Pitchfork

Jamie Lidell photo by Jason Bergman

Former conjoined twins (not really) and tourmates (really) Beck and Jamie Lidell took their relationship to the next level recently by recording together at the Los Angeles studio Infrasonic Sound Recording Co.

Since nothing is ever quite what it seems with either Beck or Lidell, it makes sense that the sessions were of a very peculiar fashion: a series of direct-to-disc recordings for eventual release as singles.

Best explained in a press release as a method that "captures a live performance directly to vinyl lacquer," Infrasonic's direct-to-disc process takes place on the same Neumann lathe that cut records by David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Elvis Presley.

Just to clarify: wacky British songwriter Jamie Lidell joined wacky American songwriter Beck in an L.A. studio to have their performances together turned into vinyl masters for a series of singles as they performed. Oh, and it was done on a machine that did the same thing for another wacky British songwriter named David Bowie. Make sense?

Also participating in the Beck-Lidell sessions were Lidell/Feist/Peaches pal Mocky, Jason Falkner, Roger Manning, and Justin Meldal-Johnsen.

And as a final, weird touch, the Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez hopes to record a direct-to-disc session at Infrasonic later this year.

If this is all starting to sound like an acid-induced dream to you too, take solace in the fact that Jamie Lidell will perform live all by his awesome lonesome later this summer at two back-to-back festival dates.

Jamie Lidell dates:

08-31 Lyon, France - Woodstower Festival
09-01 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic Festival