Seven players, four cities, and no rehearsals: Fling ii's Brad Gowland and Richard Murphy describe a recording method that turns a weekend of continuous tape into a six-track album.
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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Ann Arbor krautrock band Fling ii.
I sat down with drummer and synthesist Brad Gowland, and guitarist Richard Murphy, to chat about their third album, 3, which is out now on We Are Busy Bodies. It’s six tracks cut down from hours of studio jamming.
We talk about Richard's path from ambient guitar to doom metal, Brad finding four minutes inside a fifty-minute take, and how a Magic: The Gathering card - and a commune breakup - inspired the band’s name.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Fling ii’s 3)
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00:00 Introduction
00:57 Seven Players, Four Cities, No Fixed Lineup
01:37 Ann Arbor, Detroit, and an Audience for Weird Music
04:28 Richard's Other Life in Doom Metal
06:21 The Name: A Magic Card and Amon Düül II
08:45 Handing the Drums to Tony, Moving to the Modular
12:23 Krautrock and Doom Metal as Distant Cousins
15:28 Motorik Under an Earth Song
17:23 Making Three Instruments Sound Like One
19:42 250 Gigs of Tape, and Building Tracks in Post
23:42 A Weekend in an Old Church in Willis, Michigan
25:59 Nothing Gets Added at Home
28:46 Finding Six Good Minutes in a Fifty-Minute Take
32:45 Democratic in the Studio, Dictatorial in the Mix
36:57 Playing It Live Without Stems
43:43 A Fourth Record, and the Trilogy That Isn't
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Purchase Fling ii's '3' from We Are Busy Bodies → https://store.wearebusybodies.com/products/fling-ii-3-pre-order
Bandcamp → https://fling2.bandcamp.com/album/3
or Qobuz → https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/3-fling-ii/zivgq8cipp4yi
and listen on your streaming platform of choice → https://album.link/i/6778560438
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