In 2015, Bus Hus was asked to contribute a song to a massive compilation of Louisville bands for a friend's record label. It was the third annual compilation of its kind, and we gladly submitted tracks to the series each year, only this one was to be larger and more ambitious than before, with 188 bands in the fold and multiple release shows to boot. Sold as cassette box sets, the series was called Head Cleaner as was suggested by Awkward Styles of Bus Hus sometime in 2012.
To meet the challenge of not going unnoticed among a mammoth pool of artists, Bus Hus decided to go big and try something new. This track was a unique experiment for us in several ways. First, we recorded the fundamental backing tracks in a bonafide studio, with bonafide engineers (No offense, Gary). Our friends Dan and Heather lent their Adept studio to the cause. All Bus Hus tracks prior had been formulated at Gary's Upgrades Studios; a humble basement/bedroom operation.
Second, the backing track was performed live, as a band, with no samples. Awkward Styles and I played the core electronics and he sang, joined again by Dan and Heather for some improvised elements. It's a meandering 8 minutes, but I think it still sounds great and has gone previously unreleased until now. Unfortunately, after that recording was made we were not given access to the multitrack recordings, and therefore were pretty limited on how the collaborative relationship could develop. So we made an entirely new multitrack session simply from “sampling” the mixdown of our own new recording. It wasn't ideal, but essentially sampling and reworking are our comfort zone anyway. We took the mixdown back to Gary's Upgrades and got to work.
The third way in which this track is different from other Bus Hus tracks is that it is the first time Ethan AD joined on a recording. That's his voice saying “Bus Hus” at the beginning. He had become a staple at live shows as the DJ, and that explains the insane fervor with which the turntables feature predominantly. Actually, we all recorded scratch tracks to thicken it up for good measure. It was tongue-in-cheek, we probably could've used a half measure. Since then his role has moved into co-production, writing, and performance as on Necro Techno.
In the end, “Even The Score (With Pleasure)” was drastically reworked at Gary's Upgrades to become the version that appeared on Head Cleaner. That version appears here along with a dub version used in some live gigs, as well as the original studio track, all remastered by us in 2020. Happy 5 year anniversary.
-T. Pepper Boy
credits
released July 3, 2020
Personnel:
Even The Score (With Pleasure)
Awkward Styles – Electronics, Turntables, Vocals
Toranado Pepper Boy – Electronics, Turntables, Vocals
Ethan AD – Turntables, Vocals
Gary – Engineer
The Cat Says Meow (With Pleasure)
Awkward Styles – Microkorg, Vocals
Toronado Pepper Boy – Analogue Rytm
Heather Floyd – MiniMoog
Dan Willems – Guitar, Engineer
