 Using two stereo reel-to-reel tape recorders (a Sony quarter-inch and a Panasonic quarter-inch) he painstakingly built up the tracks by recording onto the first recorder then playing the results back into the second recorder along with a simultaneous performance either by himself on guitar or Ron Mael on keyboards until a finished backing track was completed, to which Russell Mael then added vocals.Mankey describes these early experiments as "fussing around with tape recorders" though he admits he took pride in the "cutting edge" nature of the home recordings he made at this time.On his approach to recording and making music, he says