Topic: Brand new record

[Dr Pryor]

Dear all,

This is to advertise the recent one sided LP release of the complete Geeshie Wiley recordings with Elvie Thomas:
https://nightrecords.bandcamp.com/album/rise-erasure

Please note I have no personal or financial interest within Night records but they really did a great job, graphically and sonically.

The main pleasure is to have all tracks on one LP side (+ downloading if you buy on Bandcamp). As for the sources, I have contacted the French based company and I was told they all come from CD anthologies, which may be a bit disapointing, but who owns all three originals records...

[TenBrook]

Thanks for sharing. I was surprised to see they also have Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson (not to mention several other prominent early blues artists) releases which makes me wonder if these are actual licensed releases or bootlegs. I would think bandcamp wouldn't let just anyone upload Bessie Smith tracks and sell them but who knows.

[Dr Pryor]

No idea! I thought these were in the Public Domain but, now that you mention, somebody must own copyrights on some of them at least.
Their LPs are also listed on Discogs which seems also meticulous on this issue...

[TenBrook]

Yeah, it could be they are in the public domain though I don't quite understand the public domain as it applies to sound recordings owned by say Columbia Records. I don't think Bandcamp makes you do much when uploading music aside from confirming you own the rights (i.e. they don't ask for any documentation). Just seems odd that I could theoretically take a bunch of pre-war recordings, upload them to Bandcamp and sell them as a digital release, I mean, that can't be strictly legal in all cases.

Here's some info on the public domain as it may apply to Bessie Smith.
https://lists-archive.okfn.org/pipermail/pd-discuss/2013-March/001000.html
Relevant quote:
"As for the sound recordings, those that were made prior to 15 Feb. 1972 are technically in the public domain - but only if we define the public domain as works that are not protected by federal copyright law.  Everyone one of them, however, is still protected by state (not federal) common law and statutory copyrights, as Naxos found out when it tried to distribute European recordings that had entered the public domain in Europe but whose American common law rights were owned by Capitol.  No state copyright will expire until 2047 (though don't quote me on that - I would want to confirm that date in June Besek's report on "Copyright Issues Relevant to Digital Preservation and Dissemination of Pre-1972 Commercial Sound Recordings by Libraries and Archives" found at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub135/contents.html).  This is why the recordings released by the National Jukebox at the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/) are only available for streaming even though they were all made between 1901 and 1925.  Sony owns the copyright in the recordings and will only grant LC permission to stream them."

[CF]

Woah, those sound atrocious! Some of the worst "mastering" I've heard in a while   

[David Kaatz]

Probably mastered to remove hiss and crackle. Definitely lost some edge.

[Stuart]

Unless the sample tracks at Bandcamp are deliberately degraded to discourage copying, these are unacceptable. Five of the songs are on "American Primitive, Vol. 2" and are vastly superior as is the other one ("Over To My House") on the Yazoo compilation, "Going Away Blues: 1926-1935."

[StoogeKebab]

Unless the sample tracks at Bandcamp are deliberately degraded to discourage copying, these are unacceptable.

They certainly do sound a fair bit muted. Definitely not as bad as some amateur 'restorations' or 'remasters' I've heard on YouTube or on public domain compilations on streaming services which sound like they're being played underwater, but it seems that many involved in restoration focus too much on removing as much of the audio artefacts as possible at the expense of the music itself.

Not that I've said anything new here, the main reason I commented was to tongue in cheek quote and paraphrase Chris King's wonderful notes on the back of his lovely compilations of Epirote folk music:

One half hears the pops and scratches ... a disconcerting noise that is "seventy-eighty." The other half hears a sonic rapture, an undulating acoustical pleasure, and a transport back to a more engaging and unvarnished past.

Now the original quite finishes:

This ... is for the latter at the expense of the former

But this Geeshie Wiley and Elvie Thomas album seems targeted for the former at the expense of the latter!