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Action Rolled gold vinyl......opinions?

Anyone get the new vinyl pressing of Rolled Gold? Curious about the quality of the pressing and mastering especially given the sonic limitations of them source material

Re: Action Rolled gold vinyl......opinions?

Check from 5.25 on for a short review-


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGvPIvWwufs

Re: Action Rolled gold vinyl......opinions?

He says "This is, er, demos - demos that never got out until the '90s, so this is like a re-issue of an older album but it's been remastered so I'm sure it sounds a lot better."
Hardly a review of the quality of the pressing or remastering, as it appears he's not even opened it up nor played it yet! Anyone else pick up on that?
"...so I'm sure it sounds a lot better." sounds like wishful thinking to me and like he's not actually compared it to a non-remastered copy, but I could be wrong! What do you think?

Re: Action Rolled gold vinyl......opinions?

Hi SteveStuff,

to quote Alan King "The songs -- all originals -- were recorded as 'demos' for a forthcoming album that never came to fruition. The idea was to get a record company -- in this case Polydor to front up the money to record them properly".

As far as I'm aware the remastered songs have never been released on vinyl in there remastered form (see below). But Guerssen's site say they are- digitally remastered from the master tapes and have insert with photos and detailed liner notes by Jason Barnard (Shindig!).

I felt the short review gave some idea at least of the packaging but if anyone else has this or indeed the new 4cd pack or the New Action LP I'd love to hear their views. The current issue of Shindig also has an excellent article on the band which I'd recommend to fans.

Paul


From Discogs by RhubarbRhubarb

Praise be to Dig the Fuzz for releasing these recordings in all their glory. Originally recorded in '67/'68 for a proposed LP for Polydor, for some reason, it just never happened at the time. Poor quality tapes of this material had been circulating amongst the chosen few as far back as the 80s, but it was not widely shared and few heard it or even knew it existed until the release of 'Brain' in '95.

The reason few had heard it was that the ex band member who supplied the original tape apparently thought it was so awful, he didn't want it widely distributed. So he swore the few he did copy it for to secrecy.

Anyway, it did finally see the light of day in 1995, but when another ex band member heard 'Brain', recorded from a tape of an acetate of the LP, he was horrified by the sound quality and revealed that he had the original mater tapes stashed. The master tapes that had been assumed lost were therefore unearthed and released to the world as 'Rolled Gold' about 3 years after the release of 'Brain'.

Given these were only ever intended as rough demos, the quality of these songs is amazing. The Action were extending out into druggy psychedelia by this time, while retaining the foundation of their mod/soul roots, meaning these have emotional depth, beautiful vocal harmonies and are expertly played. While their earlier 45s had relied mainly on cover versions, this material was all original and demonstrated stunning song-craft. It is just heartbreaking to hear these songs and realise they were rejected at the time and almost didn't see the light of day at all.

The orignal Action splintered after these recording, losing Reg King and briefly becoming Azoth, before signing to Head records as Mighty Baby.

Re: Action Rolled gold vinyl......opinions?

Not sure about this Guerssen edition, but I bought the first edition on vinyl way back, it had a blue cover with the Action pictured on it, and may have been titled “Brain Recordings” or some such title. The sound quality was not that great. Then I got a copy on CD and vinyl that had a black cover and the title Rolled Gold in gold/yellow lettering that was much nicer, Definitely sounded remastered from that original cooy.
Not sure how much change has happened with the more recent brown covered CD of Rolled Gold, but I tend to think that by the time Guerrsen got it’s hands on a recording it may just be a straight reissue of an earlier release. I didn’t notice a huge sonic upgrade of their Fire compilation from anything I’d heard earlier on Tenth Planet. Good to have these things in print though, like the Factory compilation released a few years back on Guerrsen.
I guess my take would be, if you have the blue “Brain Recordings” then, yeah, you need an upgrade. But I’m pretty happy with the black cover edition of Rolled Gold with the picture of the band (small) on the front, and a picture of the master tape box on the back cover. I think that may be a remaster already.
Glad to be corrected if I’m wrong about that...and sorry if I repeated some of the last post😀

Re: Action Rolled gold vinyl......opinions?

Hi Paul, thanks for the info. I only wanted to point out that there'd been no real comparison in the review as the guy, to me, didn't seem to have actually listened to the record. He just semed to be speculating because the packaging gives him the feeling that he's "sure it sounds a lot better." [Because the packaging says so?]
The digital version of the demos I have is in a folder 'Action 1967-8 - Rolled Gold [2002 Temaster]'. I think I had another version, possibly with a slightly different tracklist on it that I lost when an external hard drive died.
Anyway, I hope we get a clearer view from someone who's compared the new release to older ones. All the best mate,
Steve.

Hi Joe, that may possibly be the version I have in digital format, as the artwork subfolder has a pic of the mastertape box and a 8 page booklet amongst other pics.
Cheers,
Steve.

PS. To my old eardrums it all sounds pretty good for demo recordings, including 'brain'.

Re: Action Rolled gold vinyl......opinions?

I have the cd version of Rolled Gold and have to agree with what has been previously said in that the quality of what were actually demos is excellent. How it was passed up on is on e of the music conundrums.
Two tracks actually turned up on Reg King's solo album.