now i wonder...
i wah-wah-wah-wah-wonder..
will there be any
steelydave liner notes in this here biyatchin' biyatch??
As I mentioned upthread, I did the liner notes for the Guess Who disc, and there are a couple of other writers who've tackled the others in this batch.
I'm really excited about the release of Argent
In Deep - aside from the replication issues that seem to affect the Q8s of this title (mine has this problem too), this is one of my "hidden gem" quad albums, and also a rarity in that it's one of a miniscule number of prog rock albums that were actually released in quad at the time. Mike Dutton reports that the album was mixed by Peter Brown (who I believe also did the Mandingo quad mixes, and some other EMI titles) at Abbey Road, which may account for why it doesn't bear the usual Columbia SQ mixing hallmarks. I really love the mix though, and it may be one of the most dynamic mixes of the era, clocking in around DR14 on the TT DR meter. Someone was asking what the music is like - I'd say give it a whirl on YouTube to get the flavour for yourself, but in general terms I'd describe it as somewhat dark/minor key songwriting-focused prog with just as much up-front organ as electric guitar. I actually think that Steven Wilson's work between
Raven and
Hand Cannot Erase bears a lot of the stylistic hallmarks of what Argent was doing around this time. I know the stereo-only material on this set will be of less interest to people here, but as far as I can tell (I've listened to a lot of CD versions of these albums, but maybe not ALL of them) this release will be the first time that both
Ring of Hands and
Nexus will be getting a digital release that hasn't had the dynamic range crushed.
I also concur with
@sjcorne 's praise for the two Blood Sweat & Tears albums - I feel that, a lot like The Guess Who, their early pop chart success ended up being an albatross that overshadowed some of their later, less commercial but (for me) more musically rewarding material. For
Mirror Image (which features two singers, Jerry Fisher and ex-Edgar Winter's White Trash singer Jerry LaCroix) they used a Motown producer called Henry Cosby, so the album has more of a heavy R&B feel, but there's still a ton of jazz/jazz-fusion influence courtesy of newer members like keyboardist Larry Willis and guitarist Georg Wadenius. The original LP sleeve had no quad remix credits, but while putting the artwork together for this one we discovered the original credit list from the label that was supplied to the typesetter, and it has the team of Don Young and Harold J. Kleiner clearly listed for this. They did some of the best quad remixes that D-V has put out lately including the Poco two-fer and Derringer's
All American Boy (amongst many others) and this one is every bit as good. Having said that though, I like
Mirror Image even more - not only is it David Clayton-Thomas's return to the group, it's also a real return to their classic jazz-rock sound...I'm not sure if it was by design but this sounds a lot like the album they would have/should have made in 1972 if DCT hadn't left the group then, just maybe with a bit more prog/fusion influence. Most of the material on this is from outside writers, but these are by no means "by the numbers" covers - I daresay their version of
Ride Captain Ride is better than the original. The quad mix for this one was done by Carmine Rubino (who also did the
Edgar Winter Group with Rick Derringer quad mix) and who was apparently called "The Quadfather" by John Lennon, suggesting he may have been the uncredited quad mixer for Lennon's
Walls and Bridges and/or the unreleased
Mind Games.
As for
Giant Box, Creed Taylor did an interview with
JazzWax magazine about 10 years ago where he talked about the album - I think I've said enough here so I'll let him do the talking!
JW: In April and May of 1973, you produced Don Sebesky's Giant Box. That was a massive date with 57 musicians.
CT: It was really a tribute to Don [Sebesky] and all the artists who were under contract to CTI at the time. Don arranged it. It was meant to showcase quadraphonic fidelity [which had been introduced to the market in 1970]. We wanted to assemble the biggest possible orchestra and create an enormous sound to fill out the new four-speaker format.
JW: What did you think of quadraphonic sound?
CT: I loved it. I had four speakers set up in each corner of the room so they were acoustically perfect. Then I'd sit in the middle and listen. Wow, the sound was amazing. It never occurred to me that there would be a marketing problem. You needed four speakers and a special piece of equipment to play this stuff, and the result sounded great. The problem ultimately was that the extra gear was too expensive for most people, who I think were pretty happy with stereo.
JW: So Giant Box was a quad session?
CT: Yes. I figured what better way to embrace a new technology than to do it with Don as the arranger and with each one of the artists signed with CTI.
JW: How did you come up with the name of the album?
CT: It was a giant orchestra and the two LPs came in a box [laughs]. Seriously, most of my album titles resonate because they simply describe what's inside. And they're direct.
JW: How did Giant Box sell?
CT: The box didn't fly as far as the world was concerned. The world wasn't ready for quadraphonic sound. Today, surround sound is standard with home theaters.
