Yeah he produced their second record from 1983,the furious Rock for Light…he was definitely a real one…
Not really related to the topic, but I’ve read somewhere a long time ago that the band Manufacture recorded samples for the Revco single “You Often Forget” and Al didn’t credit them. Eventually Manufacture used these samples for their songs on the Terrorvision album and singles.
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The story about Manufacture is a bit more convoluted than as described above. Here is what I can tell you that is fact, some of which was relayed to me directly by one of the members.
Manufacture was a duo from Boston, and while Al was living and working there during the transition from Arista back to Wax Trax! in 1984/1985, he met them at The Cars’ recording studio — Syncro Sound — and agreed to produce them. Keep in mind he also met The Blackouts in Boston around this time.
They recorded some songs at Chicago Trax with Steve Spapperi engineering, and according to the Manufacture guys, one of the songs they wrote and recorded was the music bed to “You Often Forget.” What happened next is murky, but the gist of it is that Al stole the Fairlight IIx sequence and sample discs for the track out of the band’s van while moving gear around. So it was certainly more significant than just stealing a few samples; it was the whole song.
Fast forward to the end of the “Twitch” tour in summer 1986, and Al, Paul and Bill relocated to Southern Studios in London. “You Often Forget” was finished that summer and released in the late fall of 1986. When the Manufacture guys heard it on the radio they understandably hit the roof. There is even a long recording of one of them (Perry or Brian… I forget which) on the phone with Dannie Flesher at Wax Trax! accusing Al of outright theft. I’ve heard the tape and it is pretty hilarious in retrospect.
Supposedly this theft is why Richard 23 walked away from the project.
If you want to hear Al’s uncredited production work on the “Terrorvision” album, just look for the songs recorded at Chicago Trax.
Perry Geyer went on to purchase Syncro Sound after The Cars closed it in 1986. I believe some version of it is still operational on Newbury Street.
As an aside: If you listen to the Manufacture track posted above, a bunch of those “You Often Forget” metal clang samples are audible throughout. My personal opinion is that the sampled bass sound is also a direct lift from the “Over The Shoulder” bass, though I can’t say which came first. It is likely just a Fairlight preset, but still, the similarity is remarkable.
The question is, why didn’t they sue Al for the thievery? Lack of money for a lawyer, lack of evidence or both?
Also funny, considering that 3 years later the song Thieves was released.
I wonder if there are other Ministry or side-projects songs which were actually stolen as well.
It is definitely the synth bass from Over the Shoulder, but I don’t think it’s a Fairlight preset, it’s most likely a sequence.
Manufacture was cool - not sure why they rarely get mentioned in the same breath as Ministry, Skinny Puppy, etc. Maybe they’re cursed by having their most notable track being mostly remembered as a footnote in the Sarah McLachlan catalog.
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Got this reference straight from the horses mouth. The first time I heard “What He Say” was just after the Holidays in early '83. When the instrumental middle 8 part kicked in I looked at AJ and he told me he nicked the melody in that part from the holiday classic ‘Carol of the Bells’.
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Aww, and that’s the best part of the song. That particular part reminds me very much of my fellow countrymen pop-stars A-HA who remain one of my favourite 80s pop groups to this day.