Julius Eastman - Vol 5, Wild Up Ensemble
Fifth release of Eastman’s music by Wild Up Ensemble, this time they perform ‘Gay Guerilla’.
Before I logged onto the forum this morning I queued up Julius Eastman Stay On It!
Regarding our local weather, other than a very brief torrential rainfall we were spared. Those in the Appleton, Neenah, Menasha area along the Fox River and Lake Winnebago were less fortunate. Hopefully they get the assistance and support for a quick recovery.
A cool and quiet morning. I’m trying to talk myself out of a lot of work today. . .we’ll see if I succeed.
Starting off with a new arrival. I saw this was being re-issued and pulled out my OG 2 LP set. Man that is a beat up record–this one may have been at too many parties when I wasn’t in command of the turntable. So I ordered a copy of the new reissue. Clean sounding. This was never the best sounding material they put out, but it was the third of theirs I bought. I got into them right before the hiatus, and saw them just before this material war recorded and was excited when this came out. I really do like the music!
Next
Art Pepper “Unreleased Art, Vol. III: The Croydon Concert, May 14, 1981” 2 cd set, disc 1
Alto Saxophone – Art Pepper
Bass – Bob Magnusson
Drums – Carl Burnett
Piano – Milcho Leviev
Recorded live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, England on May 14, 1981
This was a great Pepper band.
Yikes. We have been spared in Madison apart from the extreme heat/humidity, wildfire smoke. Seems like it’s getting worse every year. The unpredictability and extreme nature of this weather!
A correction to the above post about “Steal Your Face”: I saw the Dead shortly after, not before these were recorded.
And I’m re-spinning LP2 and decided to try reversing the phase on the phono preamp and wow, it sounds much better.
Good to know about flipping the phase for Steal Your Face. My copy was in heavy rotation, but I had transferred it to a reel-to-reel tape so my LPs are still NM-. Doesn’t see much time on a turntable since college, as othere are other Dead LPs I prefer. However, Steal Your Face has a welcome cut, Stella Blue. Maybe I’ll pull it out for a spin tonight.
Listening to a side of LP 1 again. The phase reversal does seem to help–of course it can’t cure the vocal issues which are I think inherent in the recording itself, but it does hose away a lot of the “mud”. . . .
From what I understand Bear and Lesh messed with the mix to attempt to make it marketable, at least in their “minds”. A Wikipedia search more or less supports the rumor(s)
Production and mixing
The completion of The Grateful Dead Movie would take nearly three years. In the meantime, band manager Ron Rakow agreed to the delivery of a soundtrack album to United Artists Records in return for additional organizational and film production costs. With lead guitarist Jerry Garcia focused on the film’s sound synchronization and editing, Lesh and sound man Owsley Stanley were tasked with finishing the album tie-in first. Rather than a soundtrack for the yet-uncompleted film, the pair separately reviewed the audio from copies of Garcia’s work tapes, then selected concert performances for a double-live album.
Because the sound system was stacked behind the band, restricted-frequency differential microphones were used in pairs, to prevent bleed and feedback loops. One was wired out-of-phase in a phase-cancellation scheme requiring the singers to position very close to the microphones. This, along with the lack of a sound/mixing board, created sonic anomalies during tape mixing. Additionally, the drum tracks suffered from distortion. Some vocals were lost – particularly those by backing vocalist Donna Godchaux – needing to be dubbed in the studio.[8]
At the time of production, quadraphonic technology appeared ascendant. In anticipation, the album was mixed for the QS standard – one of several competing vinyl matrix formats. Rather than a dedicated stereo mix, during mastering, the quadraphonic mix was folded down to two channels. Lesh explained Bear and he decided to mix “the whole thing in ‘quad’ … the result was a glutinous mud bath of sound, through which any music was scarcely discernible. Bear and I went to Rakow, telling him the recordings were unusable. He brushed our objections aside, saying, ‘They’ll buy it anyway; we need this record.’ It’s a wonder the record was finished; the fact it was released – against my better judgment – shows how desperate we were for product to take up the slack from lack of touring income”.[9] Ultimately, by the time the album was released, the Grateful Dead resumed touring. With the movie unfinished, the album was instead promoted in conjunction with the tour.[10]
My plan to listen tonight will need to wait as a CD I have been wanting for sometime just arrived, and that has bumped The Dead.
My copy of Steal Your Face sounds lousy - and it’s a clean copy, I get by with streaming for this one, but the new release is tempting.
Dug this one out of the LP rack and looking at the song listing as I walked it upstairs to the stere I became rather excited by the song list, Cold Rain and Snow, Stella Blue, Ship of Fools, It Must Have Been the Roses, and Casey Jones. LP looks as new, with clean glossy surfaces. As far as the sound, a disappointment. Jerry’s vocals tend to overload his microphone, back-up vocals are pushed way too far back, some rather odd noise riding on top of some tracks possibly due to studio processing. On The Promised Land Jerry’s monitor seems to be off or he’s is in “another place”. From what I am hearing I’m not convinced it is worth flipping speaker leads to change the phase. Not a simple matter on the speakers I am using. The guitar interplay, supporting piano and bass on Cold Rain and Snow is very good, and I’d sure like to hear more of it, as in an extended jam typical for a live performance. Regarding Stella Blue, starts out great with a fine vocal performance by Jerry marred by him overdriving the mic, at times Phil’s bass is too far forward in the mix, and the drums sound “odd”. Stella Blue ends too early for me as well as if the jam section was edited out, just a fade out.
When I first got the LP I figured typical Grateful Dead, as generally their focus was on the performance and the concert vibe. Sonics tend to suffer, not a priority, wall of sound and all. All I can say is gave it a shot, and back on the rack it goes where it shall remain.
Bottom line, I can’t convince myself to throw more dollars Rhino’s way for the 50th Anniversary Double LP when I already have a copy even though it is a dud.