Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site mit-eddie.MIT.EDU Path: utzoo!decvax!cwruecmp!neoucom!cbosgd!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!gds From: gds@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Greg Skinner) Newsgroups: mod.music Subject: Love-Hounds Digest Message-ID: <2346@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU> Date: Sun, 22-Jun-86 17:52:52 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.2346 Posted: Sun Jun 22 17:52:52 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 23-Jun-86 19:42:21 EDT Organization: MIT Lusers and Hosers Inc., Cambridge, Ma. Lines: 299 Approved: gds@eddie.mit.edu Love-Hounds Digest Sunday, June 22, 1986, 17:55 EDT Topics: New Kate Bush duet S'more reviews of Our Kate Archiving LPs on Video Tape Cathy Re: confused (contains obscenity) [][][][][][][][][][] Return-Path: EMAILDEV%UKACRL.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA Via: UK.AC.SUSX.VAX2; 19 JUN 86 12:18:09 BST Date: 19-JUN-1986 12:16:30 From: SSUD3%UK.AC.SUSSEX.VAX2@AC.UK NEW KATE BUSH DUET, GREATEST HITS PACKAGE, NEW SONGS, VIDEO COMPILATION, ETC. Here's the latest news from today's new issue of RECORD MIRROR (June 21): 1) The new Big Country album, entitled "The Seer," which is to be released on Monday (June 23rd), contains a Kate Bush duet on the title track. (I'm pretty pissed that the KBC didn't send out a notice about this...) 2) Well, I think I'l just copy down the section from "Chartfile" which has the rest of the Kate news: "A fortnight ago I stated that Kate Bush, Madonna and Tina Turner were the only women to take more than three hit singles off an album. As I'm now reminded by David Ashton of East Molesey and Charles Chan of no stated abode, Donna Summer had four hits off her album, "I Remember Yesterday." We should note, too, that Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" album which I conservatively estimated as selling 400,000 copies, has in fact sold over 600,000 copies. Kates all-time best-seller remains the introductory "The Kick Inside," which sold over 930,000 copies. EMI will undoubtedly be hoping for Kate's first million seller from her forthcoming (November) greatest hits package, which will include a couple of new songs. Meanwhile, Bush's exquisite duet with Peter Gabriel, "Don't Give Up," has been confirmed as the next single from his platinum album, "So". - Alan Jones, Chartfile (Record Mirror). 3) "The Hair of the Hound" video compilation has just been released here. It turns out that Kate directed both "Hounds of Love" and "The Big Sky" on her own. The inside of the cover has a great photo from the CB video. The cover artwork is basically exactly the same design and set-up as the album, except that the album title has been replaced with the video title. The back has a photo from the video for "Running up that Hill." What with the Peter Gabriel and Big Country duets about to be released, and the upcoming greatest hits package and extra singles, I can't exactly see her profile fading very quickly in the near future... Hugh [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Thu, 19 Jun 86 12:00:10 EDT From: nessus (Doug Alan) Subject: S'more reviews of Our Kate I subscribe to Matter and the latest issue (June 86) just came in the mail.... Tusco Vee of the Meatmen likes Danielle Dax. Everybody loves The Butthole Surfers. Matter is the last place in the world I would expect to find a review of *Hounds of Love*, but here one is 9 months after the album was released: If Kate Bush fronted an anonymous band on 4AD (the label whose over-the-top production techniques she seems to be emulating of late) [...] I think this guy is putting the chicken before the egg.... [...] and put out records sporting jackets that look like baggies full of wet tar instead of big pictures of her own face, maybe more chronic hipsters'd be willing to acknowledge the slightly skewed genius she very apparently possesses. M'self, I've always been glad she's just Kate Bush, an auteurist who doesn't wear her heart or her quasi-mystical pretentions on her sleeve -- hell, no, she's fashioned an entire *wardrobe* from the stuff. She's a singer/songwriter so idiosyncratic, so desperately unhip herself that you can't compare her to anyone else you'd even read about in this mag... couldn't even call her "new wave" -- not even as an *insult*. Course considerations like pretention and hipness are as out of place in talking about Kate Bush as Kate Bush is when your talking about trends in pop music. Anyways, sounds to me like *Hounds* is her best yet, songwriting on par with *The Kick Inside* and *Lionheart* (her first couple) while the singing ain't so theatrical, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink-with-the-diposal-unit-intact production of the proceeding rec, *The Dreaming*, is handled here a lot more effectively [...] Foo! [...] though, it's still a tad overbaked (use of taped voices esp. being a periodic nuisance). Small huff, really -- the only thing better than this record'd be a twelve-page photo spread of its mommy in *New Look*. Kidding, kidding. -- Chet Howland. And now for another little look at Kate Bush in the British press.... Curiously enough, that bozo Richard Cook, who wrote the wretched cover article on Kate Bush in Sounds, also wrote this review of "The Big Sky" for Sounds a short while back, which was the Single of the Week: A curious choice, and perhaps the winner by default. In this big pile of records, the few good shots are content to pick over small pleasures and little details. This is the only giant record here, the only one to overreach and maintain honour. The rehabilitation of Bush is a bit much: she is still the sort of girl who pours all her books and beads into the pot and stirs it up until you come out with an opera. Most of her records smell of tarot cards, kitchen curtains, and lavender pillows to me. But bits of *Hounds of Love* make something mischievous or even demonic come out of he throat, and 'The Big Sky' is a moment of real mad bravado. It starts like it's going to be one of the digital warrior dances Bush puts together when she wants to be uptempo and then a whole planet seems to be swirling around her voice. The best and most threatening thing that this bizarre talent has ever done. This is a review of "The Big Sky" by Stud Brothers for Melody Maker: Kate Bush, like some lithe Russian gymnast who makes even the most difficult exercise appear easy, gracefully treads the uneasy tightrope of progression and integrity without ever falling into indulgence and elitism. She has in fact, with her every release, managed to maintain a uniqueness without ever losing her public, something Siouxsie was almost praised for. But unlike The Banshees, she always sounds like herself and never sounds the same, and that's a difficult task. "The Big Sky" sounds like Kate Bush, but more importantly, like Hipsway and The Young Gods, it sounds like 1986. Truly gymnastic. "Love will get you like a case of anthrax And that's one thing I don't want to catch" Doug [][][][][][][][][][] Date: 19 Jun 86 15:14:00 PST From: "ROSSI J.A." Subject: Archiving LPs on Video Tape Reply-To: "ROSSI J.A." Just a word of caution to people who intend to use video tape as a medium for archival storage of music from LPs, CDs or elsewhere. Although the comments I am about to make concern Beta- and VHS- HIFI, they are almost certainly valid for 8 mm as well. The two 1/2" formats (Beta and VHS HIFI) utilize what is really an analog method of storing sound on tape. The process AFM involves modulation of a carrier frequency which is located within the video bandwidth of the recording process. Although the manufacturers claims that the method is rouhgly equivalent to recording in a convethional recorder at over 200 ips (most analog stuff is recorded at 32 ips), the claim is somewhat misleading. It is true, however, that both formats allow the recording of audio signals infinately better than any currently available cassette recorder and at least on a par with most high end consumer and 'quasi-pro' reel equipment (i.e., the subtle differences between true pro mastering equipment and the video formats is not important here). What is important is not the 'sonic-attributes'but the physical attributes of the media. Consider a reasonably affordable, high quality, 'quasi-pro' (Tascam, Otari, Revox, etc) mastering deck. It will usually use 1/2 in audio tape (1.5 m with backcoating), run at 15 ips and record in two tracks (each a little more than 3/16" wide) in te same direction. With some normalally used noise reduction system (eg. Pro-DBX) its electronic specs will exhibit frequency responses of about 30-22000 Hz, about 90-100 dB of dynamic headroom and no appriciable wow and flutter. VHS-HIFI (for example, Beta specs are slightly better) claims 20-20000 Hz frequency response, 80 dB headroom, and no measurablewow and flutter. Both have a noise ceiling well above 70 dB (basically inaudible at normal listening volumes). On paper (and on hearing) the two formats are close enough to be called equal. What is severely different, is the most fundamental point, THE TAPE itself. Whereas, 1.5 mil backcoated mastering audio tape is nearly invunerable to anything save temperature extremes and fungus, video tape (even the highest grade super extra high quality, dyna-super-beridoxi-epitaxica-HIFI tape) is a frail beast, initially subject to dropouts, and with a not too highly regarded longevity (i.e., when archival considerations for video storage film vs tape were argued several years ago, the theorists put a 10 year max shelf life limit on videotape (1/2 ") even when stored at ideal climatic conditions.). Another severe problem with video tape is its most limiting characteristic 'splicing-impossibility (i.e., if audio tape recorded at 15 ips breaks, a half inch can easily be removed for a splice and the effect on the musical program (figure a 1/30 sec loss) will, under most circum- stances be un-audible. Consider, 1/30 of a sec is a video frame. Now consider how many consecutive video frames are stored in a 1/2 in of tape (I actually dont know but figure the heads revolve at about 300 ips and the strike that, its 300 rpm, and the tape moves at less than 1 ips, giving a balpark figure of about 5 frames or 5/30 sec loss [best case], or at least 5 times the loss of the audio tape. Couple this with the synch problem not shared by audio tape and the results of a broken tape could be disasterous). Back to the first problem, as video tape ages its paerticle bonders degrade making it more subject to dropouts. As video, the dropouts are seen as momentary noise bars across the screen, in hi fi, the sound like they look (imagine a schscschschsshchch in the middle of one of the Fairlight glisandos in Mother Stands for Comfort, for example). In conclusion, the video tape solution to audio needs is important. I have replaced my trusty old Revox A77 with a JVC VHS HI-FI video recorder. For final archival purposes, however, I dub back to my Tascam 8 channel deck using 4 tracks for each stereo channel. Therefore, while video tape HIFI makes a real nifty substitution for a mastering deck for mixdown purposes (i.e., for some purposes its even preferable to reel decks), it is no substitution for the longevity and non-degraded archive results you can expect from audio tape when properly stored. Now, talking about something I have no experience with, 8 mm tape. I would think that the problems I cite above with the 1/2 in formats would be severly compounded with 8 mm. First the tape is much thinner (i.e., less bonders) and obviously moves much slower (size is time and shorter lengths need to move muchh slower to get equivalent playback times), therefore, I would suspect that dropouts are probably at leat as frequent and ther tape is much more brittle than 1/2" tape. Second, the method of audio in the 8 mm format is digital PCM (Pulse Code Modulation), similar to that used by CD players however utilizing only one half the word size (i.e., CDs use a 16 bit PCM word whereas the converters in 8 mm are only 8 bits wide). This alone has tremendous implications for dynamic tracking of input signals, and has resulted in a less than acceptable frequency response (30-15000 Hz). Therefore, all other things being equal, the 8 mm format starts out at a sonic inferiority to the analog methiods used in the 1/2 in video formats. Couple that with the concept of digital dropout (this is a much more severe problem than analofg dropout because it can effect any parameter of the sound, and not simply be interpreted as a momentary gush of noise or non existence of sound (have you ever heard a CD mistrack ot dropout, not a pleasant auditory experience). In summary, if you think you want to listen to your recordings ten years from now, or you think you would like to have your grandchildern appreciate Kate, Peter and the like, keep your records or better yet buy CDs or analog laser disks. The two later possibilities give you all the sound you need and are nearly indestructable. If you must use tape, buy a high quality 1/2 track 1/4 in deck amd use it at 7 1/2 ips (slightly less frequency resp, but better overall characteristics than 8 mm video tape) In long winded apology, John ------ [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Thu, 19 Jun 86 21:21 EDT From: Tavares@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Subject: Re: Love-Hounds Digest I do hope you will give us ordering information on "Cathy" when it's availeable...? [][][][][][][][][][] From: allynh@calder.berkeley.edu (Allyn Hardyck) Subject: Re: confused (contains obscenity) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 86 19:41:06 PDT RE/Search 20 Romolo St., Suite B San Francisco, CA 94133 Issues 1-3 are out of print separately I believe, but can be obtained for $110 in a set. They will send you information about all their issues if you mail them. The _Industrial Culture Handbook_ is issue #6/7 and I believe costs $10 postpaid. Their latest issue is on _Incredibly Strange Films_ and deals with such people as Russ "Valley of the Ultravixens" Meyer and (whoever it was) the director of _Blood Feast_. The Art of Noise record no fun? What, a little wimpy? Commercial? Well, on third listening I can agree somewhat, but I like how they're subverting these bebop cliches in "Eye of the Needle", and I can't really say no fun when it's at least much less depressing than _(Who's Afraid Of?)..._ [][][][][][][][][][] -- It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under. Greg Skinner (gregbo) {decvax!genrad, allegra, gatech, ihnp4}!mit-eddie!gds gds@eddie.mit.edu