An excerpt from the liner notes:
"THE KISSIN' COUSINS...a new vocal group with arrangements by one of America's greatest innovators in pop music development; Lew Davies enjoys the enthusiastic cooperation of the "top pros" who perform on this record. The exposé of musical patterns and the development of harmonic ideas will, we believe, give you the great pleasure of personal involvement in performances of unusual color.
All the essentials of good stereo are brilliantly present...sharp definition of solos and sections...warm presence of musical colors and instrumental characteristics...plus the excitement of "in-depth," Total realization of orchestration and dynamics."
In 1966, Enoch Light began the infamous record label Project 3, which would take his audiophilic obsessions to new heights. This time he recorded all the master reels on 35mm magnetic film, as opposed to the traditional 12.65mm (10 1/2 inch) Ampex tape that was the standard for most audio recording back then. Here's Light's explanation for the use of 35mm tape, given on the back of the LP jacket:
"Project 3 albums are master recorded on 35mm magnetic film. In spite of the fact that the film is fifteen times more expensive than most studio tape, the advantages of recording on film are irrefutable. The use of 35mm magnetic film recording equipment, because of its sprocket-driven, closed-looped recording, insures driven extremely stable , flutter-free sound. The film, with it's wider tracks, allows for improved signal to noise ratio; and the substance and solidity of the magnetic film completely eliminate print-through, a form of distortion."
Yes, that's a hell of a lot of technical jargon to be on the back of a record sleeve in 1966, or any year for that matter. This Enoch Light guy fascinates me, he was already approaching 60 when this record came out and he was still obsessed with refining the studio recording process to achieve what he called "Total Sound", the idea of having recorded music sound like it was being played live, in front of you. This record is definitely an odd one, even for Enoch Light. Most of his work up until this point was instrumental, Big-Band based pop music, but this record incorporated the Kissin' Cousins, a studio vocal ensemble that bares more than just a wee bit of resemblance to the Ray Conniff Singers. The singers old timey male-female harmonies are fine, but the instrumental textures are where this record stands out. The percussion is beautifully clear and precise in typical Enoch fashion and the brassy punches from the sax and trumpet players add just the right amount of that classic Light Big-Band flavor, seen on Provocative Percussion to things. Tony Mottola's guitar hasn't sounded better to my ears than on this record, a bit of warm tremolo is added to his already rich sound and it really adds the perfect accents to these jazz-lite pop songs. Pretty positive Light's favorite studio musicians, the All-Stars, were all present on this recording.
The material I'm not familiar at all with. These are probably standards from the 30s and 40s, or show tunes but I really haven't done much research so any help identifying the tunes would be awesome. Overall, it's just a fun record and a great listen for those who are as enchanted with Enoch Light as I am. I think this record represents the transition between Light's Big-Band driven material and the more modern pop sound he tried to capitalize on with the Free Design and the Critters, both of whom were signed to Project 3 Records a year after this record was released.
This LP was flat transferred to .mp3 @320vbr using EAC's .WAV editor and compressed using dbpoweramp with LAME 3.97. Enjoy: http://www.mediafire.com/?gamdwdddudmah2v
-Casey
Thanks very much,
ReplyDeleteLuc
Excellent
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