In Embrace • The Initial Caress: Notes by Gary Knight

Sleeve Notes for the 2015 CD Remaster of The Initial Caress

The Initial Caress: 32 years later.

Some thoughts by Gary Knight.

The Beginning:

We created In Embrace to break free of the guitar/bass/drums/vocals restriction of our previous band, 3-Way Dance. 3WD was a marvellously moody, Post-Punk thing. But we wanted to create music with a greater emotional range andbe able to play around with all kinds of instruments and ideas. In 3WD, Cameron was the ‘angular' guitarist and I was the ‘anxious' vocalist. We didn’t really want to be angular and anxious all the time, it just wasn’t true to our lives. We weren’t enduring strife in trash-strewn cities. We were enjoying life in leaf-strewn villages.

The Name:

I think we got the idea from a magazine article about a Picasso painting that was being exhibited in London at the time - The Embrace. We liked it because it sounded passionate and because we wanted to embrace different instruments,fresh approaches, new ways of writing.

The Concept:

We released this as a ‘Mini-LP’. That’s how we saw it, a short, sharp, debut album. Of course, pretty much everyone else saw it as a 12-inch EP. I guess ultimately it didn’t really matter. These were our first five recorded and released

tracks whatever you call it.

The Title:

"The Initial Caress". I probably came up with it because it signalled that this was a first step and I’m sure I would’ve loved the idea that it held a promise of a passionate experience. Hopefully, the kind that blows your mind and unlocks a world of pleasure. Not the kind that you regret and pretend never happened!

The Cover:

It was very important to us that everything about the sleeve was natural and hand-created. A naive hand-painted design, simple hand-written lyrics and labels. No photography, no typesetting. We wanted something that felt fresh, optimistic, tender, organic. We even extended this feel to the language we used. Instead of something like ‘sleeve design by Claire Johnson. (My girlfriend at the time by the way.) We expressed it as ‘flower and paint by Claire’. A tulip created from a brushstroke and a paint drip. Oh, and a cat’s tail. The smudge on the lettering was ‘created’ by our cat, Splash. We all decided we liked the idea of an added imperfection, so we went with it.

Clutching:

The slow fade-in feels in tune with the organic feel we were going for. This isn’t a track that starts with a catchy intro. It’s a moment of dark drama that swells from the distance to set the scene. I push ahead with the deep synth bass tones, Cameron adds the shimmering piano notes, we both sing like we’re lovestruck time-travellers from a 16th Century chapel. But seriously, there’s a wonderfully moody monastic thing going on with the vocals. I’m sure it threw a lot of people but it was entirely instinctive. Musicians always mention the hip early records that influenced them. What about all those years of singing hymns to organ music at school? That’s pretty dramatic music to expose young minds to. Looking back now, it definitely seems to me to be an influence in our case.

The Air Inbetween:

So, how do you follow a dark, brooding melodrama? Why, with a quirky jazz-guitar instrumental, of course. Ha. That immediate smashing of expectations and clash of styles is something that we wanted to play with. We wanted it to be clear straight away that In Embrace could explore all kinds of moods. Not just moody ones.

Precious:

So, you’ve followed your dark, brooding melodrama with a quirky jazz-guitar instrumental. So, what do you follow your quirky jazz-guitar instrumental with? Why, with another dark, brooding melodrama, of course. This is simply three sustained notes repeating and building over an incessant heartbeat to the words You are all I really need / Emotion: sincere and natural. Which pretty much sums-up what we were trying to achieve here.

Breathless With Passion Explicit:

Ahem. No holding back with the theme here is there? Openly and unashamedly about sex. Actually, not just about sex. I think it was trying to be sex. Or at least an expression of it as a near-religious experience. Still sounds like a brave thing to attempt. This track started life in 3-Way Dance. Well, the title did. It was a line in a song called Union Of Body which featured a whole bagful of percussion instruments and again was about the sins of the flesh. There was a lot of fleshy sin on my mind back then. Of course, Breathless With Passion Explicit sounds a lot more profound than Fleshy Sin.

For Lovers:

The final track on the original record. Another mood, another style but another exploration of love and lust. Cameron’spiano wandering is just beautiful, of course. He just weaves his spell around the moody, repetitive guitar motif I was trying to hold in place on a Spanish guitar. I remember the strings being torture. Kind-of like pressing your fingersagainst a cheese wire for five minutes. But back to the song, I think it’s a nice way to end the record. After all that earnest intensity, it feels like early-morning after a heavy night with a refreshing breeze blowing through the room.

Bonus Tracks on the CD Edition:
Clutching (demo):

In contrast to the dark, brooding feel of the final recording, this original version was a little more urgent and driven by a drum-machine. The drum-machine worked well live but it didn’t fit with the natural, organic feel we were aiming for with The Initial Caress. This is one of the stronger demos for me. In fact, I think Cameron might prefer it to the final recording in some ways.

The Air Inbetween (demo):

Still sounds great to me. And I still think Cameron should get around to an album of quirky little instrumentals.

Precious (demo):

Hearing this demo reminds me that this track also grew out of a 3-Way Dance track. The 3WD version was called Dramatic Soundtrack and had a great Jah Wobble style bassline by Peter Dodge with Joby Palmer and Cameron standing side by side pounding out an epic military drum rhythm. I do like the stripped-back purity of the IE version but I wish we’d recorded the 3WD one in a studio too.

Breathless With Passion Explicit (demo):

The deep, bassy, synth line on this has a wonderfully moody growl to it. But I think the piece suffers from the drums being played through the vocal mic and confusion in the mix.

At East (demo):

One of the two demo tracks here that didn’t feature originally on The Initial Caress. I think we were trying to create an eerie, hypnotic, instrumental piece that in our minds would work as a soundtrack to a sinister arty film scene. I definitely think we were successful in creating it. But it could do with a sinister arty film though. We gave this track the full studio treatment on the "Passionfruit Pastels" album (also re-released by Glass Redux) where we added some epic drumming by Joby and some studio effects Pink Floyd would’ve been proud of.

Tears Turn Fresh (demo):

The other track here that didn’t feature on Caress. It’s great to hear Cameron doing his echo-tinged electric guitar thing. It really summons the spirit of Vini Reilly for me. We were both into Durutti Column. I guess my vocals here have that influence too. This also became a key track on "Passionfruit Pastels" where Cameron transposed all the guitar with piano and transformed the track into something special.

The Studio:

The Initial Caress was recorded at Woodbine St. Recording Studios in Leamington Spa in late ’81, I think. I remember that our first day of recording had to be cancelled as my 2CV ran into a huge snow drift on a village road somewhere. The Winter of ’81 was reported as the coldest and snowiest of the century. (Apparently, even The Queen got stranded for hours in a Cotswold pub.) When we did finally get going, the session was engineered by Jonathan Dee. He did a great job but we decided that we wanted to remix everything to give it more drama. We did that with John Rivers who, of course, weaved his magic. John recorded and produced virtually every In Embrace session from then on. Capturing our imagination beautifully every time.

The Studio (demos):

The demos here were recorded at a tiny 4-track studio in Leicester called Humbucker. All very in and out, rough and ready, but were an important step for us. They weren't just the first things we recorded in a studio. They were the tracks sent to Dave Barker that excited him enough to want us on his label.

The Reaction:

Well, in those days, we were devouring the John Peel show every night on radio. I think all we really craved was to be played on his show and maybe reviewed in the music press. The music press pretty much ignored "The Initial Caress" but John Peel certainly played it. Several times. I think he played The Air Inbetween a few times and also Breathless and For Lovers. I remember getting a real buzz when he first mentioned the record. And then a real crash when he said he couldn’t play it because his copy was pressed off-centre. Dave must have rushed one to him because he played it next night and kept playing it. Being played by Peely once was probably all we were hoping for. Being played again and again was unreal. God bless him.

The Quote:

“A most curious work actually but rather effective. You have to hear it a few times I’d venture.” John Peel, BBC Radio 1, May 26 1982.

The Gigs:

Cameron and I only played together five times as In Embrace. (I went on to play many more with other people, of course.) The first three of those gigs revolved around material on "The Initial Caress". Our first appearance was at The Old Repertory Theatre in Birmingham (19.10.81) supporting Miocene Epoch. I can’t remember much apart from sound problems but I was told that Lawrence from Felt was in the small audience. The second date was much more exciting for us as we got to support Eyeless In Gaza at the Coventry Belgrade Theatre Venue (16.11.81). Our performance was notable for a mysterious bleeping noise that was heard throughout our set. It turned out to be coming from Pete Becker’s Copycat echo box. Our third gig was upstairs at a pub in Leicester - The Abbey - with Kevin Hewick (03.02.82). I remember dragging him over to hold down some keys on one of our tracks, probably Breathless, whilst I bashed away on a hand-held drum next to his head. Sorry, Kev. Anyway, the best thing about the gigs was getting to see Kevin, Pete and Martyn Bates play some of the best stuff they’ve ever written. They were brilliant.

The Label:

None of this, then or now, would’ve been possible without Dave Barker, of course. I got to hear about Dave and Glass Records via Richard Formby of Religious Overdose when I was editing the Leicestershire-based music fanzine - 0533. I abandoned 0533 to join 3-Way Dance and when we heard that Dave was putting out a compilation album, we were desperate to get in on it. I remember sending Dave some tracks and him telling me that he would love to add 3WD to the album but he only had about 2 minutes space left on it. So, we quickly rushed into a studio and recorded a short experimental track - Praise The Flames - and squeezed our way on to the Wonderful World Of Glass LP. Shortly after that, Cameron and I walked away from 3WD to start In Embrace. Dave was immediately interested, booked us into Woodbine, got The Initial Caress out and we all dreamed out loud together. We’re doing it again with this CD, of course. Which, amazingly, is the very first time this stuff has been released on anything other than vinyl. You lucky devils.

(https://glassredux.bandcamp.com/album/the-initial-caress)