Original ’67 stereo mix’s CD debut / 5.1 surround mix / Many outtakes
Universal Music are to put out a 50th anniversary deluxe edition of theThe Moody Blues‘ 1967 album Days Of Future Passed. The band’s second album was an orchestral rock concept album, and features their famous single, Nights In White Satin. It will be reissued as a three disc, 2CD+DVD set and one of the big selling point is the reversion to the very original 1967 stereo mix which was superseded in 1972 due to damage on the original master tape. All CD reissues have used this mix and not the ’67 original. Apparently, ‘technology’ has allowed the repair of the audio from the original tapes and so this original stereo mix gets its first CD release on this anniversary set. The first CD includes this and nine bonus tracks.
The second CD offers alternate versions and outtakes. In total this package has 33 audio tracks, which is seven more than the previous SACD/CD set.
The DVD element includes a 5.1 surround sound mix derived from the original 1972 Quad mix. Presumably, this is the same surround mix that was included on the now out-of-print 2006 SACD edition of this album. The original Quad mix was by Tony Clarke and Justin Hayward and John Lodge enhanced it for the 5.1 mix. This disc includes a hi-res stereo version and previously unreleased video footage of the band performing three tracks from the album at MIDEM on 24th January 1968, eight weeks after its release.
You do wonder why they haven’t opted for a blu-ray audio here, to allow for lossless 5.1 surround mix. Likely to be a budget-related issue since DVDs are cheaper to author and manufacture. Regardless, it’s certainly much cheaper than tracking down the previous SACD version. This 2CD/DVD set will be issued on 1th7 November 2017.
It’s just a 19 minutes long EP, rather than a full album. But the first recordings by Melbourne Australia’s TheOutdoor Type will make you want to hear more. The group has a bright alternative-pop-rock sound, made intimate by folky harmonicas and sweet melodies. Zack Buchanan leads the five man band, using conversational vocals that make obvious his Aussie accent. He’s at his most earnest in , “Day To Day” which features a Groundhog Day-like plot. Even better is the single, , “On My Mind” which may be the catchiest song of this summer. It has a witty, deadpan vocal and a Velvet Underground riff that’s pure bliss.
Melbourne songwriter The Outdoor Type writes of modern Australian suburban life. Sonically, a blend of alt-country guitars and analogue synth drones, his music is reminiscent of home-grown artists from the late 80’s.
Coming just after Blaenavon’s Prague ’99 EP, here is a video for the title track directed by Kit Monteith – a frequent collaborator of Foals and Toothless.
“The song is so dynamic – intricate at times as well as soaring and majestic. We wanted to make sure the visuals matched up to this and developed a technique where all these sides could be seen at once; combining slow motion and normal speed action within the same shots. However, the track is more complex still, there is sadness yet strange celebration within it and this more emotive side is where we wanted to experiment in making Ben’s psyche a character in itself. We wanted to create a surreal space where Ben could start to blend with a female presence and for this merging of forms to be the visual backdrop to the fragility, anguish and intensity of his performance on the track. It was also just a nice excuse to see a Blaener in the buff.”
The song also appears on their debut album which came out earlier this year – That’s Your Lot. It’s been an incredible year so far as a result, with tonnes of great reviews, shows alongside Sundara Karma, The Sherlocks, alt-J, Two Door Cinema Club and Circa Waves, as well as all their festival appearances. They’ll be back out on tour in November, with their biggest show yet at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London.
Comacozer’s name almost seems like a portmanteau of “coma” and “bulldozer,” and that perfectly describes their sound. Sydney’s three (sometimes four) biggest Monster Magnet and Earthless fans wield cosmically heavy riffs in the service of putting the listener into a trance. Kalos Eidos Skopeo, the title of their second album, also forms a portmanteau in Greek: kaleidoscope. The ever-shifting textures found within hold the same fascination as the beautiful forms created by the glass lenses of the record’s namesake device. These blues for the red sun come in every color.
Instrumental psych space doom from Sydney, Australia. Recorded JUNE 2017 at FRANK ST STUDIOS. SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA . close your eyes….lose your mind….take the journey thru space and time…
Comacozer IS:
RICK BURKE – GUITARS
RICH ELLIOTT – BASS
ANDREW PANAGOPOULOS – DRUMS / PERCUSSION
FRANK ATTARD – SYNTH / EFFECTS
Dream Cycle is a 9+ minute study on the surreal and slippery quality of dreams, written in 2014. The lyrics came from a dream journal I kept in a note on my phone at the time, detailing the most bizarre and vivid dreams I had. When it came time to select demos for what would become the full-length album Probable Depths, two of these sketches – ‘Nest’ and ‘Spaceship’ – made the cut. The rest still exist solely in this haze of ideas, a smattering of skewed images and curious sounds hovering in the space just beyond the dream. I’m excited to share ‘Dream Cycle’ now as a relic of my past, a marker of time, and a unique tributary for some of the songs on Probable Depths.” – Nandi Rose Plunkett
In 1969, The Who released their classic rock opera Tommy, which has gone on to be considered one of the most influential rock albums of the time. Emboldened by the success of Tommy, the group decided to capitalise on their success by recording yet another rock opera, this time, one called Lifehouse. Intended to be an album that focused on a post-apocalyptic world, the original version of the album was scrapped in favour of creating a more straightforward rock album.
The album they chose to record instead was Who’s Next?, one of the group’s most famous records. Containing tracks such as ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, and ‘Baba O’Riley’, the album was made up of abandoned ideas from Lifehouse. The group would later revisit ideas from the abandoned sessions on their record Who Are You. While we may never know what Lifehouse was going to sound like, we did manage to get Who’s Next? instead, so maybe this one was actually for the best.
This is what “Who’s Next”, the greatest official rock album ever made in my opinion, would have been with some changes and additional songs, a complete rock opera.
The resulting album “Who’s Next”, and in an ironic twist of fate the failure of the Lifehouse project made Who’s Next a greater album than it could have been as simply Lifehouse’s soundtrack. Enough material was recorded for a two-record set but the band decided to release a single album. Townshend explained:
“We were gonna do a whole thing, Then we figured it would be far better to just pick the best stuff out and make it a good, hard, rock-solid album ’cause we were afraid of doing what the Beatles did, just laying ourselves wide open like they did with their double album and making it so that there was too much, too many unlinked ideas which to the public would look like untogetherness, despite the fact that it’s always there in the background.”
Over the years, Townshend never really let go of Lifehouse. As songs from “Smile” did for The Beach Boys, bits of the abandoned project surfaced through the years, on subsequent Who albums.
Some of the Lifehouse songs ended up on Pete’s first solo album, “Who Came First”, including “Let’s See Action” and “Pure and Easy”.
“Pure and Easy” also found a home on 1974’s “Odds and Sods” album.
“Slip Kid” ended up on 1975’s “The Who By Numbers” album.
“Music Must Change”, “New Song”, “Sister Disco” and “Who Are You” were on 1978’s “Who Are You” album.
Tracks
00:00:00 “Pure and Easy” 00:04:22 “Baby Don’t You Do It” (Holland—Dozier—Holland) Live at the Young Vic 26/4/71: 00:09:36 “Naked Eye ” 00:15:07 “Water” 00:21:33 “Bony Moronie” (Larry Williams) 00:24:56 “Too Much of Anything” 00:29:21 “Time Is Passing” 00:32:51 “I Don’t Even Know Myself” 00:37:47 Studio Dialogue 00:38:34 “Behind Blue Eyes” New York Record Plant session: 00:42:00 “Baby Don’t You Do It” (Holland—Dozier—Holland) 00:50:22 “Getting In Tune” 00:56:57 “Pure and Easy” 01:01:31 “Love Ain’t For Keeping (Electric Version, Townshend on lead vocals)” 01:05:34 “Behind Blue Eyes” 01:09:02 “Won’t Get Fooled Again” 01:17:50 “Water” 01:22:30 “I Don’t Even Know Myself (Cancelled EP Version)” 01:26:38 “Pure and Easy” All tracks composed by Pete Townshend unless otherwise noted.
check out these sessions too,
Teenage Wasteland– Pete Townshend Going Mobile– The Who Baba O’Riley– The Who Time is Passing– The Who Love ain’t for Keeping– The Who- The album version combined with the electric outtake version Bargain– The Who Too much of Anything– The Who Greyhound Girl– Pete Townshend Mary– Pete Townshend Behind Blue Eyes– The Who outtake version I Don’t Even Know Myself– The Who Put The MoneyDown– The Who Pure and Easy– The Who Getting in Tune– The Who Let’s see Action– The Who Relay– The Who Join Together– The Who Won’t Get Fooled Again– The Who The Song is Over– The Who
After almost thirty years, Pete Townshend was finally able to bring some conclusion to the Lifehouse project with the release of the LIFEHOUSE CHRONICLES in February of 2000. The set consists of 6 discs including demos, the 1999 radio play and various remixes. The Lifehouse Chronicles can be purchased exclusively through Pete’s official merchandise site http://www.eelpie.com.
Kevin Morby’s new Woodsist imprint, Mare Records, is building a solid repertoire, first with the release of Shannon Lay’s sensitive LP, Living Water, and today with the lead single from Anna St. Louis’ First Songs. “Fire” is a fine introduction to the LA-via-Kansas City singer-songwriter’s guitar-driven Midwestern folk.
Despite her last name, Anna St. Louis was born and raised in Kansas City. She grew up a painter and singing in punk bands, eventually leaving her hometown to attend art school in Philadelphia. After graduating she made the move to Los Angeles where she began teaching herself guitar, writing songs and recording them on her own in her bedroom. First Songs is the sound of someone discovering their talent in real time – a peak into the collage of a wonderful mind that is absorbing their new surroundings and using new tools to put them into the room. Listening to this collection you can feel the sun coming in through the window – Anna on the foot of the bed with a guitar on her knee, finding her voice. St. Louis wears her influences well – think Patsy Cline singing over John Fahey – but has a style all her own. And while you can take the artist out of the midwest, you can’t take the midwest out of the artist – so let this be known; this is Midwestern music ran through a California filter. I believe Anna will have many more releases in her lifetime,
Melbourne scratchy pop favourites The Stevens reveal Pulling All The Facts Together, the second single from their simply titled new album Good.
First single Chancer was premiered on NPR last month, and now “Pulling All The Facts Together”, calling it “a song that brims with harmonies and pop smarts.” . What’s more, Good is now up for pre-order via the Chapter Music webstore or Bandcamp . The album came out on July 14th on vinyl, CD and digital, and pre-orders come with instant downloads of both Chancer and Pulling All the Facts Together.
Good picks up where the Stevens’ 2014 debut A History Of Hygiene left off – 18 short songs, alternately frenetic or laconic, packed with twists and hooks that merge lo-fi outsider songcraft with 70s prog wizardry and classic rock swagger.
The Stevens formed in 2011 around guitarists Alex Macfarlane (Twerps, Tyrannamen) and New Zealand-born Travis MacDonald, and were soon joined by bassist Gus Lord (Twerps, Boomgates, Tyrannamen) and drummer Matt Harkin.
Following a tough year in 2016 that saw her spend several months recovering after a serious fall, Sabrina Lawrie has bounced back in a big way. Having signed with nascent local label Pig City Records late last year, Lawrie released her long-awaited debut full-length, “Hush The Mountain”, in March this year.
While her renown may not extend as far as some of her fellow Australian contempoaires, those who know her — and know her extensive history as part of Brisbane’s musical fabric — love her fiercely, and her dedicated following in addition to her considerable talent could prove the ace up her sleeve to contend with some of her better-known contemporaries. In describing Hush The Mountain, 4ZZZ’s Andrew Bartlett described the album as “definitely one out of the top drawer”, noting that “the variety and richness within and across the nine tracks certainly have the feel of something that has been developed, crafted and matured over time”.
“The Last DJ” is the eleventh studio album from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The tracks “The Last DJ”, “Money Becomes King”, The former is a bitter lament for the loss of free thought in pop culture, using the DJ as a truth-telling seer; the latter is a rewrite of “Into the Great Wide Open,” all about a favorite artist who sells out. Both are didactic with their tortured metaphors and stretched narratives, but they seem subtle compared to the fourth song, “Joe,” a heavy-handed tirade about a record company CEO that is unbearable as its awful, and “Can’t Stop the Sun” are attacks on the greediness of the music industry. These front-loaded tracks obscure the lovely “Dreamville,” the best song here.
Although he first claimed that the album and title track were both works of fiction, Petty later admitted that both were inspired by Los Angeles DJ Jim Ladd, although he had already claimed this on Ladd’s radio show, prior to the album’s release. The album also marks the return of original Heartbreaker Ron Blair on bass guitar, replacing his own replacement, the ailing Howie Epstein. His return was late in the recording process however, and Petty and Campbell contributed most of the bass work themselves.
In an episode of The Simpsons titled “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation”, Homer receives song-writing lessons from Tom Petty, and in the original airing the track “The Last DJ” can be heard playing over the radio in the final scene. The song “Dreamville” is played at the end of the DVD that was released to commemorate the 2002 Anaheim Angels’ World Series win.
A “limited edition” digipack version of the album was also released, including a DVD of music videos and other footage shot during the album’s production.
