Post by opaquelens on Jun 9, 2013 4:32:20 GMT -8
I first discovered the Ozrics in 1990 when I made my own chrome cassette to cassette copy of Sliding Gliding Worlds which I borrowed. I even went as far as colour photocopying the foldout sleeve, which had been previously coloured in. I may still have it somewhere. If I find it I may post it here.
For years it was the only Ozrics in my collection, but I played it to death in the background. I had Arborescence, Strageitude and Erpland in my collection as the 90's progressed, and the Ozrics became my favourite band, and have not stopped being so in all that time.
As more commercial, naff music was coming and going from my life, this hissy dropouty tape carried on blowing me away. As audio progressed over the years (from CDR to Minidisc and now as files on a USB key or hard drive) I wanted a copy of this album on CD, and didn't get round to buying it, as well as the rest of the cassette albums, till after 2000, and when I heard them liked the non industry feel, and the spirit of the old counterculture as it was, encapsulated into the sound.
As a hi fi enthusiast I was disappointed that the sound quality on CDs made the tape hiss and the dropouts sound worse. It didn't put me off listening to them, but I wanted to hear them cleaned up. I was forever thinking "I wish someone would remaster these albums", and although I'd heard better versions of some of the songs on Afterswish, they still had dropouts and hiss on them, and I was concerned that these amazing pieces of musical history would end up in the historical dustbin due to the audio becoming somewhat unlistenable except to the old fans the more we go into the digital age. There's a lot of well recorded, well produced cheesy shit from the 1980's still being played on crap commercial stations, and I felt it would be sacrilege to condemn these amazing albums to the dustbin of history, which I could see becoming inevitable.
Then last year in Bristol at an Ozrics gig, I told Ed I'd attempted to remaster the old recordings, and that I was happy to do them all. He seemed very enthusiastic about it, and so did Brandi. So I set my self a seemingly impossible task. About 3 or 4 weeks later they played in Exeter, and I had a window of time. Seeing as I run my own business, the girl who was working for me at the time was ok to do most of the work whilst I spent all the hours I could cleaning these recordings up. I even did it at the weekends.
This was the ultimate labour of love, and I cannot express how difficult Erpsongs alone was to clean. I realised that there was no way the Ozrics could afford to put the time and resources in a posh studio to getting this work done, and the only way this would become a reality would be in the hands of a fan who had that skill, and the right software. Luddites out there who like the cassette-iness of the old recordings won't be thinking "thank God for the digital age" but I am right now because it's become affordable for people like myself to restore old recordings, and it's no longer the domain of fiendishly expensive recording studios.
Anyway I gave the copies on CD and USB stick to the Ozrics at the Exeter gig. Then of course there was the fire, and Ed's health, and of course we were all worried. But they got through that, and it's great Ed's back to his old self, they have a new house, and will be back on tour shortly. Long may the good times continue.
Recently Brandi emailed and said my restored files have been in two or three more studios getting the high end mastering treatment which they still need. That means the official release will sound transformed a second time to my ears. I can't wait.
I did this before the fire, and didn't even consider a 30th anniversary scenario. But synchronicity is a strange thing. I hope the Ozrics benefit enormously from the sales of this box set, and that it more than makes up for the losses last year.
I also hope these albums are listenable enough to young ears, so the aura of the era of the pre 'battle of the beanfield' counterculture encapsulated in sound will permeate as far into the future as possible.
For years it was the only Ozrics in my collection, but I played it to death in the background. I had Arborescence, Strageitude and Erpland in my collection as the 90's progressed, and the Ozrics became my favourite band, and have not stopped being so in all that time.
As more commercial, naff music was coming and going from my life, this hissy dropouty tape carried on blowing me away. As audio progressed over the years (from CDR to Minidisc and now as files on a USB key or hard drive) I wanted a copy of this album on CD, and didn't get round to buying it, as well as the rest of the cassette albums, till after 2000, and when I heard them liked the non industry feel, and the spirit of the old counterculture as it was, encapsulated into the sound.
As a hi fi enthusiast I was disappointed that the sound quality on CDs made the tape hiss and the dropouts sound worse. It didn't put me off listening to them, but I wanted to hear them cleaned up. I was forever thinking "I wish someone would remaster these albums", and although I'd heard better versions of some of the songs on Afterswish, they still had dropouts and hiss on them, and I was concerned that these amazing pieces of musical history would end up in the historical dustbin due to the audio becoming somewhat unlistenable except to the old fans the more we go into the digital age. There's a lot of well recorded, well produced cheesy shit from the 1980's still being played on crap commercial stations, and I felt it would be sacrilege to condemn these amazing albums to the dustbin of history, which I could see becoming inevitable.
Then last year in Bristol at an Ozrics gig, I told Ed I'd attempted to remaster the old recordings, and that I was happy to do them all. He seemed very enthusiastic about it, and so did Brandi. So I set my self a seemingly impossible task. About 3 or 4 weeks later they played in Exeter, and I had a window of time. Seeing as I run my own business, the girl who was working for me at the time was ok to do most of the work whilst I spent all the hours I could cleaning these recordings up. I even did it at the weekends.
This was the ultimate labour of love, and I cannot express how difficult Erpsongs alone was to clean. I realised that there was no way the Ozrics could afford to put the time and resources in a posh studio to getting this work done, and the only way this would become a reality would be in the hands of a fan who had that skill, and the right software. Luddites out there who like the cassette-iness of the old recordings won't be thinking "thank God for the digital age" but I am right now because it's become affordable for people like myself to restore old recordings, and it's no longer the domain of fiendishly expensive recording studios.
Anyway I gave the copies on CD and USB stick to the Ozrics at the Exeter gig. Then of course there was the fire, and Ed's health, and of course we were all worried. But they got through that, and it's great Ed's back to his old self, they have a new house, and will be back on tour shortly. Long may the good times continue.
Recently Brandi emailed and said my restored files have been in two or three more studios getting the high end mastering treatment which they still need. That means the official release will sound transformed a second time to my ears. I can't wait.
I did this before the fire, and didn't even consider a 30th anniversary scenario. But synchronicity is a strange thing. I hope the Ozrics benefit enormously from the sales of this box set, and that it more than makes up for the losses last year.
I also hope these albums are listenable enough to young ears, so the aura of the era of the pre 'battle of the beanfield' counterculture encapsulated in sound will permeate as far into the future as possible.
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Have a karma !
