Opal - Early Recordings/Happy Nightmare Baby

ok - one of the greatest albums to emerge from the PU scene, ok - up against The Bangles, for chrissakes, - possibly - but one of the greatest psych albums ever? Having not heard it, I can say for certain that it couldn't possibly scratch the top ten thousand. It's David "Throwback" Roback, man!! Take two Pearls Before Swine LPs and call me in the mourning

Having also heard Pearls Before Swine, Opal tops out. To be fair, I guess ER is a lot more VU than it is psych..

But I'm also a product of that paisley scene too.

You might consider getting either of the later Kendra Smith albums, which are both (IMHO) much better than Happy Nightmare Baby. Five Ways of Disappearing is probably a tad easier to find than the Guild of Temporal Adventurers, especially on eBay where you can probably snag it for $3-5.

A lot of Super Falling Star songs are very Early Recordings-era Opalesque, particularly the songs on their split single with Fuxa.

(If you'd prefer not to spend the 75 bucks, though, you can e-mail me...)

Sorry about being a ebay scum seller, but i needed the money to buy more records. My starting bid was only $5 tho...

_The Guild of Temporal Adventurers_ smokes the ass of _Five Ways of Disappearing_ in every known dimension. Her cover of "Bold Marauder" is good though, a sweeping cinematic revision of to me what always sounded a bit like a sea chantie.

Wonder why _ER_ hasn't been bootlegged yet? I figure that even if it wasn't swallowed by _Rough Trade_ that Roback would be enough of a bastard to keep it out of print. It wouldn't be the first time.

Speaking of which...._The Rainy Day Album_, which often comes up in these discussions, is vastly overrated in my view. Some interesting moments, but certainly not worth what it commands/commanded in the collector market. I doubt it'll ever be reprinted as well, which'll keep the ebay mavens happy.

I'm looking for live recordings of Hope Sandoval singing Opal songs - I saw her do these at the Hollywood Palladium opening for The Jesus and Mary Chain after Kendra bailed on the tour. I think the Opal songs are much stronger in general than Mazzy Star stuff.

Rain Parade - You Are My Friend
Rainy Day - I'll Keep It With Mine (feat Susanna Hoffs)
Rainy Day - Flying on the Ground is Wrong (feat Kendra Smith)
Rainy Day - I'll Be Your Mirror (feat Susanna Hoffs)
Opal - Empty Box Blues
Opal - She's a Diamond (Early Recordings vers.)
Opal - My Only Friend
Opal - Strange Delight
Opal - Fell From the Sun
Opal - Rocket Machine
Opal - Magick Power
Opal - She's a Diamond (Happy Nightmare Baby vers.)
Opal - Happy Nightmare Baby
Mazzy Star - Halah
Mazzy Star - Blue Flower
Mazzy Star - Ride It On
Mazzy Star - Ghost Highway
Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
Mazzy Star - Mary of Silence
Mazzy Star - Five String Serenade
Mazzy Star - Into Dust

(81:40 overburn!, pretty much chronological. nb - I don't believe that David Roback appears on "You are My Friend", but it's such a good song and he certainly influenced it (wrote it???) - does anyone know how much? Chris?

also, I've ignored the last Mazzy Star album as I don't remember anything from it...)

I just saw something called Volume II on ebay with these tracks:

1. My Canyon Memory

2. Sisters of Mercy

3. Sailing Boats

4. Vespers

5. Lisa's Funeral

6. This Town

7. Freight Train

8. Wintertime

9. Little Bit of Rain

10. What You've Done

11. Cherry Jam

12. Indian Summer

Indian Summer?!

Magick Power, Magick Power...

i've got this -- it's a bootleg right? Has slightly dodgy sounds anyway. Roback (I think) sings quite a bit on it, if I recall correctly. There's a male singer at least ...

Voice of dissent, re: Early Recordings. It's good, but nowhere near as great as Happy Nightmare Baby. Best bits (Fell from the Sun, Northern Line, Harriet Brown, etc.) are lovely, dreamy psychedelic folk-pop -- some of my favorite music of that kind. But at least half the songs don't make much of an impression. Extremely pleasant, but too often limited to that.

Happy Nightmare Baby, on the other hand, is one of the best damn guitar rock albums out there. So incredibly dense, lush, SEXY, physical and intuitively right-fucking-on. Retro as hell, and locked into a psychedelic hard rock thing that necessarily limits its appeal, but absolutely unbeatable at its own game. Every song is distinctive, memorable, endlessly seductive. Maybe you have to be messed up, and you certainly have to dig "passionate" guitar solos, but even so...

Mazzy Star can't hold a candle. Nice, but nowhere near as deep. The Rainy Day thing is worth it only for I'll be your mirror - otherwise disposable. Kendra Smith's Guild of Temporal Adventurers EP is nearly as good as Early Recordings. Much creepier, often awkward as hell, but w/ tons of sick magnetism and an unbeatable Can cover.

Shakey, the "Indian Summer" track is indeed a Doors cover, appeared on a Chemical Imbalance 7", and is as great as anything on ER.

Wonder why _ER_ hasn't been bootlegged yet?

I bought a counterfeit LP a few weeks ago. I seriously doubt it was an actual Rough Trade reissue!

All Opal is CLASSIC. I need that boot CD really bad. Kendra solo is essential as well.

Happy Nightmare Baby is definitely the pinnacle of Roback's vision (especially the title track), but Early Recordings is surprisingly strong, especially without the heavy psychedelic assist from the guitars. Parts of Rainy Day, and certainly more than just "I'll Be Your Mirror" are just wonderful, especially "I'll Keep it With Mine" and "Flying On the Ground is Wrong" is just devastating. Mazzy Star obviously has many incredible tracks too. I certainly wouldn't dismiss it just because it's not quite as amazing.

yeah for years I snottily dismissed Mazzy Star as Opal wannabes given their lineup, thought Hope was just trying to imitate Kendra and thought Roback was striving to recapture past glories. Then at a particularly surreal, druggy party back in '98 I heard both CDs and they suddenly made a ton of sense. These days I think those first two MS CDs express the heroin-as-music vibe better than anything except a coupla Spacemen 3 records. Soporific in a good way.

man i love opal so much, and strongly prefer the early/ clay allison stuff to 'happy nightmare' though it's def. good.

somehow and very weirdly with 'chemical imbalance' i managed to release two covers called "indian summer" --one the opal cover of the doors song, the other dean wareham's first solo release and a version of the beat happening song. (to further complicate things, later sonic boom covered dean's version thinking it was dean's song).

anyway, i hope to release the opal track in the best-of ci book/ cd out next year though i'm not holding my breath that roback and smith will okay that, even though the project is a benefit... we'll see.

The ERII boot is pretty good and worth a moderate hassle to track down. There's a FLAC version circulating around on the torrent sites. Try tracking it down there first. I am also biased in this opinion.

I believe that the source of these was originally a cassette tape of unused tracks that would have made up some of the second Opal album. Roback sings most of them.

I must have this collection. (I think late summer is also good Opal listening weather in the gloaming -- will put it on in a bit here.)

early recordings 2 is kinda disappointing, but "sailing boats" is a great song, i'd love to hear a decent quality version of it.
(early recordings is one of my top 5 albums ever)

Bob Standard very OTM.

i managed to get hold of the UK pressing of fell from the sun with 'frieght train' on it. great song, if not quite at the level of the a-side.

i love opal, and my ER cd sits next to my DAW as my reference disc of what an amazing recording sounds like

has anyone heard beachouse? they capture that spooky early recordings sound pretty well. so when and what label did this volume 2 emerge? when do the recordings date from? is it post hnb?

theres no official release, just low quality mp3s. its pretty much all the demo stuff left off early recordings, and with two or three exceptions (sailing boats, what you've done, vespers maybe) i think the compilers of the official album made the right choices.

do you like the kendra smith solo stuff joni? i ain't never heard it.

i love the guild 10", but i found the songs on the 4ad album lacking, although she did a cracking version of richard & mimi farinas "bold marauder". email me your address & i'll send ya some stuff if ya want.

ta joni. what's that farinas stuff like? i haven't heard a note but i like been down so long it looks like up to me, is it straight ahead folkie fayre?

yeh pretty much straight folk with boy/girl harmony singing on first album, second album is more dylan-like with guitars & drums. its all good though! j has been hassling me to read that book for years now.

it's funny, a bit kerouac-y, you get the feeling he had better in him, i'll keep an eye out for those r & m rekkids!

Early II is a bootleg of B-sides that was put together on a music blog with handy downloadable cover art included. (I'll try to track down which it was later.) It was never released even as legitimate bootleg cd, so some "entrepreneur" is basically taking the mp3s from the music blog, making cds from them and then selling them on ebay.

Youtube comes through. Hope singing for Opal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZSt4fpJwck

You can find Early Recordings II on this website, hXXp://xholdesert.blogspot.com/, look in the March archives, Rainy Day is also there. The best tracks were indeed kept for the official release, but finding this collection of unreleased songs today makes me happy beyond words. "Sailing boat" is a beauty, and Kendra's voice on the Leonard Cohen cover "Sisters of mercy" is at its honey sweetest.

a bump to mention that a really great clay allison live show from 1984 just popped up recently on dime, as well as a 1987 opal show which i haven't listened to yet. the clay allison show makes me wish there was much more documented from them from this era. from the notes of the person who posted it, it seems there's more to come as well.

ooooooooooooooooh! thanks for the tip

if anyone's interested i just posted a 1984 opal show here: http://ow.ly/4tAZq probably the same one city worker mentions above? anyway, it's great.

grazie!

CD80 mix upthread needs more Rain Parade but no idea what i'd remove :/

i'd remove all the mazzy star (i like 'em, but..)

re-upped this with a better link -- track order was all out of wack.

weird, there's a vinyl bootleg of that 1984 clay allison gig floating around: http://www.discogs.com/Clay-Allison-Live-At-The-Electric-Banana-5221984/release/5456137
anyone got it?

I have this. My wife is a major Kendra fan so I bought this for her for her birthday last year. Sound quality a solid B, and the songs / performances sound terrific. Cool cover art, too, not very bootleg-y. Definitely worth the plunge.

yeah, i've heard the tape previously -- pretty cool performance (and fairly different from Early Recordings in some respects, if i remember correctly. some pretty heavy moments).

yep, if it's not too pricey, I'd get one... I got it as a gift and agree with Jimmywine's assessment!

I need to look and see if that was one of the shows that came up on Dime a few years back, there were a bunch. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it is pretty great.

pretty sure it's the one i posted upthread a few years ago (link is dead however)

Re that Early Recordings II bootleg, Matt Piucci found out about it earlier this year and was really pissed off as a couple of the songs are apparently not Opal songs at all but are I guess Rain Parade demos or just Matt P solo, and he was somehow under the impression that David Roback was responsible for putting it out!

weird! what an odd career roback has made for himself. still seems crazy that the opal stuff hasn't been collected/reissued properly.

agreed, just madness

numero group putting out a deeeluxe box set w/ early recordings + happy nightmare, plus live & unreleased action (hopefully not matt piucci solo demos, haha) ... i would buy it.

that is so weird about Early Recordings II, I'll have to give that a closer listen

that version of "indian summer" on ERII -- so good. though this one w/ hope is very good too...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1wnAsSB71M

so that LP is not one of the 4 shows I have, another thing to add to the list. when looking, I also found this tragically lost item with three more early songs that have never appeared anywhere afaict:

http://www.discogs.com/Clay-Allison-Clay-Allison/release/7679417

oops, they are on Early Recordings II, carry on

gahhhh compilation tracks and ephemera I was not aware of

a Syd Barrett cover!!! some song called "Ghost Highway" from a Rough Trade promo tape?!?!

https://www.discogs.com/artist/158032-Opal-2?filter_anv=0&subtype=Compilations&type=Appearances

yeah, found that barrett cover on youtube a little while ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFV4geZ-IHA
pretty good!
didn't know about "ghost highway" -- the same song that mazzy star did?

it might just be that track, yeah

OPAL - 1987, Sept.17, Live VIDEO, w. Kendra Smith singing, San Diego, SST Records Fest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd8g6AROi18

nice!

Wow!

holy shit I was at that gig!

too bad the mic was right next to Suki's foldback! What a great find.

Before this event took place, SST had scheduled a festival in the L.A. area with Sonic Youth headlining but it fell through, so instead they held this festival on the steps of the main gym at UC San Diego, with Opal headlining.

I remember this, a free, all day thing at the Santa Fe dam in Irwindale! My friend and I drove out there only to find it had been cancelled.

"Fell From the Sun" has to be one of the top ten songs in the universe.

in case anyone missed it, Kendra Smith recorded a song for the Leave No Trace soundtrack last year and it's amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnoME6cyi_U

^^^^

It looks like 'Early Recordings' is being reissued November 1 on a label called Salley Gardens. Salley Gardens Publishing is listed on every Mazzy Star release.

wow!

nice

FINALLY

Looks like a straight reissue, no bonus tracks or what have you... not even "hear the wind blow". Amazon track listing could of course just be wrong, but there's no other real info about it yet!

this better not be some sketchy Amazon boot

It's Prime and ships from and sold by Amazon so that's a good sign.

ha, i don't think i knew that "hear the wind blow" isn't on some versions ...

it's not on the vinyl version, it was a CD bonus track originally

^^ yeah it was a B-side

I thought Hear the Wind Blow was only ever on the Early Recordings CD... they could add Soul Giver and Freight Train, those b-sides never appeared on CD before I don't think?

oh yes you are correct, was thinking abt Freight Train

the version of Soul Giver on that 12" is the same as on Happy Nightmare Baby iirc

hrmmmm

I’m Kendra Smith’s manager - while we are in discussions, nothing has been approved yet. This had better not be real, just yet.

— Pat Thomas (@PatThomas1964) October 3, 2019

I must admit I'm glad to know that she has a manager

haha, yeah, seems unlikely, but that guy is legit, I think.

normally I'd be suspicious if the artist themselves said nothing about a reissue, but with Opal I'd be more suspicious if they did.

haha, yeah, seems unlikely, but that guy is legit, I think

I didn't know he was handling Kendra's stuff, but Pat is definitely legit.

I played Early Recordings for the first time in maybe ten years and I have to say I remember liking it more than I do. I think in my old age I actually prefer Happy Nightmare Baby. I don't remember all the lousy slide playing on this album! Total respect and admiration for Roback as a guitarist but Kendra remains the draw for me. And I still love the Rainy Day album more than all the Opal and Mazzy Star albums combined.

That said, if a reissue of Early Recordings materializes, I'll probably buy it, as my copy of this is beat to hell.

This is now in stock...

here's the latest from pat thomas:

I had to have this release postponed until the record company recognizes Kendra’s % of ownership - records are sitting in warehouse awaiting legitimacy- should be soon, I hope

— Pat Thomas (@PatThomas1964) November 2, 2019

thanks Tyler

I believe Amazon is already shipping these (it says shipped from and sold by Amazon - delivery by tomorrow). I'd order it but I already have the earlier CD.

yeah i don't really know, haha.

I wonder what source was used to master the thing... did they just take the CD version and master it for vinyl, lopping off "Hear the Wind Blow"?

This is a CD.

The new CD comes with the original CD bonus track "Hear the Wind Blow" plus four additional bonus tracks: "I Called Erin," "Don't Stop the Train," "Sailing Boats" and an alternate version of "Empty Bottles." It sounds great (i.e. not compressed), and the bonus tracks are wonderful. I have been waiting for a legit reissue for a long, long time (25+ years) since I refused to pay collector prices, ha (and yes, I did download MP3s to tide me over). "Empty Box Blues" goes through my head *all the time*. For the record, Rainy Day's cover of "Flying on the Ground is Wrong" is one of my favorite tracks ever recorded by anyone.

Rainy Day reissue next, I hope? That album kills Early Recordings (and I have always really liked Early Recordings)

Anyway, I bought this.

xpost - thanks for the report! I think I've only seen "Sailing Boats" on 'Early Recordings 2'.

Ordering this now.

And yes, fingers crossed for 'Rainy Day'.

double wow! it was listed as a vinyl release on amazon initially

Ah, ok. I'm really glad it's not just some vinyl repackage.

gahhhh OK thanks

can anyone give me a link to buy other than Amazon?

oh hell yeah looks like they did Happy Nightmare Baby as well

https://www.roughtrade.com/us/opal/happy-nightmare-baby

would kinda like to know who is behind these reissues

love Sailing Boats, can't wait to hear the others!

Re: "who is behind these reissues" - in the credits, it says: "2019 reissue Frank Gironda- Lookout Mgt., Pat Thomas"

OK, that's Mazzy Star's management company.

Rainy Day reissue next, I hope?

Happy Nightmare Baby reissue now has a listing on Amazon US with a Nov 1 release date, still unavailable though:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X7CP219

Early Recordings reissue is still not listed on Discogs, so I assume there are no actual physical copies out there yet:

https://www.discogs.com/Opal-Early-Recordings/master/30242

there are, I have one

ah cool!

god damn it this appears to have vanished completely, still not listed on Discogs and unavailable anywhere (even Amazon)

f. hazel plz ILXmail me if you can rip yr copy?

so frustrating

The CD reissue of Happy Nightmare Baby also vanished, I assume the few copies Amazon got last year of Early Recordings were not meant to be sold, in reference to the tweet from Pat Thomas about the reissues being embargoed until the royalties for Kendra Smith get worked out.

haha, the saga continues ... the reissues are listed for preorder over here, but who knows: https://www.propermusic.com/label/s/sally-gardens.html

in the meantime, i recently came across a 1985 recording (with opening set by Hope Sandoval's first band): https://ia801509.us.archive.org/32/items/Opal1985-04-22TexasRecordsLosAngelesCA/Opal1985-04-22TexasRecordsLosAngelesCA.mp3?cnt=0

GOING HOME (opener)
OPAL
1985-04-22
Texas Records L.A.(CA) USA

Going Home:
1. Give You My Lovin' 3:53
2. The Scarecrow 4:32
3. 2:41
4. 2:09
Total: 13:15

Opal:
5. Lisa's Funeral 8:03
6. Rock Section 7:09
7. Blue Flower 4:58
8. Lullabye 6:03
9. She's A Diamond 3:30
10. Fell From The Sun 4:49
11. Soul Giver 9:24

thx for the webmail f. hazel, much appreciated!

thanks tylerw, a Kendra version of Blue Flower is pretty cool, and the fuzzed out Lullabye too! complete with dude creeping on Hope Sandoval after their set... Mazzy Star played Blue Flower and Rock Section when I saw them last February!

dear f. hazel, sorry to bother you but I have not seen a second email from you, just checking!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OsKEMrh_W0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWuUYFF31rQ

via Ned on FB:

Pat Thomas just posted a note including this: "I manage Kendra. There will be some news soon about Opal reissues. Please do NOT ask me any more details about the release of Opal at this time. Roback made some magical music (with many of my close friends) - my favorite is the early Opal material."

Roback made some magical music

MAGICK POWER

Just the most amazing song (and video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6g1IvcwL5Y

Just noticed that the "Verified Artist" page for Opal on Spotify--while including an authentic band photo and bio--completely features music by an unrelated artist using the same name.

<iframe width="616" height="462" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iEamS2sQO9Q"; frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

ahhhh, evidently not how that works, empty box blues, beautiful stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=50&v=iEamS2sQO9Q&feature=emb_logo

via Elvis Telecom on FB, never seen this (great) show before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCqD-vCS9hw

wow never seen that one before!

nice! it's nice that for a relatively obscure band, Opal/Clay Allison was pretty well-documented, bootleg-wise. here's one of their earliest live gigs: https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/611039000197775360/clay-allison-mccabes-guitar-shop-santa-monica

sleeve do I still owe you an email?

"Rocket Machine" is such a jam. What a band.

xp yes please!

https://t.co/AEQAuASxM8

— Pat Thomas (@PatThomas1964) February 27, 2020

So I think I read that the opal reissue from 2019 wasn't authorized? I see it up for pre-order now. Confused

My guess (genuinely only a guess) is that it was put together by someone who thought they had the rights or didn't think there would be a problem with them, then a few copies got out, then there was a problem with the rights, subsequently resolved, release is back on.

otm imo

how did I space on the Early Recordings vol 2 mentioned upthread? I'm having a very enjoyable afternoon catching up. If I'd been handed a copy of this 25 years ago my brain would have exploded.

...is this available for purchase? It's on youtube for streaming.

It's a boot, apparently from a tape stolen from David Roback. A few of the songs are not Opal but another member of Rain Parade I think.

I can ysi if u ILXmail me

also paging f. hazel, I did email you but never got that link

At least one of the songs on Early 2 is from the very first Rain Parade recordings. Matt Piucci talks about it in one of the recent episodes of the paisley underground podcast.

yeah when Matt P was first made aware of Early 2 iirc he got mad because he thought it was a legit release and Dave R was ripping off his songs or something?

hrmmm

Sadly - they may never come out now - difficulties with David Roback’s management

— Pat Thomas (@PatThomas1964) July 17, 2020

gahhh

f. hazel plz check yr ilxmail

Sucks to hear it. :-/

Thanks to David Roback, his management and the record company- these two releases are permanently cancelled. Yes, CDs were manufactured and a few copies were sold last November. Sadly the remainder will be destroyed. Kendra & I did everything we could to make this release happen

— Pat Thomas (@PatThomas1964) November 11, 2020

fuuuuuck

such bullshit

he goes on to say: "it’s too complex to write it all out on Twitter, but I will say there were unreasonable and immoral demands set forth."

i'm trying to imagine who would be good for an opal / kendra smith tribute album ...

heron oblivion
damon & naomi
magik markers
dream syndicate
dean & britta

who else?!

I saw Opal split up onstage in London in 1988, not their greatest show I'm guessing.

I'm still baffled a bit: was this some sort of final wish of Roback's before he died or was in his will, or is his estate just jerking everyone's chain?

yeah i really have no idea.

yeah it's a bit weird to blame him now given he's dead

the 'immoral' statement makes me assume that there was some assertion on Roback or his estate's part that would have denied any funds going to Kendra. Did they hate each other?

well that's depressing!

Low would be great for a tribute album.

there's already four Opal tribute albums, the last one was called Seasons of Your Day

haha, really? well i missed those.

oh lol, i get it now.

Wouldn't mind hearing William Reid sing "She's a Diamond".

so weird that they are going to destroy the remaining copies of this. I get that they can't sell them but surely they could give them away, at least?

that's a pretty typical aftereffect of these kinds of injunctions, iirc. like Prince w/the Black Album.

it's hard to believe this band or anyone associated with it has the legal or financial wherewithal to impose any kind of injunction though.

I'm guessing they made a fair amount of money from Mazzy Star over the years, especially "Fade Into You"

Roback and Hope, yes. But Roback is deceased. So I guess this falls to whoever is handling the estate, or whoever owns the rights to these recordings; I also know, from the little I've dealt with the American music club reissues, that dealing with rights holders for independent music from the 80's and 90's is a complete pain in the ass. Hats off to Light in the Attic and Omnivore and other reissue labels that have the patience to deal with it

I mean yeah, remember that Happy Nightmare Baby was released on SST!

I believe it was a similar rights issue that kept the Game Theory records out of print in Scott Miller's lifetime, after Enigma Records had collapsed.

So sad that there's this kinda of wrangling over what must be a thin gruel of royalties

exactly. Pat clarified on twitter that the rights are owned 50/50 but Roback's demands were unacceptable. Hard to understand what kind of demands you can have when it's understood that you only own 50%. Frankly owning 50% of your rights for this stuff is pretty good.

Is the thinking sells on Discogs for $75, therefore the demand must be huge!?

god who knows. it's probably more along the lines of 'fade into you has made oodles of money and so there must be huge demand for his back catalogue' but I don't think reissues of Emergency Third Rail Power Trip sold out instantly and made trillions of dollars.

which songs on Early Recordings II are actually Opal songs? I assume the ones where Kendra is singing, but other than that...

seeing as some CDs were supposedly sold have the extra tracks surfaced anywhere yet? really want to hear the properly mastered Sailing Boats

belated thanks to f hazel, just my webmail for the first time in months!

enjoy!

A 1988 show after Hope replaced Kendra. Audience recording but good once they get going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIWhLwJ-kyY

I ponied up for a copy of the deleted Early Recordings remaster (making it the only album I have overpaid for twice, both times deleted) and in addition to the fascination of the extra tracks, I gotta say the remaster is excellent. The music is so much more present and alive, whereas the original feels distant and slightly muffled.

Live show above is lovely. The compression of the recording plus the LOUDLY mixed guitar is wonderful. Cheers for the link.

The remaster is great — lol, it really is so stupid that it's not available.

really sad the Happy Nightmare Baby reissue never made it out either, the original CD master of that one isn't bad but it isn't great either

There's a seller (Global-Deals for You) on eBay offering multiple sets of Early Recordings and Happy Nightmare Baby on CD - 30 sold, 8 remaining - which I think is a liquidator. Wondering if it might be the unsold stock of the reissues. I have the Early Recordings reissue and the original HNB CD, so it would be pretty expensive for me to buy a set out of curiosity, but I'm putting it here in case there are folks without either CD who'd like to give it a shot. Their feedback includes positive responses from folks who bought the set, by the way.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/185279370201

interesting! trying to justify buying it as I have both the original releases, I really want a hard copy of the extra Early tracks tho ...

Remaster is excellent too, if that’s a factor for you.

arrived today, and as suspected they are the Salley Garden reissues that were pulled. v happy!

does the Happy Nightmare Baby CD have anything extra? is it remastered? the SST CD version doesn't sound bad but it doesn't sound amazing either...

nothing extra, I have the OG vinyl so can't compare.
could rip & send if anyone's interested?

I would be interested to hear, yes please!

haha, I bought a set off the eBay auction so I can report back when I get mine re: old vs new HNB CD

(and can also rip for ILXors)

ok ripped, anyone interested webmail me 4 link

or just post here and I'll web you, that's probably easier tbh

That is AWESOME. I’m glad a few made it out after all.

thanks zappi!

Would love it, thanks Zappi!

Would love it, thanks Zappi!

Would greatly appreciate said link; thank you, Zappi!

I only have the LP to compare, on first listen this does sound a bit fuller/more detail/remastered, not really louder/compressed which is nice

I’d love to hear a lossless of HNB if such a thing were available …

yes thanks zappi for sending FLAC files, much appreciated

FLAC files? Wouldn't mind giving an ear, with thanks in advance. Lucky enough to have the original CD issues of both but it would be nice to get a sense of what's changed.

(And much thanks again!)

thank you!!

Thanks again, Zappi!

Did a bit of comparing the original HNB CD and FLAC of the new one in Audition. If I were to guess, the new one is the same as the old one, with ~ +5dB gain applied. Once I matched volumes, there was no difference when A/B-ing. There's also no difference in frequency spectrum — if the new one was digitized anew from original tapes, there most likely would've been. On the plus sized, at least it's not crushed into oblivion, it's just been amped up without any limiting or compressing. So, if you have the old CD, you're not missing anything revelatory that you couldn't get with a volume dial.

Someone mentioned that they heard the remastered Early Recordings, and that *that* one sounded different. Anyone?

Sounds significantly better to me, much fuller than the Rough Trade CD, at least.

and I agree that HNB is likely just a level boost of the same master

or just post here and I'll web you, that's probably easier tbh

Would love to hear this Zappi

hi zappi, have just sent you a mail :)

thank u zappi, my hero!

Thanks Zappi!

Are you on FB or Discord? Reddit? I want a copy (HNB was one of my favorites as a teen; it was burnt up in the fire) but I'm not sure if I have access to my ILXmail. (Chris Irregardless on FB, GreenLeafy11 on Discord and Reddit.)

sent via reddit! I think I've caught up with everyone else, let me know if you can't find it etc.

Lost opportunity with the lack of a remaster on Happy Nightmare Baby, it sounds like ass.

I got it, thank you.

like a fool I bought a set, I think I have bought Early Recordings four times now (and always for stupid prices). I'm glad to have both the Salley Gardens releases tho.

My copies from this eBay overstock place arrived, I wanted the Happy Nightmare Baby reissue to go along with the Early Recordings one I was lucky enough to get from Amazon before sales were halted. So I've got a spare copy of Early Recordings... anyone want it (for what I paid for it, an admittedly steep $36)?

I'm a little late in asking, but can anyone share FLAC files for the Opal 'Early Recordings' remaster on Salley Gardens? Seems to be out of reach now.

yeah I got u

does your ilxmail work?

Thanks, sleeve! I am new to this forum and don't have an ilxmail account. Is there another way?

if the email you used to sign up is valid, I can send it to you!

basically ilxmail send a blind message (no return email) to the account you used to register

otherwise, you can click on my username link and send your email to me via ilxmail

Dynamite, got it! Am listening to it now and what a treasure this set is. I still have the vinyl from '89. Could never let it go somehow, even when I really needed the money. I would just look at the cover and go, "no, not this one." The extra tracks are stellar and the sound is vivid...the songs really have a sound and a feel out of time; could have been released 47 years ago or yesterday. Thanks and Happy New Year to you!

<3