Radio Moscow

It may not shock some of our regular readers, but we're going to confess it anyway - we love vintage gear at Prairie Sun! Mics, boards, guitars, amps, drums, you name it - there's no denying these old toys are fun. So anytime someone offers us the chance to put some of this tech to use in seeking out new takes on retro sounds, we're chomping at the bit. The new record from Radio Moscow offered Prairie Sun and engineer Jason D'Ottavio just such an opportunity - record analog, mix analog, master analog (the record was not digitized until mastering) and explore the sound of new/old rock under the direction of band founder Parker Griggs. Radio Moscow is now apart of the Alive Natural Sound record label. The new record will be the band's second self-produced release (Radio Moscow's debut self-titled was produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys), and features Parker on guitars, drums, and vocals and Zach Anderson on bass (drummer Cory Berry rounds out the touring trio). Mastered by resident engineer Tim Gennert, the record is due for release in the near future - keep tabs at radiomoscow.net  

Radio Moscow's sound has evolved over the past few years into a raw, `60s-style, psychedelic-aggressive blues with a modern take on break-downs and tempo changes. We cannot speak highly enough about the artistic integrity of this band, from the recording process to there stunning instrument collection. Parker tracked the drums on a vintage Ludwig kit. Zach's bass rig was comprised of a monster vintage Ampeg, a Gibson Atlas and a short scale Electro style bass. 

The guitars and amps used were too many to list but included vintage Supro, Gibson, Alamo and other off-beat gems. Parker used a few different microphones for the vocals, at times running through a tape echo, often through a Leslie cabinet or an old Gibson reverb tank. Everything was recorded to our Studer 2" - 24 tracks at 15 ips via the BBC Neve in Studio C. The mix on the SSL in Studio A was printed to our 1/2" ATR with flux-dynamic heads running at 15 ips. The last stop on this period accurate project was the mastering. All of the mastering was done real time running through Sontec eqs and API and Shadow Hills mastering compressors. All crossfades and transitions between song where performed manually with a tape echo and distortion pedals. At the end of the mastering chain the project made it's one and only conversion to digital in the Seqouia mastering program, without the use of any digital plugins. There are plans to release the album on vinyl, paying respect to the audiophile who can hear all the vintage love!