Vivaldinization
04-14-2002, 01:47 PM
For a lark today, I listened to my "regular" CDs of Captain Beefheart's albums along with the Rhino double-disc "Dust Blows Forward" set.
The Rhino set sounds a *lot* better on most of the material. The TMR stuff generally sounded louder/clearer, but it was the Spotlight/Clear Spot and Shiny Beast stuff that benefitted the most. I've always thought that the Spotlight/Clear Spot CD sounded a bit "gauzy," like there was some frequency distortion/filtering going on. Well, the Dust set removes that completely; the songs sparkle there. Oddly enough, the same improvement is on the Big Lebowski soundtrack version of Her Eyes are a Blue Million Miles (they probably used Rhino-transferred masters of that song, which was probably considered as a contender on the set).
Similarly, the Shiny Beast tracks no longer sound like they were taken from a cheap cassette (a BIG issue with the Virgin CD of that title...it sounds *really* bad).
Surprisingly, the Enigma/Retro Lick My Decals Off sounded more or less the same as the Dust set...as all of the Enigma BIZARRE reissues sounded pretty good in the first place, I'm not all that surprised.
-D
The Rhino set sounds a *lot* better on most of the material. The TMR stuff generally sounded louder/clearer, but it was the Spotlight/Clear Spot and Shiny Beast stuff that benefitted the most. I've always thought that the Spotlight/Clear Spot CD sounded a bit "gauzy," like there was some frequency distortion/filtering going on. Well, the Dust set removes that completely; the songs sparkle there. Oddly enough, the same improvement is on the Big Lebowski soundtrack version of Her Eyes are a Blue Million Miles (they probably used Rhino-transferred masters of that song, which was probably considered as a contender on the set).
Similarly, the Shiny Beast tracks no longer sound like they were taken from a cheap cassette (a BIG issue with the Virgin CD of that title...it sounds *really* bad).
Surprisingly, the Enigma/Retro Lick My Decals Off sounded more or less the same as the Dust set...as all of the Enigma BIZARRE reissues sounded pretty good in the first place, I'm not all that surprised.
-D