to those communist radio station jingles I used to accidentally tune into on my dads big radio when I was growing up. These sounds fascinated me and sounded very alien and primitive. Later I would learn that they were created by talented musicians who were employed by the state to write non emotive music that would support the regimes rule, almost hypnotising the masses and distracting them from free thought.

Waves of any form have energy though and like all good things that free the mind, chaos eventually turns an energy into something unfamiliar so hopefully, these recordings are the start point of a new energy which has broken free of the cynical parameters in which those first radio jingles were initially created.

Johnny is a great observer of people. His lyrics are very usually written quickly in a manner that at first can be confusing when first heard. The vocal tracks were all one take but are actually a mix of numerous overdubs he recorded like spoken harmonies that resemble conversations with himself. It is like cut and paste writers such as William Burroughs. As a producer it can be quite difficult to figure out what he is doing until the fifth or sixth track goes on and ties up all the previous layers to his lyrics. Very clever but also very disorienting to record. I like that. It keeps things fresh.

Lyrics such as "I don't do retail too well; I get mardy" make me smile every time I hear them. To this day I can't visit a retail park without thinking of that line!

It has been enjoyable listening back to these recordings and mastering them down. Time is a funny thing in music. Years can go by but as soon as a recording is played that I have been involved with it instantly takes me back to that moment, complete with the sense memory of the position of the sunlight in the room and the fabric of that space in time.

The only advice I have to anybody listening to these tracks now is to either wear good headphones or play them on a decent system quite loud because there's a lot going on.

It is good to finally release them into the world and I hope that one day they get heard by one of the great musicians who wrote the soviet radio jingles that inspired them.

Mark Fox - June 2015