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The Pitfalls of Building a Modular Synth

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Snake Oil? Modular synthesis promises freedom, but it also hides a minefield of inflated pricing, brand-driven hype, and unnecessary premium modules. Morgue Studio in Devon—home of This Window— has spent decades navigating those traps, choosing a hybrid path that blends affordable modern Eurorack with rugged CV/Gate machines from the 1980s. Brand Tax and Overpriced Utilities One of the biggest problems in modular synthesis is the extortionate pricing some companies attach to simple utilities. A module that does nothing more than split a signal, invert a CV, or provide a basic mixer can cost several times more than an equivalent unit from a smaller manufacturer. This isn’t about quality; it’s about branding. Many boutique makers charge premium prices for modules that are functionally identical to cheaper alternatives. The Illusion of Exclusivity Some manufacturers cultivate exclusivity through limited runs, artist panels, or modules marketed as essenti...

Ein Track aus „This Is War“

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 „This Is Not The Way It Should Be“ — Eine langsam brennende Klage mit Reggae‑Puls „This Is Not the Way It Should Be“ ist um eine warme, reggae‑gefärbte Basslinie gebaut, gespielt von Peter Bright. Das Tieftonfundament rollt mit leiser Beharrlichkeit nach vorn und drückt gegen ein Arrangement, das sich ansonsten in Richtung gothischer Minimalismus neigt. Diese Spannung – Wärme unter Kälte, Bewegung unter Stillstand – wird zum emotionalen Motor des Stücks. Die Instrumentierung ist bewusst spärlich gehalten. Skelettartige Percussion hält die Zeit wie ein Herzschlag, der durch eine Wand dringt. Schattenhafte Synths treiben hinein und hinaus, mehr Präsenz als Melodie. Ein wütender Klavierakkord durchschneidet den Mix, ein Aufblitzen menschlicher Frustration in einer ansonsten gedämpften Klanglandschaft. Darüber liegt ein Gesangsvortrag, der traurig, karg und unverkennbar Cohen‑esk ist: halb gesprochen, halb gesungen, getragen vom Gewicht dessen, was längst verloren...

Lay Back This Is War

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„This Is War“ wurde zwischen 2025–2026 im Morgue Studio (Devon) geschrieben und aufgenommen. Das Album setzt auf analoge Rauheit, minimale Synth‑Impulse und die strenge Ästhetik des Darkwave. Seine Lo‑Fi‑Texturen – Rauschen, Brummen und spröde Drum‑Machines – sind bewusst eingesetzt und verstärken Themen wie Desillusionierung , instabile Realität und den psychologischen „Krieg“. Im gesamten Album nutzt This Window fragmentarische, tagebuchartige Texte, um spirituelle Unruhe, Machtverhältnisse und emotionale Erschöpfung zu erforschen. Stücke wie „Lay Back“ , „Blue Eyes“ und „Where Is My Jesus?“ vertiefen das Gefühl von Konfrontation und Resignation. Review: “This Is War” – This Window  This Is War distils the tension between love and hate into a stark, two‑minute confrontation. Relationships fracture when dreams diverge, and the song captures that moment when compromise becomes impossible. It’s emotional conflict rendered with the brevity of a warning shot. Written...

A Lifetime on a Cross

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Download Here  There has always been a darker undercurrent running through This Window’s music, shaped partly by its early association with the Goth and post-punk scenes — including time as support act for Bauhaus , whose shadowy theatricality left a lasting imprint. Tracks like Where Is My Jesus show how that influence persisted: devotional unease, a sense of spiritual dislocation wrapped in cold, minimal structures. Morgue Studio amplifies that atmosphere. Its analogue machines introduce grit and instability, its digital tools stretch voices into spectral shapes, and its modular systems generate pulses that feel more like heartbeat and ritual than rhythm. The result is a sound that is unmistakably This Window — intimate, unsettling, and carved from both circuitry and memory. “ Where Is My Jesus? ” by This Window is a haunting, experimental track recorded in 2008 at Morgue Studio. The song is known for its stark, minimalist instrumentation and emotionally raw...

Analogue Swell Between Two Waves

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Between Two Waves  Between Two Waves drifts in on a slow analogue swell, its synth tones rising and folding like a tide gathering intent. The opening carries that familiar Woolacombe hush — the suspended moment before a set rolls in, when the sea seems to inhale. It’s a weightless pulse, the same poised stillness felt sitting on a board just beyond the break, waiting for the Atlantic to decide what comes next.  Hopeless 1989 - 2026 by This Window Download For Free Gradually, the pulse tightens. Layers thicken. The sound begins to lean forward, mirroring the way a wave starts to steep and harden, pulling its energy into a single line. Living in Woolacombe — a place where the ocean doesn’t simply arrive but asserts itself — teaches you to read that shift. Calm surface becomes gathering power, and the track follows that same physics. What begins as a drifting shimmer locks into a 120bpm surge , the moment where the wave stands up and everything accelerates. A...

Leonard Cohen’s Favourite Games

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Review: “Lay Back” – This Is War “Lay Back” unfolds like a half-lit confession, its pulse slow and deliberate, as though each beat is a breath taken between memories. The track doesn’t just reference Leonard Cohen’s Favourite Games and Beautiful Losers — it seems to inhabit their rooms, borrowing the scent of their cigarette smoke and the weight of their silences. It feels less like homage and more like a continuation of the same emotional architecture: a place where intimacy is always shadowed by doubt, and where desire is never cleanly separated from the ache that follows it. The vocal delivery is intimate yet detached, a voice speaking from the edge of a bed at 3 a.m., where desire and disillusionment lie tangled in the same sheets. There’s a sense of someone trying to articulate something fragile without letting it break in their hands. The instrumentation is sparse but deliberate — synth tones and low, percussive murmurs that feel like the hum of a radiator ...

The Dark Ages - Testing the Rig

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There has always been a darker side to This Window ’s music, perhaps influenced by its association with the Goth scene and being in a support band for Bauhaus . “ The Dark Ages ” began as a simple track used to test the studio’s synth setup. It features a couple of modular Eurorack banks, including Moog and Doepfer modules, alongside a Panasonic SX‑KC600 keyboard/synth that had been brought out of retirement. This inexpensive keyboard has surprisingly rich organ and string sounds, which blend with the modular mayhem to create a dark, atmospheric 1980s analogue synth sound. Watch the video to see some of the kit used to make the track The track is a nostalgic look back to the old days—some of them good, and quite a few of them best forgotten.