(Experimental Rock/Psychedelic Rock/Blues-Rock)[LP] [24/96] Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Mirror Man - 1971, FLAC (tracks+.cue)

01. Tarotplane
02. Kandy Korn
03. 25th Century Quaker
04. Mirror Man

foobar2000 1.1.5 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2012-04-06 16:36:30

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Analyzed: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band / Mirror Man
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR15 -0.03 dB -17.87 dB 19:10 01-Tarotplane
DR12 -1.59 dB -15.78 dB 8:10 02-Kandy Korn
DR17 -0.63 dB -20.48 dB 9:52 03-25th Century Quaker
DR14 -1.13 dB -17.55 dB 15:47 04-Mirror Man
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Number of tracks: 4
Official DR value: DR15

Samplerate: 96000 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 2830 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band – Mirror Man (1971) US LP @96/24 + Redbook

Posted by Euripides @ April 6th, 2012

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Mirror Man (1971)
Original US pressing, Buddha BDS 5077, Mastered @ Sterling Sound
Vinyl rip in 96Khz/24bit & 44.1Khz/16bit | FLAC | M3U, MD5
Artwork | DR Analysis | Hi-Res: 1.08 GB / CD: 313 MB inc. 3% recovery | Links: RS, FF | Rock, Garage, Psyche

‘Mirror Man’ is a selection of previously unreleased studio jams and recordings from an aborted previous album project. None the worse for that, it just took a while to get clearance from the thought police.

Review by Stewart Mason Allmusic.com (6/10)

Originally, Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band’s second album was intended to be a double-album set called “It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper.” Although 1968?s Strictly Personal has the same artwork that was mooted for the double album, it’s a single disc. As part of the same post-Trout Mask Replica closet-cleaning that led to Buddah (the parent company of Blue Thumb Records, which released Strictly Personal) reissuing Safe As Milk as Dropout Boogie in the U.K. in 1970, the label released Mirror Man, the second disc that was intended for the Plain Brown Wrapper release. Recorded in November 1967 (an odd misprint on the sleeve claims it was recorded in 1965, when the band barely existed), the four lengthy tracks on Mirror Man are even more simplistic and primal than those on Strictly Personal. All four are worthwhile, but the key tracks are “Tarotplane Blues,” a free-form jam in which Beefheart jumbles together the lyrics of at least half a dozen blues standards into a stream-of-consciousness ramble (adding musette and harmonica for good measure) as the Magic Band vamps on a slide guitar-based, two-chord groove for over 19 minutes, and the similarly expansive “Mirror Man,” one of the key tracks of Beefheart’s entire career. Probably the catchiest tune Beefheart ever wrote, “Mirror Man” has an almost funky, hip-swaying groove, and there’s a playful lightness to the way Beefheart chants the simplistic lyrics that prefigures the flights of fancy on Trout Mask Replica and Lick My Decals off, Baby. The remaining two tracks, “25th Century Quaker” and “Kandy Korn,” are less essential but interesting enough. The revitalized and properly spelled Buddha Records reissued an expanded version of this album in 1999 as The Mirror Man Sessions, adding five alternate takes of songs that later appeared on Strictly Personal.

I’ll add: Not much to add, just that Kandy Korn is rather more essential than the above reviewer intimates… notable also for being the track that informed (allegedly) most of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe’s singing career. Enjoy!

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: All sleeve and label artwork, Printable CD case and dvd-a images.

This LP’s school report: (A-) Condition: NM
Deadwax info:
A: BDS 5077 A STERLING / B: BDS 5077 B STERLING
A well made standard pressing for the most part but B1 was a treacherous minefield of glitches and clicks/… so you’re getting a real labour of love here, I think I cracked it. The iother three tunes are cleana s a whistle, weirdly. Sterling’s mastering is, as always, perfect.

I work for free but everyone else keeps charging me money for stuff… I’ll keep on ripping anyway