| Identifier | 8969074 |
| Created At | Tue May 23 2023 23:54:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) |
| Media Type | cdr |
| Media Count | 1 |
| Sound Rating | b- |
| Note | a Ferme, Woluwe St Lambert, Belgium. 7th March 1971
The recording Well, its not the best is it? But it's amazing that we have it all. The recording documents the entire concert, beginning with the local announcer, and concluding with him at the end of the Going Out to Get You encore. There are however a few inexplicable losses that are greater than one would expect with just a tape flip. The first minute of Musical Box is missing, plus the tail end of Gabriel's intro to this number. And there is a minute long chunk of Knife missing in the middle. It is possible that these occured due to taping problems at the time - perhaps the taper was just lost in the performance :-) There are a few other small gaps; one is during the first verse of The Light, which fortunately I have been able to patch by grabbing a bit of the second verse and pasting it in. This shows that the gap was only around 1sec long, and there are a few other such gaps during the ambiences between songs that are probably of similarly short duration. In these cases I have just crossfaded the edits together. This recording is best known from two bootlegs; 'Besides the Silent Mirror', and Highland's 'Twilight Francehouse' - a rather odd title since it comes from neither France nor the twilight of the band's career. I don't have a copy of the latter, so can only comment on BtSM. I understand that the source I've used is two generations closer to the master than that used for BtSM. The hiss on this bootleg is quite prominent in the midrange, and would be a lot more noticable if it were not for the savage frequency roll-off that has been used above around 3KHz. BtSM misses the Belgian announcer's intro, and begins with the applause that greets the band onstage. Otherwise it is complete, and shows the gaps and edits present on the master tape. Beyond the missing top end, and a very boxy and bass-thin sound, it is a fair representation of the original tape, although it is pitched slightly sharp, and has a few unexplained volume drops, noticably on the concluding chord of Knife. The restoration I began with a transcription CDR from a low (reputedly first) gen copy of the tape. Running a spectragram of the recording showed that this source had a severe drop off in information above 4KHz, with cymbals and tamborine slaps appearing around the 6-7KHz mark. The 3KHz roll off on BtSM explains why hardly any cymbals can be heard on that version. As anyone who knows this recording is aware, the hiss threatens to dominate the music throughout. It sounds distant, tinny, and hissy as hell. So dragging any information out of this sea of murk has not been easy. At first I was dubious I could improve it at all. If you are listening to this Hogweed 12, and thinking, its still pretty hissy - well, it is. However it could have been a lot worse. I have taken 9Db of hiss out of the recording. To get an idea of how much that is, imagine 3 times as much hiss *relative to the musical information*. Another way of thinking of it is that if the hiss sounds comparable to BtSM, you are actually hearing 3 times the musical information for the same noise floor. Could I have taken more hiss out? I tried; it started to break up badly and loose what subtle musical information remained. It started to sound empty and lacking ambience. I chose to keep as much of the music as I could. So enjoy what hiss remains, its part of the history :-) This recording also has a prominent microphone resonance around 2.5KHz - during the louder sections of songs like Twilight Alehouse you can hear this as a continuous ring, almost like a distorted feedback. I have attenuated this peak by 8Db, which is a lot, but as much as I could while avoiding a frequency hole. The tape also has numerous electrical clicks, particularly during the first few songs. On BtSM these clicks (plus others in one channel only, which have been introduced later) have hissy surges around them, suggesting that a dolby decode may have been employed on that version. I have removed these. There are also quite a few microphone bumps, fortunately occuring mostly during the ambience between songs. I have endeavoured to attenuate or remove as many of these as possible. There were a few that were much more difficult though, such as the one that occurs just into the beginning of Stagnation. This bump caused the auto record levels to drop the music volume noticably, which I've compensated for without having the hiss levels suddenly surge. Because auto record levels were used on this one, the volumes do fluctuate a bit, rising noticably during the quiet bits. I could have restored the dynamics as I have on previous shows. But on this one, the amount of hiss would have made such changes distractingly noticable, so I have left them as they were recorded. More history. Finally, there are several occasions when a hum of around 150Hz is heard. I am pretty convinced that this is a feedback from the stage, although whether acoustic or electrical, I can't tell. There is also a 250Hz harmonic as well, indicating that it originates with 50Hz mains power. So it is probably authentic, but it sounds aweful, and makes a few nice passages of music, particularly during a quieter section of The Light, sound very un-tuneful. So I've zapped it. Sorry all you purists and stage feedback afficianados, but as this is the only version of The Light that we know of, the least I can do is make it sound a bit more musical. If you want to hear the hum, listen to to BtSM. |
| Trades Allowed |
Performance
| Genesis 1971-03-07 La Ferme IV, Woluwe - St. Lambert, Belgium | |
|---|---|
| Set 1 | Happy The Man
Stagnation The Light * Twilight Alehouse The Musical Box The Knife Going Out To Get You |
| Set 2 | |
| Set 3 | |
| Comment | * The only known recording of a performance of The Light, a Collins song which never reached the studio. The base of Lilywhite Lilith. Genesis first overseas gig. Available sources: AUD - Twilight Francehouse (better SQ) - Besides The Silent Mirror (worse SQ) - First Time Abroad - From Master Tape - Hogweeds 12 |