Freedom's Children - "The Homecoming" / "Sea-Horse" (1971) [Original Mono Single]

Freedom's Children - "The Homecoming" b/w "Sea-Horse"

Original 1971 South Africa 45RPM Mono Single

Parlophone ‎SPD 3030  (Discogs)

~ThePoodleBites rip in 96kHz / 24bit FLAC + full high-res scans~

A pretty darn rare and underground 45 here, from perhaps the ultimate South African acid/hard rock band, Freedom's Children. I didn't know of these guys until recently, when C.F. sent me this record to restore. They have a terrific power-trio-style-sound a la Cream or The Jimi Hendrix Experience; I say "style," specifically, because they were actually a four(-or-five)-some, with a dedicated vocalist. "Sea-Horse" especially sounds like it could fit in on The Third Power: Believe... or, with that intro... Rage Against The Machine? And that guitar solo... whoa! Their albums are apparently damn rare in top nick, and both sides of this single are surprisingly non-comp. 

Major thanks to C.F. for lending out this disc from his archives!

These recordings are undoubtedly a lo-fi experience, but thankfully the musical quality does not suffer at that expense, at least to my ears. The A-side of this single is a song from their 2nd album Astra (1970), and it's heavily edited down from the stereo album mix, with also a weird organ blip at the beginning (a mastering mishap, maybe?). The flip is from their 3rd LP Galactic Vibes (trippy name, dude), also released in 1971, and I think this single version is likely a mono fold-down of the album mix. But none of us has the LP, so who cares? There's seemingly no good CD of it either, and I hate no-noise, so I'll take the mono! 

For those who are interested, Klemen Breznikar did a great interview with songwriter/bassist Ramsay Mackay from the band here. I've also included scans from a 1970 concert souvenir programme, featuring a page about the band and their photo. (Another courtesy from the C.F. collection!) 

Astra-era band lineup (photo from South African concert programme)

Track listing:

1) "The Homecoming" -- 2:59

2) "Sea-Horse" -- 4:14

Vinyl condition: M-

Dynamic range: DR12

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)

– TCC TC-754 RIAA phono preamp (new regulated power supply, added LM7812 regulator)

– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)

– Adobe Audition CC 2020 (recording)

– iZotope RX 7 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)

– Audacity 2.3.3 (fades between tracks, split tracks)

– Foobar2000 v1.5.1 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

(Side 2 is also on YouTube, here)

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