Cavern Of Anti-Matter

Hormone Lemonade

Hormone Lemonade

Cavern Of Anti-Matter return for their third studio album on their own Duophonic label. Hormone Lemonade sees the band heavily utilising the sounds of modular synths and home built drum machines, yet still keeping the loose, improvised sound familiar to fans of their first two albums, with minimal guitar melodies and live drum kit helping to build hypnotic layers of texture.

The albums genesis was in the self-constructed rhythm machines of band member Holger Zapf, the Taktron Z3 and Taktron Z2, being recorded to tape during three one-hour sessions. These sessions also included the use of 70s Hohner and Eko drum machines. Holger played his parts in a free-form way and the bpm varied wildly as it was not possible to sync it to any outside controllers.

Tim Gane edited these initial jams into useable chunks and proceeded to overdub each new rhythmic “chunk” with some basic musical ideas, keeping in tune to the hum of the machines and retaining the “feel” of the inherent pulse. Joe Dilworth arrived to lay down a beat over these minimal backing tracks, going with the flow as best he could.

In the following months the music was fleshed out using various synths and sequencers from Roland, Arp, Oberheim and Holger’s modular synth set up. As well as many of the bass and sequencer parts the modular also supplied the chords by tuning each one of its five oscillators to specific notes and intervals

Praise For Hormone Lemonade

“Their most successful album to date … With ‘Hormone Lemonade’ COAM have contorted that off-kilter groove into a tighter, more intense and – more importantly – totally unique aesthetic” – Electronic Sound

“Keeps Stereolab’s earworm melodies as well as their oblique songtitles, using modular synths to patch together longform jam sessions” – DJ Mag

"Cold and bouncy autobahn action from Tim Gane, his current accomplices and a couple of overdriven homemade drum machines. The antic motorik spirit of Stereolab lives on!" – Mojo

“A winning melange of tinny disco beats, retro-futuristic textures and layers of synth, it’s by far their most cohesive work to date” – Record Collector

“Like a meeting of science and nature in a hall of mirrors, it’s a synthedelic delight” – Prog

[Phase Modulation Shuffle] “A glowing orb of a song that, true to its title, shuffles along with an antigravitational grace. Rather than being a song to sit down and admire, 'Phase Modulation Shuffle' suggests a new dance craze created by an alien humanoid race. Imagining it being played out on a neon-lit dancefloor on a planet many galaxies away, but not too dissimilar from our own, 'Phase Modulation Shuffle' makes perfect sense. It sounds like it's been beamed across space as a vision of how bold and bright music can be." – The 405

“Dynamic and minimal – a brilliant record.” – Nick Luscombe, BBC Radio 3