The Waveform #021: One Take, One Roof

We had the roof booked for two hours and got fifty minutes of usable quiet before a delivery lorry parked underneath with its refrigeration unit running. The freight lift chose the same morning to fail, so an amplifier went up six flights on somebody's shoulder, and the somebody was not me but was standing next to me. None of that is in the video, which is the entire trick of video. What is in the video is four minutes that we would not have got in a studio for ten times the money.

Live Session: Vera Lune Performs 'Glasshouse' on Our Roof

Two microphones, one take, no overdubs, and every siren, gull and reversing van left exactly where it landed. Vera asked for the city to stay in the recording before we had a chance to suggest it, which spared us an argument we were fully prepared to lose. The write-up walks through the setup in enough detail that you could copy the whole thing with equipment you already own.

Also this week

• Scene Report: Tbilisi's Basement Techno Renaissance. Silas Reyes on the crews who kept the parties running through two years of Substation's silence, and what happens to them now.
• Wire Mix 014: Slow Motion for Fast Times. An hour that never rises above walking pace, free for everybody.

One more thing

The best moment on the roof was a mistake we decided to keep, so here is the question. What is the finest error left in a record you love? The cough before the second verse, the chair, the click track leaking out of a headphone, the take where the bass comes in a bar early and the whole band commits to it rather than stopping. Reply with one, and be specific about the timestamp, because I intend to go and listen to all of them on the good speakers. The best answers go in the issue after next.

Next Friday. Ada