(Experimental Rock/Psychedelic Rock/Blues-Rock)[LP] [24/96] Captain Beefheart - Clear Spot - 1972, FLAC (tracks)

01. Low Yo Yo Stuff
02. Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man
03. Too Much Time
04. Circumstances
05. My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
06. Sun Zoom Spark
07. Clear Spot
08. Crazy Little Thing
09. Long Neck Bottles
10. Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
11. Big Eyed Beans From Venus
12. Golden Birdies

Доп. информация: Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band – Clear Spot (1972) Germany LP @ 96/24 + Redbook

Posted by Euripides @ March 14th, 2012

Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band – Clear Spot (1972)
Germany 1985 pressing, Reprise Records REP 54 007, Mastered by WEA Germany
Vinyl rip in 96Khz/24bit & 44.1Khz/16bit | FLAC | M3U, MD5
Artwork | DR Analysis | Hi-Res: 775 MB / CD: 216 MB inc. 3% recovery | Links: RS, FF | Rock, Psych

‘Clear Spot’ is a 1972 album by Don Van Vliet (AKA Captain Beefheart) which delivers a softer, more accessible approach than some of his earlier, or indeed later recordings.

Review by Ned Raggett Allmusic.com (7/10)

Producer Ted Templeman was a bit of a surprising choice given his firmly mainstream production credits, with the Doobie Brothers already under his belt and Van Halen lurking in the near future. As it turned out, such a combination led to a better-working fusion than might be expected, making one wonder why in the world Clear Spot wasn’t more of a commercial success than it was. The sound is great throughout, and the feeling is of the coolest bar-band in town, not to mention one that could eat all the patrons for breakfast if it felt like it. Fans of the fully all-out side of Beefheart might find the end result not fully up to snuff as a result, but those less concerned with pushing back all borders all the time will enjoy his unexpected blend of everything tempered with a new accessibility. “Nowadays a Woman’s Got to Hit a Man,” besides having a brilliant title, shows the balance perfectly — Van Vliet serves up his rough asides with all his expected wit and sass, while the Magic Band trade off notes here and there just so. At the same time, the track is strong blues-rock that doesn’t pander, with a particularly fierce solo thanks to Zoot Horn Rollo. “My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains” is a great love song, the softer arrangement saved from being too off by Beefheart’s delivery. Other winners include the title track, a sharp combination of an off-kilter arrangement for a straightforward melody, the great shaggy-dog story of “Golden Birdies,” and “Big Eyed Beans from Venus,” a fantastically strange piece of aggression.

I’ll add: This fine album sits up there with many of my all-time favourites and as described in the review above it has many surprises in store for the fan who’s more used to being weirded out rather than just simply entertained. This rip from an absolutely pristine piece of German vinyl which comfortaby beats any other pressing I’ve heard. Enjoy!

SPECIAL MENTION! I would like to take this opportunity to thank those members of the blog who contributed to the donations fund organized by the Doc, and of course BIG thanks to the Doc himself; I have just acquired a new Denon DL 304 cartridge which will allow me to continue ripping. The cart. cost 395 GBP (@ 620 USD) and it would have been a serious struggle at this point for me to fund it all myself. (I’m still in debt for it as well!) The 250.00 dollars I received from the Doc was immensly helpful. BIG THANKS TO ALL and lots of love too. I hope my ripping will continue to warm your ears.
However I am happy to call that a one-off. On this tip I done what some others on the blog have done and put my own donations button for Paypal on future listings. This is NOT intended to replace or have any effect on whatever donations go to anyone else. Remember that the most important donations are the ones that fund the site’s very existence!

Tech log:

Equipment: VPI HW-17F Vacuum Record Cleaner Technics SL 1210 MKII T/T, Rega RB 300 Tonearm, Denon DL304 M/C Cartridge, Cambridge Audio AZUR640P M/C Stage (LP), M-Audio Profire 610 A/D, Adobe audition 3.0

Method:
Clean records on Vpi, rip (PCM@96/32), remove inaudible subsonic (0Hz to 17Hz ~ 0db, sloped filter from 17Hz to 20Hz)
Manual and carefully targeted automatic de-clicking in Adobe Audition using custom scripts and presets. I make sure this doesn’t
damage natural clicks.
Occasional use of noise masking techniques such as ‘footprint’ sampling the groove noise and fading to mono during track changes, etc.
Normalize whole sides to 100% (After deciding if the sides are cut the same), Split tracks, FLAC, MD5, M3U, Discogs Tagging, DR, RAR, +Redbook (16-bit dithered in Audition), FTP

Audio philosophy:Stay out of the way of the music.

Artwork:
Source: The actual record
Quality: Good (96dpi)
Contains: Cover, Rear, Inserts, Inner Gatefold, Labels, Printable CD case and dvd-a images.

This LP’s school report: (A)
Deadwax info:
A: WEA 31502 54007 A PF / B: 31503 PF
An example of how good the German pressings were from the ’80s. They were not flashy, not ‘heavy’ just very well made. I’ve heard plenty of US pressings and several UK ones and this trumps them all by a yard. The new DL 304 is working very nicely too!

If you like what I do please feel free to make a donation towards the running costs. Any donations will go towards 1) server costs, 2) equipment running costs, 3) possible upgrades, 4) Vinyl purchases.

Dynamic Range Analysis:

——————————————————————————–
Analyzed: Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band / Clear Spot
——————————————————————————–
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
——————————————————————————–
DR14 -0.48 dB -16.62 dB 3:42 01-Low Yo Yo Stuff
DR13 -1.85 dB -17.11 dB 3:46 02-Nowadays A Woman’s Gotta Hit A Man
DR12 -4.17 dB -18.57 dB 2:50 03-Too Much Time
DR13 0.00 dB -16.45 dB 3:14 04-Circumstances
DR13 -3.94 dB -19.36 dB 3:01 05-My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
DR15 -0.17 dB -17.84 dB 2:14 06-Sun Zoom Spark
DR14 -2.27 dB -19.07 dB 3:40 07-Clear Spot
DR15 -1.80 dB -18.91 dB 2:39 08-Crazy Little Thing
DR13 -3.49 dB -18.04 dB 3:22 09-Long Neck Bottles
DR14 -3.72 dB -20.34 dB 2:58 10-Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
DR11 -1.57 dB -14.41 dB 4:23 11-Big Eyed Beans From Venus
DR15 0.00 dB -18.91 dB 1:39 12-Golden Birdies
——————————————————————————–
Number of tracks: 12
Official DR value: DR14