Mastered by Guy at the Exchange
| Mastered by Guy at The Exchange | ||||
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| Studio album by Max Tundra | ||||
| Released | 2 September 2002 | |||
| Genre | IDM, indie electronic, glitch | |||
| Length | 40:59 | |||
| Label | Domino | |||
| Max Tundra chronology | ||||
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Singles from Mastered by Guy at The Exchange |
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Pitchfork Media | (9.3/10) |
| Playlouder |  |
| Stylus Magazine | (A) |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | |
Mastered by Guy at The Exchange is the second studio album by Ben Jacobs under his stage name of Max Tundra. Released on 2 September 2002 through Domino Records in the United Kingdom and by Tigerbeat6 Records in North America, making it his first album to be distributed in North America. The album was also Max Tundra's first to be released with vocals on nearly all the tracks.
Two singles were released from the album: "Lysine" and "Cabasa". The album failed to chart in both the United Kingdom and the United States, but received high critical acclaim with the music webzine Pitchfork Media referring to the album as a "A massive achievement" and placed it on their list of Top 50 albums of 2002.
Mastered by Guy at The Exchange was the first Max Tundra record to use vocals. In an interview with Pitchfork Media he explained that "The songs are extremely different from those on the first record. When I was writing Some Best Friend, I thought of all sorts of weird and wonderful machines and instruments I could use to make noises, but singing never occurred to me. I had never considered using my voice on any Max Tundra record ever, but hey, I like to keep things varied, so this time round I figured what the hell!" Max Tundra found it difficult to write lyrics as well, saying "I'm getting to grips with writing lyrics, but it is somewhat more difficult than anything I've done before... The lyrics themselves are taking ages to write-- it's something I'm not used to." The other vocalist on the album is Becky Jacobs who is Max Tundra's sister. The album's title is literal; it was mastered by Guy Davie at a studio named The Exchange.
This is Tundra's first album with vocals, and all but one of the tracks have vocals. The lyrics on Mastered by Guy at The Exchange have been described as not being rich with subtext. Max Tundra refers to this on "Labial" with "I only sing about things that happen to me/ I never learned to fill my songs with allegory" The BBC noted recurring themes included "unaffected tales of Food Chemistry, bands splitting up, employment history and even an homage to video maker Michel Gondry." while Pitchfork Media noted theme of "girls he's loved or loves, complaints about his day jobs". The lyrics are also littered with musical references. References range from trance music and the band Yes where he sings "Downstair's they're playing trance again / that awful bendy guitar / up through the floor again / It's 9am till I cry / And Time and a Word my friend / Inspires me more than guitars". Pitchfork also described the song "Gondry" as a plea to filmmaker and music video director Michel Gondry to direct one for him with lyrics referencing his music videos for "Let Forever Be" and "Around the World".Stylus Magazine described the album's first single for "Lysine" as sounding like a nutrition manual with lyrics of "many foods are rich in arginine, concentrate on the ones with more lysine". Max Tundra has also stated that not everything he wrote about actually happened. In an interview with Stylus Magazine, he proclaimed that "half the lyrics on that album are true and half are false, but I’m not gonna tell you which half."
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