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Re: (TV) The myth of Audiophilus



I don't think bad production is the same as being lo-fi or hissy --
stuff like the old reggae and ska music is often astonishingly well
produced given the equipment they must've had to use. Even the Beatles
albums suffered from engineering glitches like dodgy butt edits and
dropouts, but the genius of the production is that it doesn't really
matter. Bad production as far as I'm concerned is where the production
really gets in the way of enjoying the music, not in terms of sound
quality but muddy mixing, wrong balances of instruments, too much or too
little compression, too many overdubs, or whatever. The 13th Floor
Elevators' 'Easter Everywhere' and 'Bull Of The Woods', and The Only
Ones' 'Even Serpents Shine' are all albums, to me, where you really have
to listen through some very dodgy production to hear just how great the
songs are. To a certain extent I think this is true of some of
Verlaine's albums too. 'Adventure' sounds as if they worked on it a bit
too long, and of the solo albums, I think the Dave Bascombe-produced
material (Flash Light, plus the unreleased tracks on The Miller's Tale)
stands out as being loads better than the rest. The playing and the
songs aren't necessarily better, but to me it generates a freshness and
excitement that isn't there in the other solo albums. Bascombe also
manages to make Verlaine's voice sound great, whereas I must admit to
finding it pretty grating on much of the other solo material. 
Sam
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