Aerial Recording
Studio Updates & Releases 2025

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2025 News Archive

2025 - the busiest year I've had so far, with a steady flow of work and just about every waking hour going into studio upgrades that have made life easier and sessions run smoother and sound better.
Major acoustic treatment upgrades to the control room and big room, some long-wishlisted microphones finally turning up (Coles 4038s !!), and a new headphone monitoring system that has made larger band sessions a breeze.
Loads of new music came out as well — dozens of singles, along with EPs and albums — covering a broad range of styles from blues and indie to exotic instrumental and experimental stuff.

The Moon is My Machine - City of Memory

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- City of Memory

Weird dreams glittering in the dark.

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - drums, keys and other stuff

Recorded and mixed at Aerial Recording
Video footage from some old 1950s train corporation advertisement.

This felt like the right song to stretch out a little and experiment.

Rhodes electric piano through a pile of effects drives the track (often more sounding guitar-like) and supplies the plinky Blade Runner dust. A processed electric guitar routed through a modular gate leads into the chorus.

I added a heavily EQ’d miked typewriter as a subtle top-layer percussion over drums (the kit is anchored by my lovely old Slingerland snare) plus a pencil tapping on a wine glass. The crash is a dead-sounding experimental Zildjian Remix cymbal — sounds great when slammed with compression.

Tenor sax was miked, fed into a ’50s guitar amp and doubled with guitar for a harp-through-amp blues vibe you might barely notice amid the textures. The almost never used studio accordion was mangled into some drifting textures and the Prophet-12 and string VSTs were fed through real tape for a bit of extra oomf.

The Moon is My Machine - Part of Your Life
YoutubeSpotify
monotic-thepurplechordsplaybellefourche

Monotonic - The Purple Chords Play Bellefourche

MONOTONIC First single reviews mention THAT SNARE SOUND

Monotonic's new single "The Purple Chords Play Bellefourche" was released this week on the Hidden Shoals label to some great reviews.

"The track itself is a gloriously murky affair. It's all fuzzed-out wizardry and lethargic acid rock, creating a soundscape utterly drenched in a thick haze of psychedelic dissonance. The rhythm section is the solid anchor: Alan Balmont's drums march along, almost begrudgingly, yet holding the essential pulse for Jack Lucas's hypnotic guitar work (complete with electric bouzouki flourishes) and Liam Coffey's melodic bass. Coffey's vocals weave themselves through the colossal sonic architecture, effectively taking on the role of a fourth instrumental texture rather than leading the charge."– Broken 8

My favourite is this one

Monotonic Review

You can watch the psychedelic video made by Elliot Ramsay a bit further down this page here

Hidden ShoalBroken8

The Moon is My Machine - Never Dark

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Never Dark

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - guitar, keys, bass, drums

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording
Footage National Geographic 1950s

Another classic little pocket sized epic drenched in tape and heart ache.

How it was recorded

Acoustic guitars

Two tracks, one doubled in Nashville tuning, run to tape for a lo-fi, textured modulation.

Electric guitar

Fender Jazzmaster through dual delay lines into a 1950s Kay amp.

Bass

Hofner flat-wound violin bass doubled with Hammond Organ bass pedals for thickness.

Synths

String synths and VSTs processed to tape for a homemade Mellotron sound with heavy filtering.

Organ

Hammond A100 recorded through its own speakers for a colder tone than through the Leslie.

Vocals

U47 mic with tape echo, EQ, and saturation for background harmonies.

Drums

Black Beauty snare heavily compressed, kick, and hi-hats, an aggressive vintage mini-china crash with sizzles. Space Echo and compression applied to drive.

Mix

Whole mix run through 2 tracks of an Ampex 8-track with extra tube compression to push everything together while keeping the snare prominent.

The Moon is My Machine - Never Dark
YoutubeSpotify
Live Room Redesign

Quick pic before breaking it all down and cleaning up after a session.

Spring

Another very cool update to the live room with a very earthy and woody textured rattan and merbau slat wall now in place.

Over Winter and early Spring I have been slowly re-tuning the main recording space into a set of different zones and really loving the extra versality, from live and "zingy" areas, to fat and controlled sounding ones, particularly for drums and vocal recording and more complex set ups with larger groups. It's not exactly traditional to record vocals in a big room, with most studios preferring the booth, but I have always loved the sound and performances I can get in the big room for vocals and now there are a few more favourite spots that I use.

Not over yet, but this Spring has been totally unpredictable as the strange weather and already seen the most varied set of projects that have ever come in the door with songs for weddings to songs for funerals, recoverings lost songs from cassette tapes, choirs, night club anthems, a capella vocals, R&D testing session for Dr Alien Smith's magnificent microphone company, solo guitars and indie bands and everything in between.

A busy Summer around the corner with a bunch of bands already locked in for album projects.

btw. I've fixed my coffee machine and it's cranking out a great flat white again - so please organise to drop around and I'll show you the place and you can see if you feel comfortable here.

The Moon is My Machine - Part Of Your Life

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Part Of Your Life

It's Spring and as good a time as any for love and the 20th consecutive monthly release from TMIMM.

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - drums, keys and other stuff

Recorded and mixed at Aerial Recording
Video footage re-edits "House of Cards" by Joseph Vogel, 1947

The Moon is My Machine - Part of Your Life
YoutubeSpotify

Sascha Ion & The Elements - The Groove

SASCHA ION & THE ELEMENTS
- The Groove

A new single out today for Sascha Ion & The Elements with an absolutely cracking video by Elliot Ramsay.

Sascha and I go way back to our days in One Horse Town together and it was a joy to record her new trio and contribute a bit of Hammond organ to the big ole stomping swamp rock vibe they have going on here.

Recorded and mixed at Aerial Recording
Mastered at Forensic Audio

YoutubeSpotify
Clutch Brake Accelerate - 2 Minds

Clutch Brake Accelerate - 2 Minds

CLUTCH BRAKE ACCELERATE
- 2 Minds

Band name checks out. These guys know how to work fast and smash it out at high speed and go out in a blaze of twisted punk and metal. Seems like they were only here a few weeks ago for a few really blistering paced sessions and, having a already released a pair of singles, the whole new album is already out on the streamers. Have a listen.

Recorded at Aerial Recording
Mixed and Mastered by Dan Konopka

Spotify
Live Room Acoustic Redesign

Live Room upgrade

Clouds

Aerial goes a bit more aerial.
Finished another little upgrade to the big room in time for a big choir recording. A set of nice clouds doing the daring-young-man-on-the-flying-trapeze thing over where I like to set up drums but has the added benefit of a sweet combo of fattening up the close microphones whilst keeping the room sound alive. Oh and no need to worry about it falling on the piano - I weight-rated so high that I could suspend a baby elephant if that is ever required.

The Moon is My Machine - Waterfall

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Waterfall

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - drums, bass, guitar, keys

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording

Another new release from TMIMM, for everyone weathering the endless rain.

The Moon is My Machine - Waterfall
Youtube
Control Room Redesign

Control Room Redesign

Winter

Normally the quiet season as Perth hibernates but has been non-stop this year. A stack of new releases from Lakadayzikl, Monotonic, Crash Brake Accelerate, Mickey Montella, The Moon is My Machine, Chronade Nallyways and Bribery.

Also been busy with sessions with the fine Estonian guitarist Oskar Melleus, some more tracking with indie rockers The Arid Ones, recorded local jazz guitarist Jon Buckner, a wedding piece for Shane Wallace, an audio book recording for Stuart Mackay, and new projects commenced with singer-songwriters Langley Chambers, Danny Scott and Tess Loveless.

Phantom Tracks soundtrack sessionRob and Oscar from Thrillhouse Games and Vinny from Aerial
- Phantom Tracks sessions -August 2025

One of favourites was a weekend spent recording a game soundtrack with Thrillhouse Games for their new release. "Phantom Tracks" has some horror elements so we had a stack of fun doing some weird foley with the bits and pieces I have hanging around (including a phenomenally creep/ creaky door I have out the back) as well as a bangin' kraut rock groove with a hundred variations for them to bring in and out.

Binary Diffusers under constructionMaking some cool sound scattering panels

In between sessions I've been doing my annual Winter building renovation thing , which, this year has been doing a whole new retuning of the control room and a new drum cloud for the live room. The studio has always had a nice vibey sound but the new updates have taken it to a whole new level of detail. You really should bring something over and have a listen here :)

Bribery - Innuendo

BRIBERY
- Innuendo

Bribery's debut single is a sweet rockin' fun-lovin' party vibe and it was a pleasure to have them in the studio and get it all down in style.

Recorded and mixed at Aerial Recording
Mastered at Forensic Audio

YoutubeSpotify

Crash Brake Accelerate - Intrusive Thoughts

CRASH BRAKE ACCELERATE
- Intrusive Thoughts

When CBA came in for a chat they had a plan to record an album in 2 days. I said that might be pushing it just a bit (such is my job sometimes, to be the sobre-headed deflator of wildly unrealistic expectations) - so we compromised on 3 days of John Wick-paced tag-team action.
Intrusive Thoughts is the first single and does a great job of introducing their adrenaline junkie hardcoreness.

Recorded at Aerial Recording
Mixed and Mastered by Dan Konopka

Youtube

Monotonic - The Purple Chords Play Bellefourche

MONOTONIC
- The Purple Chords Play Bellefourche

Sometimes more is actually more. This is the first single from Monotonic's new semi-ironically titled album "Heavy Metal" due for release on the Hidden Shoal label in November.
The band are star-studded veterans of Header, Yummy Fur and Ammonia and they are all lovely dudes who know how to turn the dials to 10 and ride a thick riff through some pretty psychedelic territory.

Recorded and Mixed at Aerial Recording
Produced by Liam Coffey

Mastered at Abbey Road

Youtube

The Moon is My Machine - Winter Coat

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Winter Coat

This song has a feeling similar to the way you can hear your breath crisply freezing in the air when you're sub-zero.

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - keys, guitar, drums

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording

The Moon is My Machine - Winter Coat
Youtube
Jefferson Analog pedals

Jefferson Analog Pedals

Jefferson Analog Pedals

One of the cool things about running a place like mine is I get to meet and hang out with so many talented people. Not only the musicians but also people involved in designing new stuff for making interesting sound.

Mick Jefferson came by last week and has generously installed a set of his lovely sounding analog pedal prototypes here for recording and mixing experimentation with full range of classic analog modulation tones.

He is about to start a new boutique pedal company with good friend Sean Standen from Low Key and I'm genuinely excited to see what they come up with.

The Moon is My Machine - Aflame

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Aflame

This highly flammable song is the 17th consecutive monthly release from this interesting little experimental pop project where each song has it's own sonic world and stylistically is obviously pretty niche - but yeah - music (and cool/abstract videos) for the pure joy of making new stuff.

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - keys, guitar, drums

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording

The Moon is My Machine - 2Pianos
Youtube

Lakadayzikl - Deja Vu

LAKADAZIKL
-Deja Vu

Arthur Hawkes - vocals, guitar, bass
Nathan Winterflood - drums

Recorded and mixed at Aerial Recording
Mastered at Abbey Road by Sean Magee

YoutubeSpotify

The Moon is My Machine - In A Ship In A Bottle

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- In A Ship In A Bottle

Keren turns in another gorgeous vocal performance with a great hooky chorus. Listen out for that wonderfully gnarly guitar tone on the drop from an old vintage Bee Gee fuzz pedal that is really only good at making this swarm of bees on a stick sound.

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - keys, bass, guitar, drums

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording

The Moon is My Machine - In A Ship In A Bottle
Youtube

Mickey Montella - To The Moon and Back

MICKEY MONTELLA
- Versions

Mickey turned up for his first session, absolutely ready to go, wielding 2 bottles of champagne and a deep deep love for classic 90's era diva dance music.

Such a pleasure to work with a singer who is so absolutely capable of going for huge dramatic vocal performances and also enjoys the experience and challenge of recording big emotional takes. This is a short promotional 5 track EP release with his takes on some classic 90s songs, delivered with his trademark velvet fireworks.

Each session was complete with a video shoot and virtually immediate posting to instagram. Maximum burlesque and sass!

Vocal recording and production at Aerial Recording

YoutubeInstagram
Perth Hills

Autumn - Perth HIlls

Autumn

Autumn didn't really show up this year. Felt like a bit more Summer got Control C-Ved onto the end of one long season of heat. My speakers never even got the chance to cool down.

Was good to see a bunch of different releases this season, with new music out into the world from Keira Watson, Mickey Montella, The Moon is My Machine, Lost Valley Hotel and Art Hawkes and a video production project for Future Perth Generations.

Lots of new projects underway here that should be out in the Winter. A new project with Estonian guitar legend Oskar Melleus ,instrumental guitar recordings for Jon Buckner, another choir recording for Future Perth Generations, a few more The Moon is My Machine singles, a pair of new singles for Lakadayzikl , finishing off a set of 6 songs for High On People, a project with Belgian drummer Minco and a bunch of voice over and remote mixing gigs.

The photo is one of my favourite places, and only a few minutes from the studio. Perfect spot to clear the mind and get lost in the woods with Vinny The Studio Hound between sessions.

The Moon is My Machine - Love is a Mountain

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Love is a Mountain

Probably best described as a Bond song with malaria and a big gospel-inspired chorus. Video footage is a re-edit of Stan Brakhage's 1964 experimental film "Dog Moon Star".

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - keys, bass, guitar, drums

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording

The Moon is My Machine - Love is a Mountain
Youtube
Lost Valley Hotel

Lost Valley Hotel - New EP Out now

Site Update

Like a sort of out of control garden, this page has grown so large it was time for a pruning to make it a bit easier to navigate.
At the bottom of the news section there are now buttons to load older articles and releases.

Wurlitzer 270

Studio Upgrade of the Month
Picked up this beautiful 1970's Wurlitzer 270 "Butterfly" Grand electric piano. Thanks to Josh from San Cisco.

The Moon is My Machine - 2Pianos

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- 2Pianos

It's tough out there...

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - keys, guitar, drums

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording

The Moon is My Machine - 2Pianos
Youtube

Keira Watson - Restless

Keira Watson - Norwich

KEIRA WATSON
- Honest

Keira just strolled into the studio one day with her beat up old guitar without a case and we started recording her debut album "Honest", one heartbreaking song per session.

Keira was great to work with, possessing one of the most beautiful voices I've ever recorded, smooth and warm and complete. At 20 she already had some handy studio experience, knew how she wanted it to feel, and her takes on vocals and guitar were almost entirely unedited performances. After listening back we almost always picked the first take for the gentler sound.

By the end of Summer we had all the tracks down and I called in old friend Phil Waldron to add a bit of extra texture and colour and it was all wrapped up and she took her old guitar without a case and walked off down the street.

Keira Watson - vocals, guitar
Phil Waldron - guitar, banjo, mandolin, double bass, cello, bouzouki
Ronan Charles - drums, keys

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording, Perth.(Last 2 tracks on album recorded in England at another studio)

guitar mandolin bouzouki cello double-bass banjo
YoutubeSpotifyInstagram

Art Hawkes - Strangers

ART HAWKES
- Strangers

I immediately clicked with Art and we spent an enjoyable couple of days before Christmas smashing through a few of his songs as he camped out the back of the studio in his 'troopy', cooking his specialty hot beans and generally being a great hang.

"Strangers" is the first release and kind of climbs and climbs it's way upwards from a gentle nocturne to an all-guns-blazing outro. I said "don't leave anything left in the tank when you've finished this vocal take" - and he did not disappoint :)

Art Hawkes - vocals, guitar, bass
Ian MacDonald - drums
Ronan Charles - keys

Recorded and mixed at Aerial Recording, Perth
Mastered at Abbey Road by Geoff Pesche

YoutubeSpotify

The Moon is My Machine - You Are Alive

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- You Are Alive

Another cool/strange mostly instrumental track, this time driven by the big ole 1920s Ajax bass drum and a slippery bass melody.

Ronan Charles - keys, bass, drums, coffee, cigarettes
Keren Letheby - vocoder choir

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording

The Moon is My Machine - You Are Alive
Youtube
live session

Engine Room Blues - llve session - Feb 21

Summer 24/25

Picking the right microphone and putting it in the right place, recording the audio, then sending it down little wires and running it into black boxes to make it sound even better still hasn't lost any of the magic for me. It's still the greatest thing in this world, and I love that I get to work on so many interesting projects, with soulful and talented people.

Finished a sweet indie acoustic album "Honest" for Keira Watson, the drone core fx- laden "Heavy Metal" album for Monotonic and the experimental noise jazz abstraction of "Priornoia" for Vermistropos.

Also did a bunch of live band session set recordings with old school swing jazz legend Fred Younger and his quartet, classic Chicago blues with Engine Room Blues, Esperance-based indie rockers The Arid Ones , the 60's sound of Lost Valley Hotel, a few new singles for The Moon is My Machine, some classical double bass recording for Phil Waldron, experimental mantras featuring gongs and death-metal chanting for Cherry Pearce, some burlesque-vibed nightclub dancefloor anthems with Mickey Montella, some beautiful acoustic guitar and piano songs with Georgina Dacheff, a chill R&B tune with Toby Mills & his band, old time songbook session with Jane Nichols & family, and choir recordings for Future Perth Generations and Kalamunda Performers.

Up next - Autumn. Stay tuned for some cracking releases.

One Horse Town reunion gig

One Horse Town
Reunion Show

I don't get around to doing that many gigs these days so this is something special.

One Horse Town are set to reunite after a 17 year "gap" for one more show. It's been a blast to rekindle the old raging bonfire of our set with Sascha and Stuart and the music still feels fresh and at least semi-explosive.

To all my clients and friends please come down to The Bird on the 29th March and check out a rare opportunity to see me on the other side of a mixing desk :)

One Horse Town on Spotify

Celebrating Peter Ghouse - State Cultural Treasure 2024

Peter Ghouse interview at Aerial

Peter Ghouse — an artist, musician, teacher, mentor and manager who has dedicated more than 50 years to the Western Australian music scene.
Aerial had the pleasure of welcoming him here to sit down with producer Jessica Russell and her team from the ABC to record an interview to document his inclusion in the 2024 WA State Cultural Treasure honours.
Also some cool jamming with his son, Guy Ghouse.
Peter was great to hang out with, full of cool stories about touring England in the 60s and opening for The Yardbirds, meeting Jimmy Page...

Youtube

The Moon is My Machine - Lightning

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Lightning

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - keys, drums

Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording, Perth

The Moon is My Machine - Lightning
Youtube
Vermistropos - Priornoia

Vermistropos - Priornoia

VERMISTROPOS
- Priornoia

Another new release from the fearless and uncompromising duo Vermistopros with their post-apocalyptic improvisations of piano and streams of data made into sometimes serene and sometimes howling tornado of sonic twistedness.

Working with the simple restriction that each piece is a piece made in real time improv, the actual methodology of the compositions is far too confusing to explain without a whiteboard (!) as Jacob wrangles abstract data from sources like tangently related image files into audio.

Really love working with these guys and plans are underway for an expanded ensemble for the next release.

Jacob Canet-Gibson: Data
Xavier Douglas-Smith: Piano
Recorded and produced at Aerial Recording

Bandcamp

The Moon is My Machine - Record Going Round

THE MOON IS MY MACHINE
- Record Going Round

For all those with a lot going on - Happy New Year!

Keren Letheby - vocals
Ronan Charles - guitar, keys, bass, drums

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Aerial Recording, Perth

The Moon is My Machine - Record Going Round
Youtube