Phonestrap

"Phonestrap" is a song by Underworld.

History

We travel a lot. We have fun and we work. We see things. We hear things. Sometimes we record things.

The Phonestrap collection is what happens when you begin with one idea, pop it in your suitcase and 
stay up late in hotel rooms across three continents. Starting with a simple voice and guitar recording 
Phonestrap deconstructs and grows again until it's absorbed into a version of the urban soap-opera 
'Autotrader'. 

Memories of Phonestrap v 1;
Rick had to remind me that I started this thread back in August 2006.
If that’s the case it was recorded in a very nice wood panelled room in an old Essex farmhouse with 
views over a large duck-pond & trees & fields & rats.
It isn’t the kind’ve thing I can sing & play at the same time straight out’ve the box though.
Looking back on the record-log I must’ve been laying down guitar parts all day, then finding loop points 
& singing over them until I found a loop that inspired me to sing that first version. I could play it now, 
but in the writing stages the playing & the singing can tie one another down too much, so I like to cut 
loose with the guitar then find a section that sings to me & makes me want to sing back at it.

The title came out’ve one’ve those little black books I carry everywhere to document my encounters. It 
was a word – a new-world-word – that jumped out & volunteered it’s services.

The guitar is one’ve our favourites – a Baby Taylor. It records so beautifully whenever you need a 
sparkly acoustic sound. Legend has it (I heard this from a bloke down the pub so don’t quote me) that 
the Baby Taylors were originally intended as student guitars for children but when the grown-ups heard 
them they realised what a fantastic sound they made & nicked ‘em. They make great travel guitars when 
you’re on the move & we always pack one for tours.

This recording was made using the Taylor & an old favourite of ours the ‘clip-on bug’, a thing that’s 
intended to be used when you’re tuning an acoustic instrument through an electric tuner. Our mate Pete 
the Greek walked into a rehearsal a few years ago grinning from ear-to-ear. He said, “ ‘ere, check this 
out” – unplugged my Les Paul, clamped the bug onto it’s head & plugged it into an amp. It instantly 
sounded straight out’ve the 1920’s – amazing! Since then pretty much all the acoustic guitars have been 
recorded this way, sometimes D.I. & sometimes into an amp & speaker.  This sound was D.I. with some 
choice clamping of the bug.

The lyrics? That’s straight forward walking through the streets of Romford, which is still the most richly 
inspiring place on the planet.

KH

A collection? 
The publishing of Phonestrap was a deliberate action.
The versions were authored according to the needs of some odd game in my head and Karls'.
Not just a series of mixes extracted from the archive and released like a retrospective but an active 
window into a real writing journey, using one piece as its starting point. Reflecting writing processes 
that had been going on since the beginning of the 90s' it was meant to be live and deliberate. 
The story crossed three continents and intertwined/collided with other pieces  - i miss my dog; romford 
walk; san francisco walk; calon lan and of course Autotrader which for the moment at least appears to 
have swallowed it but....who knows. Really.
I can remember the places where the versions were written ( apart from the first- Karl has told you a bit 
about that ) and I can remember the colours and the light. I was taking lots of photographs. I published 
on the website the photographs that best evoked these vague memories of light and space along the way.
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, New York, Essex England and Tokyo.

San Francisco was orange and blue with a hotel room window that opened out onto the street; the street 
ambience told me to come outside and take a walk and record stuff. I carried my laptop out onto the 
street and tried to hide it under my jacket. it was useless and asking for trouble from weirdos so after 
that experience I bought myself a little Marantz stereo recorder.
Los Angeles was dark wood and polished concrete and inspired me to write but not to publish. We have 
to sleep sometimes. My hotel room looked out over a very clean set of rooftops with enormous air-
conditioning units. Stark shadows.
Denver was green and white and filled with fresh but extremely thin air. Views of enormous construction 
projects and romantic looking railway tracks leading to...
New York was dark wood and 'boutique' grey-green and strong sunlight. I missed my dog ( and let 
everyone know.)Some really kind fans showed empathy waving "Woof" placards and even a dog 
calendar. I wrote a short piece called "World most evil truck" and never published it. I took pictures of 
the 'bead-curtain' on the ice-machine room at the hotel and Karl and I laughed because I got there before 
him for a change. ( We think John Warwicker brilliantly "directed" these photographs in one of the Book 
Of Jam series.)
Essex was clay-coloured and leaf green. and quiet. A place to heal and also to feel great distance between 
friends. Struggling to communicate across three continents and time-zones. Karl in Europe and Japan on 
press trips and John Warwicker in Australia and America.
Tokyo... well I didn't write the version there but...It  was the colour(?) of my mates' black and white 
half-frame pictures coming down the wires into Essex. I wasn't in Japan for the press trips but I could 
really feel it's presence from the photographs. It was demanding new collisions. Essex needed to 
respond. Even if it was very very late.


Reading what I've written above back to myself It all looks very disjointed and a bit pointless. Important 
things are the hardest to write about. 
Maybe, the only important thing to remember about the 'Phonestrap Collection' is that it had to happen 
just  so I could say -

"Now move on".

RS

Song Credits

Written by Underworld.

Versions

Track	Time	Release