Went to this gig in London and had a great time. World class performances, I’m glad someone had the foresight to record it – and not only that, there appears to be a country cool enough to have shown it on TV.
I was fortunate enough to find this little oddity in a Venetian market earlier this month. As far as I can tell it’s a live recording from a performance of composer G. Donizetti’s “The Elixir Of Love” by The Victorian Opera Company. I don’t know much about Opera, but I loved the handwritten cover and the fact that the master was cut live (a recording technique that seems quite insane by today’s standards).
It’s pressed to a “Mastersound Custom Processed Record” meaning there is no catalogue number, but the matrix in the runout reads “LWG-6833 A”. The label states that the conductor for this session was Leonard Spira and the produce was David Niven. Neither of whom I am familiar with.
Recording of “Elixir Of Love” by G. Donizetti.
Sung by The Victorian Opera Company.
Conducted by Leonard Spira.
Margaret Haggard sings the role of Adina.
John Pringle sings the role of Dulcamera.
Was singing first tenor in chorus.
Recorded live at the Palais Theatre, St. Kilda
As far as I can tell both Margaret Haggard and John Pringle were main stays at The Victorian Opera Company, St. Kilda, Australia . Sadly, I can find no information about the recording other than what’s written on the cover. If I had to guess I would say it was recorded in the mid-seventies.
It’s a lovely performance, sung entirely in English (thank god!), and a relaxing listen. If anyone has information about the recording (especially who the illusive ‘I’ was) please get in contact with me.
It’s a terrible shame that someone who once proudly wrote on the cover what part he sung, then presumably sent his recording halfway around the world had it end up in an old dusty box in a second-hand market. Hopefully freeing the recording makes up for it.
Listen below to hear a long-lost, likely forgotten recording.
Side 1
Side 2
I’m looking for any and all Vladislav Delay bootlegs. I have a few so far but I’m sure I’m missing a lot, I think. I even dragged out my old Backup HDD to see if there was anything I had lost recently.
No luck. Below is my current list of live bootlegs, if you have anything that’s not listed here, or is an improvement to the shitty quality please contact me. I’m trying to archive all this shit before it disappears forever.
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Cafe Campus, Mutek, Montréal, Canada 09.06.00
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Boombox ??.??.00
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Volksbhne, Berlin, Germany 26.05.01
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Nativelab CD Release Party, Club WMF, Berlin Germany 11.11.01
Vladislav Delay – Live @ With AGF, The Beta Lounge, San Francisco, USA 24.05.02
Vladislav Delay – Live @ PEMF, Panacea, Detroit, USA 25.05.02
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Tate Modern, London, UK 28.09.02
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Gallery Space, Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham, UK Broadcast on Radio Cuttlefish 29.03.03 [snippets]
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Ultrahang Festival, Budapest, Hungary 26.09.03
Vladislav Delay – Live @ SUR TERRE – RGB 1, La Ferme Du Buisson, Noisiel, France 17.09.04
Vladislav Delay – Live @ DEMF, Detroit, USA 28.05.07
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Dommune, Tokyo, Japan 02.09.11
Vladislav Delay – Live @ URSSS, Milano, Italy 04.05.13
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Tauron New Music Festival, Katowices, Poland 03.09.13
Vladislav Delay – Live @ Resonanzraum St. Pauli (Bunker an der Feldstraße), Hamburg, Germany 31.03.16 [Snippets]
Ripatti – Live @ Air, Tokyo, Japan 03.14
Luomo – Live @ The Beta Lounge, San Francisco, USA 24.05.02
Luomo – Live @ Sonar, Barcelona, Spain 13.06.12
Luomo – Live @ Koneisto, Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki, Finland 25.06.03
Luomo – Live @ Ultrahang Festival, Budapest, Hungary 27.09.03
Luomo – Live @ Panacea, Detroit, Michigan, USA 13.03.04
Luomo – Live @ Dama de Ferro, Rio De Janiro, Brazil 08.12.04
Luomo – Live @ Poznań, Poland 10.11.06
Luomo – Live @ Watergate, Berlin, Germany 09.09.11
List correct as of 12/06/2016. Those highlighted in bold are poor quality and need replaced.
I would like to share these recordings with everyone, but I am unsure of ownership etc. If V gives me the nod I’ll do it, no issues.
My Roland RE-201 chewed it’s tape for the millionth fucking time. I can’t and won’t sell it, it cost me too much money and I’ll never find one again in such nice condition. Since I cleverly put it under all my rack mount gear, it’s an absolute bitch to pull out and fix so I decided to write something without it. To continue in spite of my lazy ass RE-201.
I’ve not thought of a name for this thing yet, and it’s not entirely mixed either but I thought it would be interesting to share. It may pop up in a more complete form in something later in the year, it may disappear entirely but for the moment there’s something I quite enjoy about this piece. Milli-Plateaux vibe shit.
Have a listen. Again, mastered to the K-12 scale, so crank the volume.
Untitled Render 01
Well, it’s been a long and expensive journey, but I have finally secured a copy of DeepChord vs. Octal Industries “Arrival / Departure”. I’ve been searching high and low for
DeepChord vs. Octal Industries “Arrival / Departure”
So after all those years (and all that money) was it worth it? Well, maybe. The music is beautiful, especially the Octal Industries cut. My copy is absolutely immaculate, both visually and audibly, so I’m very pleased. But I can’t help but feel I’ve lost more than I’ve gained. I no longer have a white whale that I’m searching for, I no longer have a reason to email random guys on Discogs to see if they’re finally looking to sell. I don’t think anything will replace this, I just can’t see anything being this sought after for such a long time. It’s not the most expensive record I own, it’s not musically the best nor my favourite, but it is for some reason or another, the most magic.
Octal Industries “Arrival” is a poppin’ repetitive electro techno masterpiece. Deep, rhythmic and just a wonderful five minutes of perfect techno. Octal Industries has never been close to equalling this level of quality again, and I can’t blame him. Perfect magic, pressed to bright orange PVC.
DeepChord “Departure” is the minimal essence of modern Detroit techno. Pulsing PWM minor chords bounce in amongst a hazy background and locked beat. You know who DeepChord is, this is his best work.
Any disc containing “Arrival” would have been highly sought after, but the fact that it’s backed with another almost master-piece makes it something very special.
Octal Industries “Arrival”
DeepChord “Departure”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6h43GRngbg
I travelled 850km to see this man, and what a great set he put on.
Here are some snippets I recorded, I hope it gives you a flavour of what went down. I missed most of the more rhythmic pieces, but this was really just to serve as a recording to jog my memory in the coming years.
If you ever have the chance to see Vladislav Delay live, do it. 10/10 Magic Johnson stuff.
The blog has been feeling a bit neglected recently, I’m struggling to get the time to actually update with what I’d like to write about (quick review of the Vladislav Delay gig in Hamburg, I finally got a copy of DeepChord vs. Octal Industries, and there’s a new M. Sayyid mixtape dropping soon).
I’ve managed to be ill in three countries this week, as well as sleep 80 percent of my weekend away. The other 20 percent of this weekend was spent in my little (now, not as broken) studio.
I wrote three pieces, one of which was deleted for failing to reach even my lowly standards. I bought a couple of cheap Chinese guitar pedals a few months back and have only just found the time to install the in the studio. I’ll maybe put a review of them up later in the month(s), but needless to say I think they are pretty good, and are excellent value for money.
Anyway, everything is midi sequenced through my MPC4000 and it’s all hardware synthesis and effects – I don’t do that VST bull (keepin’ it real y’all!). If anyone is interested in the particulars of the production or gear, leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you.
I’ve used the K-12 scale for mastering (and even then, quite gently) so turn it up and enjoy some dynamics. If you listen really close, you’ll here one of my tubes begin to fail in “Drama” around the 3:20 mark.
“Lights / Drama”
“Lights”
“Drama”
I’ll think about doing this more frequently from now on, at the moment it feels disingenuous to critique so much music and not put my neck on the line (I prefer to say “cock on the block”, but let’s keep things decent). That may change though.
You can download the MP3 or Flac here: Anima Recordings
The Life Of Pablo is a bit of a mixed bag – it’s difficult to find any coherence and the majority of the production would be described generously as
Kanye West “The Life of Pablo”
My favourite at the moment is the weird and wonderful house track that closes the album called Fade. Fade is getting a lot of heat at the moment, and is being proclaimed as Kanye’s Worst Track™. Now I’m a contrarian at the best of times, but Kanye West “Fade” is a fucking solid piece of house music. In fact I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to call it the best house track I’ve heard in the past five years or so. What it’s doing on a hiphop album released in 2015 2016 I don’t know.
Fade has a very steady 4/4 beat, plodding along for a mere three minutes, and underpinned by the least ‘hiphop’ synth bass. I would never have guessed this was a Yeezy track, but that’s no bad thing. There’s a very poorly time stretched vocal sample (your love is fade / I feel it fade) that is used as the main hook, layered against Kanye’s heavily autotuned vocal (when no one ain’t around, I think I think too much). I chopped female vocal stab is then layered against some soul backing vocals and lots of digital delay giving it a 90’s house vibe.
I think it’s really interesting that Fade was included on The Life Of Pablo, but it’s such a lovely little track that I guess Ye thought it was too good not to use. That could be the case for the majority of the efforts on TLOP.]
After weeks of waiting I have finally received my “Blackstar” vinyl. It’s a nicely packaged, heavy weight 180g transparent pressing which comes accompanied with a lovely 12″ matt print book.
Visconti mentioned that the master for the vinyl would sound like a “good old record”. But it doesn’t really, not to my ears anyway. It’s slightly brighter than the digital releases, but certainly not more dynamic. This leads me to believe that a lot of the compression used on “Blackstar” was done during the mixing/recording process, which would seem like a reasonable assumption.
The vinyl does sound good, but still with a very modern sound.
There’s some samples below, recorded from my vinyl and volume normalised against the CD masters. See if you can ABX between them.
David Bowie “Blackstar” Master ABX Results
David Bowie “Blackstar” Master Volumes
David Bowie “‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore” Vinyl Master
David Bowie “‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore” CD Master
David Bowie “Dollar Days” Vinyl Master
David Bowie “Dollar Days” CD Master
Just received an email from Bandcamp offering Vladislav Delay’s full discography for €118.30 EUR (a 35% discount). Admittedly this isn’t a ‘full’ discography, but it’s close enough. All the notable releases are included, even the latest ‘Visa’, as well as some great oddities (
Vladislav Delay Full Discography
This is absolutely worth every penny, and about 10x less expensive than buying the out of print physical releases.
Get it here.