Darkroom – San Paku (1983)

ArtistDarkroom
TitleSan Paku
Year1983
LabelWEA
CountryCanada
GenreNew Wave
FormatLP
Tracklist1. In Dim Light
2. Leave it to Heaven
3. Tears Hold No Cure
4. Proven Guilty
5. It’s Cold Out Here
6. San Paku
7. Don’t Talk
8. Some Stories Never Change
9. Pressure
DiscogsLink
   In Dim Light (preview)

Goth-tinged new wave from my home town of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Great album, far exceeding the typical talent and production quality of the average local yokel rock bands that came out of Alberta in the 80s, as you’ll see as time goes on and I post more Alberta albums. Frontman Jim Gray has a fantastic voice and the band seems to have been quite a good marketable package deal. They seem to still be touring off and have an internet presence. I’ve got their follow-up LP as well, which will be coming along eventually (if you have any preferences about what I upload and want me to hurry up with anything in particular, don’t be shy, drop me a line!) As far as I understand, the master tapes are deposited at the Alberta Provincial Archives, but I’m assuming the label owns the copyright and legal snags have been preventing any official remastered release even though the band is still alive and kicking.

Technical Notes: I spent more time than I usually do on cleanup for this one, although I still capped it at a few hours of work and left the less-egregious noise intact. If this was a needle drop for an official release of course there would be a lot more TLC given to it. The pressing is quite decent and low-noise, and after a clean the record was close to near-mint condition. Oddly, though, the track volume seems to decrease as the album goes on, with each track on average being quieter than the previous one. I chose to leave these dynamics as-is in order to avoid distracting increases in surface noise between tracks.

With the master tapes still apparently in existence, it seems stupid to try to create a definitive version from a modest vinyl rip – although it still certainly sounds better to my ears than the band’s semi-official YouTube posts of the same tracks.

Robey – Hungry For You, Boy / Be Mine (Be My Baby) (1987)

ArtistRobey
TitleHungry For You, Boy / Be Mine (Be My Baby)
Year1987
LabelSilver Blue Records
CountryUS Label / Canadian Artist
GenreSynthpop
Format12″ Vinyl Single
Tracklist1. Hungry For You, Boy
2. Hungry For You, Boy (Dub Mix)
3. Be Mine (Be My Baby)
4. Be Mine (Be My Baby) (Dub Mix)
DiscogsLink
Preview
    Hungry For You, Boy (preview)

Late-80s synthpop with female vocals. Above-average A-side, and the flip ain’t bad either!

The singer, Louise Robey, released an LP on the same label in 1985, and also had a career as an actress and model. Her most famous role was as one of the leads in the Friday the 13th TV series, playing the character of Micki Foster. She worked with Cerrone around the same time on the track Flight of the Phoenix.

Technical Notes: This one was in great condition, so I only applied a bit of selective de-clicking during quiet portions. There were a few stray peaks that were well-above the volume of the rest of the music, so I applied some gentle limiting.