It’s raining.

It can stop anytime.

Stupid rain.

Aztec Camera
Backwards And Forwards (Live)
Jump
The Bugle Sounds Again (Live)
Mattress of Fire (Live)
The Birth Of The Tune (Live)
Do you like Aztec Camera? Do you like the fact that I semi-routinely post rare tracks by them? If so, swing on by to the amazing Anna Hegedus’ website. If it wasn’t for her I would have never heard of them, and I buy most of my Aztec Camera to make her happy.

And yes, that “Jump” you see there is a cover of the Van Halen tune of the same name. It sure is…something.

These were all taken from a 10″ single for “Backwards And Forwards.”

Jimmy Somerville
Heartbeat (Armand Van Helden Mix)
Jimmy Somerville was the lead singer of Bronski Beat, and he’s fabulous. The DJ compilation record in which I found this mix, however, was very much not fabulous. It was scratched to shit, skipped like crazy, and overall just sounded like a pile of ass.

Now, I have previously stated my aversion to audio “clean-up” programs that remove the clicks and pops found on vinyl records. They tend to make the recordings sound compressed and distorted, which is way worse than a couple clicks and pops.

I usually just go through myself and remove all the bad parts if possible, but this recording was a mess. While browsing the Internet for good audio editing software I came across ClickRepair and I thought I’d give it a shot. It seems to do a pretty good job, but I’ll be the first to admit that my ears aren’t always trained for this kind of thing. I used it on this track though, so download it and let me know how it sounds.

I would appreciate any input you all have. If you’re an audio geek and really want to see how the program works then download this zip. Included in it are two copies of a live version of Tom Robinson’s “Glad To Be Gay” (I know it’s an odd test file, but it was the most damaged track I could find that I thought was still salvageable). Listen to both to the “before” and “after” tracks, is there anything wrong with the after track? I don’t notice any significant audio degradation. I really want this program to work, it would make my life so much easier!

Utah Saints
Ohio (DJ Misjah Mix)
On Feburary 24th, 2009, I said the following:

“The Utah Saints were neither from Utah or saints, discuss.”

Commenter Rekanize responded with the following:

“New Orleans, once upon a time, used to have a basketball team known as The New Orleans Jazz… in 1979, they were moved to Utah, then known as the Utah Jazz.

Well, New Orleans’s football team is the Saints…

yeah?”

That was over two years ago and it still blows my fucking mind. Shit’s crazy.

This remix is from the same compilation that the Jimmy Somerville track is from, but the side it was on was in considerably better shape, and required no digital touching up.

And, no, this is not a cover of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Ohio.” One could only hope. I assume it’s called “Ohio” because it samples “Fire” by the Ohio Players. This track samples something else though right? What is it?

Update 5/25/11: File was removed because it was actually the album version, and not a remix.

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 at 4:11 am and is filed under Aztec Camera, B-sides, covers, live, remixes, Utah Saints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.