Small Time Shot Away
Song Info On Small Time Shot Away
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Janvier 2003, Fabric 12 - The Amalgamation Of Soundz
29th Januray 2003
07:57
Small Time Shoot' Em Up - This sped-up, more hectic alternative version of Small Time Shot Away, is more than likely a product of the 100th Window facsimile (also known as Version Point Five) project which 3D spoke of during the time around 100th Window’s release, which would have been the 100th Window songs represented as more simplified stripped back versions of the songs with arrangements taken from 2003 tour. This project failed to ever be fully completed and was never released however, evidently the new version of Small Time Shot Away (and also Everywhen) intended for this project were completed and released on Collected. This song is also notable as according to the Collected inner sleeve notes, Daddy G apparently contributed to writing this remix, which if true would be his first actual involvement in the creation process since I Against I in 2002.
This song also clearly features Damon Albarn on backing vocals, which while still in the original version of Small Time Shot Away (reduced to an electric warble during the chorus), his vocal contribution is far clearer throughout in this new mix.
Written by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge
Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge
See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.
For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:
Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.
While no direct sampling was used on any song from 100th Window, including Small Time Shot Away, the bassline of this song was inspired by the bassline from Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus, a song that coincidently or not was featured on 3D Nocturne Sessions CD that came out in early 2002, roughly around the same time Small Time Shot Away would have been written.
N/A
Robert Del Naja
At some time during the 100th Window recording sessions in 2002, Damon Albarn dropped in on 3D in the recording studio with the intention of showcaseing a song he had written for Horace Andy to sing, which had always been a big dream of his to do. One thing led to another and the song (which has never been named of) was quickly forgotten as the two good friends ended up having a long drunken night in the studio. In this time, (as 3D has always contested he works best when hungover), the vocals featuring the pair were recorded initially and the groundwork was laid on what would eventually become Small Time Shot Away.
Damon Albarn is not credited under his normally title in the 100th Window sleeve notes. Instead he goes under the name 2D, which is his pyseudom in his cartoon side-project of a band, Gorillaz. Massive Attack did not want to draw much attention to the fact Damon Albarn was a guest vocalist on the album so not only was he credited as such but also his vocals were reduced to a low hum electric warble during the chorus of the song, which most people listening would mistake as background noise.
The weird and randomly fluctuating keyboard sound on Small Time Shot Away was a product of Neil Davidge 's thinking of making things sound like anything but what they are. He started with a single one bar chord and put it through several effects to make different textures of sound just from the one bar and then in the end, editing all those bits of music into a usable performance.
Small Time Shot Away has never once been played live, making it the only 100th Window song (disregarding the untitled hidden bassline song) to have never been performed live at some point.
Neil Davidge on the keyboards heard in Small Time Shot Away - "The reality of that is that it was just a single chord held on a Juno playing a sine wave doing an arpeggio, but I actually went through using Wave Mechanics' Speed plug-in to create different textures. It was just a one-bar loop but I love it when you take something, slow it down, take it up or down an octave and just keep pushing it until obviously it's unusable as sound — but always going right to the very edge before you come back” [Sound On Sound Magazine – April 2003]
3D on Small Time Shot Away – “MYSELF AND MR ALBARN CHASING IT DOWN IN THE SHORT HOURS [EVERYONE ELSE WAS LOOKING AT THE CLOCK HUMORLESSLY AS THE MOON WENT DOWN” [Collected PR – January 2006]