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Steve Lacy, "Sortie" & "Disposability"


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Wow - what a coincidence!

Disposability has long been one of my favorite Lacy albums - and that's saying something for me; many folks here know that Mr. Lacy is one of my biggest musical heroes.. It's Lacy on the cusp of his "total freedom" period - it has several free improvs, but also tunes by Monk, Cecil, and Carla Bley, as well as Lacy's first recorded composition. I've had the original Italian vinyl for years.

But I got tired of trying to find a copy of Sortie that I could afford, so I finally ordered this CD, even though this seems like a fairly shady release, and I didn't really want to support it. It arrived in today's mail, and I'm going to listen to it tonight. I'll report back.

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The music is awesome.

Sound wise, overall it's okay, but there's a weird, constant popping/fluttering sound on tracks 7-10, which are the first for tracks of Disposability. It sounds like either Lacy is playing too close to the mic and overloading it, or it's a faulty mic, etc. I would love to know if this could be heard on the original release, or if it's just part of this reissue (i.e. whatever source they've used for this reissue has deteriorated or is just generally shitty). It's annoying, you're mileage will vary in terms of whether it's a dealbreaker or not.

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Okay, Sortie is wonderful music - similar to, and at least as good as The Forest and the Zoo. Sound is not great - there are some tape dropouts and distortion when the bass gets loud. But in a way, that was kind of encouraging to me - at least it's not a needle drop. And the sound is acceptable, to my ears. The first track ends awfully abruptly - is it missing the ending?

But that popping sound in the Disposability tracks Xybert mentions drove me crazy. I had to turn it off. I don't know what's causing it, but it's not on the LP.

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Okay, Sortie is wonderful music - similar to, and at least as good as The Forest and the Zoo. Sound is not great - there are some tape dropouts and distortion when the bass gets loud. But in a way, that was kind of encouraging to me - at least it's not a needle drop. And the sound is acceptable, to my ears. The first track ends awfully abruptly - is it missing the ending?

But that popping sound in the Disposability tracks Xybert mentions drove me crazy. I had to turn it off. I don't know what's causing it, but it's not on the LP.

Jeff

thanks for your comments - I think I'll hold off on this release even though I'm a big SL fan

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I have the German issue of "sortie" on polydor(I actually like this cover more then the Italian issue) and can't recall the abrupt ending of track one..I'll have to dig this out and play it again.

As for the clipping on "disposability" yes that is highly annoying! I had a standalone cd reissue of this which exhibited this same clipping noise and it drove me nuts. Then I found a later(80s/90s??) vinyl reissue that had the same clipping noises!! It wasn't until a few years ago that I finally got a mint original pressing that this clipping was not present. So I'm afraid for this title the Lacy fan will need the first pressing....it sounds killer and yes jeffcrom this title is one of my favorite early Lacy titles too...a fantastic trio album!!

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I have the German issue of "sortie" on polydor(I actually like this cover more then the Italian issue) and can't recall the abrupt ending of track one..I'll have to dig this out and play it again.

As for the clipping on "disposability" yes that is highly annoying! I had a standalone cd reissue of this which exhibited this same clipping noise and it drove me nuts. Then I found a later(80s/90s??) vinyl reissue that had the same clipping noises!! It wasn't until a few years ago that I finally got a mint original pressing that this clipping was not present. So I'm afraid for this title the Lacy fan will need the first pressing....it sounds killer and yes jeffcrom this title is one of my favorite early Lacy titles too...a fantastic trio album!!

Just realised that I actually have "Disposability" as a standalone CD (no label but catalogue # as KCD 002)

I've listened to the first four titles three or four times now & the popping/flutter/clipping is not evident but on track #4 (Tune 2) there appears to be tapping/percussion throughout the performance (not associated with the drumming) - at approx 5:34 it becomes very prominent & sounds like a conga? or is it SL tapping his horn - this doesn't sound like distortion & appears to be part of the original recording

Anyone else care to listen & comment

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Thanks to those that confirmed that the sound issues on the first four tracks of Disposability aren't on the original LP. With this sort of thing, if it's a replication of the original document, warts and all how it was originally presented to the public, then annoying as it is it's a bit easier to roll with. If it's something that can only be heard on the reissue (or in this case, most likely, a rip of someone else's reissue) then it becomes even more annoying.

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  • 2 weeks later...

...there's a weird, constant popping/fluttering sound on tracks 7-10, which are the first for tracks of Disposability. It sounds like either Lacy is playing too close to the mic and overloading it, or it's a faulty mic, etc. I would love to know if this could be heard on the original release, or if it's just part of this reissue (i.e. whatever source they've used for this reissue has deteriorated or is just generally shitty). It's annoying, you're mileage will vary in terms of whether it's a dealbreaker or not.

fwiw, I just got a new copy off of Amazon to check this out, and I get no constant popping/fluttering sound on those cuts. Some momentary points of distortion, like the VUs got pegged for a second, , yeah.

On 7 & & 10, I get some weird sound like a drummer hitting a practice pad, but it's not constant, it only happens whole Lacy's playing, and its in time with the music. I did the math, and if there's just three people playing, I'm not really sure where it could be coming from (somebody's foot doing something is the only trio-based solution?), so I do think it's an "artifact" of some sort, but since it's not constant and is always in time...I dunno.

But that's another issue. The one that you & others have detailed, my copy does not have. I'll not even begin to hazard a guess how that happened. Maye it'll show up on my PC or in the car...hope not!

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...there's a weird, constant popping/fluttering sound on tracks 7-10, which are the first for tracks of Disposability. It sounds like either Lacy is playing too close to the mic and overloading it, or it's a faulty mic, etc. I would love to know if this could be heard on the original release, or if it's just part of this reissue (i.e. whatever source they've used for this reissue has deteriorated or is just generally shitty). It's annoying, you're mileage will vary in terms of whether it's a dealbreaker or not.

fwiw, I just got a new copy off of Amazon to check this out, and I get no constant popping/fluttering sound on those cuts. Some momentary points of distortion, like the VUs got pegged for a second, , yeah.

On 7 & & 10, I get some weird sound like a drummer hitting a practice pad, but it's not constant, it only happens whole Lacy's playing, and its in time with the music. I did the math, and if there's just three people playing, I'm not really sure where it could be coming from (somebody's foot doing something is the only trio-based solution?), so I do think it's an "artifact" of some sort, but since it's not constant and is always in time...I dunno.

But that's another issue. The one that you & others have detailed, my copy does not have. I'll not even begin to hazard a guess how that happened. Maye it'll show up on my PC or in the car...hope not!

I think we are all talking about the same thing, i was just a bit more lazy and hadn't actually listened to the album in a while. Just listened now, and tracks 8 & 9 don't really have the 'constant popping/fluttering' while Lacy is playing, more just traditional clipping/peak distortion at certain times. Tracks 7 & 10 have the constant popping/fluttering. I think that's what you're hearing as sounding like drummer hitting a practice pad, and the part about it only happening when Lacy is playing and being in time with the music coincides with what i was saying about it sounding like Lacy is overloading the mic or it's a faulty mic. A guess it can't be Lacy overloading the mic or a faulty mic if it can't be heard on the original release, but that's what it sounds like to me... some sort of mastering issue then? Weird things can happen with tape, is this the result of some issue that's arisen over time with the master tapes (or whatever source this was taken from or the source of the original reissue that this is ripped off from)?

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