“i am such a a big hypocrite.
i hated sampling.
it took jobs away from musicians.
what a joke, this allows you have to have f!. screw you money.
so, i love this naturally. thank you dre.”
as said by david axelrod at the royal festival hall when he performed there a few years ago, a concert that, according to david himself, was predominantly funded by the royalties from dr dres use of the main riff from ‘the edge‘.
of course as any hip hop fan will know, david axelrod productions have become a source for samples for many loop creators over the years, but ever since i was lucky enough to receive a skinny cd-r of $tateside anthology volume 2 back in the 00’s, i have come to realise that i much prefer the original source material to listen to, thereby instigating an ongoing quest for anything axelrod related that has lasted ever since.
so much so, that when i tried to track down the $tateside compilation a few years back that placed this album and david mccallums debut, music .. a part of me, also produced by axelrod, i found that any copies on amazon were going for ridiculous prices.
in the end in order to satiate my needs, i sourced an old rev-ola compilation that alongside both albums also included a couple of extra nuggets of excellence. however, while the rev-ola compilation sufficed, the mastering was not in the same league as to what $tateside had done for their reissues (various tracks on compilations revealed the difference). this meant i was left somewhat unimpressed. the bass was muffled, the drums hardly noticeable, and any of the infamous space in the mix was all fugged up, meaning the disc was left unloved.
so, when i found out that a new edition of the album was to be made available via the good people at get on down records my heart skipped a beat.
this time, everything has been done perfectly.
from the replica packaging that recreates the album sleeve in heavy duty cardboard, to the inner sleeve that shows the original adverts for 1966 capitol albums and there is the additional extra treat of a mini poster with pictures of the hollywood heart throb in various poses of : “david mccallum in action!”, which due to the prominence of david mccallums status at the time of the albums original release was believed to be a main factor behind the album selling so well.
not only that, but the mastering is wonderful : the basslines are crisp and clear, the drums stand up to scrutiny, and the widescreen orchestrations are just sublime.
of course most of the music could be deemed cheesy lounge crap, in that a lot of the album consists of instrumental cover versions of hits of the day, but the sheer depth in the arrangements mean that even overplayed tracks like the batman theme, and uptight are given a new lease of life.
absolutely essential easy listening, and highly recommended.
more detail : here