13th Floor Elevators' debut album - best version?

The IA catalog is a mess, and the fact that Charly has apparently had decent tapes all along makes things worse. I don't think any reissues made from the late 70's on have used good source tapes - that goes back to the Radar reissues in England from I think the late 70's. The Epitaph For A Legend comp has some non 13th Floor material that sounds like they're from decent tapes, so there's indeed hope that good reissues could be done. The upcoming Charly 13th Floor set is supposed to be from the "we've had these IA masters sitting on the shelf" tapes, but given their frequent overuse of No-Noise I'm leery of what will finally appear.

 

I got my copy of the Sundazed reissue of Psychedelic Sounds yesterday - it's great to hear You're Gonna Miss Me without rechanneling and added reverb/echo messing things up. The cover is nice looking, the pressing on side 1 sounds pretty clean with a few pops here and there (I didn't have time to play the flip yet).

 

When is the Charley box set due out?

 

Supposed to be out in September. Here's a picture that JFS3 posted earlier from Mojo Magazine with the info about the set.

 

Calling Indy Mike!!! Well c'mon...where is the in depth review of the Sundazed Elevators Lp release?

 

So, am I the only one that listend to the clips David posted?

 

Not today - spent a good part of the day doing yard work, and then my son had a baseball game. Sundazed did a repro IA styled label in yellow/green with Sundazed's name replacing IA.

 

Great news about the first album, but I guess the above quote rules out a similar re-release for Easter Everywhere.

 

Easter Everywhere didn't have a charting single like You're Gonna Miss Me, and it apparently didn't sell too well - I doubt any record club would have expressed interest in trying to market it.

 

I just received my copy of the MONO 13th Floor Elevators Sundazed LP direct from Sundazed yesterday (they always seem to ship their LPs you order direct from them earlier than release date). I will be giving it a listen today.

The sticker on the front of the LP says:

"For the first time in 40 years, here it is in dangerously powerful MONO, exactly as it was intended: the stupefying debut album my Texas' heroic pshychedilic point-men, the 13th Floor Elevators, on Sundazed's uncannily accurate high-definition vinyl!" (this is also in the blurb on the Sundazed site itself.)

 

Sound quality gentlemen! We are dying to know y'know!

 

The Charley tape find seems to contradict the notion that these tapes are now gone. Do we really have to buy a 9-CD box set to get these albums or do you think they will eventually be released as individual CDs?

 

+1!

 

I sure wish Sundazed had gotten the CD rights for this, as we all know, Charly is going to screw this one up royally.

Its a crying shame that Lelan Rogers didn't sell the rights to the IA catalogue to someone who knows (and cares about) what they're doing. After all, Charly's just two wankers in London with a P. O. Box. And to rub salt in the wound, they bought the whole shebang off him for only $5K. Talk about a steal.



_____
James

 

Get a copy - I think you'll find it worth the money...

 

I have that same fan-made cd, & it sounds way better than anything I've heard on cd (never owned 13th flr vinyl)

I haven't been to their site in a while, but they don't exactly adhere to what would pass for kosher over here re mastering...lots of talk about "removing the hiss/noise", etc. In other words, maybe they sound better than anyhting else in spite of their methods.

 

The Sundazed LP, IMHO, is not a sonic revelation at all... it sounds a lot to me like knives in my ears. I don't have anything to compare it to, but if this is the best that this can sound, then I hate to hear what other versions of this Mono LP must sound like. If it is supposed to sound like this, then ok - but it is very bright and hard to listen to (sonically).

 

I think it's a little bright as well, but in my system some of that is most likely due to my cartridge/phono preamp needing some fine tuning in regards to the loading, as some other vinyl I have gives me the same result of being a little brighter than I care for. Given the crappy nature of the reissues over the years, I'll take somewhat bright over rechanneled/added reverb and echoey murkiness. Punching in the tone controls (yikes - a heretic) and shaving a tiny bit of treble and adding a little bit of bass smoothed things out rather nicely. The pressing is nice and flat, relatively quiet, the cover is great and vivid - not murky/washed out like a lot of reissues out there, and you won't shell out several hundred dollars for a minty original IA mono pressing if you can find one.

 

Um, this didn't make much sense. I meant to say, even with their extremely non-audiophile approach, they still produced a far better product than anything currently available.

 

Made perfect sense to me. Yes, the Texas Psych Group has a tendency to "tweak" things more than we might prefer, but in terms of what is available, they have managed to offer a superior (not to mention more comprehensive!) product in every respect... and they have attempted to make sure Roky receives something for their efforts.

- M.

 

The "Attack of the LPs" release seems relatively untweaked, but their mono sets are pretty processed (albeit still very listenable).

 

I don't have the ultra-revealing audiophile setup that a lot of people around here have, but I thought I'd resurrect this thread and put my two cents in anyway.

I agree that the mastering is a bit bright--even on my system, which is skewed to the warm side. I just took Indy Mike's suggestion, though, and turned the treble down a bit, and that toned down the shrillness nicely. Compared to my Get Back vinyl stereo reissue (licensed from Charly) and Charly 3CD box set, this mono version is a definite improvement to my ears. The music has been excavated from the echo and murk and is just a lot more present and rockin'. My wife said it as well as I could when I played them back to back: "the mono version is a lot more 'in your face.'" And that, to me, is a good thing.

Again, you might want to take my review with a grain of salt, as I really don't have the sensitive audiophile ear (or system) that many here have, but for what it's worth, I'm very pleased with my purchase. The vinyl is flat and quite quiet, and musically, it's the fiercest and most propulsive version I've heard. And, as others have said, it's a whole lot cheaper than an original.

 

So are the folks that have the Sundazed stating that this is brighter than original MONO IA / and related needle drops?

C

 

I've never heard either, so I honestly can't say.

 

I just got the Sundazed issue, but I haven't had time to listen to it yet. I have an original stereo and a Radar issue... I'll report back