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Love-Hounds Digest			Sunday, June 22, 1986, 17:55 EDT

Topics:

			   New Kate Bush duet
		       S'more reviews of Our Kate
		      Archiving LPs on Video Tape
				 Cathy
		   Re: confused (contains obscenity)

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Via:      UK.AC.SUSX.VAX2; 19 JUN 86 12:18:09 BST
Date:     19-JUN-1986 12:16:30
From: SSUD3%UK.AC.SUSSEX.VAX2@AC.UK


NEW KATE BUSH DUET, GREATEST HITS PACKAGE, NEW SONGS, VIDEO COMPILATION, ETC.


Here's the latest news from today's new issue of RECORD MIRROR (June 21):

1) The new Big Country album, entitled "The Seer," which is to be released
   on Monday (June 23rd), contains a Kate Bush duet on the title track.
   (I'm pretty pissed that the KBC didn't send out a notice about this...)

2) Well, I think I'l just copy down the section from "Chartfile" which
   has the rest of the Kate news:

"A fortnight ago I stated that Kate Bush, Madonna and Tina Turner were the
only women to take more than three hit singles off an album. As I'm now
reminded by David Ashton of East Molesey and Charles Chan of no stated abode,
Donna Summer had four hits off her album, "I Remember Yesterday."
We should note, too, that Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" album which I
conservatively estimated as selling 400,000 copies, has in fact sold over
600,000 copies.  Kates all-time best-seller remains the introductory "The Kick
Inside," which sold over 930,000 copies.  EMI will undoubtedly be hoping for
Kate's first million seller from her forthcoming (November) greatest hits
package, which will include a couple of new songs.  Meanwhile, Bush's
exquisite duet with Peter Gabriel, "Don't Give Up," has been confirmed as the
next single from his platinum album, "So".

                                    - Alan Jones, Chartfile (Record Mirror).


3) "The Hair of the Hound" video compilation has just been released here.
   It turns out that Kate directed both "Hounds of Love" and "The Big Sky"
   on her own.  The inside of the cover has a great photo from the CB video.
   The cover artwork is basically exactly the same design and set-up as the
   album, except that the album title has been replaced with the video title.
   The back has a photo from the video for "Running up that Hill."


What with the Peter Gabriel and Big Country duets about to be released,
and the upcoming greatest hits package and extra singles, I can't exactly
see her profile fading very quickly in the near future...

Hugh



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Date: Thu, 19 Jun 86 12:00:10 EDT
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: S'more reviews of Our Kate

I subscribe to Matter and the latest issue (June 86) just came in the
mail....

Tusco Vee of the Meatmen likes Danielle Dax.  Everybody loves The
Butthole Surfers.

Matter is the last place in the world  I would expect to find a review
of *Hounds of Love*, but here one is 9 months after the album was
released:

	If Kate Bush fronted an anonymous band on 4AD (the label whose
	over-the-top production techniques she seems to be emulating
	of late) [...]

I think this guy is putting the chicken before the egg....

	[...] and put out records sporting jackets that look like
	baggies full of wet tar instead of big pictures of her own
	face, maybe more chronic hipsters'd be willing to acknowledge
	the slightly skewed genius she very apparently possesses.
	M'self, I've always been glad she's just Kate Bush, an
	auteurist who doesn't wear her heart or her quasi-mystical
	pretentions on her sleeve -- hell, no, she's fashioned an
	entire *wardrobe* from the stuff.  She's a singer/songwriter
	so idiosyncratic, so desperately unhip herself that you can't
	compare her to anyone else you'd even read about in this
	mag... couldn't even call her "new wave" -- not even as an
	*insult*.  Course considerations like pretention and hipness
	are as out of place in talking about Kate Bush as Kate Bush is
	when your talking about trends in pop music.  Anyways, sounds
	to me like *Hounds* is her best yet, songwriting on par with
	*The Kick Inside* and *Lionheart* (her first couple) while the
	singing ain't so theatrical, and the
	everything-and-the-kitchen-sink-with-the-diposal-unit-intact
	production of the proceeding rec, *The Dreaming*, is handled
	here a lot more effectively [...]

Foo!

	[...] though, it's still a tad overbaked (use of taped voices
	esp. being a periodic nuisance).  Small huff, really -- the
	only thing better than this record'd be a twelve-page photo
	spread of its mommy in *New Look*.  Kidding, kidding.  -- Chet
	Howland.

And now for another little look at Kate Bush in the British press....
Curiously enough, that bozo Richard Cook, who wrote the wretched cover
article on Kate Bush in Sounds, also wrote this review of "The Big
Sky" for Sounds a short while back, which was the Single of the Week:

	A curious choice, and perhaps the winner by default.  In this
	big pile of records, the few good shots are content to pick
	over small pleasures and little details.  This is the only
	giant record here, the only one to overreach and maintain
	honour.  The rehabilitation of Bush is a bit much: she is
	still the sort of girl who pours all her books and beads into
	the pot and stirs it up until you come out with an opera.
	Most of her records smell of tarot cards, kitchen curtains,
	and lavender pillows to me.  But bits of *Hounds of Love* make
	something mischievous or even demonic come out of he throat,
	and 'The Big Sky' is a moment of real mad bravado.  It starts
	like it's going to be one of the digital warrior dances Bush
	puts together when she wants to be uptempo and then a whole
	planet seems to be swirling around her voice.  The best and
	most threatening thing that this bizarre talent has ever done.

This is a review of "The Big Sky" by Stud Brothers for Melody Maker:

	Kate Bush, like some lithe Russian gymnast who makes even the
	most difficult exercise appear easy, gracefully treads the
	uneasy tightrope of progression and integrity without ever
	falling into indulgence and elitism.  She has in fact, with
	her every release, managed to maintain a uniqueness without
	ever losing her public, something Siouxsie was almost praised
	for.  But unlike The Banshees, she always sounds like herself
	and never sounds the same, and that's a difficult task.  "The
	Big Sky" sounds like Kate Bush, but more importantly, like
	Hipsway and The Young Gods, it sounds like 1986.  Truly
	gymnastic.


"Love will get you like a case of anthrax
 And that's one thing I don't want to catch"

 Doug

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Date: 19 Jun 86 15:14:00 PST
From: "ROSSI J.A." <rossi@nusc.ARPA>
Subject: Archiving LPs on Video Tape
Reply-To: "ROSSI J.A." <rossi@nusc.ARPA>


Just a word of caution to people who intend to use video tape as a medium
for archival storage of music from LPs, CDs or elsewhere.  Although the
comments I am about to make concern Beta- and VHS- HIFI, they are almost
certainly valid for 8 mm as well.  

The two 1/2" formats (Beta and VHS HIFI) utilize what is really an analog
method of storing sound on tape.  The process AFM involves modulation of a
carrier frequency which is located within the video bandwidth of the
recording process.  Although the manufacturers claims that the method is
rouhgly equivalent to recording in a convethional recorder at over 200 ips 
(most analog stuff is recorded at 32 ips), the claim is somewhat misleading.
It is true, however, that both formats allow the recording of audio signals
infinately better than any currently available cassette recorder and at least
on a par with most high end consumer and 'quasi-pro' reel equipment (i.e., 
the subtle differences between true pro mastering equipment and the video 
formats is not important here).  What is important is not the 'sonic-attributes'but the physical attributes of the media.

Consider a reasonably affordable, high quality, 'quasi-pro' (Tascam, Otari,
Revox, etc) mastering deck.  It will usually use 1/2 in audio tape (1.5 m
with backcoating), run at 15 ips and record in two tracks (each a little
more than 3/16" wide) in te same direction.  With some normalally used noise
reduction system (eg. Pro-DBX) its electronic specs will exhibit frequency
responses of about 30-22000 Hz, about 90-100 dB of dynamic headroom and
no appriciable wow and flutter.  VHS-HIFI (for example, Beta specs are slightly
better) claims 20-20000 Hz frequency response, 80 dB headroom, and no measurablewow and flutter.  Both have a noise ceiling well above 70 dB (basically 
inaudible at normal listening volumes).  On paper (and on hearing) the two
formats are close enough to be called equal.  What is severely different,
is the most fundamental point, THE TAPE itself.

Whereas, 1.5 mil backcoated mastering audio tape is nearly invunerable to
anything save temperature extremes and fungus, video tape (even the highest
grade super extra high quality, dyna-super-beridoxi-epitaxica-HIFI tape) is
a frail beast, initially subject to dropouts, and with a not too highly
regarded longevity (i.e., when archival considerations for video storage
film vs tape were argued several years ago, the theorists put a 10 year max
shelf life limit on videotape (1/2 ") even when stored at ideal climatic
conditions.).  Another severe problem with video tape is its most limiting
characteristic 'splicing-impossibility (i.e., if audio tape recorded at
15 ips breaks, a half inch can easily be removed for a splice and the effect
on the musical program (figure a 1/30 sec loss) will, under most circum-
stances be un-audible. Consider, 1/30 of a sec is a video frame.  Now 
consider how many consecutive video frames are stored in a 1/2 in of tape
(I actually dont know but figure the heads revolve at about 300 ips and the
strike that, its 300 rpm, and the tape moves at less than 1 ips, giving a
balpark figure of about 5 frames or 5/30 sec loss [best case], or at
least 5 times the loss of the audio tape.  Couple this with the synch
problem not shared by audio tape and the results of a broken tape could be
disasterous).  Back to the first problem, as video tape ages its paerticle
bonders degrade making it more subject to dropouts.  As video, the dropouts
are seen as momentary noise bars across the screen, in hi fi, the sound
like they look (imagine a schscschschsshchch in the middle of one of the
Fairlight glisandos in Mother Stands for Comfort, for example).

In conclusion, the video tape solution to audio needs is important.  I have
replaced my trusty old Revox A77 with a JVC VHS HI-FI video recorder.  For
final archival purposes, however, I dub back to my Tascam 8 channel deck
using 4 tracks for each stereo channel.  Therefore, while video tape HIFI
makes a real nifty substitution for a mastering deck for mixdown purposes
(i.e., for some purposes its even preferable to reel decks), it is no
substitution for the longevity and non-degraded archive results you can
expect from audio tape when properly stored.

Now, talking about something I have no experience with, 8 mm tape.  I would
think that the problems I cite above with the 1/2 in formats would be
severly compounded with 8 mm.  First the tape is much thinner (i.e., less
bonders) and obviously moves much slower (size is time and shorter lengths
need to move muchh slower to get equivalent playback times), therefore, I
would suspect that dropouts are probably at leat as frequent and ther tape
is much more brittle than 1/2" tape.  Second, the method of audio in the
8 mm format is digital PCM (Pulse Code Modulation), similar to that used
by CD players however utilizing only one half the word size (i.e., CDs use
a 16 bit PCM word whereas the converters in 8 mm are only 8 bits wide).  This
alone has tremendous implications for dynamic tracking of input signals, and
has resulted in a less than acceptable frequency response (30-15000 Hz).
Therefore, all other things being equal, the 8 mm format starts out at a
sonic inferiority to the analog methiods used in the 1/2 in video formats.
Couple that with the concept of digital dropout (this is a much more severe
problem than analofg dropout because it can effect any parameter of the sound,
and not simply be interpreted as a momentary gush of noise or non existence
of sound (have you ever heard a CD mistrack ot dropout, not a pleasant
auditory experience).

In summary, if you think you want to listen to your recordings ten years
from now, or you think you would like to have your grandchildern appreciate
Kate, Peter and the like, keep your records or better yet buy CDs or analog
laser disks.  The two later possibilities give you all the sound you need
and are nearly indestructable.  If you must use tape, buy a high quality
1/2 track 1/4 in deck amd use it at 7 1/2 ips (slightly less frequency
resp, but better overall characteristics than 8 mm video tape)


In long winded apology,

John
------

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Date:  Thu, 19 Jun 86 21:21 EDT
From: Tavares@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject:  Re: Love-Hounds Digest

I do hope you will give us ordering information on "Cathy" when it's
availeable...?

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From: allynh@calder.berkeley.edu (Allyn Hardyck)
Subject: Re: confused (contains obscenity)
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 86 19:41:06 PDT

RE/Search
20 Romolo St., Suite B
San Francisco, CA 94133

Issues 1-3 are out of print separately I believe, but can be obtained for $110
in a set.  They will send you information about all their issues if you mail
them.  The _Industrial Culture Handbook_ is issue #6/7 and I believe costs $10
postpaid.  Their latest issue is on _Incredibly Strange Films_ and deals with
such people as Russ "Valley of the Ultravixens" Meyer and (whoever it was) the
director of _Blood Feast_.

The Art of Noise record no fun?  What, a little wimpy?  Commercial?  Well,
on third listening I can agree somewhat, but I like how they're subverting
these bebop cliches in "Eye of the Needle", and I can't really say no fun
when it's at least much less depressing than _(Who's Afraid Of?)..._


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-- 
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under.

Greg Skinner (gregbo)
{decvax!genrad, allegra, gatech, ihnp4}!mit-eddie!gds
gds@eddie.mit.edu