The initial standard for a compact disc was 74 minutes. Legend has it the length was decided upon in order to fit all of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony onto a single disc. In terms of format, the arrival and adoption of the CD in 1983 changed not only how we listen to recorded music, but how it’s presented as an art form. No longer beholden to the 22 minute confines of a “12 side, artists began experimenting with the medium… as did labels. Welcome to the first installment of The Box Set: An Appreciation.
Category: Bob Marley
Bill Laswell :: Dreams Of Freedom (Ambient Translations Of Bob Marley In Dub)
Bill Laswell’s 1997 remix collection of the Bob Marley catalog. At eleven tracks, the set deftly works a seam that feels at once familiar yet pleasantly discordant. As an ambient exploration of dub, traces of Marley’s original compositions float in and out, at times cresting, though more often submerged in atmosphere. As Laswell’s paints the walls with sound, melodies appear and disappear. Spacious, impressionistic and meditative, Dreams proves the exception to the rule of the remix album—no small feat for a cottage industry with a history of sideways results.
The Wailers :: The Record Plant | Sausalito, CA October 31, 1973
Quarantine Scene Check, Day Infinity (Sunday): The depths of AD HQ’s office closet beckoned. And like Hiram Bingham III, but hatless, I entered. The 7 year old’s pleas for FROZEN II dissolved behind me (I ignored them) as I fought past the aesthetic pleasures of BASF stacks and Scotch reel-to-reel tapes. And then there I found it, the unsightly treasure: a cache of ‘90s Case Logic books…
Bob Marley :: The Black Ark Demos (1978)
While combing through some reggae/dub for an upcoming dancehall/dub/reggae heavy AD radio show, I happened upon some demos recorded at Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Black Ark studio in 1978 – a few years prior […]