I really love the production on the "Behaviour" album, which I felt was perfectly married to the direction PSB were aiming to take. That 70s disco analogue sound, albeit created using digital samples of vintage of synths (Faltermeyer used the squeaky clean Synclavier digital system). Even the PSB's own production elements shine, such as Johnny Marr's guitar on This must be the place I waited years to leave and that spinning plastic tube on Being Boring. The digitally recreated funky drummer sample throughout is a joy too. The whole album has aged very well, and was right at the forefront of that 70s throwback house sound. The technical clarity of it too is rather astounding.
Too bad PSB and Faltermeyer never reunited. I feel that with Trevor Horn and Harold Faltermeyer the PSB achieved an unequalled, mature sound that went beyond mere alternative synthpop.
I think the housey experience Faltermeyer had on "Behaviour" with PSB really influenced his work on the 1992 Christian Slater buddy cop movie "Kuffs". There is also a ski scene from the movie "Fire Ice & Dynamite" from 1990, and it is scored by Faltermeyer using 909 drums and house piano. Eechoes of October Symphony and So Hard. Then again, you never can tell with such brilliantly interwoven cross-pollination.
Classic album, flawless Faltermeyer production and inspired direction by the PSB.
Harold Faltermeyer's production: "Behaviour"
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glennjridge
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I think behavious sounds a tad too reverby and washed out sound programming wise. although to face the truth does sound beautiful especially near the end.my october symphony really is an odd track which is why I love the PSB because every now and then they come up with a song that just sounds outside what they normally do.
another case of it happening would be tall thin men and vampires. odd, but still PSB.
another case of it happening would be tall thin men and vampires. odd, but still PSB.
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Hillbilly
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I don't know exactly what you mean by your first sentence, but I think I agree with it.glennjridge wrote:I think behavious sounds a tad too reverby and washed out sound programming wise. although to face the truth does sound beautiful especially near the end.my october symphony really is an odd track which is why I love the PSB because every now and then they come up with a song that just sounds outside what they normally do.
I'm not that keen on the production, which I think is very cold and static. Especially I've never liked the drum programming and "out-dated" synth sounds on songs like "To face the truth" and "Only the wind"; two beautiful songs flawed by the production. On the other hand I have always loved "So hard" and "Jealousy".
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kimphilby
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Behaviour is their outstanding album, for me. Moody, poignant, beautiful melodies, Neil's songwriting was at its peak, wonderfully produced. It manages to sound like an album very much of it's time (early 90s) without now sounding dated, which is an achievement.
It also contains their best song and one of the most perfect 'pop' songs ever in the sweeping majesty that is Being Boring.
It also contains their best song and one of the most perfect 'pop' songs ever in the sweeping majesty that is Being Boring.
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Vince
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JT X
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They went with Faltermeyer in the first place was because of his use of vintage analog synths. There's nothing "outdated" about them. Those synths are just as strong in "So Hard" as in anything else on the album.Hillbilly wrote:Especially I've never liked the drum programming and "out-dated" synth sounds on songs like "To face the truth" and "Only the wind"; two beautiful songs flawed by the production. On the other hand I have always loved "So hard" and "Jealousy".
...Something interesting...like a graphic designer...
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PopArt
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I think the production on 'Behaviour' really works with the songs. It's sparse and cold and as a result brigs out the beauty of the songs. Something like Only the wind or To face the truth would lose some of the sense of despair if it was covered in a big production with strings etc.
I have often felt the production of Behaviour is like Chris's bald head on the cover. It's bare, stark and almost ugly but at the same time equally arresting and intriguing. Behaviour remains the best PSB album in my opinion.
I have often felt the production of Behaviour is like Chris's bald head on the cover. It's bare, stark and almost ugly but at the same time equally arresting and intriguing. Behaviour remains the best PSB album in my opinion.
I'm always waiting...
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transforce
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TPar
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Behaviour's overall sound is really a half and half fusion of PSB and Faltermeyer, so both deserve equal credit. Neither was just doing a sound they were known for.
PSB chose Faltermeyer because they wanted to go back to a synth sound that predated them, and they were heavily influenced by the analogue synth disco prodcutions of Giorgio Moroder from the late 70s. I am guessing they must have tried to track down Moroder first, but ultimately somehow they went with Faltermeyer, who was Moroder's arranger/orchestrator/programmer/chief keyboardist on records like Donna Summer's BAD GIRLS and the soundtracks to MIDNIGHT EXPRESS and AMERICAN GIGOLO.
However, what many people forget is that Faltermeyer of 1990 was a big into digital synthesisers. He was a cutting edge, name superproducer, one of the big users of the Synclavier digital system, and most of his work from 1985 onwards was very much heavily produced, late 80s digital synthpop. Listen to the scores he did for THE RUNNING MAN, TOP GUN and TANGO AND CASH or the Bob Seger hit SHAKEDOWN, which are largely gleaming, state of the art digital synth productions. Faltermeyer even coproduced Donna Summer's not very good 1987 album ALL SYSTEMS GO, he was responsible for the title song, which sounds very generic, late 80s RnB dancepop.
For Behaviour, Faltermeyer was being asked by PSB to revisit the sound he was a part of in his earlier Giorgio Moroder disco days. In many ways they were asking him to think like Moroder would circa 1978! Faltermeyer apparently had a collection of vintage synths, but also had alot of the sounds transfered into digital samples for his Synclavier. So BEHAVIOUR was every bit as cutting edge production wise as Trevor Horn's work on INTROSPECTIVE or any other PSB album. Infact, the innovation of having all of those analogue sounds put on a sampler, is that not the basis for this huge wave of soft synth retro productions that we have seen throughout the 2000s (FUNDAMENTAL included)?
PSB in my opinion deserve equal mounds of the credit though for not only all of the compositions, but the totally leftfied arrangement decisions. Who in their right mind on Planet Earth would have the inspired genius to stick Johnny Marr, Angelo Badalamenti and Harold Faltermeyer all on the same song
A bunch of name artists who in any other situation would have never crossed paths, let alone collaborated together! PSB also got Faltermeyer arranging orchestral sections for JEALOUSY, something as far as I know he hadn't really done since the Moroder disco days. They also got him to think out of the box with stripped down arrangements on some songs, especialy NERVOUSLY (and not go for obvious, typical late 80s digital overproduction). Plus, Julian Mendelsohn mixed the album under PSB's direction, with what I understand to be no Faltermeyer involvement. Across the board then, it was a very unusual production set up for everyone!
So Harold Faltermeyer's main contribution to BEHAVIOUR in my opinion is his use of the Synclavier to sample old 70s analogue disco sounds, mashing them up with the latest digital. I think the PSBs and the clever few took note of this and let it influence them on later works, but there is also no denying that Faltermeyer's score for KUFFS was HEAVILY, directly influenced by his PSB experience.
In my opinion, if PSB had just turned up to see Faltermeyer and asked him to produce one of their songs in the sound he was known for circa 1989, BEHAVIOUR would have sounded quite heavily produced and digital, adhering to the synthpop trends of the time. Think DOMINO DANCING (which incidentally sounds alot more like typical Faltermeyer to me than anything on BEHAVIOUR) . However, they had a very specific brief, a high concept idea that was ambitious and unusual for all involved, and PSB should receive as much praise for their musical concept as Faltermeyer and company should for executing it.
If you like Faltermeyer's work on Behaviour, first check out his huge contributions to the Moroder MIDNIGHT EXPRESS and AMERICAN GIGOLO albums (and Donna Summer's BAD GIRLS). It will give you an idea of what PSB were initially after.
PSB chose Faltermeyer because they wanted to go back to a synth sound that predated them, and they were heavily influenced by the analogue synth disco prodcutions of Giorgio Moroder from the late 70s. I am guessing they must have tried to track down Moroder first, but ultimately somehow they went with Faltermeyer, who was Moroder's arranger/orchestrator/programmer/chief keyboardist on records like Donna Summer's BAD GIRLS and the soundtracks to MIDNIGHT EXPRESS and AMERICAN GIGOLO.
However, what many people forget is that Faltermeyer of 1990 was a big into digital synthesisers. He was a cutting edge, name superproducer, one of the big users of the Synclavier digital system, and most of his work from 1985 onwards was very much heavily produced, late 80s digital synthpop. Listen to the scores he did for THE RUNNING MAN, TOP GUN and TANGO AND CASH or the Bob Seger hit SHAKEDOWN, which are largely gleaming, state of the art digital synth productions. Faltermeyer even coproduced Donna Summer's not very good 1987 album ALL SYSTEMS GO, he was responsible for the title song, which sounds very generic, late 80s RnB dancepop.
For Behaviour, Faltermeyer was being asked by PSB to revisit the sound he was a part of in his earlier Giorgio Moroder disco days. In many ways they were asking him to think like Moroder would circa 1978! Faltermeyer apparently had a collection of vintage synths, but also had alot of the sounds transfered into digital samples for his Synclavier. So BEHAVIOUR was every bit as cutting edge production wise as Trevor Horn's work on INTROSPECTIVE or any other PSB album. Infact, the innovation of having all of those analogue sounds put on a sampler, is that not the basis for this huge wave of soft synth retro productions that we have seen throughout the 2000s (FUNDAMENTAL included)?
PSB in my opinion deserve equal mounds of the credit though for not only all of the compositions, but the totally leftfied arrangement decisions. Who in their right mind on Planet Earth would have the inspired genius to stick Johnny Marr, Angelo Badalamenti and Harold Faltermeyer all on the same song
A bunch of name artists who in any other situation would have never crossed paths, let alone collaborated together! PSB also got Faltermeyer arranging orchestral sections for JEALOUSY, something as far as I know he hadn't really done since the Moroder disco days. They also got him to think out of the box with stripped down arrangements on some songs, especialy NERVOUSLY (and not go for obvious, typical late 80s digital overproduction). Plus, Julian Mendelsohn mixed the album under PSB's direction, with what I understand to be no Faltermeyer involvement. Across the board then, it was a very unusual production set up for everyone!So Harold Faltermeyer's main contribution to BEHAVIOUR in my opinion is his use of the Synclavier to sample old 70s analogue disco sounds, mashing them up with the latest digital. I think the PSBs and the clever few took note of this and let it influence them on later works, but there is also no denying that Faltermeyer's score for KUFFS was HEAVILY, directly influenced by his PSB experience.
In my opinion, if PSB had just turned up to see Faltermeyer and asked him to produce one of their songs in the sound he was known for circa 1989, BEHAVIOUR would have sounded quite heavily produced and digital, adhering to the synthpop trends of the time. Think DOMINO DANCING (which incidentally sounds alot more like typical Faltermeyer to me than anything on BEHAVIOUR) . However, they had a very specific brief, a high concept idea that was ambitious and unusual for all involved, and PSB should receive as much praise for their musical concept as Faltermeyer and company should for executing it.
If you like Faltermeyer's work on Behaviour, first check out his huge contributions to the Moroder MIDNIGHT EXPRESS and AMERICAN GIGOLO albums (and Donna Summer's BAD GIRLS). It will give you an idea of what PSB were initially after.
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Corina
- Posts: 2982
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I have posted youtube links on this forum and I wasn`t punished in any way!TPar wrote:Are we allowed to post youtube links on this forum? If so I can better illustrate my points (rahter than anyone interested having to trawl through themselves).
(Thanks for your long previous interesting comment - it was a treat to read).
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glennjridge
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