black tape for a blue girl: ashes in the brittle air (2020 remaster) (2CD/LP)

Product Description All physical sales include the 20 page Memorabilia booklet. Read as a pdf here. ashes in the brittle air (2020 remastered expanded edition) by Black Tape For A Blue Girl LP — Vinyl 2nd edition, 300 units Gold in Ultra Clear, With b&w lyric insert. CD — Remastered 2CD in 6-panel digipak with 16-page lyric/photo booklet. 21 tracks on 2nd disc. Limited edition of 500. �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� • Remastered from original 1/4” tapes. • 21 bonus tracks on the 2nd CD: demos, acapella versions, includes 6 completely finished songs from back in the day that have never been heard before. • “Across a thousand blades” has a new 2020 mix on Disc 2 using original sources. CD LP version is the original mix, of course. Purchase in Europe for fast, inexpensive shipping: Information in English here. Click to order CD or LP. Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s 1989 third album Ashes in the brittle air is now available in a deluxe edition remastered from the original 1/4” tapes. The remaster is warm and clear, and the album retains that dreamy, romantic quality you remember from the 80s. Ashes contains angst and trepidation in the lyrics yet also beauty and hopeful melancholia in the mood and music. It’s an album of existential, ethereal, and gothic musings. Ashes was the release that brought the band out of the fanzine-based underground to listeners of what in the 80s we called “college radio.” “Across a thousand blades” on CMJ’s CERTAIN DAMAGE compilation CD went to stations across the country and garnered regular airplay. In fact, many of you have mentioned that ASHES was your first exposure to Black Tape For A Blue Girl. Alternative Press: “This is hurting, romantic lament. Herrera’s vocals ram me with image-brimming, griping vacancy of the precariously desperate soul hanging beneath hope by a frayed thread.” As I wrote in the original album description: “Bursting forth like a lucid dream, this release unearths powerful connections to deeper truths. Sue-Kenny’s folk approach and Oscar’s intense voice guide the way through Sam’s tales of existential personal introspection.” Oscar sizzles with dramatic and passionate vocals. Sue-Kenny Smith’s voice brings a softer, sensitive & spontaneous English-folk quality to the album. Mixing Sue with my electronics and ambience — and Oscar’s vocals — created a diverse collection of songs that arrived at just the right moment. There wasn’t really anyone else in America doing this ethereal style. Ashes  was the first BlackTape released on CD; the improved sonic quality of the medium over the previous two LPs really benefited the music. With this expanded rerelease, my mastering guy went back and worked from the original quarter-inch mixdown tapes. In 1989, I thought the original sounded great, but this new mastering sounds amazing! There is so much subtle detail now, everything feels warmer and more present. I really love it! I added six completed tracks (on the second disc) from that era — something special for the album’s fans. There’s no way I can go back in time and write more pieces in this exact style. These tracks are completed songs I never released for artist-angst reasons; they make a wonderful addition to the album. Also included are a bunch of demos and early mixes to round out the 21 bonus tracks. Disc 1 contains the remastered 11-track 1989 album. Disc 2 contains demos plus six songs that have never been heard before: tracks from “the first version” of ASHES. There’s a lengthy backstory about how those songs evolved, my stressing about it, and cutting them from the album. The tracks remained in my archive, unmixed, all these years. With modern equipment, THE SOUND OF WAVES ep (the first 5 tracks on disc 2) finally sounds the way I had hoped back in ’88. There’s a total of 21 bonus tracks on the 2nd CD & download (including demos, acapella versions). “Across a thousand blades” has a new 2020 mix on disc 2, using only original sources.) Option Magazine: “We’re talking deep European existential despair here, the fevered outpouring of a tortured soul.” There’s also a limited edition “Aska i den skor luften” journal at the bandcamp page. �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� This was my 12th Kickstarter; it’s the way I fund my albums in the modern version of the music industry. Crowdfunding is a wonderful connection I make with people who love the art I create. I meet more and more fans from back-in-the-day this way; I enjoy chatting with you and hearing your experiences with my music. So often, I’m told that my albums were there for you at a tough time in life. A breakup, a death, a personal crisis; it’s very rewarding to know that the sounds I created for my own emotional reasons were helpful when you needed them. �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� ★ �� L.A. Weekly: “Black Tape for A Blue Girl do a reasonable approximation of the 4AD vibe around the corner in Garden Grove. This is languid, lucid music… Their entropy is infectious.” All Music: “Black Tape’s third full album takes the band to a new level of grace… ambient soundscapes mingled with low-key rock mood pieces, backing Rosenthal’s varying studies of romantic obsession and fragmentation – the various performances here are more involving than ever. Herrera and Kenny-Smith return as the major vocalists, along with Rosenthal himself on ‘slight vocals’ and electronics; a bevy of other guest performances flesh out the album as a whole, from guitars to clarinet and violin. A consistent collection of songs and performances, Ashes is never anything less that tastefully atmospheric, and often more than that, a perfect soundtrack to a late night.” LP Selling Points: • Meticulously remastered from the original mixdown 1/4″ tape by Howard Givens. • 140-gram smoky translucent vinyl. With b&w lyric card. • Their goth hit “Across a thousand blades” • Limited edition of 300. 150 are already sold. Click to Join, hit send, and I’ll add you to the list. – Sam History • 1989 — original compact disc in jewel box • January 2020 — 2CD remastered deluxe edition • January 2020 — Vinyl 1st edition, 300 units 140-gram smoky translucent vinyl. With b&w lyric insert. Sold out November 2021. • March 1 2022 — Vinyl 2nd edition, 300 units 140-gram Gold in Ultra Clear, with b&w lyric insert. love it, share itfacebook twitter pinterest google