Here Comes the Summertime

The tenth track on Transmission, and the third proper single, was Here Comes the Summertime.



I started this as an uptempo track to go on Dusk in early 2005 - it was a simple, happy, and fairly meaningless track which was intended to provide a bit of light relief from the rest of the darkness on the album. It was Simon who turned it into the downtempo track that it became, while watching the awful film Black Hawk Down.

It was the first track we'd ever done that had any kind of visual element, as I'd used the video editing tools on my new computer to put together a very rough video, and a couple of years later I decided to revive this. It was a bit short on ideas though, so I decided we should try chopping a chunk out of the original song so that the video didn't need to be too long.

This nearly became the single version, except that without trying very hard I also ran off a mix with a hip hop drum loop, which we both liked, and with a new bassline and synth part, we had a new single version, which seems to have subsequently gone down rather well in Canada for some reason.

Finally, Simon decided he didn't like all the editing, and did an extended version, with all the bits put back in again:



But that turned out not to be the end - a few months later, Sappy got in touch, saying he'd like to try a remix. Even longer, and even more epic than Simon's extended version, it's just appeared on our new EP of collected mixes:



Here are the lyrics:

Back then we slept in tombs of sadness
Finding the answers in excesses
The days were short and came to nothing
But led to shores of hate and longing

And so we’ve made it through together
And now it’s going to last

We’re leaving the past behind us now
As at last we feel satisfied
So here comes the summertime again
Will we find our lost paradise?

Now the days seem so bright and so long
It once looked like we’d never see them
Now it’s hard to sleep the days away
In case they never come again

So what shall we do now together?
Keep running till we fall

There’s nothing for us to hide behind
Or to keep the truth locked inside
So here comes the summertime again
Will we find our lost paradise?

Keep dreaming away
Until the dawn of another day
There’s nowhere to stay
We’ll always find another way back home

Let’s spend all of our days together
Until the summer ends

We’re leaving the past behind us now
As at last we feel satisfied
So here comes the summertime again
Will we find our lost paradise?

There’s nothing for us to hide behind
Or to keep the truth locked inside
So here comes the summertime again
Will we find our lost paradise?

Keep dreaming away
Until the dawn of another day
There’s nowhere to stay
We’ll always find another way back home

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

A list of our gear

Another thing that was lost from our website when we updated it recently was this rather long list of equipment. We've updated it for the 21st century, because it was a little on the old side.

The date is an approximation of when we acquired it. As we said at the time, the list is long, and it definitely isn't comprehensive. It probably isn't very interesting either, but here goes...

• Ukulele - Musical Instrument, 2012. Is it a souvenir or a serious musical instrument? It's difficult to know, but it is fun.
• Korg Monotron - Synthesiser, 2012. Like a Stylophone, only not quite as silly.
• Korg iElectribe - Software, 2011. Great if you want to make some drum and bass or UK Garage of a Sunday afternoon.
• Korg iMS-20 - Software, 2011. Used to make silly noises, including several of the sounds on the Funnelweb mix of Golden Wheel.
• Apple GarageBand for iPad - Software, 2011. Rollo uses this as a general sketchpad and sounding board for ideas.
• Apple iPad 2 - Computer, 2011. Good for messing with when "on the road".
• Chimera Synthesis BC9 - Synthesiser, 2010. Second and last purchase from the now defunct bedroom company. Great for making very silly noises.
• Chimera Synthesis BC16 - Synthesiser, 2009. It took about a year to arrive, but it was worth it. If only I could work out how to use it
• mda DX10 - Software Synthesiser, 2009. DX-10 clone
• TAL Bassline - Software Synthesiser, 2009. Fun software synth
• TAL Elek7ro - Software Synthesiser, 2009. Fun software synth
• TAL U-No-62 - Software Synthesiser, 2009. Another nice Juno clone
• mda JX10 - Software Synthesiser, 2009. Another clone
• mda Piano - Software Synthesiser, 2009. Piano clone
• NUSofting daHornet - Software Synthesiser, 2009. Amazing Wasp clone, used to make lots of ridiculous noises on Transmission era tracks.
• Apple Intel iMac - Computer, 2008. Used by Rollo for everything from 2008 onwards.
• Paia Theremin - Other Instrument, 2008. Kit theremin which Rollo hasn't got round to finishing yet.
• Soundcraft Compact 10 - Mixer, 2008. Used from The End onwards for pretty much all Rollo's vocal recording and sampling.
• TAL U-No-60 - Software Synthesiser, 2008. Nice Juno clone
• TAL Vintager2 - Software Synthesiser, 2008. Nice SH-101 clone
• Steinberg Cubase Studio 4 - Software, 2008. Not quite as good as its predecessors, but entirely usable.
• AKG Perception 100 - Microphone, 2008. Lovely warm-sounding microphone
• Evolution MK-??? - MIDI Controller, 2007. Another handy controller, bought in 2007. 
• Apple iMac G4 - Computer, 2007. Bought by Simon in 2007 and not yet broken, although the power board did die a couple of years ago. Originally came with a pirate copy of Ableton installed, but now running Logic Audio which is much better, and legal. 
• Korg MicroKorg - Synthesiser, 2005. Bought new (yes, we were surprised too) in 2005. Capable of some of the best sounds ever, and very twiddleable. 
• Korg NS5R - Synthesiser, 2005. Slightly dodgy 90s synth module which makes great MIDI and aeroplane noises. 
• Native Instruments Absynth - Software Synthesiser, 2004. Soft synth bought in 2004, which makes nice noises although we haven't used it for ages as this version only runs on Mac OS9.
• Native Instruments Pro-53 - Software Synthesiser, 2004. Soft synth widely used on Dusk. Again, we haven't used it for ages as this version only runs on Mac OS9.
• Apple Powerbook 3400 - Computer, 2004. Simon's second laptop, which broke in about 2008, delaying Transmission in the process. When it did finally break (by refusing to start up) it forced us to update our technology, which was no bad thing.
• Apple iBook Clamshell - Computer, 2004. Bought in 2004, and used by Rollo until about 2009. The hard drive makes slightly more noise than an average jet engine. 
• Novation A-Station - Synthesiser, 2003. Nice synth module. Used pretty much continuously and on every track on Dusk and almost every track on Transmission.
• Roland Electribe EA-1 - Synthesiser, 2003. A little box containing many very fat arpeggios, used and sampled regularly. 
• Alesis NanoSynth - Synthesiser, 2002. Box of noises used a lot around 2002-2003 for Empires. Not used so much now as the range of sounds is a bit limited.
• Korg Prophecy - Synthesiser, 2002. Monophonic, but a thing of beauty nonetheless. Used very regularly.
• Akai S-3000XL - Sampler, 2002. Less dodgy mid 90s sampler, bought in 2002. Connected to a Mac via a SCSI link. Used regularly until we finally discovered software samplers. 
• Acoustic Guitar - Musical Instrument, 2001. Used when writing Not a Million Miles and Golden Wheel.
• Akai S-01 - Sampler, 2001. Dodgy early 90s sampler, bought in London in early 2001, and used extensively until we upgraded
• FAT FB-383 Freebass - Synthesiser, 2001. 303 emulator, bought in early 2001. It makes 303 noises. We haven't used it a huge amount. It features on Closer to the Sun (7" version).
• Apple Powerbook 3800 - Computer, 2001. Bought in 2001, now in a cupboard gathering mould, and in rather more pieces than Apple originally intended.
• FAT Procoder PCP-330 - Vocoder, 2001. Complicated vocoder, which we used a few times before selling a few years ago.
• Korg Poly-800 - Synthesiser, 2000. Bought in early 2000. It makes fantastic string sounds and is still used regularly. Like the CZ, it also re-sets itself in protest when it gets lonely. You have to feed it the default patches via an audio message.
• Yamaha PSS-780 - Keyboard, 2000. Bought in Wales in mid 2000. Some of the keys still work. 
• Roland D-110 - Synthesiser, 2000. Bought in mid 2000, and used a couple of times since, mainly on a couple of Ephemeris tracks. We pretty much gave up on it because it (a) sounds awful and (b) is an absolute pigdog to program, so we sold it.
• Akai SG-01v - Synthesiser, 2000. Bought in summer 2000. The mainstay of the Ephemeris and Zero eras. It's a very handy little box because so many sounds are packed in it.
• Evolution MK-125 - MIDI Controller, 2000. Mini controller, not really used much, if at all.
• Roland Juno-106 - Synthesiser, 2000. A thing of beauty, bought in London, late 2000. I think that a few of the chips have gone with age, since it doesn't always like playing all of the notes that you tell it to. We still use it regularly.
• Apple Macintosh LC - Computer, 2000. Bought for £50 in 2000. Using a MIDI interface and some cheap software, we made a valiant attempt to make some music, but the memory kept running out.
• Apple Powerbook 1400 - Computer, 2000. Simon's first laptop, which he bought in 2000 and used until it died in 2002.
• Roland SH-101 - Synthesiser, 1999. Red. Bought and repaired in America in 1999. Fantastic for basses, particularly if you don't need them to be in tune with anything else. We used the onboard sequencer a couple of times before we finally entered the age of midi. The 101 is still used quite a bit and is particularly prominent on Heaven Only Knows and The Broken Generation. Unfortunately it now seems to have stopped working, so maybe one day we'll get both it and the Juno properly serviced and restored to their former glory.
• Acorn BBC Model B - Computer, 1999. Stopped working around 2002. We never actually used it for music, because it sounded dreadful, but we managed to get to level 22 on Chuckie Egg. 
• Viglen 286 - Computer, 1999. Never really worked properly, but was good for playing Reversi.
• Philips CD-780 - CD Recorder, 1999. Used extensively until about 2002, when we started doing everything on computers. It's in storage now, and I'm not clear whether it works any more.
• Tascam Porta-05 - Recording Device, 1998. Used from late 1998 until 2002, it served a very worthy purpose, until it fell apart, and all the tapes we'd made with it became pretty much useless. It was great fun though.
• Casio CZ-1000 - Synthesiser, 1998. Procured from a man in Wagga Wagga in 1998. It makes very good noises and is still used regularly, although it has the annoying habit of re-setting itself if it is abandoned for too long. This is solved by sticking a bent paper clip into one of its holes, but you should not try this with other objects without a responsible adult present.
• Yamaha PSS-460 - Keyboard, 1997. Also bought in 1997, and used whenever we wanted white noise effects. 
• Yamaha PSS-380 - Keyboard, 1997. Bought in 1997, and featured a couple of nice sounds, the likes of which none of our other synths produce. Still used every now and again, although we tend to sample it these days. Featured most recently on Signs of Life.
• Apple Macintosh Plus - Computer, 1993. We used HyperCard and APL68000 to make noises, but it would probably be unfair to call them music.
• Yamaha PSS-50 - Keyboard, 1993. Bought in about 1993 to replace the PSS-150, because it had temporarily stopped working. This model featured 100 sounds; 20 rhythms; and other features. We used it in the 1990s. 
• Yamaha PSS-150 - Keyboard, 1985. Bought some time in the early eighties; it has four preset sounds; four rhythms; and real programmable drum sounds, which, according to the manual, give all the excitement of being a real drummer. It also has a demo tune. And a headphone socket. And... no, that's everything. It stopped working at some point in the early 90s, but then Rollo soldered it back together again.

The quick guide to Transmission

The release of Intermission brings us at long last to the end of the Transmission project, which has been spawning singles for the last two and a half years.

You may be wondering why we kept flogging this poor horse. Well, it's been the gift that keeps on giving: We had a fairly large stack of tracks to release as b-sides and we kept doing remixes or having remixes offered to us. In all, there are remixes of eight tracks from the album, which is a record for us. The result was that the singles kept coming.

It's also given us a bit of time to work on some new material, which we hope you'll be able to hear fairly soon.

Just in case you've lost track of everything we've done (well, mainly to help us remember), here's the complete list of all the releases, together with where to find them and why you need them:

Better Days (Single) - 8 Apr 2011
The first single. Contains the exclusive songs The Broken Generation and Shattered Mirrors.

Transmission (Album) - 15 Aug 2011
The album, with twelve original tracks for your listening pleasure.

I'll Give You Electro (Single) - 31 Oct 2011
The second single. Contains a remixed version of I'll Give You Electro and three new songs that you'll never find anywhere else (probably): Dissolution, Weather the Storm and The Journey Here.

Remission (EP) - 19 Dec 2011
The first EP of remixes containing new versions of Eyeballing, I'll Give You Electro and False Dawn, along with the new track Sleepwalker. It's still available from Bandcamp as a free download, from the link above.

I'll Give You Electro II (Single) - 6 Feb 2012
The return of the second single. This time the lead track was the Imperfect Attitude Mix of I'll Give You Electro, to which we added the exclusive tracks These Four Walls and Black Earth.

Here Comes the Summertime - 29 Jun 2012
The third single, with two new versions of Here Comes the Summertime, and two new tracks: Homeward Bound and Words Come Easy.

Blood, Sweat and Tears (Single) - 31 Mar 2013
The fourth single, with new versions of Blood, Sweat and Tears, Golden Wheel and Better Days and a brand new track, Centuries Later.

Intermission (EP) - 29 Oct 2013
The second EP of remixes with new version of Almost, I'll Give You Electro, Golden Wheel and Here Comes the Summertime, along with a new track, Splinters.

The videos
And here are the videos that have been produced along the way. Why not make yourself a nice hot drink, sit down and enjoy*:
False Dawn (Animalogue Remix)
Better Days (Single Version)
I'll Give You Electro (Sappy's Elektrik Remix)
I'll Give You Electro (Single Version)
Blood, Sweat and Tears (Single Version)

Here Comes the Summertime (Single Version)
Eyeballing (Sappy's Treble Up Remix)
Golden Wheel (Sappy's Spinning Mix)
Here Comes the Summertime (Sappy's Lost Paradise Remix)
* you may also dance around waving your hands in the air at appropriate moments, if you wish to.

Old News is Good News

Simon has been digging through the archives to bring you news items from back in the olden days... if you're interested in learning more about the Empires era, read on!

As I'm sure you remember, we started this news blog in September 2006, and started off by importing the news items from our website dating back to 2003, namely:

• Wherever You Are Now (October 2003)
• Empires (November 2003)
• Second single (December 2003)
• Not a Million Miles (December 2004)
• The eighth album (December 2004)
• Not a Million Miles (December 2004)
• Happy new year! (January 2005)
• Downloads (January 2005)
• More Downloads (February 2005)
• Yet More Downloads (March 2005)
• "In the first half" (May 2005)

Note that most of those downloads are no longer available, due to time's winged chariot and all that. Anyway, you now also have access to the following, taken from our old newsletter Pure Hype:

• New material (PH089, March 2003)
• Coming soon (PH090, July 2003)
• Empires chronology (PH092, November 2003)
• Solitaire: the new single (PH093, January 2004)
• Two pictures on the wall (PH094, April 2004)
• Something in the air (PH095, August 2004)
• A taste of things to come (PH098, November 2005)
• Eighth wonder... (PH099, May 2006)

You can access all the old news items using the News Archive tag.

Decadence

It was ten years ago this afternoon that we released our seventh album Empires. Since that takes us way back to the early days of this blog, I decided to give it a quick listen to see how it has aged.

You probably haven't heard much of this album, I'm afraid, and there's nothing currently online. The reasons for this aren't especially complicated. The master tapes for much of it have long since been lost, and the vocals weren't very well recorded, and in general there's a lot wrong with it. This was, for us, largely the pre-internet age, and in all honesty we had very little idea what we were doing (we still don't).

But it's not a bad album actually. The opening track and single Wherever You Are Now has always been one of my favourites. Here We Stand was a surprise internet hit, and probably would have been a single if we'd realised this at the time. It's a song about the Iraq war, with some brilliant synth lines, and a lot of haunting lyrics that I'm rather proud of now.

Then the final single, Not a Million Miles, with its unique (for us) electro-acoustic sound. It's another favourite of mine, but I don't know whether it will necessarily work for everyone else. Solitaire, too, is unusual - it's pretty much the furthest we've ever gone from "our sound". I'm not sure whether it really works, but I like it.

Turn the Tide is fun - the lyrics are totally daft, but as an early attempt at Euro, it does it's job pretty well. And opening what probably ought to be side B is the lovely In Your Eyes. This one I'm extremely proud of.

Unusually for us, we even managed to get most of the good stuff on the album itself. Golden Wheel got forgotten about for another eight years, of course, and To Live a Lie probably deserved more than to just be another EP track (on the Not a Million Miles single), but otherwise the album is pretty much as good as it could have been.

Things do tail off a little towards the end, inevitably. I think it's fair to say that A Picture on the Wall doesn't really have the impact it was meant to, and much as I love it, I'm not sure When October Comes really does either. Midsummer's Eve would be a great penultimate track if only the vocal weren't so dreadful, and The Final Problem isn't exactly our finest hour either.

It's probably fair to say that this album isn't dull though - except for the slight tailing off, I think it holds up pretty well, a whole decade after its original recording.

Empires came out about 18 months after Zero, closing out a very busy period for us (we've never been anywhere near as prolific since). Our sound had advanced inordinately from the early Ephemeris sessions back in 2000, and we'd done some interesting - and occasionally even successful - experimentation too. Things would go very dark indeed with Dusk, and in many ways the more "pop" sound of Empires is rather refreshing. Listening back, it's still an album I'm extremely pleased with, and I'm really hopeful we can find a way of sharing it with you again soon.

Intermission - sleeve notes

Just over two years ago, we released an album called <Transmission>. Since then, we've messed around a lot with the tracks, adding little extra bits here and there, and tweaking the odd noise where we thought it might help.

<Intermission> is no exception. Here are four more tracks from the album, reworked, revised, and revisited. Almost has been stretched a little, and made a lot more drummy. I’ll Give You Electro has taken a trip into the past as a tribute to our favourite acts of the 1980s. Golden Wheel has just seen a bit of a reworking for no particular reason, and Here Comes the Summertime is the latest track to see treatment at the hands of Sappy, making it into a seven minute epic. As an extra special bonus for this EP, around the half way mark you'll also find a new track called Splinters.

However, we’ve kind of run out of things to release now, so we're going to take a little holiday.

Our Biography

We recently did another clear out of our website, and each time we seem to end up with less content than the last time around. One of the things we lost was our biography, and so in the interest of posterity, here it is...

Our mission

We're not trying to change the world. We aren't seeking fame or fortune. We don't think we're very good...

But we enjoy trying to make our own music and do it entirely for our own entertainment.

Feedback is always welcome, whether you think we're any good or total rubbish. But we do ask that you let us know where you think we could improve, for example, "try the odd melody here and there," or "had you considered singing lessons?"

Who we are

Hypernova are an electronic duo originally from somewhere in Derbyshire, which is somewhere in the middle of the UK. We first tried making music at some point back in the eighties, but like everyone else, we weren't really very good. In the nineties, we recorded some albums, which still weren't very good.

Around the turn of the century, we turned things around, by starting to write some quite good songs. Since then, we've completed some more albums. We haven't done much recently as we've been busy, but there's new stuff on the way.

Currently based half in Hampshire and half in California, both of us have proper jobs, which is why we still haven't sold out and appeared on Top of the Pops. Well, that and the fact that they don't make it any more. Oh, and the fact that we've never been asked.

Things we like

Some artists and groups that we like are listed below.

Air - Alabama 3 - Alpinestars - Aphex Twin - Apollo Four Forty - Asana - Karl Bartos - Basement Jaxx - The Beatmasters - The Beloved - Bent - Binar - Björk - Bomb the Bass - BT - Camouflage - Chicane - Client - Conjure One - Daft Punk - Death in Vegas - Deep Dish - Deep Forest - Delerium - Depeche Mode - Dirty Vegas - Rob Dougan - Dragonette - Dubstar - Duran Duran - Dusted - Paul van Dyk - Echoboy - Electronic - Enigma - Erasure - Everything But the Girl - Faithless - Fluke - Front Line Assembly - Future Sound of London - Dave Gahan - Banco de Gaia - Goldfrapp - Gotan Project - The Grid - Groove Armada - Heaven 17 - Hot Chip - Jori Hulkkonen - The Human League - I Monster - Jean Michel Jarre - Joy Division - Kings Have Long Arms - Kings of Convenience - Kraftwerk - Ladytron - Leftfield - Lemon Jelly - Manu Chao - Massive Attack - Robert Miles - Mirwais - Moby - Mylo - Paul Nagle - New Order - Olive - One Giant Leap - OneTwo - The Orb - William Orbit - Orbital - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Erlend Øye - Pet Shop Boys - Andy Pickford - The Postal Service - Readymade FC - Recoil - Röyksopp - Saint Etienne - The Shamen - Luke Slater - Sparks - Rachel Stevens - Sugababes - Synthetik - Tears for Fears - Télépopmusik - Tiga - Ultravox - Vitalic - Way Out West - White Town - Wolfsheim - Richard X - Zero 7

Anyway, you get the idea.

When we're making music, we use Apple Macs running Cubase and occasionally Audacity and some audio software. We've also a pile of old synths, some Akai samplers; and some other bits and bobs. We mainly keep them locked up in the cupboard, because they're old fashioned and we don't know how to plug them in.

We also like pretentious foreign films; vintage British television; long and dull books; and jigsaw puzzles. Between us, we speak a little English; French; German; Italian; Spanish; Russian; Uzbekh; and Tamagotchi.