"Inside stands Polly Jean Harvey, dressed entirely in black, dark hair framing her face, deep in conversation with Alain Johannes (cradling a battered cigar box guitar) and producer
Flood (cradling a cup of takeaway coffee). Also present in
the soundproofed recording studio/art installation is co-producer and Harvey's regular collaborator
John Parish, percussionist Jean-Marc Butty, former Nick Cave cohort Mick Harvey, as well as a phalanx of recording equipment, computers, cables, guitars, brass instruments, drums, vintage keyboards and a pristine white sofa."
"...
the piece of music that
the group is working on is coincidently a haunting, dark-hearted lullaby that appears to be titled "
The Orange Monkey" and contains
the see-saw vocal hook: "Restlessness holds my brain/ Questions I could not hold back/ An orange monkey on a chain." Progress is, however, painfully slow as
the band tries out several subtly different percussion tracks to seemingly no one's satisfaction.
"Let's try
the guitar to get
the feel," says
Flood, indicating a change in approach. For
the next 20 minutes,
Parish picks out a bluesy, reverb-drenched melody on his guitar that incrementally builds, mutates and evolves into something resembling a solid backing track.
"That's really great. That's brilliant," responds a suddenly animated Harvey at one point, although
Flood is less impressed. "It's not quite right, is it? Try something more subtle," he says to no one in particular.
The guitarist duly strips
the rhythm track down to its bare bones, and having played it from beginning to end half a dozen more times, suggests a full run-through. Unfortunately for
the audience peering through
the glass, this is not a live performance in
the traditional sense, but simply
Parish playing over a previously recorded vocal.
The audio feed cuts out, signaling
the end of our audience session, with Harvey sat in silent contemplation, her head tilted back and her eyes closed."
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6465849/pj-harvey-london-recording-session-reviewAlso, Billboard insist on one of
the song titles being "
A Drug Called Money" (but quite a few previous sources says "
Dog").