THE NASUM VAULT - 1998-2004: THE ALBUM YEARS
Liner notes to "Human 2.0" (from the LP reissue 2014)
As we were about to record our second album, a lot of things had happened with the band: We had had something of a little success with “Inhale/Exhale” realizing that we had a fan base, we had gone from a duo to a three piece with Jesper as the bass player, we had started to play live and we also had changed the tuning of our guitars. From “Human 2.0” and through out the career we played with a drop-A tuning that I introduced on a recording we did between the albums. I was aiming for an even heavier sound but what the drop-A tuning really did was to bring more harmonies to the sound. Just by changing one string we were able to strike chords that sounded different from your average grindcore band. This was an important key to the Nasum sound that was developed even further on "Helvete" and "Shift".
We went into the process of making “Human 2.0” with a different mindset. We were thinking “album” and not a collection of songs, as was the case with “Inhale/Exhale”. We knew what kind of songs we needed to write to get a good variety and make a more complete product. We decided to split the recording into two sessions, mainly to spread out the vocal recordings. The recordings were done in the same garbage smelling basement as "Inhale/Exhale" but on updated equipment. After the two sessions, Soundlab Studios moved to another location and built a new studio from scratch.
Unfortunately “Human 2.0” was blessed or cursed, depending on how you see it, with a strange production. It sounds gritty and broken and while some have declared it impossible to listen to, others loved the crushing sound of the album. I think it’s kind of interesting how the production is a counterpart to the very clean and white album cover. At that point every band had very dark covers and we wanted a white one to have the album stand out.
We had a meeting with our artist and photographer Robert Ahlborg discussing the options. We wanted something sick to be enhanced by the white theme. Robert shot pictures of a skinny friend of his and painted the chords and holes and added the logo tattoo in Photoshop. The "execution" photo is a combination of three photos shot at two different sessions in two different cities. The image was supposed to only be on the album but each and every publication wanted to use it. I don't blame them, as the picture is very cool.
We put a lot of effort into artwork and photos and it all came out of the title "Human 2.0". The year was 1999 and it was all about the new millennium, the big change or the final act. The media focused on the Y2K bug that would end all electronic devices and systems. It was also a couple of years into the Internet revolution and updates of programs and applications were released in their point-something versions. It was also the year of "The Matrix" which had an enormous affect on us and all this combined became the "Human 2.0" concept. Now, this "modern" title was a clever choice, as it was almost too easy to call the Japanese version, "updated" with a few bonus tracks, "Human 2.01". We talked about naming the vinyl version "Human 2.02", which unfortunately never happened. Continuing with the versions, this particular release could have been called "Human 2.04" as there's also a picture disc that should have been "Human 2.03"...
- Anders Jakobson, September 2014
HELP ME FUND THE VAULT AND THE RARE NASUM
I have a lot of Nasum "vaults". There are the digital vaults, harddrives, CD-R's and whatever that contains some stuff. And then there are the analog vaults. Boxes filled with documents and notes and boxes filled with tapes containing rehearsals and rare stuff. I'd be more than happy to share this with the fans, but I need some funds to take time of from work to really do all that boring excavating that's needed to find and document everything.
I have put together a GoFundMe page for this: gofundme.com/the-rare-nasum and any donation is appreciated. You can also support this cause by buying The Rare Nasum stuff at Bandcamp. Or you can make a donation without going through GoFundMe or Bandcamp - just contact me at nasum@nasum.com. Everything that comes in via these channels are ear marked for a future massive excavation.
I really hope you can help me to preserve The Nasum Vault for the world. Thanks!
- Anders Jakobson.
ABOUT THE VAULT
THE NASUM VAULT is the "umbrella" for a number of projects collecting information and items from the Nasum history.
The Vault Blog shares "interesting, semi-interesting or uninteresting things" from the Nasum Vault.
The Rare Nasum publishes audio goodies on Bandcamp.
The Official Nasum YouTube Channel is the home for video oddities.
The Nasum Vault Homepage is the portal for the whole project.
HUMAN 2.0 VAULT EXCAVATION
Selected Human 2.0 goodies from the Nasum archives.
Liner notes from the 2014 LP reissue Reviews in English and Swedish
Instrumental Rough Mix
Discography page
Track by track commentariers
Lyrics