OFF: Used to be Space Rock; What is it? Now Farflung

[Jon Jarrett]

On Mon, 16 Apr 2001, Chuck Rosenberg wrote:

> > 1.Solar Electric/Open Yr Mouth
> >  > 2.Don't Forget to Breathe
> >  > 3.title track
> >  > 4. and 5. Greater Waters (pts one and two, perhaps)
> >  > 6.Landing on Cydonia
> >  > 7.Hot Fluffy Mind
> >
> >          I always figured `Solar Electric' to be the two-part track on
> >  there. `Open Your Mouth', identifiable as such by the vocals, is tracked
> >  as No. 2 on my copy.
>
> RU absolutely sure?? This is the regular Flipside disc, I assume, with the
> quiet out-put, etc... Every copy I've seen has the above tendencies...
>
> Or are you reckoning the latter part of No. 1 as part
> >  of `Open Your Mouth' rather than `Solar Electric'?
>
> On my copy, birds twitter at the end of SE, then OYM kicks in (obvious from
> the lyrics, as you said), while the track still reads #1.
> I mean it like it is...like it sounds... :)
>
>  Because the riffs are
> >  different... Although there's no reason why one song couldn't have two
> >  riffs even on a space-rock album :-) I just don't see any real reason to
> >  suppose that the tracking's awry, I think it's meant to be like
> >  that. Certainly I wouldn't split up `Greater Waters', it only makes sense
> >  all together! My opinion only of course, yours,
> >                                                  Jon
>
> I wouldn't either! It's the tracking on the disc that insists on this! :)

        Mine tracks like Keith's; I reckon you have a
"collectable" version mate :-)

> not like it matters or anything...just whiling away the time... But when I
> interview Grenas, I'll try to get the scoop on the Raven tracking, which i
> know we all agree on...

        I had a brief correspondance with the erstwhile bass-player Buck
McGibbony about that; he was evasive, but agreed that the title track is
correct as it stands, a three-piece suite. He began by saying, however,
"I get really steamed whenever I think about how sloppily that album was
mastered.  We were rushed for time and had to rely on the mastering house
to do the tracking and they got it completely wrong.  The correct track
listing is impossible to describe since the internal track numbers on the
CD don't even point to the actual song breaks.

"Just ignore what your CD is telling you and refer to the liner
notes.  Use your instincts to decide where the songs begin and
end...  Most of the songs on that album are available on www.MP3.com I
decided to release everything to the public for a while until the record
company resumes paying out our royalties."

        No great surprise there I guess... He adds that `Alius Orbis' was
a live recording, and that it's the last track on the album, by which I
assume he means it begins it as surely the last track (bar the synth
run-off) is `The Way the Sky Is' - the lyrics seem to confirm this?

        None of this cleared up the fact that the number of titles on the
back don't match the number of songs refreed to on the credits though
:-) Yours,
           Jon

--
       Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)     jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
   =====================================================================
  "There is a certain pleasure in being mad, which none but madmen know"