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Crisp, clear, sparkling -- Perfect even at high volume
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There are 4 messages in this issue #21.
Topics in this digest:
1. Rockaway Beach
From: "Kingsley Abbott"
2. Att: Yellow Balloons Alex..
From: Carol Kaye
3. find the bass and bring that up
From: Jamie LePage
4. Return Of The Nice Age Playlist!
From: David Ponak
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________________________________________________________________________
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 22:37:29 +0100
From: "Kingsley Abbott"
Subject: Rockaway Beach
Please does anyone have a spare copy of Joey Ramone and
General Johnson dueting on "Rockaway Beach"? Maybe not
standard Spectropop territory, but I heard it once a long
time ago, loved it, and haven't found it since. Or maybe
someone knows of it being on a CD collection somewhere?
Please mail me directly. Thanks.
Kingsley Abbott
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 18:27:22 -0700
From: Carol Kaye
Subject: Att: Yellow Balloons Alex..
Sorry, but this is the only way I can contact Alex of the
Yellow Balloons who lives in Carlsbad.....Alex, please
contact me, lost your email and address, thanks.
Thanks for the bandwidth,
Best,
Carol Kaye
http://www.carolkaye.com/
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 15:25:55 +0900
From: Jamie LePage
Subject: find the bass and bring that up
In digest 16, Carol Kaye wrote:
> Jamie in his post said "the drummer overplayed". Listen,
> the way those sound-mixers work.....they dramatize the
> bass drum by loading it with DB's! You can never hear
> the bass player but the thud-thud-thud-thud of that awful
> bass drum, thanks to the ignorance of sound-mixers who
> evidently got their training in the 80s when the bassists
> were busy slapping the bass (not playing real notes which
> support the band and chordal foundations).
>
> Hope they all learn to find the bass and bring that up
> instead of the bass drum soon.
It truly does bewilder me when I hear contemporary r&b
records with nearly no bass, usually a meandering
histrionic lead vocal over nearly nothing more than a
cheap sounding drum machine. What happened?
I never thought of how a bass player might react to this
trend - it was interesting to read Carol's comments.
I may be wrong about this, but I think this is not a
matter of "different strokes for different folks". OK,
some like alternative rock. Some like jazz. That's a
matter of personal taste. But when it comes to the
aesthetic qualities of popular music, irrespective of
genre, achieving a balance of instruments across the
frequency range has traditionally been something record
makers strive for. Many of these new r&b records sound
like quick demos made on a Casiotone. r&b producers who
were raised on all the great r&b from earlier decades
must be livid.
There is an often repeated retort to this observation,
that is the bass is there, but it is all sub-bass and
you need a good sub woofer to truly appreciate it. Oh
yeah? Like those vans driving up and down the boulevard
with the thud-thud-thud-thud? Sure, that's aesthetically
pleasing balance (not). Anyway, if you gotta have a sub
woofer to hear the bass, there's something wrong,
because people don't listen to music with a sub woofer
*all the time*. Music is piped into restaurants and
shops, and when there is a lot of din, you can't hear
anything except an incessant mechanical sounding hi hat
going chiki-chiki-chiki. People listen to music on their
cassette players, walkmans, even on their computers, and
the fact is not every system has the "required" sub
woofers. Maybe one of the sound engineers in this group can
give a more educated opinion, but I don't believe it is
necessary to bury the bass in the low to low-mid
frequencies in order to make it boom through the
sub-woofers.
It's a pet peeve and I realize I am ranting here so I
won't go on - I just can't accept this to mean the previous
generation do not understand today's sound. I don't
believe it's a matter of age. A good song will always be
a good song, and a well balanced recording will always
sound well balanced. To my ears, these multi-platinum
new r&b records have neither, and of course the next
question is, where does it go from here? Hopefully, it
will cycle back and a new hybrid will evolve that
embraces musical accompaniment and melody as well as
sub-frequencies and mechanical rhythm. Until that day,
I will remind myself to be grateful that I know and
appreciate the music of wonderful r&b artists Otis
Redding, Curtis Mayfield, Billy Stewart, Marvin Gaye,
Sam Cooke and all the others.
Jamie
P.S. To Carol - When I wrote "the drummer overplayed", I
was talking about adding fills and more syncopation to
rhythm patterns of the original hits. Many "road" cats
think playing more is equal to playing better, and the
arrangements often suffer for it. Even king of
embellishment Phil Spector recognized this. Like on one
of the Spector session tapes Spector asks everyone
through the talkback "Who's playing that harmony on the
fade? I don't know. You better leave it out." Sometimes
what is not played is as important as what is.
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 16:39:30 -0700
From: David Ponak
Subject: Return Of The Nice Age Playlist!
The Nice Age airs every Sunday evening from 5-7PM (PDT) on
SPIKERADIO.
www.spikeradio.com
Check it out!
8/13/00
1.Motocompo - Discoteque Murder - Single Poplot
2.ECD - Direct Drive (Readymade Remix) - All Systems Are Go Go - ESL
3.Tahiti 80 - Heartbeat (Todd Terry TNT Remix) - Single Minty Fresh
4.Hideki Kaji - Friendship Sunflower - You Will Love Me - Trattoria
5.The Yellow Balloon - How Can I Be Down - The Yellow Balloon - Sundazed
6.Yukari Fresh - Lost & Found - Single Escalator
7.Citrus - Blue Mercedes Wispy, No Mercy - Trattoria
8.The Jam - And Your Bird Can Sing - Extras Polydor
9.High Llamas - Triads - Snowbug V2
10.Towa Tei - Mars - Single East/West
11.Maki Nomiya - Star Struck - Miss Maki Nomiya Sings
12.Orwell - Les Anness.... - Orwell Poplane
13.Underworld - 08 -Ball - The Beach s/t - London
14.Le Hammond Inferno - Easy Listening Superstar - Escalator
15.Bently Rhythm Ace - T-Spot - For Your Ears Only - Parlophone
16.Hi-Posi - Computer No. 3 - Ready For Love - Contemp
17.Fugu - The Best Of Us - Fugu 1 Pop Biz
18.Cubismo Grafico - Moon Is Yours - Mini Escalator
19.Harco - ? (damn kanji!!!!) - Quiz De Room - V2
20.Belle & Sebastian - Don't Leave The Light On Baby - Fold Your Hands - Matador
21.Shy - Theme From A Summer Place - Atomium 3003 Bungalow
22.Billy Nichols - Life Is Short Would You Belive - Teichiku
23.Bobbie's Rockin Chair - What A Happy Day - Young Friends - LD&K
24.Charlotte Gainsbourg - Lemon Incest - Gainsbourg Version Femmes - Phillips
25.Puffy - Ai No Shirushi - The Very Best Of Puffy - Epic
26.The Aluminum Group - Caroline No - Caroline Now Marina
27.Oh Penelope - Happy Song - single Sony
David Ponak
A&R-TOKYOPOP Music
5670 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 692-6827
www.tokyopop.com
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
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