Sunday, March 21, 2010

MAX WEBSTER - High Class In Borrowed Shoes - Anthem Records - `77

well , i think its time to bring back the ROCK after these last few mellow lp`s ! those of u that know of max are already smiling ! well , keep on smiling , the debut is up next ! - if u really wanna have a good time , know that i have all of max`s lp`s + most of kim`s solos , :P [ yes that includes that KILLER song with geddy lee &  KIM`S "might as well go for a soda" ! ] begging helps .:) - guitar players note that kim can play his ass off ! very underated shredder ! have fun
enjoy this one !




MAX WEBSTER - High Class In Borrowed Shoes - Anthem - ANR-1-1007
Studio Album, released in 1977
all trax from WAX - akashaman - 2010 
MP3  @ 320kbps - includes high rez cover scans + 


Songs / Tracks Listing


1 - High Class In Borrowed Shoes (4:00)
2 - Diamonds Diamonds (3:18)
3 - Gravity (4:53)
4 - Words To Words (3:34)
5 - America's Veins (4:08)
6 - Oh War! (4:25)
7 - On The Road (3:25)
8 - Rain Child (4:22)
9 - In Context Of The Moon (5:13)


Line-up / Musicians
Mike Tilka - bass
Kim Mitchell - guitars and vocals
Terry Watkinson - keyboards and vocals 
Garry McCracken - drums


Max are best described as classic rock meets frank Zappa
and this album shows Max at there wacky best
"the title track", "gravity","in context with the moon"
"america's veins"
and the brilliant "Oh war"are classic hard rock with more changes within the song then usual (thanks to the zappa influence)
Words to words and "On the road" are a couple of fine ballads and exemplify the talents of fifth member lyricist Pye Dubois 
We also get the first taste of the fine singing voice 
Of keyboardist Terry Watkins with the moody melodic "Rainchild"
Also this is Kim Mitchell at his best certainly one of the most underated guitarists he smokes ninety percent of the householdnames Kim's voice is underated as well as he shows versatility between ballad "Diamonds, Diamonds" compared to 
hard rocker "Oh War" - [ andy - amazon ]

[ Review of album by Martin Popoff, taken from his book " The Collectors Guide to Heavy Metal - Volume 1: The Seventies" ]
Max Webster - High Class In Borrowed Shoes - (Anthem '77)

The one unifying factor coursing through Max Webster's magnificent
premiere was a rural warmth that evoked images of. I dunno. carved
cherry wood. In comparison, High Class In Borrowed Shoes, although no
heavier, evokes a sheen of polished aluminum, with its bright,
uncompromising headphone-ready drum sound, its everlite, dewdropped
piano work, and its painstakingly perfect execution. But High Class
sails the same passionate seas of wanton adventure, offering arguably
four metal or hard rock works, most panoramic, scorching and insistent
being America's Veins and the swooping and snatching title track, the
song improbably combining boogie and pomp until circumstance breeds good
fortune. Lyricist Pye Dubois, although not an official noise-making
member of the band (in the great tradition of The Dead's Robert Hunter),
continues to be the Max Webster's philosophical engine and perfect,
crucial soulmate to Kim Mitchell's fluid guitar mathematics, Pye
offering memorable yet cryptically cast aspersions on society's ills and
man's monologue with respect to his allotted space. And as was the case
with the debut, all points of the compass lead to the heart no matter
what the action level, the album scrubbed clean then chiming by way of
elegant Terry Watkinson keyboard work, and absolutely top-of-the-line
pride in craftsmanship on the part of the whole circus. It seems almost
a mixed symbol that the band would so plainly embrace controversy with
the gender-bending weirdness of the cover art, given that all parties
involved, including producer Terry Brown, worked so hard to make Max's
challenges so warmly inviting and simultaneously so state-of-the-art. It
basically stands as more evidence that the complexities of both Max's
message and its medium were beyond marketing comprehension, and
unfortunately, as history would bear out, beyond the market.

DOWNLOAD -- HERE --

13 comments:

mike said...

This is the start of a good notion. Please continue! There's a rich vein of further releases...

Anonymous said...

Hi, here's the heckler again. Your post is very welcome, I didn't know nothing about Max Webster over here in Europe.
But you still got the out-of-phase problem. To show you what I mean, I have phase-corrected the first track and you can find it here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/367476379/01_High_Class_In_Borrowed_Shoes.mp3.html
Compare it to your track and you will see....
If it isn't a Cubase induced problem - maybe you have the pickup of your turntable wired wrong?

akashaman said...

hmm , thanks again , but not sure on what to do. i reversed the phase on the output master track in cubase which should have corrected the problem !? the phase icon in cubase is orange now , not blue. could be cartridge installed wrong on turntable ? might be , just put a new one in , but i am pretty sure its all in right. to be honest , i cant tell much difference , u must be on better drugs than i , ha.
its really frustrating as i am goin to a lot of time doin` this shit !
guess i`ll have to call me dad , the engineer , he knows all about this shit -- thanks again for frustrating me more !

akashaman said...

think i may have wired the cartridge wrong - doh - checking it out now :

Anonymous said...

Come on, you must here the difference, no matter what drug you use - put some headphones on and you will hear the bass in my version straight and fat in the middle, your version has it smeared all over the stereo-spectrum. I think that you have something wired wrong.
To change the phase of the master-channel may have no effect - you change both stereo-channels simultaniously, they are locked. You have to have two distinct mono-tracks, one for the left and one for the right channel (you can get this when importing your audio, there must be the choice to "split channels"). Then change the phase of only one channel - there you go. Don't forget to pan left-right, or you will get a mono master track.

Don't worry about your work - nobody but me has complained...have you changed equipment recently? I have downloaded some old rips in the past(Sopwith Camel) and they are ok.

akashaman said...

thanks again , ya i can hear the diff. - can u tell me if the phase is fixed on this piece ?
http://tinyurl.com/yhnz8bd

Anonymous said...

Everything fine on this piece, what have you done?

akashaman said...

in wav editor i "inverted" right channel only & saved. have been re doin all uploads , -- already re uploaded from top down to "stardive" LP , let me know what you think if u grab another one.

Anonymous said...

You did the right thing! But where's that bug coming from?
Just another hint and then I will keep my mouth shut - you can test an out of phase stereo signal by switching to mono. If its in phase the sound won't change, if it's out of phase the bass part will disappear almost completely.
Sorry for being inconvenient and please keep on sharing your rarities!

akashaman said...

np man , you have been a big help. i think i had the blue & white wires reversed goin to my cartridge. i switched em in doin so messed up my green wire. ! now its not connected & needs to be fixed. ha - those things are small - i am workin` on it !
thanks again - all files have been fixed & re uploaded down to stardrive ~

akashaman said...

i think i fixed it , switched out the blue & white wire on cartridge. next LP should be in phase ! doh

Anonymous said...

Thank You for this...I was wondering if you had the S/T album as well?

Anonymous said...

I realize I'm entering this discussion late, but as a professional audio engineer, I need to add a couple of additional comments.

Everything the heckler says is entirely correct. In addition, however, you need to be sure that BOTH channels are phased properly i.e. for both channels, positive is connected to positive and negative is connected to negative. An extremely common error when trouble-shooting phase inversion errors is to stop when the left the and right channels are in phase with each other, but this is insufficient, as often they are both 180 degrees out of phase. If both channels end up inverted, the smearing will be be gone as the heckler has indicated, but the remaining symptom of this problem will be attenuated, sickly bass.

If you have ANY issues detecting phase errors, the odds are you will not be able to hear this problem, however. Understand your wiring and consult a professional when in doubt. When you pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for audio equipment, you don't want to get tripped up on simple errors like this, as it literally turns audiophile equipment into boombox crap.

That's one of the things that are sad about music today. It's readily available to everyone, but the quality can be dubious simply BECAUSE it's so readily available. The other peeve I have is low sample rates (anything below 320kbps is for boneheads), which turn any music into digital mulch, regardless of whether or not the phasing has been preserved properly from the original recording.