Now that I'm almost 72, I no longer give a s**t about admitting that I can get teary eyed watching romantic chick flicks.
Think I'll go hug my pillow until the Packer game starts.
Now that I'm almost 72, I no longer give a s**t about admitting that I can get teary eyed watching romantic chick flicks.
Think I'll go hug my pillow until the Packer game starts.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I have the CBS CD re-issue (from 199?) and it sounds much too clean to be a needle drop. (no clicks, no pops, only slight tape hiss). I guess it's taken from a 2nd (or 3rd) generation final master tape which should exist somewhere. (only the multi-track tapes were supposed to be "lost") The Neil Chotem orchestral bridges were poorly recorded and sounded like s**t right from the start (on the original master) Still, I'll buy the 2016 "XL" re-issue as soon as it comes out because L'Heptade is a great album and some original musicians (Serge Fiori and Louis Valois) are involved in the new re-mixed version.
Maybe they repackaged it in later reprints, but the first (and only, prior to this new thing, according to RYM and Discogs) CD reissue was in 1990 and these slim double jewel cases did not exist back then, if memory serves.
You can see it on Discogs by clicking more images under the cover... you will see clearly the front and back cover of the fatboy with the edges on either sides
As for not owning it under that packaging, I still had the vinyl, and so I didn't actually need it
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
My l'Heptade is in a thin and that's how I've always seen it in stores ("In stores?!" Yes, in Canada...).
My En Tournée, OTOH, is in a fat case.
Sans the second album which sounds fantastic on CD, Harmonium is a perfect example of a band where if you're settling for CD, you're getting Budweiser when Rogue is right there in the next aisle for just a little more.
I cherish this album. Always did.
Lately I've perhaps come to prefer their debut a tad above the other two, though. But they're all marvellously beautiful, with a sense of cathartic sincerity and "directness" to them.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Agreed. I'd probably put the first above the next two if I had to choose. There is something about the debut which just strikes me as this very uncommon merging of a fully developed sound and innocence/fun. I think the songs are for the most part remarkable. I'd put the opening track and "Vieilles Courroies" up there with anything from the era in terms of beauty in songwriting and arranging.
for me, their debut is still unsurpassed in terms of pure emotions (though Histoire Sans Parole is the tops in that category)
It all started there... I was still 11, and while I'd just moved to Ontario (from Quebec), and going to a (rather rare) French-school in the Toronto suburbs, it made a huge impacts (even on the English-speaking schoolmates using the school as immersion school)... The lyrics were simply sooooo awesome...
Attends-Moi is simply phenomenal and I rate it tops of the album with that amazing eponymous track.
love Vieilles Courroies, though I must say that the backing vocals are quite off-key.
The only weaker track (IMHO) is De La Chambre Au Salon and the non-album single flipside (which I only discovered in the 90's) called 100 000 raisons
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
A quick question for anyone that may know. Years ago I saw a film called(I believe) Harmonium In California which was a documentary type thing. It was ok but I remember seeing a full concert of the band playing the entire L'Heptade album which may have been the "En Tournee" double-LP, but the video. Does anybody know which of these two is part of the package of this new reissue. If it's the full show, I'd love to get it, but the old documentary was just so-so.
Thanks!
We are the grandchildren of apes, not angels
But only we are gifted with the eyes to see
On days without FEAR, when our heads are clear
That angels, we could be
(Marillion 2016)
It's not the documentary in California but a show in black and white where they played the entire album in 1977, not sure if it was filmed in Outremont Theater in Montreal..., but according to Serge Fiori, it's more like a bootleg. It's this product : https://www.amazon.ca/Viens-voir-pay.../dp/B01LTHLR4K
Last edited by jarmsuh; 11-13-2016 at 06:31 AM.
Shit, I forgot to pick this up...
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I finally thought about this...
So I ordered it... but it won't be available until.... late June... all vendors say something similar, too...
I thought this was available a while ago??
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
OK, I received this last week...
a remaster for sure (everything is louder) and a remix (so they say) most likely (the music behind Fiori's vocals is a bit up in the mix)
Certainly not catastrophe in terms of remastering (unlike a decade ago, this would've most likely stunk)
As for the original mix, Fiori tells us in the new booklet that the band did not take part of it and let the studio folks do the balance and mix, so the musos were not exactly happy (or as happy as could've been) once the record hit the sales rack. The 2016 booklet tells us that this time, more focus was given to the band as to avoid having a Serge Fiori and Harmonium album...
First impression , you ask?? Well the new version is somewhat clearer and more defined (especially the bass parts of Valois), but this is marginal at the first simultaneous comparison (the CD versions are playing at the same time in two separate decks, and I switch from one to the other), so it's not clear yet whether the new version is a worthy investment, given the price of the "boxset" (which isn't one... It's simply a 3-discs digipak.
I'll be further comparing the two studio version (76 and 16) and once that's done, I'll be comparing the two live versions:
- the historical (Vancouver june 77) and
- the version on the DVD, which is a concert filmed (and not well preserved), for Serge's 25th birthday of earlier than the Vancouver recording with added wild sky pictures whenever the concert images are not salvageable. According to them, the audio tracks has survived better than the video parts.
BTW, the bonus unreleased track (never recorded in the studio, but played a few times live) is not that good, and certainly should not be a goal of the acquisition of this new set.
Anybody else had time to "atttack" this yet?
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
OK, I received this last week...
a remaster for sure (everything is louder) and a remix (so they say) most likely - the music behind Fiori's vocals is a bit up in the mix.
- The new version (called XL) is certainly not a sonic catastrophe in terms of remastering (unlike a decade ago, this would've most likely stunk)
- As for the original mix after the rercording sessions, Fiori tells us in the new booklet that the band did not take part of it and let the studio folks do the balance and mix, so the musos were not exactly happy (or as happy as could've been) once the record hit the sales rack. The 2016 booklet tells us that this time, more focus was given to the band as to avoid having a Serge Fiori and Harmonium album...
First impression , you ask?? Well the new version is somewhat clearer and more defined (especially the bass parts of Valois), but this is marginal at the first simultaneous comparison (the CD versions are playing at the same time in two separate decks, and I switch from one to the other), so it's not clear yet whether the new version is a worthy investment, given the price of the "boxset" ... which isn't one, anyways... It's simply a 3-discs digipak.
I'll be further comparing the two studio version (76 and 16) and once that's done, I'll be comparing the two live versions:
- the historical (Vancouver june 77) and
- the version on the DVD, which is a concert filmed (and not well preserved), for Serge's 25th birthday of a bit earlier than the Vancouver recording with added wild sky pictures whenever the concert images are not salvageable. According to them, the audio tracks has survived better than the video parts.
BTW, the bonus unreleased track (never recorded in the studio, but played a few times live) is not that good, and certainly should not be a goal of the acquisition of this new set.
Edit: oh yeah, the new booklet doesn't feature the lyrics at all or the band's pictures of the sleeves, but features plenty of lives ones and a few newspaper clippings of the times
Anybody else had time to "atttack" this yet?
Last edited by Trane; 07-24-2017 at 10:28 AM.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
In the midst of spinning Les Cinq Saisons and really enjoying it. I am not very familiar with this album but I know lots of dudes and dudettes dig it. "Dixie" seems a little....different ....well for the vibe of this album.
If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.
"And it's only the giving
That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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