Showing posts with label 8-Track. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 8-Track. Show all posts

Monday 23 September 2019

Break


One of the benefits of listening to vinyl is that you listen to a whole side with no option for a remote break, and on a normal well planned album those sides seldom pass twenty minutes and definitely not twenty five minutes, so you are given a natural break. Todd Rundgren's "Initiation" clocked in about thirty five minutes a side which always needed to be played with a new diamond needle. That was not a good idea. Also somewhat strange that his classic "Todd" clocked in at just over sixty minutes and was a double album.

When Van Der Graaf Generator's "Godbluff" was released the NME reviewer said that we needed a continuous play medium (actually one side of a C90 cassette or an 8-Track tape would have provided that) but CD and MP3 satisfied that perfectly and some albums are best listened to in a non stop sequence.

But I bought four second hand albums at the weekend for a tenner from Vinyl Guru and on Sunday morning listened to side one of "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band followed by side one of "This Is The Moody Blues" especially for the closing song "Legend of A Mind" one of my favourite songs of theirs.

Digital music has no limitations and vinyl has lots , but vinyl is more of a personal experience and you feel closer to and more in touch with the music. The may sound trite but the sounds produced from an analogue vinyl source are always a pure curve whereas digital is always a series of defined steps however small they may be.

So how do we soundtrack this, of course Youtube is a digital medium and this is a digital medium but we shall go for "Action Strasse" from the first album I played yesterday.

Goodnight and God Bless,

Monday 23 April 2018

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #6 - Godbluff - Van Der Graaf Generator


When this album came out the NME reviewer said that there should be a way of playing it end to end without a break, the vinyl record had to be flipped half way through to continue listening. This was an understandable thought as that's how most classical pieces were concieved , to be played and listened to in their entirety.

This thing is at the time there were C90 cassettes and 8-Track tapes (the later just effectively played in an everlasting circle) so there was a way to listen to it. CD and Digital obviously made this a reality for the new format.

When they started although a rock group, guitars were way down the instrumentation list which was odd for such an aggressive sound but it was dominated by keyboards, brass , woodwind and bass pedals.

Godbluff is a very dark sounding album, almost threatening conjuring up images of dark threats in blasted landscapes and is still a regular listen for me. It is remakably coherent and often I get the songs mixed up as they are so similar in form without being boring, you just accept it for what it is.

I love most of their stuff but this along with "Pawn Hearts" are two of my most played of their albums. I found a live performance of the album so if you have forty or so minutes to spare you can see what I mean about the album.

Wednesday 11 April 2018

Kerb Crawler


I've been listening to a couple of albums, one of which is Hawkwind's "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music". "Kerb Crawler" was the lead single if I remember rightly and it's a great song song taking on creeps with their state of the art "extensions" cruising to pick up "ladies". It has some great sax playing but dates badly  as it lists ultra modern accessories such as FM Radio and 8-Track Stereo. Also the "stylish" white walled tyres sort of singled out the occupation of the vehicle's owner, not the sort of person you would want to spend time with.

It's strage that while Hawkwind's song emphasises the seedy side of cars , Bruce Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch" from "The River"is a full blown nostalgia trip and the images brought up by the lines

"El Dorado Fins, Baby
White Walls and Skirts
Rides Just Like A
Little Bit of Heaven
Here On Earth"

are just fine by me. There's no doubt the Springsteen song is a nailed on classic, while the Hawkwind one is just a fun work out.

Going back to 8-Tracks, while they were sort of state of of the art I was unaware of actual recorders. It was great that they played on a continuous loop and if I remember there were sort of four "sides" on the wide tape, the playing head jumping to the next section at the appropriate juncture , each "side" having two channels hence the 8-Track.

OK it's time for bed now , sleep well.