I have listened to more of the Mystery Jets since my last post, and some of it not unpleasant, and some of it sounds like there is something there. But….

It sounds terrible.

Now when I say it sounds terrible, I mean that the MP3s sound terrible complared to other MP3s, and I do not mean that the MP3s have damaged the sound more than normal, but that the sound of the recordings is bad. It’s clear, even through the fog of MP3 compression that these recordings are not open; they are stilted, closed, clostrophobic, undynamic…bad. Wether this was done in the mastering or the multi-track sessions I cannot tell, but it’s bad.
Whoever produced the ‘album’ Making Dens (a ‘james ford’ aparently) failed to do the job right. John Leckie; now he always does it right. Believe it or not, Paul Oakenfold could have done it better…there are so many, the point is, without the art of studio recording at your fingertips, the tracks will never cut it, you will be able to tell its all wrong if you have the ears, so, why bother?

Just to reality check, I wipped (yes, ‘wipped’) out some recordings that are around twenty plus years old (as you can see from the playlist below) and the difference, even in the steamed up mirror of MP3 sound, is astonishing.

Still, they are on to something; mentoring. Making sure that you don’t fall into the endless traps that strapping on an electric guitar immediately opens you up to.

The best track so far? ‘Little Bag of Hair’, and by ‘best’ I mean…well, you KNOW what I mean.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 17th, 2006 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Music.