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About em:t (artist recollections)


From: "Dallas Simpson" 
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 12:47 PM

Memories of Time:

Part 1.

Can't remember exactly how I discovered Time Recording. I think I looked up record labels in the local library and was surprised to find Time Recording was local to Nottingham. Their office was located in a studio complex - Square Centre Studios on Alfred Street North in Nottingham.

I think I phoned up and spoke to David Thompson around August 1995, mentioned about the binaural recording I was doing and was invited to came and demo some material.

The office was quite a small room upstairs, about 2.5m by 4m, with a window at one end looking over Alfred Street North. Chris and Dave had their own desks, working on seperate computers. Dave called Tom Smyth from the studios, one of the Time resident engineers (and one half of Miasma amongst other things), to set up a DAT machine and play the tape I had brought along. It was the bouncing ball section later to become the finale of "abha". The sound was hyper-realistic, spatial, deep and resonant, plenty of movement. Even more spectacular on headphones. Glances and nods were exchanged, I was in!

I think Tom showed me around the studio complex. It still exists today (October 2001) pretty much as it was in 1995. Some of the smaller rooms have been re-arranged, the office layouts are slightly different, but the main studio is as it was in 1995. One large performance area and above with some steps up to an elevated section along the longer wall, a control room with mixing desk, monitors, loads of outboard, usual stuff and the pride and joy the Roland RSS 3D surround system.

So after some tea and chat I left clutching a couple of compilation albums- out through the security door, downstairs and out onto Alfred Street "a few small steps for a man and the opening of a new phase of my creative life...!"
This was exciting.

However I was about to discover that things at Time recording generally moved slowly, painfully and frustratingly...
To be continued. 

From: "Dallas Simpson" 
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2001 12:27 AM

Memories of Time:

Part 2. (What happened to Chris and Dave?)

Chris & Dave were the founders. Tom Smyth and Will Joss were the sound engineers, Tom (vocals, composition and mixing) & Will (all midi programming + RSS) were also "Miasma". There was a certain amount of incestuous involvement with some of the artists. Tom & Will engineered all the artists who came to the studios - including me, Will Joss was the male narrative voice on Celia Green's album (I met her once, but thats another story), also Will and Tom did some music compsition and editing. Bad Data was David Thompson with Will & Tom doing the programming and engineering, Will & Tom also did all the engineering and some composition on Slim's album.

Some artists just supplied their finished master which was used to cut the final CD, like Beatsystem and others. I remember there was a problem with Carl Stone. The first 3 DATs he sent had glitches on and there were delays in the post from USA to UK, so that was a frustrating experience for Chris & Dave, Carl wasn't too happy about it either!

Tom Smyth is still working at the square centre studios as a freelance engineer and with a company called "The M Corporation" - a professional audio equipment broker/ supplier. Will Joss went off to have a family I don't know what he is doing now.

So to the big question - what happened to Chris & Dave? The collapse of Time Recording was painful and messy. basically Chris & Dave did a "runner" leaving substantial debts outstanding to both artists ( I never received a single penny of any royalties from sales of compilation albums containing my tracks) and Square Centre Studios. Sad really, but this is what frequently happens with small record companies. Chris & Dave were dedicated pioneers of bringing quality music to the public and put innovation and creativity above commercial viability, which is rare these days.

One of the problems in the music business is that distributors and retail outlets have a stranglehold in the distribution chain. They know that they can take small record companies for a "ride" and they won't get prosecuted because small record companies haven't got the financial clout to take them to court. As most of the main distributors for Time were outside the UK, there was the additional problem of hiring lawyers across national boundaries. According to many conversations I had with Chris &s; Dave Time Recording was no exception to this and lost a lot of money from distributors who took CD stock and refused to pay for it, even to the point of saying "OK send us another 1000 albums and we'll pay for the first 1000" in some cases they still didn't pay. So Time Recording saved money by not paying some of the artists in order to have enough money to keep producing albums. Eventually the artists will only take so much and I believe it was legal proceedings from one artist against Time which precipitated their demise.

Were Chris & Dave ripping everyone off?
Personally I don't think so. They both lived modestly and were dedicated to the music. As far as I can ascertain the explanation above is the true one. And I think its about time that this problem was more widely known. At the end of the day its the artists - the creators of the original product, the music - who ultimately get penalised due to the greed of distributors and retailers. This is why copyright is such a contensious issue with artists - we need to pay the bills in order to continue to make music!

Hope this is of interest,
Dallas Simpson

see Dallas's bio for more information.