Unrezt and Recordings of Thin Consolation

I stumbled across Thin Consolation by accident today after checking out a new Twitter.com/turntabling follower who is part of this Belgium-based record label.

I spent AGES on this site listening to glitchy, electronic wonderfulness including a FABULOUS electronic 12 inch by Odaka called Warm Geometry. I’ve played this six times in a row now. Part of what Unrezt calls the “Pastorale Electronics series”, Warm Geometry is an analog synth dreamy-fest that kicks into some nice percussion-n-bass analog synth action.

I am dying to hear Warm Geometry on vinyl as the gods of stereo intended but the track at Unrezt is a nice experience regardless.

There are other wonderful discoveries to be made at Unrezt including the glitch-happy Cupp Cave (which features a nice sample about zombies on the intro to the track linked here). And I love the description of Cupp Cave’s world, which is inhabited by “improbable vegetarian Texan zombies on Mexican mushrooms, all thumbs and two left feet.”

Unrezt is my new favorite record label (at least for this week)–great stuff from Belgium and more to come.

P.S. The label is Thin Consolation, the website is Unrezt. I am new so I don’t get the distinction between one end and the other…so Unrezt folks, forgive a dumb Yank.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

–Joe Wallace … Continue Reading

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra

These are words I never, EVER expected to go together. Tokyo…SKA? Sounds great to me! I don’t know how long this brain-altering download will be available, but suffice it to say that Mod64 is my new favorite music blog. If for no other reason than the fact that I located this album, AND one by The Music Machine, who look like they’ve stepped right out of one o’ Swingin’ London’s groovier basement hash dens. Oh yes, I am hooked and on a downloading frenzy. Some of my musician friends say they don’t even bother purchasing music anymore because of all the free MP3 downloads, but being able to properly DJ show means having full quality, so I am happy to support the artists wherever I am able by purchasing retro reissues. Bring the grooviness!

iZotope Vinyl Plug-In

Intriguing. Advanced. Utterly ridiculous. The marketing hype for this effects plug-in for Pro Tools says iZotope is the “ultimate lo-fi weapon” to take your delicious, pristine, 24-bit multi-track audio production and turn them into murky pieces of analog crap! iZotope is basically a free plug-in you can use to simulate playback of the recorded material on a vinyl album. Since the name of this blog is Turntabling, you’d think I’d be all for this plugin, but something about it doesn’t seem right.

I suppose iZotope would be GREAT as a fun gimmick on a digital-only release, but anybody dreaming of putting their music on an ACTUAL record would do well to run away screaming from this with haste.

Again, I think it would be amusing to tart up a portion of some digital track with iZotope, but that’s about as far as I think it would be useful–at least in MY music.

If you’re a Pro Tools user and are dying of curiosity, you can download the iZotope plugin at the product page and have a go.

Turntabling Records News

There is plenty of news about our label, Turntabling Records. We’ve got three new CDs planned for May/June 2009 and it looks like things are heating up in the recording studio once more for Paisley Babylon. The new albums include the first-ever wide release of a Post-Mortem Telepathy CD, plus Texas new wavers Goop are readying their toxic onslaught for May as well. Brace yourself! The tidal wave of tunes is coming…read all the relevant details and save your pennies for iTunes downloads coming soon.

Top 10 Reasons Vinyl Records are Better Than MP3 Downloads

Vinyl records vs. MP3s? I own them both. Why are album versions of records better than their MP3 counterparts? The digital Black Flag vs. the original SST Black Flag recordings? Naked Raygun on your iPod shouldn’t sound much different than the vinyl record of the same album, right? Can you find Big Black on MP3? Here’s a a little list:

10.  You can’t accidentally delete a vinyl record. However, your cat may urinate on it. That won’t affect playback…unless you have friends over.

9. You don’t get the nice big cover art off an MP3 download. This doesn’t matter much for modern releases, but for those old, elaborate LP releases or soundtracks to sexy Italian horror and “sexual awakening” movies, big covers are nice. Especially for those Piero Umiliani soundtracks. There’s nothing more fun than a cheesy sexy 60s era album cover, is there?

8. Nobody tries to sue you for making a CD-R burn of some old dusty record in your collection. They’d love to try, but the RIAA would get laughed out of court faster than Rod Blagojevich proclaiming his innocence. Nice try.

7. Unlike an MP3, you can shatter a vinyl record and use the pieces to gash somebody in face when they make fun of your pants.

6. In Shaun Of The Dead, the heroes tried to kill zombies using 12-inch singles. Try doing that with an iPod and you’ll join the ranks of the undead faster than a screaming teenage girl in a filmy white nightgown.

5. George Carlin comedy albums just plain SOUND BETTER on vinyl.

4. You can actually clean a record album with soap and water. You can clean an iPod by…BUYING A NEW ONE.

3. Stores with high theft issues should stock vinyl. You can hide an MP3 player in any body cavity. An album tends to stick out of the most obvious places. Painful, too.

2. Vinyl records are better than MP3s because you can play them backwards and get the messages Satan wants you to hear. Try doing THAT with a downloaded version of Ashford & Simpson’s “Solid as a Rock”.

1. When you get bored, you can safely microwave an LP, put it on the turntable and play it for laughs. Put an MP3 player in the microwave and it will explode. Need we say more?

Golden Records Vinyl/Cassette to MP3 Converter

Golden Records is what I’d call a good entry-level vinyl-to-digital converter. If you have never tried to convert your vinyl records to MP3 or redbook CD formats, this is a great way to give it a try. Among the most attractive features of Golden Records is the normalizing function, which will give your new MP3s consistent volume for the entire album. Some of those indie/alternative albums like The Blasting Concept series and the amazing Homestead Records compilation The Wailing Ultimate are unfortunately the victims of wildly diverse recording and mastering techniques from track to track. Differing volume levels make listening to the tracks on MP3 a bit of a right pain in the arse—unless you use the normalizing function to make them all even across the board.

Audiophile purists won’t be so thrilled with normalizing as it can alter some of the dymamics of a song, but for most of us normalizing isn’t a bad thing at all. Golden Records is advertised as being designed specifically for vinyl and cassette transfer to MP3, including a handy set of fix-it features to get rid of clicks, pops and other artifacts.

If you’re an advanced audio nut you won’t need this software package, but Golden Records is great for anyone just getting started and needing a solution to get those all-time vinyl favorites running on your iPod in no time.