VHS Head - Trademark Ribbons of Gold

I've been scouting various tech blogs and apparently there's a great new bit of hardware that alters the way the sound is outputted. Not sure if any of you guys have it on your device, but it could help for those finding it a little loud - here's a leaked photo from a recent tech-demo:

  On 8/7/2011 at 12:32 PM, mcbpete said:

I've been scouting various tech blogs and apparently there's a great new bit of hardware that alters the way the sound is outputted. Not sure if any of you guys have it on your device, but it could help for those finding it a little loud - here's a leaked photo from a recent tech-demo:

 

Way too expensive.

  On 8/7/2011 at 3:10 AM, Obel said:

To be fair, I find the production shitty sounding, loud or not. This is down to the VHS samples, it just doesn't sound very good to my ears. This has nothing to do with the construction of the tracks, which I find uninspired and mostly uninteresting, just the sound.

 

Anyone want to argue with that?

I'm not going to argue because it's pointless and all music and interpretation of it is subjective but...

It's very much a 'cut and paste', very 'raw' sounding album. I don't expect for it to be as sharp, clean and clinical like, for instance, a lot of well produced autechre, because I try and appreciate art the very way it is. An artist intends for certain elements to be the way they are - so the production style on this album is completely intended I think. It has very 'rough' qualities to it - many areas of this album sound nostalgic to me, and the best way to deliver these nostalgic elements is through production that results in sounds being a bit rough around the edges. I love this album because I haven't come across anything like this before in the way VHS Head has put all these various nostalgic elements together in a unique way.

But if you're not into it, only fools will choose to argue with your standpoint because as we all know, music is open to interpretation and music obviously touches us all in many different ways. This album definitely has some emotive qualities otherwise I personally wouldn't be interested in it.

  On 8/7/2011 at 11:16 AM, Obel said:

  On 8/7/2011 at 4:28 AM, karmakramer said:

  On 8/7/2011 at 3:10 AM, Obel said:

To be fair, I find the production shitty sounding, loud or not. This is down to the VHS samples, it just doesn't sound very good to my ears. This has nothing to do with the construction of the tracks, which I find uninspired and mostly uninteresting, just the sound.

 

Anyone want to argue with that?

 

to be fair - are you implying your opinion is the "fair" opinion? or that you don't always speak fairly?

sounds shitty/shitty sounding /shit sound/argue question - argue? I am arguing with you right now, but really there is nothing to win here. so I hope this pointless exercise pleased your demand.

 

I should clarify, I say "to be fair" all the time, it doesn't mean anything. But kind of in this case there's backlash (as is expected) from the fanboys against anyone who says they don't like how the album sounds, so I'm adding a little weight to that argument I guess.

i'm going to assume the 'fanboy' here is me. because this is WATMM.

for the record, i don't have a problem with people that don't like the album. what i do have a problem with is people complaining about dynamic range with music that, as you have very correctly put, is sourced from VHS tapes.

that's like buying chocolate, eating it, and then going "ew, i hate chocolate!"

you're looking at it from the wrong vector

It's a very specific thing with very specific references that recalls very specific nostalgic memories for people in a certain age group. It sounds "cool" to me, but it's definitely an exercise in style that doesn't use the samples as a means to express a certain feeling or idea, just the style. I don't have a hard-on for VHS tapes or bad 80's action movies, so it's lost on me.

Opinions, though.

  On 8/7/2011 at 1:30 PM, Bread said:

  On 8/7/2011 at 3:10 AM, Obel said:

To be fair, I find the production shitty sounding, loud or not. This is down to the VHS samples, it just doesn't sound very good to my ears. This has nothing to do with the construction of the tracks, which I find uninspired and mostly uninteresting, just the sound.

 

Anyone want to argue with that?

I'm not going to argue because it's pointless and all music and interpretation of it is subjective but...

It's very much a 'cut and paste', very 'raw' sounding album. I don't expect for it to be as sharp, clean and clinical like, for instance, a lot of well produced autechre, because I try and appreciate art the very way it is. An artist intends for certain elements to be the way they are - so the production style on this album is completely intended I think. It has very 'rough' qualities to it - many areas of this album sound nostalgic to me, and the best way to deliver these nostalgic elements is through production that results in sounds being a bit rough around the edges. I love this album because I haven't come across anything like this before in the way VHS Head has put all these various nostalgic elements together in a unique way.

 

But if you're not into it, only fools will choose to argue with your standpoint because as we all know, music is open to interpretation and music obviously touches us all in many different ways. This album definitely has some emotive qualities otherwise I personally wouldn't be interested in it.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I said with more words. So I agree.

And I'm sort of with you on the not hearing anything like it front. Though it's not exactly original (it's just plunderphonics really), nothing has really been put together like this as meticulously (that I've heard). I just don't find it too compelling.

In summary: fart.

i really don't think this album would be improved at all by more slick or polished production. That's part of why i like it so much. I can tell that the artist was very passionate about the idea he had and wanted to execute it in it's purest form. Going through the motions of trying to make this sound like an EQ curve from an Eskmo album i think would actually hurt it, and detract from the uniqueness of it.

  On 8/7/2011 at 12:05 PM, oscillik said:

i must be soooooo hardcore then, since i can manage to listen to this in one sitting. with headphones. fuckin pussies.

I played it for my girlfriend in the car because I wanted to listen to something poppy, and she said it reminded her of rjd2.

this album is cool as shit.

sorry if you don't dig it; I'm

sure he'll try harder next time.

  On 8/9/2011 at 4:07 AM, doorjamb said:

this album is cool as shit.

sorry if you don't dig it; I'm

sure he'll try harder next time.

hi vhs head

  On 8/9/2011 at 2:53 AM, baph said:

  On 8/7/2011 at 12:05 PM, oscillik said:

i must be soooooo hardcore then, since i can manage to listen to this in one sitting. with headphones. fuckin pussies.

 

 

I played it for my girlfriend in the car because I wanted to listen to something poppy, and she said it reminded her of rjd2.

This is pretty much the only IDDUMZ that my girlfriend likes that isn't a few select RDJ tunes.

lol @ gf's always liking only SOME tracks by whatever great musician you try to introduce them to ... a sad lol.

  On 8/9/2011 at 11:17 AM, Terpentintollwut said:

lol @ gf's always liking only SOME tracks by whatever great musician you try to introduce them to ... a sad lol.

I dont think its that unusual. Fair enough, they know what they like.

OUTSTANDING

  On 8/9/2011 at 11:17 AM, Terpentintollwut said:

lol @ gf's always liking only SOME tracks by whatever great musician you try to introduce them to ... a sad lol.

In my case, it was actually her school's drumline instructor that got her to like it, she just knew I also listened to him. *shrug*

So I finally gave this album a listen.

I was really excited to hear it after hearing Sunset Everett - it had the same pop meets IDM meets chopped up vocals vibe that I dug so much in Windowlicker (probably my favourite Aphex Twin track because I'm an UNCOOL CASUAL) without at all feeling like a knockoff. First impression on the album, I like it, but Sunset Everett feels a level above the rest because of that killer recurring riff. Of course, this could well be one of those albums where other tracks hold themes just as nice which only reveal themselves on multiple listens.

I did feel like it might have been a bit too long, though. 10/20 minutes could probably been shaved off I bet. Again, first listen impressions so iunno.

edit: i am tired :-/

oh god I've stepped in it now

i am not sure if this deserves its own post but the meatbingo material from soundcloud is available on bandcamp..http://meatbingo.bandcamp.com/ its even name your own price, I love this stuff as well as the phono ghosts stuff, although i really wish that stuff was available.

  On 2/28/2012 at 9:09 PM, mrgypsum said:

i am not sure if this deserves its own post but the meatbingo material from soundcloud is available on bandcamp..http://meatbingo.bandcamp.com/ its even name your own price, I love this stuff as well as the phono ghosts stuff, although i really wish that stuff was available.

Thanks for the heads up on that. I've told Neil he needs to put his stuff out for download! He played some awesome new stuff as Phono Ghosts at the last gig I went to in Blackpool.

Shall be plopping down some money on this when I can afford to.

i put about 5 usd, i think its worth that for 7 flacs of great material that i have salivated over for about a year now!!! yeah neil needs to release that stuff! he is a gifted artist.

  On 8/7/2011 at 3:10 AM, Obel said:

To be fair, I find the production shitty sounding, loud or not. This is down to the VHS samples, it just doesn't sound very good to my ears. This has nothing to do with the construction of the tracks, which I find uninspired and mostly uninteresting, just the sound.

 

Anyone want to argue with that?

lol, this album made of samples from videos is awful because he's sampling from videos and they sound terrible. nope.

  On 2/28/2012 at 10:02 PM, ieafs said:

this album grew on me a lot... it's still a bit dessert-y, but it took me about 10 listens to get past the choppyness of it somehow?

 

wish the first EP made it onto a 12"

definitely agree. I've told Ade this too, and he kinda hinted that it might be on the cards. But this was a while back now, so I dunno if it'd ever happen. Probably not considering that Video Club has been out since 2009 (and was really old material before that)