Esoteric 2010 Releases

it's good, but I think the previous LP Fairyport is their classic..I have the Japan Disc Union Being SHM mini-LP box (on Belle Antique) which contains their 1st five releases up thru the double Live Music From The Twilight Zone, all with bonus tracks...from what I've heard of Wigwam after this it's mostly pretty lame pop-prog, with a few exceptions..

 

Not lame at all.

Nuclear Nightclub (1975)
Lucky golden Stripes And Starpose (1976)
Dark Album (1977)

....are all wonderful albums, just more accessible than their prog pinnacle of earlier.

Also essential are Jim Pembroke's

Wicked Ivory (1972)
Pigworm (1974)
Corporal Cauliflower's Mental Function (1977)

...and Pekka Pohjola's

Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva (1972)
Harakka Bialoipokku (1974)
Keesojen Lehto (1977)

...and most definitely Jukka Gustavson's

...jaloa ylpeyttä yletän... (1977)
Toden Toistoa (1981)
Kadonnut Häviämättömiin (1994)

The members of Wigwam could do no wrong in the 1970's. After the 1970's is when you want to start avoiding things (with the exception of Gustavson).

Enjoy!

 

Has anyone got the Deluxe Crazy World of Arthur Brown 2 CD set and care to comment?

 

I think Nuclear Nightclub sucks, and Dark Album is only redeemable by that one great song...Lucky Golden Stripes And Starpose is the only one I don't own / never heard , but after getting burned by buying Nuclear Nightclub, I'm hesitant.... I assume Pembroke is the reason this band in their later years sounds cheesy (and, the only reason they leave a slightly bad taste in my mouth on their 1st five releases), but I can't judge as I've never heard any of his stuff (although I know you've recommended that Pigworm thing here many times)...I'd be much more interested in acquiring the Pekka Pohjola and Jukka Gustavson stuff, as I assume there's no annoying and pretentious Pembroke vocals on them, and it's more in the jazz realm...

 

Gosh, I think Jim Pemroke is a bona-fide genius. What an amazing songwriter and singer. "Pigworm" has all the members of Wigwam from "Fairyport" and "Being" playing on it. It's basically the original Wigwam band fronting Pembroke's songs for one last gasp as a unit.

I think "Nuclear Nightclub" is fantastic. I can't believe you don't like Kite or Freddy Are You Ready?

What kind of non-prog do you like? Maybe you hate pop music in general. I love 70's pop as well as challenging prog, so if someone's gonna prog up my pop like Nuclear Nightclub, I'm all over it!

 

I'm wondering about these Wigwam remasters. Nuclear Nightclub just came in and I have Fairyport and Being on order. I have the Love remasters of F and B done in the early '00s but not NN. In the liner notes for the new NN they say "Remastered by Pauli Saastamoinen, Finnvox Studios, Helsinki - Esoteric CD master prepared by Ben Wiseman at The Audio Archiving Company, London". The earlier Love remasters were done by Pauli Saastamoinen at Finnvox. Is Esoteric just tweaking those earlier remasters and reissuing them? Also, wasn't there some synchronization problems with the Being remaster coming from 'being' remixed? Anyone know?

 

How are those Love records remasters from the early '00s? Are the masterings done right or are they compressed and maximized like so many other remasters these days? Those Love remasters seem to be easier to find and cheaper to buy over here in North America, so I might consider buying them unless the Esoterics really sound that much better (I'm still anxious to hear about the Esoteric '10 remasters of the Pekka Pohjola and Wigwam albums!)

 

The 2001 remasters are not bad at all.

 

They are a bit tweaked with EQ and have some light compression (iirc), but the biggest issue was the infamous "timing" problem on the Love remaster of Being. This occurs during "Pedagogue" and is supposedly the result of them using the 8-track multis and somehow stuff being out of sync. The electric piano track drifts, as I recall, and all of the amazingly intricate stuff they do is a bit out of whack. You can google this up, as it was pretty heavily discussed at the time. Certainly on Usenet, anyway. Basically, the original Love CD or vinyl were considered the way to go. I sought out the original Love CD and also found the tonality a bit warmer overall. It's duller, but sounds great. And, of course, "Pedagogue" is heard as it should be heard.

 

But another unexpected sign: Jade Warrior have recently recorded a new (!) album which is fantastic. It's called "Now" and Andy Jackson (Pink Floyd) has laid his hands on the production. I did the final mastering and according to the band they're very happy with it. Will be released on REP soon.


- Eroc

 

Yes, the original 1990 "Being" cd sounds very nice, but very rare too. Such a great album!

 

What makes it even more strange is that the band members ok'd the new mix without noticing any problems.

 

Well, that doesn't seem all that strange to me. It's quite possible that they spun the first track or two, thought it sounded fine and gave the ok. Or who knows ...?

The "timing" problem only regards "Pedagogue," and would be easy to miss unless one was really paying attention. A few guys sitting in a control room listening to it might not even notice it unless there was no chatting and undivided attention. It's the electric piano track that is not in sync, as I recall.

 

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/esoteric/artists/wigwam.php

Interesting to note that Esoteric says that Fairyport and Being are 'newly remastered with full cooperation of Love Records' but their other Wigwam releases are simply stated as 'this Esoteric reissue' and no mention of remastering.

 

Being is my favorite prog album ever (and I have so many of them...).
it is pure Genius.
The remaster by Love sounds great to me.

 

If it's your "favorite prog album ever," you owe it to yourself "Pedagogue" without the electric piano track drifting out of sync during all of that amazing syncopated stuff. Amazing even on the Love remaster, but the proper mix is astonishing!

 

Today's newsletter from Esoteric shows a May release for 'Way of the Sun' and 'Kites'.


April will also see our first titles on Reactive-our new imprint for "krautrock
and ambient"

Aprils titles
Schicke Fuhrs and Frohling-Symphonic Pictures (Reactive)
Schicke Fuhrs and Frohling-Sunburst (Reactive)
Fuhrs and Frohling -Ammerland (Reactive)
Clark Hutchinson-Free to be Stoned-2 Cd anthology( all 3 albums in
full-remastered)(Esoteric)
Hawkwind-Church of Hawkwind (Atomhenge)
Harvey Bainbridge -Dreams, Omens and Strange Encounters--new studio album
(Atomhenge)
Alan Bown-Listen (Esoteric)
Alan Bown-Stretching Out (Esoteric)
PFM-Chocolate Kings-2CD (Manticore)

May titles
Soft Machine-Bundles (Esoteric) unavailable for many years
Sam Gopal-Escalator (Esoteric)
Jade Warrior-Way of the Sun (Esoteric)
Jade Warrior-Kites (Esoteric)
Flash-Out of Our Hands (Esoteric)
Hawkwind-Xenon Codex (atomhenge)
Psychedelic Warriors (Hawkwind) White Zone (Atomhenge)
Schicke Fuhrs and Frohling-Ticket to Everywhere (Reactive)

 

Soft Machine-Bundles is great. I have it on CD and it's a very good album. I am curious how this version will sound. It's very exiting to see that there is a new Reactive imprint that will have krautrock reissues, yay!

 

From the liner notes of the new Esoteric remaster of Wigwam's 'Being' -

Re-engineered from the original 8-track master tapes by Risto Hemmi at Finnvox, Helsinki in March 2001
24-bit digital remastering by Pauli Saastamoinen at Finnvox, Helsinki in March 2001

Esoteric CD reissue devised, researched and co-ordinated by Mark Powell
Esoteric CD master prepared by Paschal Byrne at The Audio Archiving Company, London

I don't have the original Love CD so I can't compare it to that. I listened to "Pedagogue" and it does seem like the electric piano 'could' be off in a few places... I just don't know.
But from the above notes it certainly seems like this is just a tweaking of the Love remastering.

 

Bundles is the only Softs CD I've never been able to find, will definately get this! Fuhrs and Frohling -Ammerland isn't very good, I have the LP, it's a BIG step down from the three SFF releases, all available on the Colected Works of double CD (Laser's Edge) which include the two Brain Festival Essen tracks as bonus...

 

Actually, according to the website of guitarist John Etheridge, this year will also see CD reissues of Soft Machine's "Softs", "Alive & Well-Recorded in Paris" & "Land of Cockayne"

 

PFM "Photos of Ghosts" review

Sorry to get away from the Wigwam for a bit...

It seems that the package of many Esoteric releases was lost in the mail unfortunately, so I am working on getting a replacement hopefully. However, I did receive their edition of PFM's PHOTOS OF GHOSTS with bonus tracks. My review follows, but to briefly summarize, I would recommend it only to hardcore PFM fans, or sonically forgiving folks who have never heard this album before.

Main Program: Being the English version of what might be PFM's masterpiece, PER UN AMICO, PHOTOS OF GHOSTS is still a great listen, even if it is at times inferior to the original release. In addition to the songs on the original Italian PER UN AMICO, this English version adds "Celebration", a remake of their hit "E Festa" included on their first Italian LP, and the gently melodic instrumental "Old Rain", both decent enough tracks but certainly among the weakest on the album. I would say that anyone who enjoys '70s prog should hear at least one of these albums, preferably PER UN AMICO if you can handle the Italian vocals, or PHOTOS OF GHOSTS if you really must your songs sung in English.

Sound: As soon as the opening track "River of Life" began, I heard noticeable tape hiss and was glad that it appeared that no digital noise reduction was used. I also noted that from the mellow opening to when the band bursts in, the volume increased significantly, signifying that at least some of the dynamics from the original LP would be retained here. By all means in terms of loudness this not at all a brickwalled mastering. Unfortunately, though I started smiling when I first put the disc on, I was doing a lot less smiling by the end.

The first noticeable problem I suspect many would have is what might be considered a "bright" mastering. I am not personally as sensitive to brighter masterings as some, although I have openly admitted that some discs with bright EQ really hurt my ears. This one didn't hurt me at all, but I can definitely see it turning off some listeners. The worst offender here is the hi-hats. Unfortunately these have always stood out as too loud and crispy on any version I've heard, as it seems the mic was far too close to them during recording. With a problem such as this in the mix itself, a mastering that leans towards the bright side is not going to help matters by any means.

On the subject of dynamics, I should note that along with ELP's 1st LP and that same group's TRILOGY LP, the original UK LP of GHOSTS was one of the most dynamic rock LPs I have heard. Some of those dynamics are maintained here on this disc, but there are some moments - such as an acoustic guitar break during the title track - where parts that were significantly louder on the LP are only slightly louder here. To be fair, because of the excessive dynamics of that LP, I would have been shocked if any form of additional compression was not applied to the mastering of this CD. The compression is by no means over the top, but its use does alter the effect of some moments.

All this said, a bit of brightness and slight compression would be ok by me even if the LP would still be a better listen, but the biggest offender here is an obvious use of noise reduction. Yes, I wrote earlier that I heard significant tape hiss at the start, but clearly that indicates either NR was used only in parts of the disc or just less aggressively in some areas. Some quiet parts, especially in the title track, are almost completely without tape hiss, and they have that dead sound with that annoying gating that seems as if the high frequencies are fighting to be heard. I don't feel confident enough to say that I know how to detect when NR is used in all cases, but I can tell you it's definitely used here, and while it's not an issue for the entire disc, some parts are very frustrating because of it.

Bonus Tracks: These really are for the hardcore PFM fans only. It's nice to hear an instrumental mix of the title track, even if it doesn't reveal any buried instruments. The early mixes aren't significantly different either, either just including a louder vocal or otherwise not blending the instruments as well as in the final mixes. The only real treasure here is an instrumental mix of "Mr. 9 'til 5" which contains a totally different ending than the previously heard versions. The disc ends with a strange single edit of "Celebration" which cuts the song to under 2 minutes and pretty much eliminates the bulk of the vocals. I have the original Manticore single for this one which matches the LP version, so I'm not sure if a single with this edit was ever released.

Packaging: Did you even get this far? The package features an insightful essay on the group's breakout into England and America and some good pictures that I have personally never seen before along with pictures and lyrics as originally printed in the LP.

Conclusion: If you do vinyl and want the best sounding release of this album, the UK Manticore pressing of this one will blow you away. If you only do digital or don't want to spend too much on the best sounding digital release of this album, this is a passable reissue of a recommendable LP. But based on the sound quality, I can't say I'm going to buy any more of Esoteric's PFM releases unless the bonus tracks alone compel me.

 

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to share.

I never warmed up to Photos Of Ghosts like I did to the Italian Language first 2 albums. This may be bacause I heard the Italian language albums first, or because the awesome mellotron intro that is on the Italian version of "River of Life" (I forget the name) is completely removed from "Photos of Ghosts". This omission kills me; in fact, the mellotron is generally mixed lower in "Photos of Ghosts" which for a tron nut like me is also hard to take. That said, Photos of Ghosts is still an excellent album and well worth hearing.

 

I agree - I can't understand why the opening, later titled "Rain Birth", was omitted from the English LP, and though I hoped it was included on the alternate mix of "River of Life" included as a bonus track here, it is not. I actually heard PHOTOS OF GHOSTS long before I ever heard PER UN AMICO and still prefer the Italian album, so I don't think it's a matter of what was heard first in this case - the Italian version just seems more natural. Doesn't help that Pete Sinfield's English lyrics are downright silly in some places.

 

Thanks Izgoblin! That's was pretty much what i thought. The original Italian album wasn't a very good recording - you can hear that ear-pearcing hi-hat on that one too! But the remaster made the matters worse.

For some reason i just couldn't tell if the disc was NR'd or not. I hear tape hiss but still... Especially the Cook material sounds strangely boxed.

IMO PFM is a case of not-so-good recordings not salvaged by mastering.