Company: Citadel (Australia)  -  Cat No: (citcd 537)

Format: cd album  -  Released: February 1998  -  Status: in print - To order, click HERE

 

The fourth of Deniz' solo albums, Equinox, features a complete band change and reversal of his usually minimalist production philosophy. Completely stepping outside of his stereotype, many people have suggested this is his best work to date.
Deniz plays all guitar parts and this work is amply augmented with keyboards, musik konkret, soundscape bits, found sounds, unusual instruments and percussion, fading in and out among the more standard heavy rock parts. Some of the guitar solos are almost unrecognisable as such. The rhythm section is unusually adept and tight.

The singing on many tracks goes beyond Deniz' usual sonic range. Bass player Todd Eagle does a few of the lead vocals and other songs feature guest vocalists. The return of Angie Pepper on some solo parts adds to the record's diverse nature.

Work was done piecemeal over the entire calendar year of 1997. The producer, Dave Weyer, took a very active role in shaping the sounds of this album, and Deniz acknowledges the profound effect of his creative input on the overall result.

 

Track Listing:

Seven Is ( D Tek ) (6:18 m:s)
Agua Caliente (D Tek / C Green ) (5:07 m:s)
Christmas Eve ( D Tek ) (5:38 m:s)
Moon ( D Tek ) (3:42 m:s)
Sideways Motion ( T Eagle / D Tek ) (4:10 m:s)
Billy Was A Cathar ( D Tek ) (4:06 m:s)
King Of The Carnival

    ( T Eagle / D Tek / C Green / D Weyer ) (3:54 m:s)
Hit 29 (D Tek / T Eagle / M Sisto ) (5:02 m:s)
Good Citizen ( T Eagle ) (3:17 m:s)
Shellback ( D Tek ) (3:45 m:s)
Tone Poem ( D Tek ) (3:34 m:s)
 

The Musicians:

Deniz Tek - Guitar, Vocals & Saz

Todd Eagle - Bass, Vocals & Saz

Clay Green - Drums & Percussion

Dave Weyer - Keyboards & Backing Vocals
Jim Dickson - Monologue in Hit29

Angie Pepper - Solo Vocals (Moon & Shellback) + Backing Vocals

Marian Booth, Hana Tek, Will Weyer, Mark Sisto - Backing Vocals
 

Technical Details:

Produced by Dave Weyer and Deniz Tek  /  Engineered by Dave Weyer  /  Recorded at David Weyer Systems, Billings, Montana
 

Of Interest:

The album opens with the crushingly heavy power chords of Seven Is coming out of a brief intro featuring the glassy insect-like tones of a Turkish saz, with dogs, children and horse carts in the background.

Agua Caliente is a Latin tinged fast rocker featuring blistering drumming and guitar, salsa keyboards and a vertiginous ending.

Christmas Eve, played for the first time on the December 24th night that it was recorded, begins as a straight-ahead rock tune with funk elements in the rhythm section. It features an astonishingly unusual guitar solo, a powerful yet disturbing vocal, and a surprise ending on an icy road in some unknown place and time.

Moon is a quiet pop ballad of paranoia sung by Angie, musically reminiscent of the Passengers with hints of Pet Sounds era Beach Boys. The carefree tones of a kalimba and African thumb piano belie the songs underlying menace.

Sideways Motion is a hard rock vision of the next great flood, with alternating vocals by Deniz and Todd.

Billy Was A Cathar, a tale of the inquisition, is a respectfully retro cross between Let It Bleed era Stones and early Who.

King of the Carnival is a Todd Eagle autobiographical medium paced work that features prepared guitar hit with wrenches, experimental tape loops dug out of an old box unopened since the sixties, and crowd noise, but still manages to be an accessible tune, possibly even radio friendly.

Good Citizen is a fast loud pop rocker sung by Todd, with a wild overtone saturated guitar solo thrown in just to mess things up.

Hit 29 can only be described as full sleaze keyboard lounge music contrasting with heavy angst-ridden choruses. The song ends up in the bar...where else?

Shellback, released as a demo bonus track on the special edition Italian Tour '96 EP, is reworked here with heavy keyboards.

Finally, Tone Poem, just Deniz with spoken word over guitar ambience and feedback, reprises the lyrical theme of the opening track.