Right, so each blog post is going to be a single tape.
Don't know if I'm going to tracklist all of them, there's over 100 tapes!
As to the '109' bit, that's where, at some point in or around 2000, It tried to run up an excel spreadsheet of all the tracks on all the tapes and numbered the tapes accordingly.
Next thing; don't get excited if something like 'Tribe called quest' appears at the top and no one has ever heard of a tribe called quest session! Back then, I used to seriously believe taping off a single was the same as having it.
To think these days I quibble at 320kbps mp3s!
Anyway, let's get the technical bit over with first. I'm starting out with an Ion Tape Express.
http://www.ionaudio.com/tapeexpress
Whether or not this is the best way to go, I'm not sure, but I have to start somewhere as some of these tapes are decaying and my budgets limited.
I'm using a mac, os 10.6, with the included EZ Audio Converter software, coupled with a beta of Adobe Audition for Mac to do any cleaning up.
More on the technical later, if I feel I need to.
So; what's on the tape?
Collapsed Lung - Radio 1 Evening Session repeat - 3 tracks
Echobelly - 'Give her a gun' (Radio 1 Evening session)
Bluetones live from ? (10/03/1995)
Tracks from the artists listed above that are normal singles.
We kick off with collapsed lung. A band from harlow I love, it has to be said and this was my treasured recording of their evening session. From what Lamacq says (and it's kind of ironic - he ran Deceptive - the label they were signed to), this session was transmitted between Nihal leaving and Jim Burke taking over on vocals.
'Chainsaw Wedgie' - can't say this version is particularly awesome. Bit limp and either it's me or this tape player is a tad wobbly (think it's me on later reflection), 'Pitchfork' is much better, meaty version, they sound into it. 'Thundersely Invacar' is a 'naked' version (in other words, more live instruments, less samples and decks). It's not bad - though again, sounds strained. Half of it missing too.
It occurs to me this sounds like Nihal up front, so perhaps this was recorded when he was about to leave.
Either way, nothing amazing. I'm assuming the track I'm missing here is 'Connection' which I've got on a cd anyway.
Next up, a single track by Echobelly. From some information I found online this is the 22nd Feb 1994 recording of 'Give her a gun', you can pick it up on the Australian Insomniac single.
It confirms most of what I always thought about Echobelly, which is that they weren't very interesting and her vocals were pretty awful.
Next, a whole gig by the Bluetones. Who I used to think were amazing. It's got XFM stabs through it, and I've no idea where it's from.
Tracklist (as written on a tape side);
1 - Are you blue or are you blind
2 - Cut some rug
3 - String along
4 - Bluetonic
5 - Slight Return
6 - Carn't Be Trusted
7 - Fame And Again
Good quality, but lord knows it's not as good a gig as I'd have thought they were capable of. This is quite a depressing tape to kick off with all told. Whilst the instrumentation is good, the backing vocals are often shoddy and the sounds sound rushed at times. Mind you, I'm assuming this is quite early in XFM's life, so maybe they'd not got gig recordings down yet. Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit.
Last track
Supergrass - Stone Free (Live), which seques into 'Lenny' but cuts off.
It's a decent recording but Supergrass butcher this.
Absolutely no idea where it's from.
Side B to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment