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.

Bamboola – Billy Hart / Window (1986)

ArtistBamboola
TitleBilly Hart / Window
Year1986
LabelPlastic Head Music
CountryUK
GenreSynthpop / New Wave
Format7″ Vinyl Single
Tracklist1. Billy Hart
2. Window
DiscogsLink
    Billy Heart (preview)

Synth-heavy new wave from a British duo comprised of musician James Harrington (real name John Hyde) and singer Liz Anderson. I couldn’t find any information on Liz Anderson (Discogs links to an almost-certainly unrelated American country singer), but Harrington was a reasonably prolific composer of library music for the well-known Amphonic and De Wolfe labels.

Bamboola also released a full LP with similar cover art that also included these two tracks. If I score a copy, I’ll be sure to rip and share it.

Technical Notes: Very light use of de-clicking on this one as it was quite pristine. The highs are slightly harsh/distorted, but the vinyl appears close to mint, so while it’s possible that it may have been played with a damaged or uncalibrated stylus I’m inclined to think it’s more just a mastering issue. Even mint 45s often seem to sound like crap, unfortunately.