A Guided Tour of High Vis’ Guided Tour at Holy Mountain Studios.

A Guided Tour of High Vis' Guided Tour at Holy Mountain Studios.

By Sam Retzer

Engineer Stanley Gravett is retreating down the stairs to Holy Mountain Studio after being 'bullied' upstairs at the Crypt of the Wizard record store. Since opening in East London, across from the idyllic Hackney Farm, the Holy Mountain team of owner Misha Hering, Gravett, and Chris Fullard have hosted locals including Idles, 40 Watt Sun, and post punk upstarts High Vis. Guided Tour marks High Vis' third album recorded at Holy Mountain after breakout No Sense No Feeling and follow-up Blending. Jonah Falco (Fucked Up, Jade Hairpins) returns in the producer's chair, expanding and refining the sound from Blending and helping the band "throw things against the wall" on a few unfinished songs. Stanley manned the sessions from the helm of Holy Mountain's API 1608 console, with Misha later mixing the album remotely in Geneva.

Drummer Edward 'Ski' Harper sat behind a fort of gobos to give the close mics a drier sound, and keep cymbal bleed out of the tracking room. Before the sessions, Ski utilized his home laptop studio with guitarist Martin MacNamara to demo ideas. A love of making "Primal Scream type loops" led to the programmed "baggy" inspired rhythms heard on "Mind's A Lie" and "Untethered." Stan and Jonah further processed "Mind's A Lie" in the studio, adding ear candy like varispeed cymbals over the chopped up vocals of DJ Ell Murphy.

Guided Tour's guitars were tracked primarily through the Yamaha T100 head ("the poor man's Soldano") into a 2 x 12 Emperor cab, the band trusting Jonah and Stanley to hone in on tones. The malleability of the T100 allowed Martin and guitarist Rob Hammeren to indulge in their love of glassy post-punk tones without "3k killing you." Jack Muncaster's bass was recorded through the Verellen Meatsmoke (!) head, with sub bass added during some of the upper register moments. All amps were left setup throughout the recording, so guitar sections could be re-tracked as melodies took shape. For "Worth the Wait" and "Drop Me Out," Martin got in the room up close to the guitar cab, creating rich layers of feedback that are tough to reproduce in their bonkers live shows.

Early mixes were deliberately clipped and confrontational, before Misha dialed back the intensity with the goal of making a big and open record, with analog effects, and big gated snares. The challenge became automating the midrange, employing his GML 8200 and love of Bob Clearmountain to separate guitars and bass with surgical precision.

Missing from this tour of Guided Tour is a closer look into tracking Graham Sayle's vocals, although as all Vis fans know: they blow the roof off. From friendships forged in hardcore, working class values, and talking about Hüsker Dü, High Vis and Holy Mountain deliver big with Guided Tour. Mastered by the ubiquitous Heba Kadry.

Guided Tour is out now on Dais Records

highvisuk.com holymountainstudios.net @jonahjonahfalco