The Ultimate Guide to Dusk

This blog has an extensive archive going right back to way before we released Dusk the first time around, so we are now able to present the full and comprehensive guide to the album.

The first mention of the album was made in December 2004, when it was planned for release "in the first half of 2005" (though this was later revealed to be a lie). In October 2006, Simon was to be found mixing vocals for The End and Consequences, with Heaven Only Knows following a few weeks later.

Dusk was finally formally announced in mid-December, and a commentary for each track followed over the next year or so.

1. Not Even Close - comments published in February 2007
2. I Have Never - comments published in December 2007
3. Beneath the Silent Skies - comments published in July 2007
4. Calmwaters - comments published in January 2007
5. In the Moonlight - comments published in December 2007
6. Consequences - comments published in April 2007
7. Signs of Life - comments published in December 2007
8. Hidden Context - comments published in December 2007
9. Perfect Geometry - comments published in December 2006
10. Bulletproof - comments published in December 2007
11. The End - comments published in December 2007
12. Red Shadows - comments published in January 2007

We spent most of 2007 releasing singles from the album (most on that in the equivalent Dusk Archive post to follow), and then in May 2008 put together a little cut-down version of the album especially for iTunes, the iDusk EP. We've never mentioned this before, but the EP was so successful that in early 2009 we even talked about reissuing Dusk on CD with a couple of bonus tracks.

Unfortunately duration constraints meant that we were never entirely happy with the bonuses, which sowed the first seeds of doubt in our minds. But ultimately, we decided that we didn't really want our last album to be the first to represent us in such a widespread form, and with Transmission seemingly so close to release, we decided to concentrate on that instead. We still haven't quite got round to doing a full CD release even now.

Anyway, in October 2010, I compiled a list of my top ten highlights of the Dusk era, with a little bit of extra retrospective commentary. You can read all about that here.

In case you had forgotten already, we also wrote some sleeve notes for the new reissue of Dusk here.

Dusk Archive - sleeve notes

At the end of 2006 we released our eighth album Dusk, having worked on it for a little over three years. It was released during a key period. Web streaming was becoming more popular, and MySpace was at its peak. Releasing an album in this environment was a bit of an adventure for us, but to our surprise it was well received.

The first single Consequences got a lot of attention, and led to our appearance on a compilation named Electraparade later in 2007. The last single The End – in reality more of an EP of left-over tracks – also caught the attention of listeners.

Thanks to this, we put together our first iTunes release, a cut-down selection of album highlights which we called the iDusk EP. At the time of writing, this remains our most successful single to date.

Dusk Archive contains all the tracks from those singles, and while the quality does vary, we hope you will enjoy this collection as much as we enjoyed compiling it.

Dusk - reissue sleeve notes

The word Dusk refers to the period of partial darkness between day and night. It’s a fitting title for this album, which isn’t entirely dark, but it is darker than we normally like to sound. The vocals are rough and imperfect; the synth sounds and samples are dirty and noisy. Despite that, it was an important milestone for us.

Lyrically, it tells the story of someone finding their way through their early twenties. They’re trying to find their place in a tough urban environment. The love songs are bitter and naïve; the political commentaries are scornful.

As with the preceding album Empires, we combined sounds from every electronic source we could lay our hands on - old analogue synths, software synths, samples of vintage drum machines, and our trusty old Yamaha keyboard. These were mixed down through four channels and then painstakingly combined with the vocals using an audio editor.

We started work on Dusk in 2003 in Birmingham, and the writing process took us from Derbyshire to snowy Berlin and finally Leeds before it was finally released at the end of 2006. We didn’t have much experience with promoting ourselves online, so our main weapon of choice was MySpace, although our arrival seemed to coincide with its decline.

Despite the technological handicaps it suffered from during recording, Dusk was surprisingly successful - some of the singles remain among our most widely listened. The growing community even led to our inclusion on a compilation album.

The first single Consequences gave us one of our most successful commercial outings to date, particularly when it took pride of place as the lead track on our first full iTunes release, the iDusk EP.

So Dusk may not be the most cheerful of albums, but it does have a lot of history for us.

Dusk details

Coming out this Monday - reissued from way back in the olden days - are our much-loved album Dusk and its new companion Dusk Archive.

Here's Dusk:

Which contains the tracks:

1. Not Even Close
2. I Have Never
3. Beneath the Silent Skies
4. Calmwaters
5. In the Moonlight
6. Consequences [i]
7. Signs of Life [i]
8. Hidden Context
9. Perfect Geometry
10. Bulletproof
11. The End
12. Red Shadows

[i] - as featured on our extremely popular digital iDusk EP

From Monday, you'll be able to listen to and purchase the album in full from here.

There are a couple of samples below...

And then here's Dusk Archive:

Which collects together all 21 tracks from the singles between 2006 and 2008:

1. My Light [e]
2. Echoes of Perfection
3. Moving On
4. Consequences (Electrobongo Remix)
5. Point of No Return
6. Running with the Wind
7. Beneath the Silent Skies (Part 2)
8. The Healing
9. Bulletproof (Western Mix)
10. Fallen
11. Lose Control
12. House of Cards
13. Bulletproof (Kevlar Mix)
14. Heaven Only Knows
15. Never Wanted This
16. What I Would Do
17. Someone Else's Dream
18. Broken
19. The End (Ostkreuz Mix) [i]
20. Faint Footsteps
21. King for a Day [i]

[e] - as featured on the compilation Electraparade

[i] - as featured on the iDusk EP

There are also three bonus demo versions:

1. Moving On (Demo)
2. Echoes of Perfection (Demo)
3. Never Wanted This (Demo)

From Monday, you'll be able to listen to this in full and purchase it (should you wish to do so) from this link.

Here are some samples for the uninitiated: