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In the 80s, guitarist Joe Satriani was living right here in Berkeley, CA. In the mid-80s, he saw the opportunity to make an instrumental rock/jazz fusion album. So in early 1985, he went to San Francisco's Hyde Street Studios, and recorded what would become Not Of This Earth, which kept ten of the songs.
However, even though we were living in San Francisco, my classmates and I did not learn about Satriani, until late 1987, when his next album, Surfing With The Alien, was a local favorite. It was then, that Relativity decided to reissue Not Of This Earth.
In early 1988, my classmates/friends Andy, Barbra, Danny, and Perry met at Whole Earth Access, off of Bayshore. We were not familiar with that part of town then, and I'm still not familiar with it now. So, you Bay Area guys and gals have to help me out here.
Anyway, if you were uncomfortable at Best, Service Merchandise, Macy's, Eber, Federated, The Good Guys, and other retail stores, Whole Earth Access was an unhurried place to shop for kitchenware, cleaning products, and electronics. I think Danny was interested in brands like Adcom, Carver, NHT, and Proton (something with Shotz processing?). We may or may not have seen those brands, but I seem to recall some dbx noise-reduction machine, a component-sized graphic equalizer (Audiosource?), and the Sony WM-D3 "Pro" Walkman.
One of my friends had a cassette of Satriani's Not Of This Earth, and that was the first time I got to hear any of its songs. For its time, Not Of This Earth was rather new and experimental. For whatever reason, "Rubina" evoked images of the city of Berkeley. Indeed, we'd eventually make it to Berkeley's dB Audio. You can ask other Inmates here about dB Audio. Ironically or not, many of our classmates would go on to Cal (UC Berkeley).
Because Sony own or operate plants which produce Blu-Ray discs, their music divisions have the power to use those same plants, to make BSCD2s (Blu-Spec Compact Discs). These are Redbook CDs made on Blu-Ray equipment. They promise better sound quality.
If you ever get a brand-new BSCD2, do not be surprised if its initial sound quality disappoints, eerily reminiscent of a cable which has been on the audiodharma Cable Cooker for too long. That is, the images are large and diffuse, the sound is overly warm and lazy, and there is a general lack of focus, transparency, speed, precision, air, space, and detail.
We do not know why, but a BSCD2 left in a car stereo will then shake off the warmth and bloat. The disc will then attain the promised firm, anchored, and 3D imaging.
Once you get a BSCD2 whose sound has opened up, you will see Not Of This Earth in a new light. The cleaner, bolder, more forceful sound makes it feel as if you were in Hyde Street Studios' mixing room. You will more easily make out all the snippets of this multi-track recording. For better or for worse, you will get to "see" the size and shapes of the electronic drums. Yeah, yeah, the "real instruments in real space" losers still can't see the forest for the trees, and will continue to miss out on the music.
Downsides? The decay of the notes is more "bell curve," or "regression to the means." The decay seems to have less twang, less of that fade into the background silence.
The Sony/Epic Records Not Of This Earth BSCD2 can make Relativity's late-80s cassette, CD, and LP sound a bit small, brittle, jittery, and uptight.
For over 20 years, you audiophiles have been emailing me your complaints about the boring and uninteresting audiophile titles. You've been lamenting the lack of care, given to popular music material. Well, with Sony Music Labels digging deeply, and reissuing Not Of This Earth on BSCD2, you have less to complain about.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
Follow Ups:
Newly opened discs, including DVDs, SACD and BLURAY, I usually let it spin a couple of rounds, before listening to them, if I want to be critical.However, I doubt if there's any physical changes in the aluminium layer.
Rather, I think it is on the polycarbonate surface where tiny, micro effects that affects laser retrieval accuracy, is being accumulated while a laser shines across at high speed.
Those same tiny micro thingy can be erased.
Edits: 11/09/16
We do not know why, but a BSCD2 left in a car stereo will then shake off the warmth and bloat. The disc will then attain the promised firm, anchored, and 3D imaging.
Come on Lummy, leave it to bake or freeze in the car stereo for a while so it will sound better in your home system? How about putting the BSCD2 into a toaster oven or fridge? Does that work too? ;-)
Nice review though. I have a handful of Joe Satriani (and Steve Vai) on CD & Concert DVD.
My audiophile friends rip the CDs, then send me the discs. You would think that, during transit, the discs would be subjected to various temperatures, banging, humidity, and pressures.By the time I receive most of these discs, they've been used by several people.
However, we had multiple copies of Billy Joel's The Stranger BSCD2, one of which was still sealed. Lo and behold, when we opened that new/unplayed unit, it sounded warmer, slower, duller, more congested, than the other discs.
If anyone else has done side-by-side listening tests of identical BSCD2s, please let us know.
Edits: 11/04/16
I wonder what they sound like after being in the microwave oven for a couple seconds? ;-) Just kidding of course!
That's how I destroy data before I toss out my CDs or DVDs. It takes just 1 or 2 seconds.
Nice! Lummy- I own a few of these Blu-Spec discs as well.
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