Dusted's Black Tattoo makes the first take the story

The revealing detail in Stereogum's Black Tattoo report is not that Dusted recorded several takes. It is that the band went back to the first. Brian Borcherdt says successive attempts sped up, and the earliest version won the vote. Rather than smoothing that account into a vague claim of spontaneity, keep the decision intact: the chosen performance was compared with alternatives.

Recorded live to a vintage Tascam 388, according to Stereogum.

Borcherdt says the first take was chosen after later attempts got faster.

https://stereogum.com/2516785/dusted-black-tattoo-brian-borcherdt-holy-fuck/music

The same report quotes Borcherdt saying there were no click tracks used anywhere on the record. That makes the account of accelerating takes more specific: a fixed pulse was not being imposed in that way. It does not establish that every part was kept untouched or that no editing occurred. A recording method is a starting condition, not a guarantee of what the finished track must sound like.

Michael Leblanc directs the accompanying video, which Stereogum describes as following Borcherdt and his daughter through Toronto subway tunnels. That is a different kind of motion from the recording's shifting pace. The connection is an invitation to watch, not a claim that the tunnel images document the session. The matching video sits here as its own work.

Dusted is Borcherdt's project outside Holy Fuck. The gap between a group identity and a separate writing voice is also a useful entry into our [Michael Cormier-O'Leary feature](/features/the-hour-of-michael-cormier-oleary-is-upon-us). That is a connection between working lives, not a claim that the two artists share a sound. Here, the immediate subject remains one song and the choice that preserved its first pass.

The first attempt is not automatically the truest one. What matters in this account is that the musicians listened back, compared the options and chose it. The record of that choice is more interesting than a generic story about getting everything right immediately.

Brian Borcherdt says the band chose its first attempt after later versions kept getting faster. That production decision gives the new Dusted single a useful starting point.