The producer meticulously tuned and retuned the components of the drum kit for a specific sound and used ribbon or condenser microphones lined up in an equidistant formation. According to Lissack, the basic idea was to emulate the "optimum audio representation" of songs heard in a club environment by adding guitar lines on top of boosted drum and bass tracks. Epworth advised Bloc Party to shape dynamics "a bit more subtly". As the sessions progressed, the band members started experimenting with distortion pedals to add to their "chiming, clean guitar sound", although they did not listen to the producer about song structure. In the end, 15 tracks were recorded in 22 days in Copenhagen, while the vocal overdubbing was subsequently done at London locations. Throughout the studio sessions, Okereke focused closely on the nuances of songs by often amending "microscopics". Epworth's bass-oriented production was key to creating a universally appealing album and was also used as a musical background to the lyrics. Okereke has explained that the songs were crafted to balance dark lyrics with uplifting melodies. He called the final version of Silent Alarm "technicolour" due to its stylistic choices and indicated that Bloc Party achieved the aim of making the songs sound "better and bigger" when they were recorded in the studio. Moakes later pointed out that the band members were relative novices when they entered the recording sessions, and that for the most part they only did what they were advised; this is an additional reason why the album is disjunct and not focused on any particular musical style. Composition Music Many of the arrangements on Silent Alarm are strongly percussive. The leading song, "Like Eating Glass", was inspired by a remix of The Smiths' "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" Okereke heard in 2002. Its drum track was deliberately mixed louder than usual to add emphasis to the album's opening. "Helicopter" has a quick tempo of 171 beats per minute, while "Positive Tension" begins with a solitary bassline and builds up pace, first with a rhythmic drumming pattern, and then with a guitar solo towards its conclusion. "Banquet" involves lead guitar and rhythm guitar playing in syncopation, while "Blue Light" has a slower tempo and a crescendo towards the end. During the studio sessions, the Bloc Party EP version of "She's Hearing Voices" was reworked to include reverberation and stereo separation of the instrumental