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Fallout/ Radioactive records
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zphage
zphage
3378 posts

Edited Oct 08, 2007, 23:11
Fallout/ Radioactive records
Oct 08, 2007, 23:06
Hmmm... very interesting article on Radioactive Records/Fallout ( article does reference Head Heritage's discussion). Dirtbag or hero? You decide: http://www.nothingexceptional.com/records/radioactive.html
Stevo
Stevo
6664 posts

Re: Fallout/ Radioactive records
Oct 09, 2007, 08:28
I'd really like to see Rev-Ola come out with the legit version of Farewell Aldabaraan that was due until Radioactive usurped it with a distinctly inferior version. Think they were rescheduling it after Radioactive went bellyup. Would like to hear it remastered properly since its on my walkman & tracks come up everyday(got it on random).

Haven't got anything on Fallout, semi boycotting them because of the Radioactive connection. Did hear packaging & mastering had improved on them but they're still Radioactive ain't they?
Which leads me onto something I'm uncomfortable about. It looks like there's an umbrella organisation including Fallout, Sunbeam & The Bevis Frond's label the name of which escapes me right now. It puzzled me for ages why Fallout ads would almost universally appear on the same page of Record Collector as Sunbeam. This became clearer when the Bevis' label was added and the side of the page had a single website address covering all 3. A lot of discussion about Sunbeam has gone on with the continual assurance that they're legit. They try to contact & pay artists plus you find rarities added to most of their cds, normally sourced frrom the artists. I've only met with one artist personally selling Sunbeam releases of their material so far, Wizz Jones had some of their cds at the gig at the start of the year. I think most of the artists concerned are very happy with things though.
I did hear that the birth of Sunbeam came out of a split with Radioactive over COB's Moyshe Mcstiff which the main Sunbeam guy had augered.
He was trying to make sure everything was above board, the record was remastered , liner noted & the artists got payed. At the last minute Plummer refused the royalty aspect, Sunbeam guy had enough split & Sunbeam was born. Still not separating oneself from the umbrella organisation looks like an invite to get tarred with the same brush unfortunately. I don't know what financial dealings go on there & what limitations that imposes. Looking at it from outside I'd prefer to see Sunbeam distance themselves from any ties. How possible that is I don't know.

Record Collector's psychedelic column continually extols the virtues of Fallout product much as it had done with Radioactive beforehand. I really don't like the writer of that column's writing style, I find it pretty clumsy & vacuous. I would rather see somebody with some actual facility as a writer doing it. Thankfully most of the individual reviews of psych artists in that zine are done by other people. But the main point is that whatever releases on that label appear seem to have a predicted/prescribed favourable review. Since the label is a bit dodgy to say the least that's not a good thing is it? Would hope an established magazine like that would join in trying to get things done above board as much as possible.
I don't think I see that many other bootlegs getting legitimising reviews in there.
Stevo
Np John Mclaughlin & The One Truth Band 29/9/78 Sanctuary
zphage
zphage
3378 posts

Edited Oct 09, 2007, 15:39
Re: Fallout/ Radioactive records
Oct 09, 2007, 15:37
On Amazon.com and uk there were notations placed on various Radioactive offerrings that they were illegal/bootlegs and that litagation was pending. Some of those albums have been removed, some haven't.

I find it interesting in above linked article that you can watch him buy on eBaywhat will be reissued. Pristine vinyl copies that are then transferred. And yes he is buying alot of Japanese Pysch...
Popel Vooje
5373 posts

Edited Oct 09, 2007, 23:39
Re: Fallout/ Radioactive records
Oct 09, 2007, 23:37
That issue of "Farewell Aldebaran" is the only Radioactive release I've got, bought only because the vinyl is impossible to come by affordably these days. Despite the misleadingly professional packaging, it's one of the most obvious needeldrops I've ever heard - surface noise is bloody awful. Would appreciate a legit remastering of that album too - it's one of those elaborate late 60s productions that would lend itself to better sound quality.
Stevo
Stevo
6664 posts

Re: Fallout/ Radioactive records
Oct 10, 2007, 07:29
Popel Vooje wrote:
Despite the misleadingly professional packaging, it's one of the most obvious needeldrops I've ever heard - surface noise is bloody awful.


I don't know if I've actually seen the Radioactive sleeve but I thought everybody was saying it was a pretty shoddy photo of the sleeve. On which you could barely read the titles. Were you being sarcastic or did they improve that?
I found a better lp rip, or at least a decent one, on a blog.
http://tinyurl.com/yuxvhz

Surprised it's still there(actually it's not it's just got the URL for a deleted file). Even more surprised that the sleeve they've used is wrong. Or was there a second edition with the positive of the photo where they normally used the negative? Back Sleeve or something?

I got Captain Beefheart's Lick My DEcal's Off Baby from that site too I think.

Stevo
Np Television 31/12/76 Knockin On Heaven's Door
Popel Vooje
5373 posts

Re: Fallout/ Radioactive records
Oct 10, 2007, 13:18
Stevo wrote:
Popel Vooje wrote:
Despite the misleadingly professional packaging, it's one of the most obvious needeldrops I've ever heard - surface noise is bloody awful.


I don't know if I've actually seen the Radioactive sleeve but I thought everybody was saying it was a pretty shoddy photo of the sleeve. On which you could barely read the titles. Were you being sarcastic or did they improve that?
I found a better lp rip, or at least a decent one, on a blog.
http://tinyurl.com/yuxvhz


The Radioactive CD uses the negative photo, which I thought was a deliberate redesigning of the original (having only seen the positive in Richie Unterberger's book, I assumed that was the LP sleeve), rather than a shoddy photo of it. The title is indeed quite hard to read, but late 60s LPs are full of such quirky graphics, so I didn't see that as a sign of amateurishness either. The CD also has a big Radioactive logo to the left of the main photo near the spine, which would lend an aura of authenticity if it weren't for the fact that just about everyone who would be ineteresated knows they were a bootleg label by now.

Put it this way, if I hadn't been aware of the circumstances surrounding the re-issue, I'd have assumed it was legit until playing it.

Wierdly enough, I have a CD compilation of the Banana Splits and Beagles sonbgs which is also a needledrop, but sounds as though a lot more care and thought has been put into the mastering of it than "FA". And we're talking bubblegum here.
Jogga
Jogga
116 posts

Re: Fallout/ Radioactive records
Oct 10, 2007, 13:23
that makes for sickening reading, I had no idea they were rip off merchants. recently bought Farewell Aldabaraan based on the piece in Unknown Legends. What a bunch of c*nts
embryonomore
embryonomore
853 posts

Re: Fallout/ Radioactive records
Oct 10, 2007, 14:16
I'd like to know how they got away with being called Radioactive Records when there is already a well established and wholeheartedly legitimate label called Radioactive Records...
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