Well, They Kept This One Quiet, Didn't They?

In spite of my assertion that remasters don't give me a music boner, much, here's one that makes me eat me woids and tent me shorts - something you don't want to witness unless you're into Japanese tentacle puke porn. This year's remaster of one of rock's shining Himalayan peaks slipped out without a word and is stupidly hard to find. As is usual with Spirit re-issues, it comes with an entire CD of file-and-forget live material, driftwood backing tracks and demos, but this here is the album as released, perfect as is, and more is less. It's also at Elon Musk's approved bitrate of @320, just for youse bums what fall into a girlish swoon at the thought of anything less baroque.

An astonishing piece of work, on the cusp of the zeitgeist between the sixties and the seventies and taking the best from both decades, Sardonicus is the full deck, the real deal. This brilliant, revelatory new remaster is the best it's ever sounded - how did it take so long? In the almost impossibly unlikely event of your not having heard the album yet - keep it to yerself, less you suffer our withering scorn and brutal contumely. For the rest of us it's like meeting an old friend - for the first time.

This post made plausible thru Tremolo - high four or five!

Davis Special! Dept.

The music curator/archivist Blank Frank had the idea for this, and put a lot of work into creating it. I'm happy to share my version with his approval.

Blank Frank's collection was titled differently (I went for the obvious) and the tracks were individually tagged with different covers and credited to different line-ups, making it (for me) a little unwieldy. I'm not an archivist, and this version unfairly reflects Blank Frank's knowledge and care, but it is perhaps more easily playable. It's also @192 - the apostolic bitrate o' Christ Jesus - where his was @320, the bitrate o' Shub-Niggurath (the Black Goat of the Woods).

Enjoy the music, eighty swellza-poppin' sides from 1950 to 1987, and visit Blank Frank's blog at https://and-your-bird-can-swing.blogspot.com (which appears inactive but he may have plans for further projects).

With thanks to Blank Frank.

Zig Zag Wandering With Steve Shark (Dept.)

UK rock magazine ZigZag was started by rock journalist and historian Pete Frame in 1969. Best remembered for the beautifully draughted rock family trees that were first seen in the magazine, Frame was also an A&R man for Charisma Records and the manager of Starry Eyed & Laughing, a UK band very heavily influenced by the Byrds.

In 1974, Zigzag was taken over by Tony Stratton-Smith, the founder of Charisma Records, and he decided to put on a concert with some of the ZigZag journalists' favourite acts. Frame was still a writer with the magazine and so had some input when it came to the line up - which may explain the first set!

The main sets in the show - at London's Roundhouse - were recorded but the tapes weren't released, and gathered dust until 2010, when Tony Poole of Starry Eyed & Laughing edited and remixed them for release. He did a great job, too.

There are 5 CDs in the case, with performances from Starry Eyed & Laughing, Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers, John Stewart, Help Yourself and Mike Nesmith.

Disc 1 - Starry Eyed & Laughing
This was the band's earliest recording and features material that would appear on their first studio release. I've mentioned these guys on the IoF© before, and if you like the Byrds, you'll probably like SEAL.

Disc 2 - Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Born out of the ashes of Mighty Baby (also featured previously on the IoF©), the band boasted Martin Stone and future Residents collaborator Phil "Snakefinger" Lithman. Much more rootsy than Baby, there's western swing, bluegrass, straight country, blues and rockabilly in there.

Disc 3 - John Stewart
Ex-Kingston Trio, Stewart enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in the 1970s. This set is mostly acoustic, but the last few numbers see him picking up an electric guitar. There's a beautifully stripped-down version of "Daydream Believer", which he wrote.

Disc 4 - Help Yourself
Featuring 3/5 (on the last couple of numbers at least) of the version of Man that was currently touring, this is the "heads'" set and features four long numbers with plenty of jamming. Unsurprisingly, Man fans will probably enjoy this disc. We've also met Man on the IoF© before.

Disc 5 - Mike Nesmith
Yet another IoF© featured artist! Bringing only Red Rhodes - pedal steel player extraordinaire - up on stage with him, this is a very intimate set from Nesmith. He was a ZigZag magazine favourite and it's lovely to hear him hold the audience completely spellbound. Just Mike's voice, his acoustic guitar and Rhodes' pedal steel - perfect.

To get this precious artefact - complete with copious artwork and sleevenotes - just state what your all time favourite live album is.  

Songs From An Eternal Well

You're probably thinking 'PTUI! Dese we gots awready, ya doofus! We wants Tree Dog Night!" But hold on, valued customer, because these are the DVD mixes. Remastering exercises don't give me a music boner - after a couple of tries, it's a marketing grift, and mostly the difference doesn't register as improvement. But remixing, si! - on account which I can hear the diff without squinting at a waveform analysis some snowflake-eared artifact-spotter put up at Steve Hoffman.

Remixed by Mickey Hart for DVD, these discs, even to my ears, even at the IoF©'s lower-than-a-snake's-nutsack bitrate, are a paranormal improvemink - cleaner, airier, deeper. You can hear the texture of the bass strings. Songs no longer fade out before their time, and sound fresh and new, with previously buried detail (steel guitar! background vox!) brought out into the light. Played after these, all other versions sound muffled, like there's something missing. Give them a try - and seek out higher bitrates if that floats your cracker. At the very least, the exercise will serve to remind you - if you needed reminding - what a blindingly perfect couple of albums they are. The Dead drew songs from an eternal well, sang as clear as starlight, and bless their shining souls.

Included at no extra cost for a satisfying consumer experience is The Angel's Share, the companion to American Beauty.

Check out gdforum for details.

Isle O' Foam© Newsdesk O' News Dept. - New Bitrate Compression Chamber Opened!

Hmm - this one's nearly cooked ...

Th' IoF© postbag is full of requests to show more of what happens "behind the scenes" on Fabulous False Memory Foam© Island! To satisfy enquiring minds [Osgood and Vilene Enquiringminds, Elbowrash, WIS - Ed.] we're giving sneak preview of new Bitrate Compression Facility! Oboy!

Subscribers may remember previous exposé featuring Professor U.U. Gefiltefish operating old Bitrate Compression machine! Unfortunately, during testing of new facility Prof got trapped inside chamber and compressed himself to minus value. Luckily he left full instructions for operation, assurance that radiation emitted during use "almost negligible". 

Shewn in above Foam-O-Graph© [above - Ed.], Real Boy Homunculus Howdy-Doody monitors controls! Note default bitrate setting on space-age digital display! Note Knitting Pattern Man With Pod Head relaxing with bucket of SubGenius Nuggets®! Note Sister Rholonne Déodoranté, th' IoF©'s popliar Religiousness Consultant, serving refreshments! Note discreet gold-plated spitoon in corner! Note many familiar decorative accoutrements devoid of meaning yet saturated with terrible significance!

Your V.I.P. visit to new facility is also fun-type interactive game! Can you and your skeevy "sports" bar pals descry long-playing L.P. in Compression Chamber? Extry points for glomming hidden image of Your Genial Host!

EDIT: Only Babs got this one - The Complete Book Of Hours from Green Pajamas. Great album, chock full o' chewns n' romantic malaise (which was to smother Jeff Kelly for later releases). High point: Under The Observatory, just achingly gorgeous.

This post made fungible thru endowment from Art Poppleheffer's Senior Hygiene World™, Scranton PA - 10% off his world-famous Catheter-n'-Varicose Vein Hose Combo to all who show this blog piece! "Wheel-ins welcome!"