OK. So what's your favourite for really moving some air with ?

I'd have thought Butch Vig was more responsible for the Nevermind sound than Wallace, Dirty by Sonic Youth was Vig and Wallace, the sound is similar (though better).

 

this weekend I have been mostly cranking..

Leftfield's Rhythm and Stealth.


I thank yow.

 

The drums on In Utero sound superb!

Underworld were one of my top ever live experiences, they had me grooving like a bastard. I have dubnobass and beaucoup fish, which of the others are worth a listen?

oh and doesnt rythm and stealth have an incredibly low note towards the end of the last track, as does most of it I suppose.

 

angus, you must get 'second toughest in the infants'...

available from Amazon from £2.35. How can you not?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...340617/sr=8-7/ref=pd_ka_7/203-8500700-4130314

 

I agree that the mix engineer does have the power to totally screw the final sound in the interest of sounding the loudest on the radio but for me Nevermind has bigger problems than the fried dynamics. A lot of this I assume was Butch Vig (drum sample replacement, vocal sampling) but I've yet to hear an Andy Wallace engineering job that I've liked. RATM are case in point. I guess I just like rock albums to sound like people playing in a room rather than an 'optimised' sound for each instrument and this is double true for drumkits. A well chosen acoustic space and some good mics are all it really takes. If you want some examples for comparison, try: Jesus Lizard (Goat or Liar) or That F***ing Tank (can't remeber the title - something about Bono and adrenaline) or Kill Yourself (Soft Touch of Man).

Anex: Do you have Dirty on Vinyl ? I'm interested because I have all the 'later' SY albums (i.e. post Daydream Nation) on CD and most of them sound dreadful - like no effort to remaster them for CD at all, just straight transfers. Goo actually has a break in the music where it should segue like someone has knocked it up on their laptop. If the Vinyl has some welly to it I might consider some ebay searching....

 

I haven’t ever listened to much Nirvana. Especially not on CD. It all sounds pretty crap to me in the first place Tom Lord-Alge is another good engineer IMO but his work seems to get even more compressed than Andy’s!

Hmm.. Rage Against the Machine is very much just the instruments. They make a point of it. Maybe you just don't like that type of music!

 

Oohhh yeah...great stuff....the whole album is worth listening to cranked up...although in the car suits me better with that album. I have a remix of Dark and Long...think its called the Dark Train mix. Brilliant. Pearls Girl is pretty good to crank up aswell.

 

I've always really cherished their 12" releases right back to Mmmm Skyscraper. Almost without exception all mixes on all the discs are excellent and all simply demand to go to 11.

 

I do like the music although I hated Audioslave so I probably like the yelling too. Just a big fan of the sound of the album - especially the drum and bass sound. The bass sounds DI'd to my ears which makes life easier for the engineer but a well mic'd cab will always beat it hands down.

Now I'll be positive.
Try Mission Of Burma's 'On Off On' or The Ex 'Starters / Alternators' for comparison (and for enjoyment obviously).

Ditto all the comments on Dubnobasswitmyheadman. Just massive.

 

Yeah, its better than the CD, On the Strip and Wish fullfillment have some great basslines and its easier to hear whats going on with stuff like Theresa's Sound World. 100% rocks on vinyl too. Its much better than Nevermind. Haven't played Goo in ages but iirc the break is there too, its hard to find a good press of that, I've had 3 or 4 now but got a pretty clean copy.
To be fair I've never been hugely excited by any of their recordings, Daydream, Sister etc. is ok cuz the 'lofi' is part of it but the late late ones, 1000 leaves, Murray St. Sonic Nurse are far cleaner albums so I always expected great things. They're not bad but always sound a bit small and constricted (not compressed). Reckon the vinyl is better though, more detail so you get more Jim O'Rourke in the later ones. Though it must depend on how your TT compares to your CD player, my CD player isn't really that great.

 

Or anything by Tool. They've got some fantastic recordings.

 

It was the 'smallness' that I was referring to. I really like Sister - it's kinda lofi but it's a very dry recording and that somehow helps and I have a good pressing of it. The other early stuff just just sounds small and distant on CD and I'm pretty sure Death Valley 69 wasn't like that 'in the room'. ebay here we come....

 

Yeah they do a similar thing to stereolab where the recording reflects what the track is about, random noise with announcements (or whatever the hell its called, always get it wrong- yellow cover with a tonearm and stylus across it) is a really good example of them doing that, loads of really constricted recordings off in the distance etc.

 

Transient Random Noisebursts With Announcements

I just assumed they recorded on a tight budget with cheap equipment and were aping the ultra compressed drum/guitar workouts on the Neu! albums (Neu! certainly thought so). The bit where they add a 'stylus skip' to the CD is pretty annoying. I assume this isn't on the vinyl - It would really freak you out if it was (is it ?). The Dots and Loops CD sounds great though. Very smooth and detailed with some really subtle sub bass rhythms on 'Brakhage'. Coincidentally, Ive just ordered Cobra and Phases and First Of The Microbe Hunters on big fat vinyl. Joy.

 

Transient noise is them experimenting with recording, as you say, Dots and Loops sounds good, Cobra and Phases, Emperor Tomato, Space age batchelor, Sound Dust and so on all sound fantastic. Transient Noise is just using a different palet to the same ends. Can't remember, I haven't played it in ages. Been playing Margerine Eclipse mainly, took me a while to get into but its like a culmination of all their older sounds and ideas into one uber album
Have you heard the Stereolab/Nurse with Wound EP Simple Headphone Mind? You should put it next on the list if not, mind blowing.

 

The only one I can find is called Crumb Duck (United Dairies CD) and it seems to be a full album. Heard it ? Any good ?

 

I second Shellac! Probably the worlds best live band.

 

No don't know that one, alot of the Nurse with wound stuff isn't great tbh. It maybe vinyl only, check netsounds and ebay else send me your details and I'll post you a CD

 

Lots of Nurse With Wound became completely unavailable when the distribution company World Serpent went bust last year. Fortunately, some of it is now starting to be reissued but large parts of the (vast) back catalogue are likely to be hard to get hold of.

Crumb Duck isn't really a collaboration, it's a couple of Stereolab tracks and a couple of NWW tracks. The Stereolab stuff isn't new (a short version of "Jenny Ondioline" mostly). Simple Headphone Mind is a collaboration, and can be found on CD on The Swinging Reflective NWW compilation, which I think is out of print but should be relatively easy to find.

NWW is nearly all great, IMO. You just need to adjust your head appropriately. Steve Stapleton is, first and foremost, a surrealist, not a musician. OTOH, I can take or leave Stereolab. I quite enjoy them, but can't get too excited about them. Tim Gane seems like a well meaning sort of chap though.

-- Ian

 

I've seen them 5 times and they've varied between underehearsed and incendiary but even at their worst they'd blow most bands offstage. Easily the loudest sound of any sort that I've ever heard was being down the front at All Tomorows Parties 2002, immediately in front of Bob Weston's bass rig. Like being punched with solid air.

I also love the way they gave away the CD of 1000Hz as a '5" Accessory" with the Vinyl version of the album. I'm off to listen to Wingwalker...