Category Archives: editorial

Pricey Pleasures: A Huge Ever Growing Joy Division

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Pricey pleasures are the ones you know you SHOULDN’T purchase, but there you are, reaching for your wallet anyway. Today’s winner comes courtest of Eli.com, who at the time this is written have only one single, solitary copy of The Orb’s three-song 12-inch single for A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld. This would be the 1990 UK reissue 3-track 12″ vinyl single including Loving You Orbital Mix, Bucket & Spade Mix & Why Is Six Scared Of Seven. Final price for this tasty bit of Orb fun? More than $40 worthless US dollars after shipping.

My, oh, MY! That’s well above ten dollars per song. Granted, it’s an all-time favorite, but this is one instance where common sense seems to be winning out over my vinyl fetish. Besides, for about the same money I can pick up a Joy Division double album set of Martin Hannett’s personal mixes on 180 gram blue vinyl. Mmmmm, tasty.

Mastering Audio for Vinyl: The Gospel According to SoundOnSound

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Stumbled across an interesting piece written for SoundOnSound about the process of mastering your recordings for vinyl. I am by no means an expert on the subject, but one thing that rings loud and clear in this article–pay strict attention to distortion due to overmodulation in the mix. Never a good thing, anytime you start exceeding the tolerances you are begging for trouble, especially with digital.

I am eagerly collecting a small archive of these kinds of articles so expect more links to relevant writing on mastering for vinyl in the future. Most of the vinyl junkies I know are also musicians of varying degrees of experience, so there’s plenty of relevance there. If you aren’t a musician but have a massive collection of vinyl records, my guess is you are either a frustrated musician or a DJ. I’m BOTH.

Boy Eats Drum Machine: Booomboxxx

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Tender Loving Empire recently announced Boy Eats Drum Machine‘s next album, Booomboxxx, due out on vinyl and disc on 10/28. I got an advance copy in the post today and I am happy to report this album is full of sonic treats–especially for those who love their headphone candy. Sure, you could listen to this on the speakers (or studio monitors like I do), but I strongly suggest using a nice pair of headphones to enjoy this one as here is much fun to be had with those sounds up close and personal. Horns, nice soulful vox (without sounding like some kind of Sam Cooke knockoff I might add), plenty of sonic goodness.

Boy Eats Drum Machine is Portland’s Jon Ragel with some kickass guest drummers including Danny Seim from Menomena and several others. Ragel really grabbed my ears with the track “I’m Alive Don’t Bury Me” which instantly made me think of Serpent And The Rainbow, the creepy Wes Craven movie. This album is packed with great, herky-jerky beats and scratches and a nice deep dark analogue synth groove that, on proper equipment, can be felt in your STERNUM. Nice one, BEDM.

Enjoy an advance sampling of five tracks from this hand-crafted vinyl record and CD package (what an undertaking!) at the Boy Eats Drum Machine Downloads page. Free tunes to tease you for the full-blown (and nicely done) package hitting stores on 10/28.

Tender Loving Empire has scored with this album. Click on that link above and fill your weekend with beats. YES.