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