page_title: Syndrome Syndrome
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Syndrome Syndrome / Production
caption_attribution_description: Dave Smith Instruments &amp; Roger Linn Design &#160; &#160; Tempest Analog drum machine co-developed by Dave Smith and Roger Linn
context_page_description: Syndrome Syndrome is the debut studio album of Australian techno duo Gardland, consisting of Alex Murray and Mark Smith. It was released by the label RVNG Intl. on 29 October 2013. The album was produced by Gardland based on a deal RVNG Intl. leader Matt Werth made with the duo after he listened to a performance they did on the radio. Recorded in Marrickville over three weeks of improvisational sessions, Syndrome Syndrome is very harsh in tone and has an open-ended style that's unconventional to most electronic music genres. In critical reviews, Syndrome Syndrome was praised for its unique arrangement and sound methods while also being panned for its long length.
context_section_description: RVNG Intl. leader Matt Werth noticed Gardland in late 2012 when the duo were performing with Teengirl Fantasy. Teengirl Fantasy informed Werth about Gardland, and after listening to an improvisational set the duo performed on radio, he emailed them about signing them to RVNG Intl. for an album release. Gardland recorded Syndrome Syndrome in their Marrickville bedroom over the course of three weeks worth of 12-hour improvisational sessions while unemployed.
  Gardland's initial plan for their first RVNG Intl. record was an extended play based on the radio set. Murray and Smith originally programmed sounds to be used for the EP on their Dave Smith Tempest drum machines. However, three weeks before they were due to submit it for RVNG Intl., someone stole Murray's drum machine and Smith lost his. This forced the duo to buy new Tempest machines and go into a "mad, yet fruitful, binge of writing" new tracks.
  Gardland explained that starting over to make new content for the album actually helped them: "There was a period of trying to reclaim the sounds we lost - but when we realised that this was a waste of time and decided to focus on making totally new stuff, the material came out thick and fast." The result was a full-length album instead of an extended play as originally planned. About two weeks of the recording of Syndrome Syndrome was spent working on material after the drum machine incident. The LP's newer material makes up 80 percent of the album and is the record's "more exploratory and generally wacked out" material, while the content originally written on the duo's lost Tempest machines is the album's calmest tracks.
  While the Tempests served as the foundation for Gardland producing the record, the JoMoX Xbase09 and MFB-522 were also used to record replications of sounds from the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 as well as slightly reduce the "experimental" instincts of the duo for a more "codified" sound palette. Murray explained, "Maybe it was a subliminal goal of ours, to create sounds that we hadn’t heard before and to be able to get that away from a purely experimental context and bring it into a club setting.”
caption: Gardland primarily used a Dave Smith Tempest for making Syndrome Syndrome.
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