Pigface: Closer to Heaven
(featuring Atkins & Levene)

This surprise collaboration came about after Martin Atkins decided to contact Keith Levene via email in Autumn 2002 in a bid to try "bury the hatchet and move on". They had not spoken in 20 years. After some cagey initial responses Atkins asked Levene if he would be interested in playing on a track for the forthcoming Pigface album. Atkins then supplied a backing track which Levene played on and sent back.

Unfortunately Levene's contribution isn't prominent and he even admitted: "I can't hear the fucking thing!" Atkins later confirmed that he did use the contribution and explained: ""Naaaaaa, it's in there. I liked it so much I had some sitar laid down with it and the result is a combination of the two. I was thinking about using another earlier mix or re-mixing the track so it's more stripped down. It felt great to hear Keith's unique guitars again. Maybe I second guessed myself and heard it in my head louder than it is on the track, know what I mean?"

Levene played 12 string guitar on the track, and later stated he based his contribution on the Beatles 'We the Love We Knew' which he "couldn't help" playing when he heard Atkins backing track. Levene later included the original unmixed version on a (commercially unreleased) MurderGlobal pre-release CD; re-titled as the 'The Love We NEW'.

Atkins also released several mixes and remixes of the 'Easy Listening For Difficult Fuckheads' album: including variations of 'Closer to Heaven'. One at least must surely feature Levene's contribution?

Of course, this wasn't the first (and probably last) time that Atkins had worked with former PiL members; 2002 saw him team up with Wobble for the critically acclaimed Damage Manual. After this Pigface collaboration Levene and Atkins discussed working on an album project (working title 'Titanium Box') however, it never went ahead.