J. K. & Co. - Suddenly One Summer (1968) [US Original]

J. K. & Co. - Suddenly One Summer (1968)

Original USA Terre Haute pressing

White Whale – WWS 7117 (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip at 96 kHz / 24 bit + full hi-res scans!~

The marvelous J. K. & Co. album -- a long-time favorite of myself and many -- is a collection of magnificent psychedelic vistas painted in Vancouver, B.C. by young musician Jay Kaye along with a stellar cast of Canadian musicians, including young composer Robert W. Buckley (of Spring), sitarist Craig McCaw (from the Poppy Family), guitarist Rodger Law (of Mother Tuckers Yellow Duck), and producer Robin Spurgin (who also worked with MTYD, along with the Collectors, the Painted Ship, the United Empire Loyalists, and others). Unlike the plethora of "underground" psychploitation garbage that emerged from this era, J. K. & Co.'s sole recorded output is a genuine acid-fueled psychedelic classic, as confirmed by numerous adventurers since its original release. There are few tracks that can soothe out a bum trip like "Fly"! The fact that this record was created by Jay Kaye as a teenager adds immensely to its legend, as the tracks are lyrical and mature, enveloping love, innocence, drugs, and death into a cosmic concept album of ambitious proportions.

Original front cover artwork, conceptualized by Gerhart Sommer.
The photography is by Ray Leong (the Seeds, Sky Saxon, The Mothers, and others).

One look at the album cover will tell you exactly the type of music Suddenly One Summer contains: free-flowing, sunny American psych-rock with retrospective tones of peace and nostalgia. Dressed in a white kaftan in front of the pastoral Tahquitz Canyon near Palm Springs, California (top left) is Jay Kaye himself, then a 16-year-old boy from Las Vegas, Nevada, who had grown up in quite a musical family. His mother, Mary Kaye, was a well-known singer in an internationally-acclaimed lounge trio, and his grandfather Johnny Ukulele was one of the world's premier players of the instrument. Jay's tastes were quite different, though, with his songs drawing upon his love of the Beatles, whose influence undoubtedly shines through on Suddenly One Summer. 

The story as originally told by Efram Turchick in the booklet of BeatRocket's (Sundazed) reissue is the following: in early 1968, Jay traveled with his mother to Vancouver for a musical stint at Izzy's Supper Club. It was there that Jay met producer Robin Spurgin, who was hoping that Mary would be able to record a few songs -- but she declined. Jay took advantage of the situation to enthusiastically offer some of his own work: "I went to the studio and played a couple of my songs, and they flipped!"

Spurgin introduced Jay to Robert Buckley, another teenager, and one who could play over a dozen instruments.  Buckley worked with Jay to translate his ideas into amazing arrangements: "It was beyond my expectations! I knew what I wanted to hear, and he did far more. I'd play my songs for him, tell him what I heard, what I'd like to hear, and he made it possible. On 'Fly,' the intro to that is a backwards piano. Robert wrote it out, and then we wrote the score backwards. And he played the score backwards, so that when we played the tape forwards, the score came out right. So all those backwards decaying effects, that's how that was done."

Together with several local studio musicians, the group worked for months to create a full musical album. Drugs played no small role in its inspiration, according to Jay: "From the sound of the album, I'm sure you've surmised that it was a lot of psychedelic experiences. That whole album was an experimental learning experience for me. It was actually a spiritual realization through LSD. My main reason for taking LSD was to find a relationship to God, or whatever you want to call that force that permeates everything. That's one of the first things that I realized, that life and death is just a transition. Being enlightened... that was part of the whole thing back then, getting closer to one's self and becoming one with life." The influence of a higher power does not seem to manifest musically in the lyrics; nonetheless, the poem on the back cover undoubtedly references the well-known hymn "How Great Thou Art."

After the album was complete, Jay traveled with Spurgin to Los Angeles, California, where they again met up with Mary Kaye (who had recently relocated to North Hollywood). Benefiting from her notoriety, the duo easily found audience with executives at Capitol Records, bringing their tape along. As Jay recalls, "They liked the songs, but they wanted to completely redo it. We put so much work in; I really believed in the way the album was." They decided to take their chances somewhere else, and visited White Whale. "We went in and played the tape for them, and they flipped! The name of the album was by Ted Feigin, the president of White Whale. Actually it was more from his perspective, because we just walked in there off the street, one summer day."

Original rear cover slick for the LP, featuring a poem likely written by J. K.

The album begins with the short experimental soundscape "Break of Dawn", composed from a faded-in police siren, a stream, & fire crackling, all slowly rising before suddenly 'breaking' with the clatter of what sounds like a wooden wind chime slowed down. This introduction -- apparently supposed to symbolize the birth of a man -- quickly fades into what is probably the band's most memorable track, "Fly," a dreamy, floating psych masterpiece built from backwards piano, a tack piano (forwards), an echo-laden flute, drums with backwards cymbals, some vibraphone, Jay's voice, and a bunch of other sound effects I haven't figured out yet. Frankly, it's a remarkable studio achievement for 1968.

Without pause, the reverberations transition into "Little Children," and ode to the innocence of childhood. The basic tracks are formed from drums, harpsichord, Jay's vocals, horns, and flute, with all wind instruments overdubbed by one Robert Buckley. The central section of the song is a round of the children's song "Frère Jacques," played on flute and saxophone, and kids can be heard playing outside at a preschool near Spurgin's first recording studio in the background. This composition is charmingly followed by the electric bass-driven "Christine" -- undoubtedly a Revolver-influenced pop song, complete with teenage love lyrics and tastefully-added horn interludes.

For me, the guitar jam "Crystal Ball" which follows, including its 14-second build-up "Speed," sounds incredibly dated and is the weakest point of the album; nonetheless, it lasts just over a minute before we are treated to "Nobody," one of the album's highlights. Jay's voice quavers over two layered acoustic guitars strummed in synchrony -- one in either stereo channel -- and a church organ accenting the fills. It's a dark song of seclusion and depression, aching for lost times and memories, and escapism:

"My happiness is in a needle
I will escape for another day
Pain is my pleasure
Loneliness is my friend..."

It's worth reflecting on how incredibly powerful this is -- and how it must have sounded in 1968. There were very few popular artists who had the guts to cut a track with this subject matter at this time (the Velvet Underground and Steppenwolf are the only ones that come to mind). Side 2 continues this theme with "O.D.", which, for you non-English natives, means "overdose": a powerful proto-acid rock song which starts out with a sax crescendo underlain by pulsating piano & erupting into a powerful fuzz-guitar laden melody:

"The man with the glass in his eyes is on the bed
He's so quiet, is he sleeping or is he dead?
He told me to bring him the saddle and horse which he scored
He thanked me for bringing them in, and he closed the door..."

This is followed by the chorus, with Jay's 'screams' of a man overdosing on heroin ("saddle and horse"). The song suddenly cuts into a funeral-like horn arrangement:

"Come everybody, now fold your hands and bow your heads,
The man that was trapped by the horse now is pronounced dead..."

I can only imagine the shock this might have caused coming out of speakers in 1968. But how many people understood the lingo at that time? "Johnny, go to your room and put on that nice record about the man and his horse."

The mood is immediately lifted by the lilting "Land of Sensations & Delights," almost certainly an allusion to the realm of LSD ("You'll climb and climb until you reach your peak..."), though the most acid-powered track to my ears is "Magical Fingers of Minerva," a single-chord drone overlain with sitar and oscillating organ, driven primarily by a thumping, repetitive bass line accented by low tom on the drums, eventually fading into the sound of the wind. The lyrics touch on themes of consciousness, spirituality, and transcendence; Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom (and music), whose otherworldly force attempts to awaken the listener.

The album closes with "Dead," a musically diverse piece which explores the feeling of death. Producer Robin Spurgin can be heard reciting funeral proceedings from the Order for the Burial of the Dead, from the Christian Book of Common Prayer, in the latter half of the song. "'Dead' was written by Jay because there was a presence or a spirit, or whatever you want to call it, in my studio," Spurgin recalls. "Part of that burial service was fit to have him out of the picture, because he was interfering with the production! Jay would actually see him; I would sense that he was there." Musically the latter section is built from a piano playing mysterious chords built off a whole-tone scale, echo-drenched percussive sounds, and a guitar snaking through the sound of shovels piling dirt into a grave. After the fade out, we are finally treated to a few-second reprise of "Fly"; as Jay explains, "it's just the end of that whole sequence of those songs, and then it goes to the beginning, you know, at the end."

Review in Billboard Magazine, 20 July 1968

Full-page ad in the Los Angeles Free Press, 16 Aug 1968

Advertisement for an 8-track version of the album, manufactured by GRT (misspelled GTR) – Billboard Magazine, 7 July 1968

Advertisement for an 8-track version of the album, manufactured by RCA – Billboard Magazine, 17 Aug 1968

Suddenly One Summer was rapidly pressed and released in July 1968 and was immediately available on both vinyl and 8-track cassette, with several variations in both formats manufactured by various external facilities across the US. It was also available in Canada, and contemporary publications suggest that it was released in the UK and Australia as well, though perhaps only as an American import and not a domestic pressing. The album seems to have sold relatively well, owing to the prevalence of copies today, and White Whale seems to have spent quite some effort promoting it. Jay's cousin John Kaye recalls: "I can remember driving with my aunt and her manager in a limousine to go meet with Jay. We went down Sunset Boulevard and drove by Wally Heider's Music City, and the album was in every window, going around the corner of that store, on both sides. It seemed like the promotion deparment for White Whale put that record everywhere." However, that same department unbelievably decided that the 32-second "Break of Dawn" should be a double-sided single, which certainly failed to provide adequate promotion. Jay laments this: "It could have been more than what it was, marketing-wise, on White Whale's part, but that's all history now."

Blurb in Billboard Magazine, 31 Aug 1968

Blurb in Cash Box, 3 Aug 1968

Blurb in Billboard Magazine, 27 July 1968

Jay, realizing that now was his opportunity to go on tour, quickly assembled a trio consisting of cousin John on bass & harmony vocals and friend Rick Dean on drums, and started playing any gig they could get. As John Kaye recalls, "There was a three-month period there, when all the hype about the record was coming out, Jay locked himself away into his room and learned to play lead guitar like nobody's business. We were all living in the San Fernando Valley, and we had a big rehearsal hall on Sepulveda Boulevard, built into the back of a house sitting on two and a half acres, and we had everything brought to us as far as musical equipment goes. From what I understand, someone had power of attorney over our group to spend the money whatever way they deemed necessary. So we never really saw any money, other than in the form of musical equipment." Over the next few years, the group's sound apparently became more hardened under the influence of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, though no more recordings appear to have been made. The group met their demise in the early 1970s: "We just kind of separated ways," according to John. 

Other than the strange, uncredited appearance of side 1 in its entirety on The Early Writings Of Zager & Evans (And Others) in 1969, and an Italian bootleg in the interim years, the album was basically forgotten until 2001 when Bob Irwin of Sundazed Music officially reissued it on his BeatRocket subsidiary. While much dubious information has been shared regarding the source of this reissue online (not uncommon with Sundazed releases), the facts are that side 1 was sourced from tape (probably a safety copy) with more tape noise and a reduced treble response compared to the original LP, while side 2 was sourced from vinyl, with digital processing to (partially) clean it up. The clear and obvious difference between the original pressing and even side 1 of this reissue seems to suggest that the original master tapes have been lost or destroyed, which is a huge shame considering that this is one of the highest classics of the genre, in more ways than one!

After comparing 3 original pressings of this classic LP, in addition to the conjoined Zager & Evans set, I settled on a US pressing from the Columbia facility in Terre Haute, Indiana for this restoration, having the cleanest and clearest sound quality of those that I auditioned. The usual manual restoration job meant that it took many hours of labor to produce a pristine digital master, though I am confident that it beats all reissues of this record and shall stand the test of time as the best way to hear this indisputable classic.

Vinyl condition: Near Mint (NM) / Mint Minus (M-)
Dynamic Range: DR 11

R.I.P.  Jay Kaye, 1953 - 2015
Songwriter, guitarist, and "musician for life"

Musicians:
- Jay Kaye: songwriting, vocals, acoustic guitar(?)
- Robert W. Buckley: arrangements, winds (flute, saxophone),
        keyboards (piano, harpsichord, organ)
- Doug Edwards: electric guitar
- Rodger Law: "country" electric guitar (tr. 10)
- Brian Newcombe: electric bass
- Paul Grant: drums, percussion
- Craig McCaw: sitar (tr. 11)
- Robin H. Spurgin: production, recitation (tr. 12)

Track listing:
1) "Break Of Dawn" -- 0:34
2) "Fly" --  4:42
3) "Little Children" -- 3:06
4) "Christine" -- 2:13
5) "Speed" -- 0:14
6) "Crystal Ball" -- 1:04
7) "Nobody" -- 4:04
8) "O.D." -- 3:19
9) "Land Of Sensations & Delights" -- 1:48
10) "The Times" -- 2:23
11) "Magical Fingers Of Minerva" -- 2:53
12) "Dead" -- 4:30

Equipment / Lineage:
– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge
– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)
– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply
– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)
– Adobe Audition CC 2024 (recording)
– iZotope RX 11 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)
– Audacity 3.7.1 (fades between tracks, split tracks)
– Foobar2000 v2.24.5 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
MEGA: https://mega.nz/folder/Bo1QSD4T#nZsR6FRPRsIKKX73UIk8Kw

Enjoy!  :) 

 

Canned Heat - "Going Up The Country" / "One Kind Favor" [Mono Single]

Canned Heat - "Going Up The Country" b/w "One Kind Favor"

Original 1968 mono 45 RPM single
Liberty – 56077  (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip at 96 kHz / 24 bit + full high-resolution scans!~

Canned Heat was one of my favorite bands as a teenager, and all these years later, they still top blues-based psychedelic rock 'n' roll in my ledger. Over the past year, I've been greedily collecting Canned Heat 45s in the pursuit of finding ideal copies to upgrade our digital archives. I present the first set of those upgrades here, with the unique, dedicated mono mix of the band's popular Woodstock anthem, backed with an equally dedicated mono mix of the fuzzed-out blues standard "One Kind Favor." Both tracks are of course essential listening for the genre, and should already be well-known by most readers here. These new masters also have better sound quality than any commercial digital release, making them essential for you to download right now.

Original American picture sleeve design for the 45 RPM single

The amalgamation of 1920s acoustic blues standards with the freedom sound of 1960s psychedelia was a winning combination for many groups of this era, but amongst their widely varied competition, the Heat truly had something special. As with their first big hit ("On The Road Again"), their song "Going Up The Country" was sung by Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson in his characteristic falsetto style, giving it a feeling of freedom and of reckless youth that the lyrics depict so well.

While this legendary rural hippie anthem is credited on the label to the same lead vocalist/guitarist, it pays tribute (in the very least) to an old 1920s blues song called "Bull Doze Blues" by Henry Thomas, and is basically a carbon copy of the melody and arrangement from that original tune. Wilson, however, tweaked Thomas' words in a small but significant way. Thomas' original opening verse gives the impression of a man parting ways, and leaving his love behind:

I'm going away, babe, and it won't be long
I'm going away, and it won't be long
I'm going away, and it won't be long

This idea was spun by Wilson in a more positive, outgoing light, better reflected by the song's upbeat tempo; where Thomas dismisses his "babe", Wilson invites his "baby" along:

I'm going up the country, baby don't you wanna go?
I'm going up the country, baby don't you wanna go?
I'm going to some place where I've never been before

This brilliant change creates an emotional mood which not only better matches the song musically, but resonated strongly with teenage Boomer listeners at the cusp of their independent adulthood. The song's later verses are mostly invented by Wilson following this lyrical theme, but nonetheless pay homage to similar blues roots:

I'm going, I'm going where the water tastes like wine
I'm going where the water tastes like wine
We can jump in the water, stay drunk all the time

which is undoubtedly a play on the legendary 1920s Charlie Poole bluegrass verse,

If the river was whiskey, and I was a duck
I'd dive to the bottom, and I'd never come up

Despite these tweaks being the work of genius, it is obviously a shame that the group did not take this opportunity to give due credit to their musical roots, I would guess choosing semantic and monetary considerations above all.

Rear design of the US picture sleeve, with biographical details of the five band members

Though not nearly as popular as "Going Up The Country," the flip-side of this disc contains the excellent -- maybe even better, and certainly quite different -- fuzzed-out blues-rocker "One Kind Favor," which was also culled from the 'Living The Blues' LP. For this song, the band's regular vocalist Bob "The Bear" Hite (a nickname apparently originating from his large weight) belts out verses atop a heavy, pulsating blues rhythm. I suspect that people who only know the hits of the Heat will be surprised by this excellent B-side tune. The fuzz is truly monstrous: the searing chainsaw-like sound coming out of Sunflower's guitar sounds nothing like any church bell I've ever heard, despite what the Bear sings.

This B-side song was first recorded in the 1920s by Blind Lemon Jefferson under the title "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," though it apparently may date even earlier, to an Appalachian folk song called "Two White Horses in Line." The Heat -- perhaps not willing to push their luck -- credited it as traditional. [If there are any musicologists here, feel free to chime in on the proper origin tale for this tune!]

Both tunes on this disc appear to be dedicated mono mixes. "Going Up The Country" is significantly different from the stereo version, with much better balance for all instruments, making it far superior to the album mix (which was stereo only). Like the version on the album, this song opens with double-tracked flutes, with the fourth flute note held longer (for those with a musical education, he plays a half note). A different version of the song with alternate double-flute tracks has appeared on many compilations, where the fourth flute note is shorter (approximately an eighth note). This alternate version, best heard on an excellently-mastered compilation CD from 1989, has been credited as a single mix, but I haven't found any evidence of any 1960s discs having that version of the song, which to my knowledge only exists in stereo. Much like the hit A-side, "Favor" appears to be a dedicated mono mix, with a slightly louder guitar than the stereo LP, and a few seconds longer(!) outro, also making it preferable to the stereo version.

Surprisingly, neither of these mixes have appeared from the master tapes on any reissue. Magic Records (France) released some CD reissues with various mono single mixes as bonus tracks, but they are all heavily noise-reduced vinyl dubs. There were some (now quite expensive) Japanese mini-LP remasters released in 2017, but instead of remastering the mono 45s as bonus tracks, they opted to include the digitally compressed remixes of various outtakes originally included on the 1992 Uncanned! comp. So, nearly 60 years after their original issue, vinyl transfers of these mixes are still necessary for fans of psychedelic blues music.

American pressings on the Liberty label were often not much to envy in the late 1960s. Though they were cut loud, they were often noisy and suffered from substandard mastering, usually with a conservative treble roll-off. The label's popular 45s were pressed by various third-party facilities, mostly on styrene, which wore out quickly on hippie turntables and degenerated to the sounds of distortion and groove wear. However, one or two pressing plants did manufacture Canned Heat 45s on vinyl, with varying degrees of success. In the case of this 45, the vinyl pressing was done quite well, and though there is some distortion from the cut, a careful, manually-done digital clean-up plus mono fold made it sound exactly like the master tape to these ears. I have compared this US mono 45 to pressings from France, Italy, Denmark, and the UK, and the US one is the best overall, with the cleanest and least muffled sound, as might be expected when cutting to vinyl from the 1st generation tapes. I therefore chose this edition for my restoration, and I think that it will prove impossible to upgrade, unless tapes are unveiled someday...

Alternate artwork for the Italian issue of this 45

Vinyl condition: Near Mint (NM) / Mint Minus (M-)
Dynamic range: DR 11

Track listing:
1) Going Up The Country -- 2:54
2) One Kind Favor -- 4:53

Equipment / Lineage:
– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge
– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)
– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply
– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)
– Adobe Audition CC 2024 (recording)
– iZotope RX 11 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)
– Audacity 3.7.1 (fades between tracks, split tracks)
– Foobar2000 v2.1.5 (tagging, dynamic range analysis) 

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
MEGA: https://mega.nz/folder/8gY0lQ4T#-XaWZjnzkzbSoXH_EqR4xw

Enjoy!  :)

 

Music Emporium - "Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo" / "Times Like This" [Mono 45]

Music Emporium - "Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo" b/w "Times Like This"

Original 1969 mono 45RPM single
Sentinel – 4-501  (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip in 96 kHz / 24 bit FLAC + full hi-res scans!~

Most collectors of late-1960s rock music are likely aware of the Music Emporium album, as although it is extremely rare in its original form, it has been reissued various times over the last few decades, including several excellent-sounding reissues from the master tapes on the Sundazed label, and has received a great amount of praise from listeners across the globe. Mysteriously missing from those reissues, though, are the mono versions of two tracks which were released on a 45 RPM single back in 1969 in conjunction with the album. This might lead one to guess that the tapes for that single have gone missing. After acquiring a copy of this 45 from the Record Phantom archives, I carefully digitally transferred both sides and discovered another possible reason: both songs, to my ears, closely resemble that of stereo fold-downs. Nonetheless, it was a simple clean-up job, so I figured it worthy of sharing on the blog here. 

Many thanks to C.F. for making this very rare single available for this project!

For those who might have not heard of this group before, the music is contemporary with late-1960s psychedelic pop-rock, and though it floats more towards the "psychsploitation" edge of the spectra in comparison with the acid-driven edge of some more well-known outfits, it offers its own appeal through, if nothing else, the convincing admixture of the era's typical ingredients: driving guitar-laden beats, an echoing church organ, male-female vocal harmonies, Eastern mysticism, thought expansion, synesthetic imagery, etc. In other words, it kicks ass, even if as a work of art it is unlikely to redefine the fundamental worldview of the listener.

As a (now) highly revered psychedelic outfit, much has been written about the Music Emporium elsewhere, including in the Sundazed liner notes. Therefore, rather than go into details on this group here, I'll simply provide a link to Klemen Breznikar's excellent interview with William (Bill) Cosby on It's Psychedelic Baby, which you can find by clicking here.

Of particular relevance in that interview are comments on the two tracks found on this single:

KB: How were the songs for the albums’ single “Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo” c/w “Times Like This” selected?

WC: We thought "Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo" was our strongest song, and best represented Music Emporium. We thought that "Times Like This" provided a contrast, would be something to show versatility.

KB: Would you share your insight on the albums’ tracks?

"Nam Myo Renge Kyo"

WC: With a the proofing and everything else, somehow the ‘Ho’ was left out of Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo, however it was correct on the single. The suggestion for use of the Buddhist chant as well as the lyrics came from Thom Wade. 

KB: "Times Like This"

WC: Milt Bulian wrote Times Like This for Carolyn. A fellow student from California State College, Long Beach, Milt was one of her close friends and became a good friend of all the band members. Milt generally accompanied himself on guitar and my preference would have been for him to sing the song for the recording. But with time constraints and schedules, it didn’t happen. If there was a crossover song on the album it was Times Like This. My parents even liked it.

Vinyl condition: Near Mint (NM) / Mint Minus (M-)
Dynamic range: DR 10

Track listing:
1) Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo -- 2:38
2) Times Like This -- 2:00

Equipment Lineage:
– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge
– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)
– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply
– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)
– Adobe Audition CC 2024 (recording)
– iZotope RX 11 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)
– Audacity 3.7.1 (fades between tracks, split tracks)
– Foobar2000 v2.1.5 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

The flipside can also be heard on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7WE-WeEqR4

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
MEGA: https://mega.nz/folder/q1RSFI6S#ByRw-NHlM5Lj2cKDbNPS4A

Enjoy!  :)

 

Open letter to moderators of the Steve Hoffman Music Forums

I have decided to share a message which I recently sent to the moderators (so-called "gorts", a self-appointed title) of the Steve Hoffman Music Forums (SHMF), in addition to a longer piece of text that I feel must be shared more broadly. Recent experiences on SHMF, particularly with its moderation policies, have led to deep frustration and disappointment from myself and several others. Having participated in SHMF for over a decade, I write the below text not only with those feelings in mind, but also one of sadness, as such broken opportunities are seldom repaired. Nonetheless, like the phoenix, I maintain my voice on a new platform, where speech freedoms are not suppressed for commercial gain.

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Message sent 23 August 2024 at 18:53 GMT
Recipients: Steve Hoffman, bkgMusic, darkmatter, DLant, hodgo, Ken_McAlinden, MLutthans, Peter_R, stereoptic

 

Dear Moderator(s),

As a legal resident of the European Union, I am exercising my right under Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to request the immediate and permanent deletion of all my personal data stored on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums (SHMF) servers. This request includes, but is not limited to:

• all posts on the forums or message boards,
• all responses to these posts, which can reasonably be linked to me and/or contain my duplicated content,
• all interactions with the forums or message boards, including likes and comments,
• all sent and received messages through the inbox / "Conversations" functionality,
• all threads created and replies to those threads,
• all location, geolocation, and date/timestamp data,
• all personally identifying information, including name, date of birth, contact details such as phone and email, and other private data,
• all connections to external accounts and third parties, and any shared data with those parties,
• all information shared with affiliates of SHMF, including XenForo, Ltd.

Additionally, I request that my account be immediately and irreversibly closed.

I want to take this opportunity to express my disappointment with some aspects of the forum's moderation policies. Over the last few years, I have noticed instances where critical posts, particularly those involving certain audio engineers, have been removed without sufficient explanation or reasonable justification. This has led me to question the objectivity of the moderation process and the overall integrity of the forum.

While I once valued SHMF as a reliable source of information, I now feel that the forum's current practices undermine its credibility and discourage open, honest discussion. I hope this will be taken into consideration to improve the experience for other users.

Thank you for your prompt attention to my GDPR request.

Sincerely,
"ThePoodleBites"
 

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Apart from the request above, I feel compelled to candidly express my specific concerns with a broader audience. While the tone of the message below is strong, it reflects my genuine feelings about the way SHMF is being run. I believe transparency and open discussion are crucial, especially in online communities that are meant to foster honest dialogue. Please note that the following content is my personal opinion and is based on my own experiences.

Disclaimer: This post contains strong language and critical opinions regarding the moderation practices of SHMF. It is not intended to defame or harm any individuals or entities mentioned but to highlight my concerns as a former user of the forum. The content of this post is shared for the purpose of transparency and discussion. Readers are encouraged to form their own opinions and engage respectfully in any dialogue that may arise from this post.

---

 

Dear gort-esque individual(s):

I used to view SHMF as a highly useful source of information, generously supplied by users all over the globe, providing a just means to judge music releases on their merits and make well-informed decisions on how to spend hard-earned money. Unfortunately, I have come to realize that this view was naïve. Over the past years, I have seen several posts, which happened to be critical of certain audio engineers, arbitrarily removed for irrelevant or nonexistent reasons. This has been documented on other forums [1, 2]. "Industry sensitive" posts are swiftly deleted from SHMF, usually without alert or justification. Entire threads are routinely trashed when it is revealed by SHMF users that particular engineers made some gaffe, even when minor. Rather than supplying a useful service to SHMF users, this arbitrary moderation of SHMF more strongly promotes cronyism as a benefit to the elder subclass of music purveyors.

Users of SHMF who post criticisms of particular releases, especially those linked to certain record labels or individuals, risk internal labeling by SHMF as a degenerate user, with future posts thus requiring hand-approval by a moderator, easing the uptick in discretionary deletions. Dispute of public opinion violates the unwritten purposes of SHMF; certain facts are unacceptable, because SHMF costs money to run, and it can only be profitable by providing advertising revenue via product placement to an elite class of senior, uber-willing customers, where objective dissidents are quickly and easily silenced, and by brainwashing those customers into supporting the parasitic platform which feeds off content they themselves create. Non-compliance with a set of arbitrary guidelines is randomly referenced for this purpose. Threads are deleted for both subjective and facts-based criticisms of certain engineers. For example, when a well-known engineer publicly critiqued Kevin Gray on certain Analogue Productions reissues, or when a forum-associated record label was revealed to be using an old 1980s CD as audio source for an SACD remaster, the information was quickly wiped from public view. This is consistently done without providing notice or just reason to the user base, contributors, or readers.

A small group of senior engineers are uniquely promoted in part by using euphemisms such as "our host" instead of names, which subconsciously encourages idolization and raises aging audio workers on a pedestal of self-appointed worship. There is a scientifically well-documented connection between age and high-frequency hearing loss [3, 4], which is especially relevant to many of the discussions on SHMF, yet comments to this effect are deleted by moderators without justification, as they not only criticize this exclusive clique of engineers, but the moderators they appointed as well. While there is no such scientific evidence linking the value of speaker cables and interconnects to the sound of an audio system, posts discussing sound quality without publicly sharing this information are in violation of SHMF policies [5] and are discreetly deleted at "moderator discretion." This not only provides an unjustifiable means for senior users to critique junior ones, but is biased by a selection of posts which contain unflattering information: those viewed as disruptive from the capitalistically profitable content of shipping updates and unquestioning god-like praise.

Object cronyism as a means for increasing invisible ad revenue and user donations, while simultaneously masquerading as an unbiased public forum, is deceptive, provides nothing but an illusion of credibility, biases users with half-truths and distorted information, scams readers out of their money, and in an ideal world would be outright illegal. I refuse to continue participating in an ever-growing circle-jerk of seniors unable to hear above 12 kHz partaking in a massively-deceptive pyramid scheme while refereeing opinions on, yet unable to hear what, their oh-so-expensive equipment is literally screaming at them. SHMF is an out-of-control, over-moderated disgrace to a community of listeners and music lovers, and I strongly dissent from its existence.

Sincerest regards,
"ThePoodleBites"

[1] https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/68067-mastering-error-by-vic-anesini-iconoclassic-records/
[2] https://microdynamiks.blogspot.com/2015/07/chapter-8-how-hoffman-invited-and-then.html 
[3] ISO 7029 (2017)
[4] Hearing Balance Commun. 16.2 (2018) 74–82
[5] https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/pages/forum-policies/

The Glass Family Electric Band (1969) [US Original]

The Glass Family - Electric Band (1969)

Original USA stereo promo pressing
 Warner Bros. - Seven Arts Records – WS 1776  (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip at 96 kHz / 24 bit FLAC + full high-res scans!~

The Glass Family Electric Band is a blissful psych-rock experience released in early 1969, at the tail end of the psychedelic wave. Despite its evolution in the burgeoning Southern California music scene, it fell off the map without a trace. This record has sounds perhaps better suited for 1967 or 1968, but nonetheless contains some stunning psychedelic tracks with highly trippy effects à la Country Joe & The Fish. Unfortunately it has never seen a reissue from the tapes, and so original pressings are still the best way to hear it. I've been wanting to put this underground psychedelic disc on the blog for about 5 years, and so it is with great excitement that I finally share it with you now!

Many thanks to Mark H. for turning me on to this great record, and also
to Jim Callon for his friendly correspondence about his experiences in the band!

Review in Billboard, 15 Feb 1969

It's a shame that The Glass Family isn't more well-known, even among psychedelic music enthusiasts. The band had the same instrumentation as their L.A. neighbors The Doors, with the Farfisa organ playing an essential element in the two groups' west-coast sound. Some band members lived in Topanga Canyon with Spirit, Neil Young (who married Jim Callon's girlfriend), Canned Heat, and others. The California hippie vibe is palpable on their recordings. As one band member writes: "We were all about mind expanding (in the '60s) – NO alcohol, speed, cocaine, heroin, etc... Marijuana, mushrooms, LSD were our thing. One time at the Fillmore in SF, we played for 4 nights behind acid. Stanley Owsley left little cups for us on our amplifiers…"

The group made some demos in 1967, but after they were rejected for major-label release, the band did some woodshedding and lots of local playing until their psychedelic record was finally recorded for WB and readied for release in February 1969. Upon its appearance, initial reviews were very positive, and despite their underground status, WB seems to have utilized standard resources advertising The Glass Family's music, including sending out promo copies to local DJs with personalized notes. The album was a non-mover, though, as evidenced by the relative rarity of the record today compared to other WB releases (Grateful Dead, Peter Paul & Mary, etc.). To hazard a guess, this was likely due to the rapidly shifting musical tides; the "progressive rock" movement had already begun, and within a month Led Zeppelin would release their first album and begin taking the world by storm. A great effort, but the Kesey bus had left the station.

The Glass Family must have been quite the live act, though sadly it seems that none of their live recordings have ever been released. The group opened for the Grateful Dead and Junior Walker at the Fillmore, but despite my best searching amongst the Deadhead collective, none of the religious San Franciscan tapers seem to have captured any of these performances on tape. There may have also been several filmed performances in southern California, as Jim Callon recalls: "We used to do free concerts a few summers in the '60s on Topanga Beach. At that time there were a few houses on the beach and they built a stage for us in front of one of the houses. They were all filmmakers who lived there, and I know they took a lot of footage… I have no idea how to get a hold of any of them, but I know they were real into us doing this… It was quite a scene… helicopters overhead (making sure the hippies didn’t get too wild), girls without tops, dancing on the sand and once a couple fell to the ground in front of the stage (during our climactic 'a Gorn') and started making love / fucking – and then everyone gathered around them to watch – I stopped the band at that point because of a moral dilemma going on in my mind; were we contributing to hedonism? / Have we gone too far with this free love stuff?..... This was all filmed."

Strangely enough, The Glass Family went on to record another album as a disco group in the 1970s, which of course is outside the scope of this blog. Lead songwriter Jim Callon (a.k.a. Ralph Parrett) spent much part of his later career as a recording engineer, notably working with Funkadelic (George Clinton, Eddie Hazel, ...), before starting a record label, branching out into distribution and opening a record store. (By the way, his label, JDC Records, has issued an awesome Hendrix-sounding CD of solo Hazel recordings; see here.) However, in 2022 the band reformed to record their second psychedelia-flavored LP entitled Invisible World. For fans of psychedelic music and especially of this band, it's essential to check out, and can be bought on CD and LP here and via digital download here.

The Glass Family album lifts off with a sound collage of electronic tape effects, wind chimes, and drums rocketing into the completely tripped-out "House Of Glass." What an incredible album opener -- responsive vocals drenched in echo bounce between speakers while guitars, organ, and aux percussion dual for the center stage. The track is timeless enough that Warner Music Group (then WEA Records) included it on their fantastic Hallucinations compilation CD in 2004, which was mastered from tapes and with excellent sound. There are a few other interesting moments on side 1, including the organ-and-clean-guitar-driven "The Means," though there are some duds here, too. "Do You Remember," while having some pleasant acoustic guitar, piano, and vibraphone, is just too sleepy for me, and the nearly pornographic last verse ("In the morning when my love was still so deep inside of you...") just doesn't sit well with me.

Flipping over to side 2, though, we are immediately treated to screeching electric guitar and bluesy wails which kick off 20 minutes of dud-free listening. The pounding "I Want To See My Baby" is followed by the funky "Lady Blue," which is best described as a '69 SoCal version of "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" complete with dismissive lyrics, organ vibrato, dual guitars, and a background piano driving the beat. The group clearly spent a lot of time working on their overdubs, crafting a unique and entertaining soundscape to match their psychedelic visions. Following two lighter rock tracks, the looping guitars of "Guess I'll Let You Go," still my favorite song on this album, drift into psychedelic landscapes adorned with percussion overdubs (bongos, tambourine) and a driving bass line. According to Jim Callon, this track (and single) apparently made it to the top-of-the-charts in The Philippines.

The closing instrumental "Agorn" floats in similar psychedelic territory with good drum work and intense organ leads. This is also the only contemporary psychedelic song or album I know which references the original series of Star Trek; a "gorn" is an alien reptile humanoid which Captain Kirk is forced to fight late in the show's first season. According to Jim Callon: "All of us loved Star Trek and Mr. Spock. When we played at Cal Tech (Jet Propulsion Labratories), everyone watched Star Trek so we couldn’t start the show until afterwards. Some of those science minded guys built this incredible water pipe… We always concluded our shows back then with A Gorn – the instrumental last track on the LP…The subtitle: 'Elements Of Complex Variables' was the title of a a math book that our drummer had…"

Gatefold sleeve design from 2015 reissue, featuring the band's story

Fillmore poster, 5-8 June 1969, when the
band opened on Owsley acid for the Dead

Billboard blurb mentioning the group, 15 Feb 1969

This album was bootlegged in 2010 and 2012 from vinyl source by the Mandala and Kismet labels, both with very poor sound quality (heavy noise reduction). It then received an official reissue in 2015 on Maplewood Records, including a full bonus LP of previously-unreleased demos mastered from the original tapes. One of those bonus cuts, "Two X Two", was apparently utilized in the soundtrack of the 2018 film A Futile And Stupid Gesture, though I haven't seen it. Unfortunately this reissue was so completely brickwalled, and the vinyl itself so noisy, that the record is sadly unlistenable for me. That same mastering has now been released for web download and streaming, but since the dynamics of the original LP are so much better, this project remained high on my to-do list.

This rip presents this album in the digital realm as it was meant to be heard back in 1969. The sound is a bit bass-heavy, and after hearing "House Of Glass" from the WEA Hallucinations CD, it might take some internal adjustment to appreciate this. Nonetheless, I believe this is the best-sounding version of the album currently available, and is an essential document of the psychedelic sixties from a Californian perspective. I'll give the final word to Jim Callon, who writes: "There were so many good things about the Hippie Movement, but unfortunately it became degraded with all of the excess. Many retained their 'hippy heart', however… Now if we could just round them all up…"

Vinyl condition: Near Mint (NM) / Mint Minus (M-)
Dynamic range: DR 12

Track listing:
1) House Of Glass -- 3:16
2) Born In The U.S.A. -- 2:39
3) Once Again -- 2:43
4) Sometimes You Wander -- 3:08
5) The Means -- 4:15
6) Do You Remember -- 3:30
7) I Want To See My Baby -- 3:50
8) Lady Blue -- 2:53
9) Passage #17 -- 2:37
10) Mr. Happy Glee -- 2:43
11) Guess I'll Let You Go -- 2:53
12) Agorn (Elements of Complex Variables) -- 4:17

Equipment Lineage:
– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge
– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)
– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply
– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)
– Adobe Audition CC 2022 (recording)
– iZotope RX 10 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)
– Audacity 3.4.x (fades between tracks, split tracks)
– Foobar2000 v1.6.16 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
MEGA: https://mega.nz/folder/ixBnQJ5b#AN4NRABxiPADnsHdDmuoXA

Enjoy!  :)

May 2022 flyer advertisement for a band show and the new Invisible World album

Velvert Turner Group - s/t (1972) [2019 Reissue]

Velvert Turner Group - Velvert Turner Group (1972)

2019 reissue with unreleased alternate mixes
ORG Music – 2151  (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip at 96 kHz / 24 bit FLAC + high-res scans!~

This is the first entry in a series of Velvert posts that I plan to make. There are several mixes of this album, including two original stereo mixes released in 1972 and a further set of demo mixes pirated in 1976. This 2019 reissue is the first official reissue of the Velvert Turner Group record, and it is essential not only because of its excellent sound quality (mastered from tapes) but because it introduced a further set of previously-unreleased alternate mixes, including several that compete quite favorably with the 1972 originals.

Many thanks to the record phantom C.F. for turning me onto this great record, and
for loaning out several original pressings, wayyy back in the day...

2019 reissue, front cover artwork

Among psychedelic artists, there are few musicians as widely and deeply loved and respected by fans as Jimi Hendrix, and I am certainly no exception. I still fondly remember my first time 'experiencing' Hendrix after chewing down several hundred heavenly blue morning glory seeds; as dynamically-colored kaleidoscopes filtered my sight and danced along with the multi-layered sonic effects, Jimi's voice echoed in directions that I didn't know existed, causing my young teenage brain to think: "how could mere mortal human beings have made this...??"

It's a shame that, despite some notable attempts, most artists failed continuing on Jimi's footpath after his untimely demise. Velvert Turner, however, is one exception. Velvert was a friend and musical acquaintance of the master himself, and musical similarities are immediately obvious between canonical Hendrix tracks and Velvert's own compositions. That's not to say that Velvert Turner Group is totally derivative, because it's not; there are elements of funk, pop, and soul that make it unique, and the great production makes it an enjoyable record from start to finish. 

There are two original versions of this album, which can be distinguished only by their corresponding runout matrices, and they are commonly referred to as the "rock mix" and "soul mix." This naming convention, however, is somewhat of a misnomer, as many of the tracks are completely different takes (not "mixes"), while other tracks are actually identical (or nearly so) between them. The style doesn't really change significantly between the two versions, though the so-called "rock" version has some extra guitar parts, while the "soul" copies are more generally well-polished. This convention comes from collector folklore, where it has been suspected that the "rock" version, which came earlier, was withdrawn in favor of the "soul" version, which was better aimed at radio airplay (which probably never happened anyway), where Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, and Al Green were the rulers, not Jimi Hendrix.

However, it's also possible that after the first stampers (-1 / -1) wore out, Monarch simply created new ones (-2 / -2) using the alternate mix/takes, which stayed in-print for several years as it was repressed at other facilities (e.g. NAMI). Who knows?

There are lots of broad connections to this group. Keyboardist Chris Robison, for example, was previously a member of Elephants Memory (also backing John & Yoko in the early '70s) and Steam. Bassist Prescott Niles later became a founder of The Knack. Tim McGovern would drum for several California rock groups through the 1970s-1980s. Richard Lloyd from the American band Television was also a friend of Velvert's, and Lloyd's quotes are often seen in connection with this record. Velvert produced a track ("Going Home") for the Hendrix tribute CD, Power Of Soul. Crazily enough, there is also a Michael Lang (Woodstock) connection here, as Michael acted as producer along with Artie Ripp. 

Sadly, the great public expectation that Velvert's group would become the next Hendrix live act was simply too much pressure for the group, which caused them to crumble sometime after the release of this sole LP. You can read more about the birth and downfall of the Velvert Turner Group on Klemen Breznikar's excellent It's Psychedelic Baby interview with Prescott Niles here.

Velvert Turner with guitarist Richard Lloyd from Television (courtesy Jenny Lens Punk Archive)

I was very intrigued to see this reissue appear for RSD back in 2019, but I was a bit hesitant to buy it myself after being scarred by the plethora of bad reissues on the market. In preparation for posting the original "rock" and "soul" versions to this blog, though, I decided to cough up the $15 or whatever it was so that I could at least comment on what mixes were found inside. What a great decision that was! I was stunned to find that not only do both "rock" and "soul" versions appear side-by-side, but that many tracks were completely different mixes than I'd ever heard before. These alt versions rock hard and may even be better than the original pressings, especially "Madonna," which features a vocal chorus unheard anywhere else, and "Three O'Clock Train," which feels like the mix it always should have been, complete with emulated chugga-chugga/train whistle sounds in complete Hendrix fashion. Basic details have now been added to the Discogs page, but I will also color-code the track listing below for easy identification.

Overall the repressing has excellent sound quality, and if nothing else this blog post should inspire you to get a copy for yourself. ORG Music and especially the mastering engineer Dave Gardner did a good job here. The album is definitely cut from tapes (probably with a digital step), and though there might be a bit more compression than the original LPs, it's not extensive enough to ruin the dynamic range (DR 12); rather, it might even improve the overall hard-rock impact of the LP. It's definitely not brickwalled in any sense, and the bright pink vinyl does not seem to affect the sound quality. There is a bit less treble response than the original LPs, perhaps signifying that safety tapes were used, but the lows and midrange response is phenomenally clear. It sounds good enough to me that I thought it would be a great starting point for this blog's trek into Velvert territory, though which version you play will always be a matter of personal preference. However, since no version of this album has ever been officially released on CD / digital, this rip is absolutely essential.

Color key: (symbols added to help colorblind folks -- this be an inclusive blog)
* = original "rock mix"
^ = original "soul mix"
† = previously-unreleased alternate mix
Adding both *^ indicates that the "soul mix" and "rock mix" versions are identical, or nearly so.

Vinyl condition: Mint (brand new, virgin playing)
Dynamic range: DR 12

Track listing:
1) "Madonna (Of The Seven Moons)" † -- 2:44
2) "Talkin' 'Bout My Baby" * -- 4:01
3) "Country Chicken" *^ -- 2:48
4) "Strangely Neww" ^ -- 4:56
5) "Scarlet Warrior" * -- 3:32
6) "Three O'Clock Train" † -- 4:57
7) "Just Look And See" † -- 4:08
8) "'Xcuse Me, Gentlemen (The Fall Of Atlantis)" ^ -- 4:38
9) "(Love Rides...) The Slow Swirling Seas" ^ -- 3:42
10) "Freedom" (Jimi Hendrix) † --  6:02
Bonus Track:
11) "Madonna (Of The Seven Moons)" [Alternate Mix] † -- 3:37

Equipment Lineage:
– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge
– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)
– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply
– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)
– Adobe Audition CC 2022 (recording)
– iZotope RX 10 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)
– Audacity 3.4.x (fades between tracks, split tracks)
– Foobar2000 v1.6.16 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and check out my blog. I'd greatly appreciate it if you leave a small comment below. Notes from my readers are what inspire me to keep going. Thanks!
MEGA: https://mega.nz/folder/gxgFkT7B#mySyf_tguGVJKr7oB5QEbw

Enjoy!  :)