Mirror Mirror

May 25th, 2012

Now that I finished the mannoth undertaking that was The Lost Turntable Guide To Recording Vinyl, I’m starting to wonder what I should try next. Is there anything in the guide that I left out? Any topics that any of you thought I should have covered but didn’t? I’m thinking about writing something about what to look for when buying vinyl, because if there’s one thing I’m really good at, it’s spending money on records. Would anyone be interested in that?

 

Anyways, this is the last post for the week, and I probably won’t post until the second half of next week, thanks to some work commitments (which are good) and family commitments (which are more of a mixed bag).

One good thing, if all goes well this weekend I should be coming back to Pittsburgh with a new turntable! It’s not going to replace my Technics, but it’s certainly an interesting deck. If I get it I’ll be sure to do a full write-up, most of you have probably never seen anything like it.

Love And Rockets
Mirror People (88 Version Re-Recorded)
Mirror People (88 Version Edited)
What a weird song, and not just because of the lyrics, but because there are so many damn versions of it. The original version of “Mirror People” leads off the band’s 1987 tour-de-force Earth Sun Moon, and if you have the CD or digital editions of the album, a “slow version” of the song serves as the record’s coda.

However,  a year after the album came out the band re-recorded the song, as a more fast-paced and polished work that was no doubt intended to capitalize off of the band’s success with the single “No New Tale To Tell.” This new version is a lot less shoe-gazey than the original, and has much more of a “punchier” sound over all. I’m sure it was all a tactic to turn the song into a hit single, although I don’t think it worked. I have to say though that I prefer this version, I’m always a sucker for some more anthemic sounding drums. I do love the wall-of-sound production of the original too though.

The B-52’s
Channel Z (Rock Mix)
Channel Z (Remix Edit)
Channel Z (Rock Dub)
I just like saying “Channel Z” like  Fred Schneider does in the beginning of this song.

“Channel ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Okay, yeah so maybe I wrote so much stuff this week that I’ve ran out of constructive or interesting things to say, what’s your point?

Love Kills, the best song about junkies in love you’ll hear all day.

May 23rd, 2012

Okay, last time I’ll plug it. If you haven’t read it and you’re at all interested in recording vinyl, please check out my guide to recording records. It’s more than a bit lengthy, but I’ve been told my multiple people that it’s full of useful facts and tips. I also don’t swear in it at all (I don’t count saying the band name Fucked Up as a swear). And I’m crazy proud of that. Because we all know that’s pretty uncommon.

Joe Fucking Strummer
Love Kills (12″ Version)
Love Kills (Dub Version)
Love Kills (Instrumental)
Sid & Nancy is not the kind of movie that I have any interest at all in seeing. From what I know about the film, it’s wildly inaccurate about the actual events surrounding Sid’s role in The Sex Pistols, and it takes some pretty drastic dramatic licence in assuming the situation surrounding Nancy’s death. I also have no desire to see a film about a couple of junkies killing themselves with smack. If I want to know how opiates fuck with someone I’ll just call some of my old high school friends, thanks.

All that aside, the soundtrack sure is fucking magnificent, the highlight being this legendary track by Joe Strummer. It’s probably the darkest “love” song outside of a Bauhaus record, with its references to drug addiction, lynching and even the murder of Nancy. Still, I sense some sort of joy or optimism in the lyrics, especially in the chorus.  “But if my hands are the color of blood/then I can tell ya, sure I can tell ya/Love kills,” is a line that’s so damn great, so perfect, that I desperately want to believe that there’s a positive message to be found in it somewhere. That’s probably just me being oddly optimistic though. I get that a lot.

I bought this 12″ single just because I love the song. I got a great bonus when I found that it included an extended 12″ version of the song! That’s not mentioned on either the album sleeve or the label, as such, I don’t know the name of this remix. I’m just calling it the “12 inch version.” If anyone wants to correct me, please feel free. But do that after you download it, because damn it’s a great version of a great song. The dub mix isn’t half bad either, especially as dub versions go, probably because it still has most of the lyrics of the original.

Just the one song tonight. I might have another post near the end of week that will be more substantial.

Human League Conspiracy Theories and Happy Mondays

May 22nd, 2012

In case you hadn’t heard, I recently completely the epic-length Lost Turntable Guide to Recording Vinyl. You should totally read it. It’s almost 5,000 words though, so maybe you might want to pee first.

Happy Mondays
Bob’s Yer Uncle (The Grid Mix)
Bob’s Yer Uncle (Paul Oakenfold Mix)
These remixes are from a 12″ promo copy I snagged last week, they’re chill as shit. This song is my new jam.

The Human League
All I Ever Wanted (Oliver Lieb’s Main Mix)
All I Ever Wanted (Oliver Lieb’s Alternative Mix)
All I Ever Wanted (The Vanity Case Mix)
All I Ever Wanted (The Vanity Case Instrumental Mix)
I love it when a band’s fans obviously hi-jack Wikipedia and the moderators are none the wiser. Take The Human League for instance. Not only does their wiki have a tremendous amount of extraneous data (not to mention the most needlessly complicated band members section I’ve ever seen), but pages for individual members, albums and even songs are freakishly in-depth and filled with unsubstantiated “facts” and bizarre justifications for why The Human League is no longer the biggest band in the world. For instance, both the wiki for this song as well as the wiki for Secrets, the album from which the song came from, claim that the song/album were not hits because the band’s label was on the verge of bankruptcy when the album came out, and that the BBC had blacklisted the band. I think the whole “it’s 2001 and we’re an 80s synthpop band” had more to do with the album’s lack of success than anything else.

I’m not knocking The Human League, don’t get me wrong, I love them, I just don’t love them enough to oddly rationalize why they’re no longer popular. Shit, I love me some Toadies, but you don’t see me saying that their lack of current success is due to a conspiracy involving Clear Channel, the Freemasons and the Gin Blossoms.

Wait, I may be on to something here…

Anyways, these are good remixes, download them.

The Lost Turntable Guide To Recording Vinyl

May 21st, 2012

Well, here it is! The long-awaited, long-overdue and just plain long Lost Turntable Guide to Recording Vinyl.

What took so long? (And why is it so damn long?)

Well, what I thought was going to be a quick cut-and-dry “how to” guide slowly began to morph, mutate and altogether spin out of control. When I first started writing this thing I thought it was just going to be nothing more than some tips and tricks on recording records. But then I decided I should expand it to be a more conclusive guide covering the entire vinyl ripping process, but once I got there I realized that I had include sections on hardware and software too…

So yeah, things kind of got out of hand. But here it is! Split into four convienent and hopefully easy-to-understand chapters.

Chapter one deals strictly with hardware. Turntable, pre-amps, cartridges. I go over my recommendations and what I think you should look for when choosing gear.

Chapter two is all about software, the recording and restoration software that I think is must-have if you want to do this right.

Chapter three is an in-depth step-by-step guide showing what I do when I record vinyl. It’s only 100% applicable if you’re using the exact same equipment and software as I am, but even if you’re not it should help you out a bit.

And finally chapter four is where I offer some tips, tricks and links that didn’t fit anywhere else.

So without further ado…an introduction.

Introductions and Disclaimers

Before I really get going, there are two things I want to get out of the way.

First, I’ve been recording vinyl for six years now. I learned as I went, making a ton of mistakes along the way. And I’m fairly certain I’m not done making mistakes. So if at anytime during this guide you think I’m full of it, or doing something horribly wrong, I very well might be. Let me know! Just don’t be a jerk about it. I’m always looking for ways to make my rips better, so any polite and constructive criticism is welcome.

Second, this is not a guide on how to record vinyl “on the cheap” or “fast and easy.” This is a guide on how to record vinyl properly, with high-quality results that are worthy of being in your MP3 collection. You can’t do that quickly, easily, or inexpensively. Not including my computer, my final cost for my set-up, which includes my turntable, cartridge, pre-amp and recording/restoration software cost me over $600, and that’s substantially cheaper than what many “audiophiles” pay for their set-ups. It sucks, but this isn’t an endeavor for those who aren’t willing to spend a bit of cash. Sorry.

Okay, now that I have that stuff out of the way…let’s do this!

 

Chapter 1 – Hardware

 

Turntables
This part is pretty important, so you might want to take notes.

If you ask me, there’s only one turntable in the world worth getting (more on it in a bit). However, I realize that not everyone has the same tastes as me, so before I offer my singular recommendation, let me extend a few general tips you should keep in mind when picking a deck.

First of all, always avoid USB turntables. Almost all of them are abominations that can neither effectively play nor record vinyl.

Why?

First of all, most use ceramic needles. In addition to sounding horrible, these things destroy records. They’re outdated garbage, keep them away from your vinyl.

Secondly, many use built-in pre-amps (a pre-amp boosts your phono signal so it can be heard properly), and those just don’t cut it when it comes to sound quality. Your music will sound muffled, muddled and altogether bad. Whenever I go back to recordings I made using my old ION USB turntable, I can’t believe how hideous they sound. It’s like they were recorded underwater.

Finally, recording straight from a turntable to your computer via a USB port isn’t as easy as it might seem. You’ll get a lot of interference from the electronics in the turntable, and the process itself takes a lot out of your computer’s resources. It’s just not worth the hassle.  Get a real turntable, you can hook it up to your PC with little effort.

With that out of the way, the biggest decision you’ll have to make when choosing a turntable is whether you want a  belt-drive or direct-drive model.

With a belt-drive turntable, the motor is connected to a belt, which in turn is connected to the platter. The motor spins the belt, and the belt spins the platter. On a direct-drive turntable, the motor is connected directly to the platter (typically underneath), spinning it directly.

Which usually sounds better? It’s a contentious subject. Some believe that direct-drive turntables can create a noticeable “hum” in your recordings.  Others, myself included, don’t like belt-drive tables because they don’t always spin at the right speed. Belts wear down over time, and a worn down belt will cause your turntable to spin too fast (audiophiles call this “flutter”). It’s the kind of thing that you never notice at first, it only comes to your attention after you’ve recorded half-a-dozen records at slightly the wrong speed. It can be maddening.

On the other hand, I’ve never heard any noticeable “hum” coming from any medium-to-high-end direct-drive turntable I’ve owned, and they always spin at precisely the right speed. I’ve been told that super-high-end belt-drive decks, ones that cost upwards of a grand, don’t have problems with flutter, but I’ve never wanted to spend enough money to find out. I would recommend a direct-drive deck, for ripping vinyl it’s almost always a safer bet. In fact I would recommend one direct-drive turntable in particular, the  Technics SL-1200.

My Technics SL-1210 MK2. Yes, I know it’s dusty. No, you can’t have it.

In all honesty, if you want a turntable that sounds great, runs great and even looks pretty damn great, then just get a Technics. There’s a reason why nearly every turntable on the market today is trying to emulate the look and feel of the Technics SL-1200. It’s because they’re some of the best turntables ever made. Sadly, Panasonic shut down production of the Technics line a few years ago, so you probably won’t be able to find a new one at a fair price. Don’t let that stop you though, since the Technics 1200 was one of the most popular turntables of all time, you can usually find one used online for less than $300 if you know where to look online. I picked one up on Craigslist for $300 and it was worth every penny.

 

Cartridges
While I have no problem recommending just one turntable, I can’t do the same with cartridges. There are just too many out there that it’s impossible for to keep track. The best advice I can give you when choosing a cartridge is to do your research. Different cartridges work better with different turntables. So go to Google and search for something like “best cartridge for [turntable model]” and see what comes up. Check out AudioKarma, that’s my go to message board for this stuff (although most people there will tell you that direct-drive decks are the devil). The audiophile message board nerds who talk about this stuff are usually good sources. Just don’t spend over $150-$200 for a cartridge if you’re just getting into vinyl, you should be able to find a decent one for between $70-$100.

Me personally, I play all my records using a Nagaoka MP-110 cartridge. From everything I’ve read, it comes highly rated for Technics SL-1200 turntables, and is fairly priced at around $100. Of all the cartridges I’ve used it has the best stereo separation and the best tracking; it also doesn’t amplify bass or polish the audio in anyway, it just plays the records accurately and beautifully.

All that, and it’s pretty too.

 

Conversely, I recommend you avoid the Ortofon Arkiv (lousy tracking, too sensitive), DarkHorse Sanyo (horrible all around) and the Stanton Groovemaster (too damn heavy and loud). But once again, that only goes for the Technics SL-1200 and for recording vinyl, results may vary with other kinds of turntables.

No matter what cartridge you end up going with, I suggest buying it from The Needle Doctor, the best site for turntable supplies on the Internet.

102/24/13 Update
While I still recommend the Nagoka MP-110 for most systems, I recently discovered that for whatever reason, the cartridge did not play nice with my new computer. I don’t know why and I can’t explain it, but for some reason when I upgraded my computer all my recordings became muddled. When I replaced my cartridge with another model, the problem disappeared!

If you find yourself with this problem, then I recommend the Audio Technica 120E/T. It’s also about $100, and gives a sound that is nearly identical to how the MP-110 used to sound on my system.

 

Pre-amp/Soundcard
Often overlooked, a phono pre-amp is a vital part of any turntable system. These special amplifiers are made with turntables in mind, and raise the levels of a turntable signal to the proper volume/EQ settings that make it possible for you to hear your records at a comfortable volume. If your turntable doesn’t have an internal pre-amp (and it shouldn’t, those suck) you will need a pre-amp in order to listen to and record your LPs.

In addition to a pre-amp, you’ll also probably need an external soundcard, unless your internal card has a line-input. And even if it does, it’s still not a bad idea to get an external soundcard. Most internal cards just aren’t cut out for recording from a line signal. It’s hard to explain, and I don’t entirely understand it, but I was never happy with the results whenever I tried to record vinyl using my internal soundcard. Everything always sounded like half the treble was missing.

Fortunately, you don’t need to buy both an external soundcard and a pre-amp, as there are a lot of pre-amps made today that function as both. I’ve used a few, and the one I’ve gotten the best results with is the  ART USB PhonoPlus v2 Computer Audio Interface.

This thing is a godsend. It requires no drivers, has optional built-in hum removal (great for tape recording or if your system has a lot of R/F interference) and it only takes a few minutes to set up (which I’ll get to in another section). I really cannot recommend this thing enough, nor can I say enough good things about it.

Conversely, I can’t say enough bad things about any external soundcard made by M-Audio. While these guys make great professional-grade (translation: incredibly expensive) hardware, their entry-level stuff consistently proved itself to be completely worthless to me. It never works right, requires a ridiculous amount of drivers, and it even crashed my system to the point where I had to re-install Windows 7. If you have a choice between an M-Audio soundcard and getting punched in the gut, I recommend the gutpunch.

…moving on.

 

Chapter  2 – Software

Recording/Basic Editing Software
There are a lot of ways to go here. Some people really like Audacity, and it’s really hard to argue with free and open-source…unless you’re me.

I’m not a fan of that program, I find it clunky, hard to understand, and needlessly complicated. It’s also a resource hog and slows down my system whenever I’m working with it. I avoid it. My own personal preference for recording and basic editing software is Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio. It’s probably a little over-powered for what I do, but it works, it doesn’t slow down my system, and it’s easy to use. Those are three very big selling points for me. It’s also great for whenever I do want to do something a little more complicated with my audio files, such as adjusting the EQ settings or fiddling with the playback speed.

Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio also gets a ton of little things right. It’s ultra-versatile, allowing you to record in quality as high as 32-bit/192,000 Hz audio, and you can save in just about any format you could desire, including WAV, MP3, FLAC and even OGG. It also allows you to zoom in and out of an audio file by using your mouse’s scroll wheel (something Audacity cannot do), which is incredibly handy when removing pops and cracks from a recording. It’s also very efficient and fast, I can edit and save a file in Sound Forge in about half the time it takes me to do so in Audacity. So, yeah, it might not be free, but my time is worth the money.

 

Click Removal
No matter how good your system, no matter how clean your records, you will hear the occasional snap, crackle or pop in your recordings. There’s nothing you can do about it. However, you can remove most of them with the help of the right click removal software. Ever since vinyl has come back a ton of programs have appeared on the market claiming to be able to restore even the most haggard of records to near-CD quality. For the most part, these programs are hogwash. Either they don’t remove enough of the clicks and pops, or they remove all of them at the expense of the overall fidelity of your music.

To date, I have only found one program that can easily remove most pops and clicks from a recording while not affecting the quality of the recording. That program is ClickRepair. Setting it up can be a bit of a bother (I’ll get to in my next section), but once you figure out how it works it can be a real life saver. ClickRepair has saved recordings that I thought were lost causes. It costs $45, but it’s totally worth it in my opinion.. But if you’re hesitant to spend the dough without giving it a test drive, a trial version is available at the official website as well.

 

Hum/Noise Removal
Sometimes when you’re listening to vinly you might pick up a kind of hum or hiss that’s omnipresent over your entire recording. Typically it’s radio frequency (R/F) interference. If you have a decent turntable and pre-amp, then you shouldn’t be having this problem. Before you go the software route, try moving your equipment around; hook it up to a different power outlet; or try some different cables.

However, not all hiss and hum is caused by R/F interference, some records are just naturally noisy. It can be especially annoying if the music on the album is quiet (Tangerine Dream albums have this problem far too often). If that’s the case, then you might have to go the software route to scrub your recordings free of hum and hiss. One program I’ve found that can do this pretty well is the iZotope Music and Speech Cleaner. While it doesn’t work miracles, it does a good job of removing these incredibly annoying noises on exceptionally quiet records. Like ClickRepair, iZotope’s Music and Speech Cleaner isn’t free, but there is a trial version available for you to check out before you shell out the bucks.

 

ID3 Tagging
ID3 tags are metadata on an MP3 file that tell you the name of the track, what album it’s from, the artist and so on. For years, I just used iTunes for this, until I discovered that for some reason iTunes does not like creating ID3 tags for songs I ripped from vinyl. Why? I have no idea. But whenever I had to rebuild my library, any ID3 tag I created in iTunes came out broken, song titles would vanish, genres would change, it was a mess. Now, the only thing I use iTunes for is to number the tracks after I give them ID3 tags.

For everything else I use MP3Tag. It’s free, works like a charm, and has a ton of batch editing features that make tagging large groups of files a breeze. I love it.

Okay, now that you know what hardware and software I use, it’s time for me to show you how I use it!

 

Chapter 3 – The Walkthrough

As I said before, this walkthrough only details how I do this using my equipment and nothing else. That’s all I know, so that’s all I can give. If you want help with other kinds of pre-amps, turntables or software, I can’t help you. Sorry.

So let’s get started.

As I said before, I do all my recording on Sony Sound Forge, but before I commit to a recording, I make sure all my setting are accurate. To do this, I start a recording that I will not save, and drop the needle somewhere in the middle of the record. I try to find an especially loud part to check the levels.

Red is bad, that means my levels are too high, which will lead to clipping and distorted sound. I have to go into Windows’ audio settings and make some minor adjustments.

To do this, I right-click on the speaker in the task-bar and select “Recording Devices” from the pop-up menu that appears.

I select my turntable from the list that appears, most systems will identify it as a “USB Audio CODEC.”

Windows adds a lot of gain to a turntable signal, I take it all the way down to “2” and then click “OK.” Now I can head back into Sound Forge and see how my levels look.

Bars Are Green, The signal is clean.

Next up, I make sure that my pre-amp isn’t doing some clipping of it’s own. The ART V2 has gain controls on it, complete with a monitoring light that tells you if the gain is too high. While I rarely need to adjust my Windows volume settings, I often have to change my gain settings on my pre-amp, as some records can be much quieter than others. You always want to have as much gain as possible without the signal going into the red, this cuts down on hiss and other line noise that can be a real pain to get rid of later.

To make sure the pre-amp is set up right, I once again drop the needle on a loud section of the record and look at the signal light. I adjust the gain settings until it is as loud as it can be without the signal going into the red.

Remember, red is bad! To fix this, I turn the knob next to the signal light to the left.

Green is good! Most albums are fine with a gain of around -2, but for some quieter albums I crank it up a bit.

 

After that’s all set, I can move onto actually recording and listening to my record, which for the purposes of this example will be Polyrock’s 1980 self-titled debut.

I usually record one record at a time. Some people will stop a recording after each side as to keep the size of the audio files down. I usually don’t find that necessary, but whatever floats your boat is fine.

After I’m done recording the album I hit stop in Sound Forge, and I’m presented with a waveform of the album.

 

Polyrock – in waveform

 

Now, before I do anything I save it as a WAV file. Most sound editing programs like ClickRepair can only read WAV files, so its best to save them in that format. I don’t convert my recordings to MP3 until I’m done doing everything else.

After I save the file as a WAV I open it in ClickRepair to clean it up a bit. ClickRepair is an amazing program that can work wonders, but not at the default settings. For ClickRepair to work right, without any noticeable distortion or unwanted sound removal, I always tone it down a bit by adjusting the following settings, which were suggested to me from Paul at Burning The Ground:

Slide the DeClick bar all the way down to 10, and enable “Pitch Protection.”

Turn off DeCrackle. You’ll never need it.

Then I run ClickRepair on auto. Some people use it manually, but honestly, I don’t know how, and even if I did, that seems like it would take forever.

ClickRepair doesn’t overwrite the original file, instead it saves a copy with a “CR” suffix added to the file name. After it’s done running, I open that file, along with the original, in Sound Forge and compare them. If I see any major differences between the files’ waveforms, I listen to compare and make sure no music has been removed along with the clicks. I would say that 99 times out of a 100, there are no problems. But if I’m recording drum and bass, glitch (obivously) or anything that actually incorporates the sound of a record click into the song, then ClickRepair might have a problem with it. In those cases, I usually go back to the original file and manually edit it. It’s actually easier than it sounds. All I do is zoom in until I am able to highlight the defect and nothing else and then I just delete it. These clicks are usually less than a tenth of a second long. I don’t lose any music when I delete them, just the defect.

(If there’s any hum or hiss in the recording, this is when I go into iZotope to try and fix that. Since that program is 100% idiot-proof, and I almost never use it, I’m not going to go into that.)

Now the file is declicked to the best of my ability, but there’s one problem left I need to tend to.

If you look closely, you may notice that the right audio channel is just a hair quieter than the left channel. This is a problem that I’ve run into with many turntables and cartridges over the years. Truth be told, it’s not much of an issue. The difference between the volumes is actually barely noticeable, if at all. However, since it is a fixable problem, I usually take care of it. While the difference in volume can vary from album to album, I’ve found that a volume of change 115% usually takes care of it. This is how I take care of that:

First, I double-click on the left audio channel to select it.

Then I go to “Process” and then “Volume” to open up this menu. I adjust the bar so it’s increasing the volume by 1.25 dB (115%).

It’s never perfect, but it’s usually good enough,and your ear won’t be able to tell the difference anyways.

Now to make one more volume change. While there’s nothing wrong with the recording as it stands now, it’s a little too quiet, especially when you compare it to newer songs, which are far too loud. While I don’t want to equalize my recordings to match the over-compressed volume of those new recordings, it wouldn’t hurt to boost them a bit by going back into the volume adjustment settings.

200% sounds like a lot, but it’s usually fine.

The Results: Loud. But not too loud.

 

Now that reocrding has been cleaned and adjusted to the best of my ability, it’s time for me to cut it up into individual tracks by selecting them one at a time; pressing “CTRL+X” to cut them out of the audio file; opening a new audio file; and then pressing “CTRL+V” to paste the song into that new file. Then I save the file.

 

Enough choices for you?

I’m old school and stick with MP3s, but if you’re super-concerned with audio quality, then you can always go FLAC. As far as my MP3 settings go, I always save at 320Kpbs and at 44,1000 Hz. I’m sure some audiophiles out there are screaming at me right now, but I’ve tried higher sample rates and other formats, I honestly couldn’t hear a difference. Sound Forge also lets you choose encoding speed. Go for quality over speed every time.

My custom MP3 encoding settings. I’ve never heard a difference between Joint and regular stereo, so don’t ask me about it.

When I save the songs, I make sure that I save them in the proper directory in my iTunes library (artist name/album name). As far as file names go, I just name them the title of the song. This comes in handy for the next step, editing the files’ ID3 tags.

 

As I said before, I do all my tagging in MP3Tag. I love its interface. After I drag the songs I want to tag into the program window,  I just have to do the following:

Once I have the songs highlighted, I click on the “Filename – Tag” button.

A closer look at the “filename – tag” button.

The “filename – tag” button creates an ID3 tag based on the filename. Since my filenames are the song titles, I just set the parameter “%title%” and it fills in the title field with the filename.

With all the songs still highlighted, I add the album, artist, genre and release year info.

MP3TAG is kind of a pain when it comes to track numbers, so I do that part in iTunes, after I’ve imported them into my library. And in case you’re wondering, I import my tracks into iTunes by creating a new playlist and dragging the songs into it. From there I can go into the song information, add track numbers, and make any other minor adjustments might be needed.

And that’s it! I now have my album recording, cleaned up, converted and tagged, ready for listening. Recording time not included, it usually takes me about 15-20 per LP, with 12″ singles and 45s taking no more than 10 minutes. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, some albums are so scratchy that I have to clean them manually, and if a record has a skip in it that’s a whole other beast. But for the most part it’s not that time-consuming, it only becomes a chore when I let 20 recordings sit on my hard drive for a week and I have to plow through them all in one sitting.  Even then, I find the process oddly soothing, like its something I can do to shut my brain off from the outside world and just zone out on for a bit.

 

Chapter 4 – Addendum/Tips

Properly Set Up Your Turntable
You could have a $100,000 turntable with a $10,000 cartridge, but it will all be for naught if you don’t set it up right. I almost wrote a guide for this as well, but there are a ton of them on the Internet already. Here’s a good one that should explain everything you need to know.

Clean Your Records!
If you’re buying used records, then you need to do your cartridge a favor and clean those bad boys before you plop them on your turntable. A record may look clean, but there could be boundless amounts of gunk, dirt, dust and grime hidden in its grooves. Not only does all that make your recordings sound worse, but it can even damage your records. You want to clean your records, and the best way to do that is with some sort of record-cleaning machine.  A lot of people recommend high-end motor-powered machines that can cost hundreds of dollars, but I don’t think you need to go that crazy. I use the Spin Clean Record Cleaner. It’s only $80, and it works wonders. You can find out more about it on their official website.

Some Records Just Sound Horrible
Vinyl is a physical medium, and with that comes physical flaws that cannot always be avoided or fixed. Scratches, warps and other signs of wear and tear are a way of life when you’re buying used records. But don’t assume that all new records are going to be flawless either. For example, I have never heard a 12″ single of the Eurythmics “Right By Your Side” that didn’t sound mis-pressed; I have three copies of the single to Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalker” that all skip in the exact same place; and my copy of The Chemistry of Common Life by Fucked Up came with a loud pop on the title track.

It sucks, but these things happen. Learn to live with them, fix them when you can, and don’t let your head explode worrying about them. Trust me. It’s for the best.

Don’t Get Discouraged!
This is probably the most important piece of advice I can offer. If you really want to record your records and you’re having a lot of problems getting everything to sound right – don’t give up! It took me years to really get my act together when it came to recording vinyl, and I’m still learning stuff every time I check out an audiophile message board or visit other MP3 blogs who do the same thing I do. Just keep at it, and you’ll get better!

And if you really love your music and the sound of vinyl, it’s totally worth it.

 

This is still not a blog post

May 17th, 2012

Public Image Ltd. – Commercial Zone (complete album download)

In 1983, Keith Levene and Pete Jones left Public Image Ltd. Considering the events that followed, it can be assumed that the split was not a clean one.

When Keith left the band, he didn’t leave empty handed. He took with him the master tapes to their yet-unreleased follow-up to The Flowers of Romance. As if that act of sabotage wasn’t enough, he then mixed and mastered the recordings on his own and put the album out under the title Commercial Zone. He did this without permission from anyone in the band or their label.

Think about that for a second. Think about how crazy that is. Imagine if that happened today. Dinosaur Jr. are recording a new album at the moment. Imagine if, after the sessions were mostly done, Lou Barlow just said “fuck it, I’m sick of J and his bullshit (again)” and, without telling anyone, he stole the master tapes to the album and put them on the Internet. But not just as a “fuck you,” but as an illegal bootleg release that you would have to actually buy. It just wouldn’t happen! He’d be able to get five copies out the door before the label would bust in and shut his ass down.

But I guess things were different in 1984, because Levene was able to make two complete pressings of this album and even sell it in American record stores for over a year before the label was able to successfully shut him down. As such, fans were able to get two entirely different versions of the same album in 1983/84, the Levene-mixed Commercial Zone, as well as the final version, This Is What You Want…This Is What You Get. Listening to them both back-to-back is a lesson in album production, as most of the songs on Commercial Zone found their way onto This Is What You Want… albiet in radically re-worked forms.

I was originally going to do a track-by-track rundown of the differences between the Commercial Zone and This Is What You Want… versions of the songs, but that’s really pointless because all the tracks were changed in the exact same way. While the Commercial Zone versions of the songs are incredibly stark and minimal, with Lydon’s caustic vocals the center of attention, the This Is What You Want versions are polished with an 80s shine. Synthesizers are amplified. Drum beats are made danceable. Horn sections are brought in. And the abrasive nature of Lydon’s voice is died down ever so slightly so the countless reverb and echo effects added to it wouldn’t drive the listener mad.

So which version is better?

While most die-hard PiL fans enjoy Commercial Zone more, I actually find This Is What You Want… to be a better record. Fans would say that Commercial Zone is better because it retains the non-commercial sound and feeling of the group’s previous records, and that’s precisely why I don’t like it as much.

I think that after the band recorded something as brutally antipop as The Flowers of Romance, they had no need to continue in that direction. There was nowhere else to go. To me, Commercial Zone sounds the group is still trying to hang on to that caustic, abrasive sound while still attempting to record something that has some sort of commercial aspirations. This Is What You Want… on the other hand, makes no attempt to hide its pop sensibilities and is a more honest, more engaging record because of it.

Still, Commercial Zone isn’t a bad record. And if you’re at all interested in studying how songs can evolve and change during the recording process, both it and This Is What You Want… are essential listening. Like a lot of stuff I’ve been posting recently, I originally posted Commercial Zone back in 2006/2007 that sounded like dogshit. Here’s a new rip that sounds a hell of a lot better.

Bonus Songs!

Public Image Ltd.
This Is Not A Love Song (12″ Remix)
(This Is Not A) Love Song (The Best Of British £1 Notes Version)
Probably my third-favorite PiL track behind “Disappointed” and “Rise,” “This Is Not A Love Song” is a wonderfully angry bit of bile, no matter which version you find. The original Commercial Zone take is still the harshest and most in-your-face, but I feel the upbeat tempo and added horn sections on the This Is What You Want… version make that version much more catchy and interesting, even if the song’s spiteful message is somewhat lost in the sheen. As it is one of PiL’s biggest hits, it’s been repackaged and re-released several times over, sometimes in versions that differ from both the Commercial Zone and This Is What You Want… takes.

The 12″ remix, is really more of a dub version of the track, and removes almost all of Lydon’s vocals aside from the very opening. While this version is undoubtedly weaker as a result, the instrumental does a good job of standing on its own, and it also makes for a killer workout mix tune.

One of the most interesting versions of the song, however, is the version that’s on John Lydon’s greatest hits record, which features tracks all the way from The Sex Pistols to his late-90s solo work. This alternate version (which is not labeled as such) sounds like a mix of the song that was made in between the Commercial Zone and This Is What You Want… versions. It’s more polished and produced than the original version, but its still way rougher and abrasive than the final version that made the album. It’s actually probably my favorite take of the track, keeping most of the anger and spite of the original, while injecting a bit of the energy and excitement from the final version.

Listen to all three back-to-back-to-back and tell me which one you prefer. Just, go hug a kitten or something later, that’s a lot of Lydon angst to be carrying around with you.

And don’t forget that PiL has a new album coming out in a couple weeks! Get that too! It should be rad!

 

More Random Electronic Music

May 16th, 2012

Lost Turntable news!

The long-awaited, incredibly-overdue, far-too-complex, incredibly-well-written Lost Turntable Guide To Recording Vinyl will be published here within one week’s time! Now, that doesn’t mean this week, that means a week from today (Wednesday). I mean it. It’s actually almost done. I’m just polishing up the rough edges and adding in screencaps/photos. It’s turned into a damn epic, well over 4,000 words, and I’m going to have to split it up into multiple parts (which will all be published simultaneously).

I really hope it doesn’t suck.

Anyways, time I got something off my chest.

I usually love The A.V. Club. I think it’s one of the best entertainment sites on the web, with a good balance of light “Top 10” type articles and more in-depth quirky pieces that really examine pop culture in a unique way.

One of my favorite recurring features on the site is “Gateways To Geekery.” In it,  a writer looks at a fairly geeky piece of pop culture (Dr. Who, Pub Rock, Harvey Pekar) and breaks it down in a way that outsiders to the geekiness can understand, while giving examples of perfect points of entry for newcomers. It’s almost always just as educational as it is fun.

The latest Gateway To Geekery is on a topic that I consider myself a high-level geek on: 90’s ‘electronica.’ Like most people my age, I first got into dance and electronic music in the late 90s, cutting my teeth on stuff like Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy before discovering deeper acts like Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada and countless British drum and bass acts. A lot of the music from that time served as a major influence on my life, so I hold a great deal of nostalgia and fondness for it to this day. As such, I was very interested to read what the A.V. Club would recommend.

Oh well.

The article starts out decent enough, arguing that The Chemical Brothers are a good entry level band for those looking to explore the genre. But when the writer (more on that asshole in a bit) starts to talk about The Prodigy and Moby, things get a bit dicey.

First there’s this choice bit about Prodigy mastermind Liam Howlett:

“Liam Howlett earned his chart success with impeccably constructed tracks that showed off his ear for melody and drew from teen years spent gorging on hip-hop and jungle. “

As a commenter at The A.V. Club points out, Liam Howlett was born in 1971. Jungle/drum and bass didn’t exist as a genre until around 1990-91. Teenage Liam Howlett was not listening to jungle, as it did not yet exist.

From there, the author goes on to cover Moby (while finding ways to backhandedly compliment him along the way) and Underworld (oddly leaving out Darren Emmerson’s name entirely) before going on to Orbital. Most of this stuff is fine, if incredibly vague. It’s at the very end where the article falls apart.

First the writer concludes the main section of the piece by listing off other artists to make note of:

Leftfield’s dubby progressive house, Fatboy Slim’s lampshade-on-head chart pop, Lo-Fidelity All-Stars’ pub-Dadaism, and the jazz-noir of future Steven Soderbergh and Darren Aronofsky collaborator David Holmes are all worth exploring beyond the odd single or two.

All right on (although I don’t think this person knows what Dada is). But let’s take a look at what he says to avoid:

Almost anything called “big beat.”

You mean stuff like Fatboy Slim? The king of big beat? And while The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy were never strictly big beat artists, a lot of their early (great) stuff certainly has a lot of trappings of the subgenre. And by dismissing big beat entirely he’s also telling you to ignore Fluke, Lunatic Calm, Meat Beat Manifesto (partially) and the Dub Pistols. All acts whose discographies are well worth visiting.

The final bit of  the “what to avoid” section really takes the cake though:

A lot of the acts that arrived in the wake of The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy were the electronic equivalents of the dullard bro-rockers taking cues from Oasis at the time. Often lumbering, obvious, and oddly self-satisfied, acts like The Crystal Method, Bentley Rhythm Ace, Propellerheads, Death In Vegas, Groove Armada, and Apollo 440 now sound like relics.

This is stupid in two parts.

First of all, to dismiss an act simply because they came out in the wake of another, more innovative, act is ridiculous. Music scenes are built on the idea of artists drawing immediate influence from other artists. And yes, this does often lead to poor pathetic copycats (post-grunge, I’m looking at you), it doesn’t mean those other acts are without any merit.

But that’s not even the dumbest, most ignorant thing about that statement. The Crystal Method were taking cues from The Chemical Brothers? Let’s visit or discography timelines, shall we?

The Crystal Method’s first single was “Now Is The Time,” it was originally released in 1994. That’s a full year before The Chemical Brothers’ first single or album came out. (I know that they were making music as The Dust Brothers beforehand, but that didn’t really put them on the map).

So the idea that The Crystal Method were a Creed to The Chemical Brother’s Pearl Jam is nonsensical and chronologically impossible. Same for the Proppellerheads, their first single dropped in 1996, less than a year after The Chemical Brothers’. Groove Armada’s first singles were in 1997, far enough away for them to possibly cite The Chemical Brothers as an influence, but not far enough away for them to be second-generation copycats. Same for Death In Vegas and even Bentley Rhythm Ace.

(I can kind of give the writer Apollo 440 though.)

Sigh.

I get the point of this article, and why acts like Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher and Boards of Canada weren’t mentioned. It’s supposed to be an introduction to a genre, and nothing about a lot of the best electronic music of the late-90s is newbie-friendly. But to not mention The Orb, Goldie, Roni Size, Basement Jaxx or Faithless? That’s some of the best, most accesible electronic music of all-time! When you see those kinds of glaring omissions, along with the blatant factual errors that run rampant throughout the piece, it makes you wonder: what kind of electronic “expert” wrote this article? Who could be that clueless?

Then you see that the writer of the article was Scott Plagenhoef and it all makes a lot more sense.

Plagenhoef is the former editor of Pitchfork, the hispster online music mag. The place where music journalism and originality go to die, replaced with bullshit posturing and elitist second-guessing over what’s cool, what’s ironically cool, and what’s trying too hard to be ironically cool. How this asshat somehow got to be the goto electronic music expert for The A.V. Club just goes to show that you can bullshit your way into anywhere if you’re popular enough.

Even if portions of your article are nearly self-plagiarized from an entirely similar piece that you wrote for GQ just a month earlier.

Lazy fuck.

Lament the state of music journalism with me as you check out these great remixes, all culled from various 12″ singles.

Daft Punk
Around The World (Motorbass Vice Mix)
Teachers (Extended Mix)
Some of the commenters on the AV Club article bemoan that Daft Punk wasn’t mentioned. I can see their point, but it’s really not a legit complaint. Daft Punk only released one album in the 90s, 1997’s Homework and when you go back to that record now, it really pales in comparison to Discovery, which came out in 2000. Sure, “Around The World” may still sound great, even in remixed form, but a track like “Teachers”? It doesn’t hold up nearly as well.

BT
Mercury And Solace (Dub Mix)
Mecury And Solace (Quivvers Transatlantic Remix)
Another almost-but-not-quite act that one could consider for an “intro to electronica” playlist, BT’s body of work is just too damn diverse to serve as a friendly/easy introduction for anyone looking to get into electronic music today. At least nearly everything the dude has put out has been good to great. If you do know someone who you are trying to get into electronic music, you could do worse than this track, but I would also recommend “Blue Skies,” his rad collaboration with Tori Amos.

Orbital
Lush (1926 Trancedance Mix)
Orbital have a new album out don’t they? Any word? I want to check it out, but I knew they kind of ran out of steam when they called it quits before. This mix is early-90s Orbital. Prime stuff.

Moby
Go (Low Spirit Mix)
Go (Voodoo Child Mix)
So many people continue to hate on Moby and I just don’t get it. So he sold off all his music to commercials? So what? It’s not like he’s Rage Against The Machine or Anti-Flag, with some crazy punk rock anti-corporate stance. A Moby’s gotta eat! Let the dude make his cash. I’ve met Moby twice, he’s the nicest dude on the planet. Give it a rest already. These two mixes of “Go” are from a 1991 12″ single. Put them on your workout mix, it’ll work wonders.

The Crystal Method 
Busy Child (Taylor’s Hope for Evolution Mix)
The Dubeliscious Groove (Fly Spanish Version)
Now Is The Time (Secret Knowledge Overkill Mix)
Now Is The Time (Cloud 9 Mix)
Now Is The Time (The Olympic Mix) (Record Live In Atlanta)
$20 (or a cookie) to the person who can tell me how to pronounce “Dubeliscious.”

Random Electronic Music Post

May 11th, 2012

I’m on Instagram now! I don’t know how to link to my Instragram account from here, but if you follow me on Twitter you’ll get my Instragram updates. So now instead of me just talking about what I’m listening to on Twitter, you can SEE what I’m listening to on Instragram! Sure, it’s kind of pointless and stupid, but most fun things are, so don’t complain.

Moby
Porcelain (Clubbed To Death Version by Rob Dougan)
Porcelain (Futureshock Remix)
Porcelain (Futureshock Instrumental)
Porcelain (Futureshock Beats)
Porcelain (Live At Glastonbury 2003)
I’ve lost track of how many Moby cuts I’ve posted over the years. It’s a lot. I’ll probably post more. I’m a fan.

The original version of “Porcelain” is a beautiful song, but not one that I would have ever thought would lend itself to remixing. However, these excellent mixes prove me wrong. Each of them transform the track into something else entirely, while still retaining just enough of the original for them to keep the song’s beauty in tact. Meanwhile, the live version is a shockingly faithful rendition, with the biggest difference being that the back-up vocals are live instead of sampled.

The remixes are all taken from the “Porcelain” 12″ single or the CD single, while the live version is a rip from the DVD that came with some editions of Moby’s album 18.

Goldie 
Kemistry (V.I.P. Mix)
Still Life (V.I.P. Mix) (The Latino Dego In Me)
Just a couple days ago I was talking about Godley And Creme’s The History Mix Volume 1, and how confusing it is that there are three different versions of that record floating around. Well, the multitude of versions of Goldie’s seminal 1995 album Timeless are even more confusing. The album was originally released as a 2CD set that had 12 tracks in total. However, a single CD version was also made available. That version featured only eight songs, including “Sensual,” which is not on the 2xCD edition. Confused yet? Wait, there’s more.

There was also a 2LP vinyl version released. And while that version also had eight songs, they weren’t the same eight that were on the single CD version, it doesn’t even have the 2o-minute title track. What it does have are the two tracks above, which have never been released on any other version of the album, not even when the album was re-released a few years back with bonus cuts.

And in case you’re wondering a “V.I.P. Mix” is a remix done by the original artist. I guess it’s pretty pretentious to call you own mix the “Very Important Person” mix, but I think that’s actually less pretentious then putting your own name behind a remix of your own song.

Orbital
Belfast (Sasha vs The Light Remix)
Nothing Left (Les Rhythmes Digitales Remix)
Nothing Left (Breeder Remix)
Nothing Left (Pariah Remix)
Now, I could be wrong (I”m wrong a lot) but isn’t “Belfast” in itself a remix of “Nothing Left?” I mean, don’t they both have the trippy vocals by Allison (worst person I’ve ever interviewed in my entire life) Goldfrapp? If that’s the case, then wouldn’t that make this remix by Sasha a remix of a remix? We’re through the looking glass people!

Yeah, I was wrong and made a mistake because I mislabeled the tracks. What I said about Allison Goldfrapp is true though.

A Gay Disco Protest

May 8th, 2012

Congratulations North Carolina! You passed an amendment to ban gay marriage, making it the second amendment in your state to limit marriage rights. In case you were wondering, the first was in the 187s0, when you banned interracial marriage.

I don’t know about you, but news like that makes me want to dance to some incredibly gay disco as an act of defiance. I hope this post can serve as a soundtrack to a giant gay dance party in North Carolina, preferably one outside a church run by closet-case homophobes who all secretly want to drop the bibles and vamp out to “It’s Raining Men.” Specifically, I’m posting tracks from an album called 12 x 12. It’s a compilation of dance tunes that were produced by Patrick Cowley, a dance legend who passed away from AIDS in 1982, leaving behind a brief but vitally important legacy of amazing electronic disco that served as a huge influence for synthpop. Even if you don’t like disco, give this stuff a chance, you might be surprised.

And if you did, or would, vote to ban gay marriage, I hope you get outed as the closet case hatemonger you are. Fuckers.

Sylvester
Sex
Don’t Stop (Remix)
Be With You (Holland Remix)
Sylvester was one of the absolute queens of disco, never mind the fact that he was a man. My only experience with him before I bought this LP was his megahit “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” and he’s downright manly on that tune compared to his vocal delivery on these tracks. His voice caught me so off guard on “Sex” that I double-checked the linear notes to make sure I was listening to the right song and that it was indeed a man singing. If you like these tunes, then be sure to check out “Do You Wanna Funk” on iTunes or Amazon, the greatest track that Cowley and Sylvester made together. It’s epic.

Patrick Cowley
Megatron Man (Remix)
Menergy
Want to know where the Pet Shop Boys got their sound? Listen to this remix of  “Megatron Man” and you’ll find out. As for “Menergy,” that’s the second-gayest disco song of all-time, to find out about the first, keep reading.

Scherrie Payne
One Night Only
Scherrie Payne is Freda Payne’s little sister, and was in The Supremes for most of the 70s. This song is a remake of a track that was originally in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls. That version is a torch song ballad (geez that musical has a ton of those doesn’t it?), this version is a disco-tastic bit of fabulousness, it’s way better. I wonder if Cowley ever crafted his own version of “I Am Telling You I Am Not Going”? That would have been intense.

Jolo
Last Call
Jolo were Jo-Carol Block Davidson and Lauren Carter. I think they primarily served as vocalists for Cowley, but they did get a writing credit for this song, so they were perhaps more involved in the creative process than a lot of other singers of the era. This track is a typical “I hope I can find someone to go home with before the bar closes” number, but it’s still fun and has a great beat. The synthesized string interlude is excellent.

Modern Rocketry & Jolo
Cuba Libre (Remix)
Modern Rocketry have another track on this compilation, a discofied cover of The Monkees’ “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” that really has to be heard to be believed. You can get it on Amazon. As for who Modern Rocketry is, I’ll let their Last.FM profile speak for them:

“They’re not very well known – in fact they’re downright obscure – but what little fame they enjoyed was probably due to their 1985 release, best described as the gayest disco song ever. ‘Homosexuality,’ with its b-side of ‘Thank God For Men.'”

Shocking that a song like that didn’t have crossover appeal.

Jeanie Tracy
Don’t Leave Me this Way
Thelma Houston’s version of “Don’t Leave Me This Way” is one of the very few non-electronic disco tracks that I can appreciate at all, so finding this synthesizer-happy cover was a gift from the gods. Because if there’s anything the original version was missing, it was extraneous laser sound effects.

Jeanie Tracy was a big member of the Cowley camp, and she released several singles for Cowley’s Megatone record label, even after he passed away. She was also a very close friend of Sylvester’s, and reportedly cared for him as he lost his battle with AIDS in 1987.

Le Jeté
La Cage Aux Folles
Le Jeté released one single, and this is it. I know nothing about them, so if anyone wants to chime in that would be great.

Godley & Creme – The History Mix Volume 1: So good it makes me want to…well, y’know

May 6th, 2012

The History Mix Volume 1 has to be one of the weirdest albums of the 80s. There are multitudes to its weirdness that extend past the content of the record and into the nature of its release.

But first some background, The History Mix Volume 1 is an album by Godley & Creme, who were in the first incarnation of the 70s group 10cc. They left the band after their fourth album to continue as a duo. They never really achieved anything close to mainstream success in the 70s, and I really can’t tell you that much about them, because to be honest I don’t own anything by them other than this record (which I’ll get to). They did maintain some sort of cult status throughout the 70s and into the 80s however, and eventually found even more success behind-the-scenes, directing videos for Ultravox, Elton John, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, INXS, Sting and Yes.

If you’re a fan of 80s pop music (and you probably are if you’re here) then you probably notice a lot of Trevor Horn-related acts in that list. It’s pretty apparent that the pair became professional acquaintances with Horn during the early part of the decade, right when he was really starting to show his chops as a genre-hopping uber-producer and songwriter.

One of Horn’s more critically-acclaimed and groundbreaking projects of the early-80s was The Art of Noise, an avant-garde, experimental pop group that made heavy use of sound collage and the then new art of digital sampling. Godley & Creme were obviously fans of The Art of Noise (Creme even ended up in the group near the end of the 90s), because they recruited both Horne and J.J. Jeczalik to help work on The History Mix Volume 1, an album that exists in some sort of nebulous state between a record of entirely new material; a greatest hits compilation; and a remix record.

Most versions of the album primarily consist of two long-form tracks, “Wet Rubber Soup” and “Expanding the Business/The ‘Dare You’ Man/Hum Drum Boys In Paris/Mountain Tension.” Both tracks take elements from older Godley & Creme/10cc songs and sample them, restructuring the pop-rock tunes as uptempo dance tracks made for the club. From what I can tell, some samples are taken from the original songs, while others are samples of re-recorded versions. For instance “Wet Rubber Soup” uses some lyrics from 10cc’s “Rubber Bullets,” but they’re redone as a rap…which is odd.

What makes The History Mix Volume 1 even weirder is that when it first came out in 1985, two versions were released that were barely the same record. No matter which version you got, it included “Wet Rubber Soup,” which in itself contained a version of the hit single “Cry.” But some versions contained a second, single mix of “Cry” followed by the “Expanding The Business…” collage, while others instead featured four older songs by the duo: “Light Me Up,” “An Englishman In New York,” “Save A Mountain For Me” and “Golden Boy.”

Why? I have no idea. When the album was re-released on CD, most versions included all the tracks from both versions of the record. Today, all versions, CD, digital and vinyl, are out of print. Not only that, all of Godley & Creme’s previous records are all lost in the archives and only available as imports, if at all. The only song from the Godley & Creme discography that remains in print is “Cry” which was included on the 10cc greatest hits album.

So yeah, it’s a weird record with a weird history.

And one can only assume that Volume Two is TBA.

Godley & Creme – The History Mix Volume 1 (Both Versions)
Wet Rubber Soup
Expanding The Business/The ‘Dare You’ Man/Hum Drum Boys In Paris/Mountain Tension
Light Me Up
An Englishman In New York
Save A Mountain For Me
Golden Boy
Cry (Extended Version)
These are all the songs from both versions of the album, save for the single edit of “Cry” which you can get easily online. As a bonus, I’m also including the extended version of “Cry,” which is basically the same version that’s on the tail end of “Wet Rubber Soup,” but with its own intro. I freaking love that song. For a downer of a tune it sure pumps me up. Most of these tracks were taken from my US version of the album, while the “Expanding The Business…” collage was taken from the UK version, and the extended cut of “Cry” was taken from a 12″ single.

NO SLEEP TILL FUCK CANCER

May 4th, 2012

Beastie Boys
Rock Hard
Alive At Yauch’s House

 

 

 

fuck