Recently the Mayflower label announced
a wholesale
through June 30 with 20% off of its entire catalog, giving as reason behind
this exceptional event that the shop will be closed for 2 months next November
and December and after that, the label is going to be semi-retired, which means
(probably) no more new titles... Meanwhile though some titles came out and we
will review them all. Let’s start with a fact from the past: with the release
of Exile on Main Street the Stones not only issued what would turn ouit to be a
seminal work in artistic terms, but created also a new way of mixing rock
albums, what was later called the Jagger mix. It basically consisted in a mix
that put vocals at the same level of musical instruments, thus creating an
effect that was quite sleazy, “with Jagger vocals very low in a muddy soup of
noise†commented the Telegraph. This was appreciated by the band itself and by
the fans, as it is a matter of personal taste, however when we come to live soundboard
recording from 1972-73 we got the real opposite: Jagger’s vocals dominated and
all the instruments were relegated to the background; collectors however were anyway
happy to get titles like Happy Birthday Edward (Previously known as Nicky, Pert 73), Philadelphia Special
or Fort Worth Express, rare examples of good sounding live unauthorised stuff.
Come 2022 and Artificial Intelligence steps in, offering these recordings r
emastered with the latest AI technology which produced the sound that
was buried in the depths of the tape, bringing instruments upfront. Until now
the vocals were extremely large and the instruments were buried and we got only
unbalanced sounds, but this work introduces the latest AI technology and
reproduces all the sounds that were buried even though they were recorded in
the original source, and the balance is balanced. The sound quality and sound
image are unprecedented. In the words of a fan:
"These Mayflower remasters should put the final word on these
titles! Stupendous! I compared with the old Swingin Pig version and this
is SUBSTANTIALLY - SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER!"
In fact it must be said that the listening experience is excellent and
there is no hiss due to raising the music which was previously in the background.
Packaging is classic presenting the famous front cover with a different one on
the back featuring track listings and 4 colour photos from the event. Can we
call this the definitive version of the Stones Perth 73 concert? Most likely, unless
the full performance pops up.
