In early 1998, the group reconvened at Chipping Norton Recording Studios and recorded backing tracks over the course of six weeks. A single orchestral session was held at Abbey Road Studios, but its recording was rushed and had to be edited over a three-month period. According to Gregory, the band had no money left at this point, and the session had to be funded by a Japanese record label. John Morrish of "The Independent" reported that "the human string players could not match the mathematical precision of 'River of Orchids' ... Nor could the woodwinds cope with the computerised ostinato in 'Greenman' ... The orchestra became a glorified sample, cut and pasted together to achieve the 'Vaughan Williams with a hard-on' sound required." Much of this work was done with ProTools and with the assistance of Bendall, Partridge said, "until he had to quit to work on other projects." The rest of the album, which mostly involved vocal, bass and acoustic guitar overdubs, was recorded in Moulding's garage.