Confusion Is Sex was recorded at Wharton Tiers' eight-track studio in early 1983. It was a "really chaotic process"1 that produced several technical mishaps - for example, the reel-to-reel master tape of "Shaking Hell" was accidentally erased, and a casette copy of a mix had to be used on the album. (Witness the increase in hiss, especially noticable with the "clarity" of the CD reissue.) Lee Renaldo states,We worked forever at Wharton's. We worked for days and days and weeks and weeks on it. And it was really low budget to the max, and he had a good tape machine but he didn't have a lot of gear.2
For more information on the production of Confusion, see the feature on Wharton Tiers in Tape Op Magazine, # 17 (May/June 2000). This piece is reprinted in the Tape Op book, Vol II.
1 - Foege, p.87
2 - Ibid.
