When pedal steels and synths collide
I love everything about this promo for the KLF's ill-fated movie for the album "The White Room," particularly the way the pedal steel mixes with the rest of the track and complements the imagery perfectly.
From the comments:
Update: You can hear the original version here, if you never have.
From the comments:
"The guitar for Madrugada Eterna was originally recorded at a party at Trancentral in summer 1989. It's by "Evil" Graham Lee, of Australian band the Triffids. His improvisations were recorded direct onto Cauty's mixing deck, who then turned them into a dance choon. A proposed single released in March 1990 fell through, sadly"Some musing from Graham Lee from his site pedalsteeling.com:
"The pedal steel is a recent invention - a steel that we'd recognize as the same beast played today was not seen until the sixties. It was developed to solve a basic steel guitar problem - that slanted bar positions were required for anything other than standard chords on a non pedal guitar. If you used a major tuning you'd have to slant the bar to get your minors (or use two note formations). Extra strings, extra necks tuned differently - all these were tried and resulted in some wonderful instruments and playing styles that persist to this day.But the first time we really got to hear the pedal steel was through the medium of Bud Isaacs. In November, 1953 he played on a session for Webb Pierce. The song was the beautiful Slowly and Bud used the string bending from his single pedal not simply as a way to avoid a slanted bar, but as an integral part of the melody. Jaws dropped and lightbulbs went off. Steel players headed out to their sheds and began dismantling sewing machines, tinkering with their steels so they could get with the programme."In my opinion, the pedal steel is the most beautiful sounding instrument ever when in the hands of a master.
Update: You can hear the original version here, if you never have.




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