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[PO] Nothing - Dance On the Blacktop


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Album is a certified slapper. Doesn't kinda fizzle out and keep going on the back half like ToT. Production sounds great, but I can kinda hear the weirdness that people don't like. Like Sunshine said, crank the volume.

 

Couple moments DO sound oddly like Weezer's Green Album...but like...if they were fucking dope instead.

 

Note: I really tried to get into Downward and GoE when they came out and just couldn't. Liked a lot of ToT. After one listen I'm going to tentatively say this new one is their best. But yeah, YMMV. 

Edited by Bladewillisisdead
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I still think the production on this thing is gross and questionable at best.  I don’t personally feel like it was specifically sonically engineered to be played at loud volumes, so much as I believe that most music just sounds better at higher volumes while it surrounds you in the car.  The guitars, especially, do not pop or hit as hard as anything else I stream in my car.  But cranking the volume while driving definitely masks my qualm, a bit, and sounds much better than headphones or earbuds.  Still one of the worst mastering jobs I’ve heard in recent years... at least in the pool of artists and records I check out.  Fortunately the songwriting and album’s pacing is a pretty massive saving grace; way less cheese and far more consistency compared to ToT.  Just my 2¢.

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My copy of the Deluxe arrived this afternoon. I listened twice through on bandcamp with my $5 earbuds earlier, and I was pleasantly surprised with the album overall.

Maybe 3-4 stand out tracks, but my favorite by far is I Hate The Flowers.  Good choice for the opener,  and Blue Line is solid. My son said it is his favorite Nothing song ever. Eh. Got a little hook though.

The tricolor is different than any of my other records in regular rotation (Harkonen, Nothing's GoE, Distressor etc which sound perfect) -- this is water color paint solid, ultraclear, solid again.  The lead-in/space in between songs/runout quiet there is a swooshy surface noise change 3 times each revolution.

I'll just shorten this up a bit: This is THE worst sounding vinyl POS in my collection.  

Caspian's Tertia sounds way better than this! I can tweek the EQ on my Black 1st press copy of Tertia and make it listenable. Nothing I did helped the Dance.

Oh, and I turned up the volume (while also messing with the lows/mids/highs) until my ears about bled -- the highs went into torture mode.  (If SUNSHINE Shlebs was joking about this, you got me, dude. )

Thank goodness I got a cassette, because it sounds fantastic compared to the Deluxe. But I didn't notice any production or mixing issues on bandcamp, and I thought Nicky's vocals were plenty upfront and sounded strong all the way through. Maybe because the two of the three times I've seen them live, it's obvious he can't sing while intoxicated, lit or whatever. AudioTree live, I think he was hung over? Or maybe he just can't sing period. Studio touch up at its finest.

Interested in hearing others who got pressings besides the /100 or /500, or even a CD, or a Test Press. If this is what they intended it to sound like, I am at a total loss. ?Maybe to match the album art? smh

This would have been PERFECT Yip material. Can't believe I just typed that. 

Disclaimer: I got into this band at DYTC, and thought when they went to Relapse for GoE and /500 was the limited that they overestimated how good GoE was. Wrong. GoE and ToT were AOTY for me.

 

 

 

 

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If you buy vinyl/CD/cassette off Bandcamp now, you get free d/l ... vs pre-ordering. That's cool.

9 minutes ago, Bladewillisisdead said:

IMO the production has a ~feel~ to it, but it definitely isn't bad.

 

I've only had my upgraded setup for a week or so, but this isn't even the worst mastered record I've received this weekend. 

You got the Tricolor? Maybe it's just this variant or a batch that got botched. On Bandcamp with cheap earbuds, it sounds alright. But I'm breaking their heart, now I keep listening, since I haven't paid for the music (Deluxe and CS from Relapse don't count).

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1 minute ago, drds89 said:

If you buy vinyl/CD/cassette off Bandcamp now, you get free d/l ... vs pre-ordering. That's cool.

You got the Tricolor? Maybe it's just this variant or a batch that got botched. On Bandcamp with cheap earbuds, it sounds alright. But I'm breaking their heart, now I keep listening, since I haven't paid for the music (Deluxe and CS from Relapse don't count).

Nah, I've got the /100 merge. Maybe they botched the tri-color but I don't see how it could be THAT egregiously different from the other pressings. Outside of "each of the 3 colors has a distinctly different sound"

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Ugh please dont compare this to the Tertia tragedy :( you turn that up and it sounds like mud pouring out of your speakers. I honestly think it's just lack of being used to this type of production. I'm hard pressed to find more records like this that don't crack up and distort at max volume. It literally sounds pristine to the point where I'm amazed my car or home speakers are pulling it off. We can't be alone in hearing that, anyone else try it yet?

 

I think the vinyl sounds excellent too gave that a spin earlier.

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7 minutes ago, ✦ S U N S H I N E ✦ 日 光 ♡♡ said:

Ugh please dont compare this to the Tertia tragedy :( you turn that up and it sounds like mud pouring out of your speakers. I honestly think it's just lack of being used to this type of production. I'm hard pressed to find more records like this that don't crack up and distort at max volume. It literally sounds pristine to the point where I'm amazed my car or home speakers are pulling it off. We can't be alone in hearing that, anyone else try it yet?

 

I think the vinyl sounds excellent too gave that a spin earlier.

I can clean up the mud on Malacoda, Ghost and Raven (the tunes that need cranking the most). I've owned all but the Euro press, and the 1st press Black is the best;  some are hopeless and only good for collecting purposes. The Maroon Haze comes to mind.

 

edit: to your point, this is almost the 'opposite; of Tertia, thin, shrill, tinny, but worse on my ears. I wouldn't even call it Lo-Fi. Had the mids and highs all the way down, and lows up, still couldn't get rid of the tinnitus or any umph to the bass. Maybe I just got a bum copy. Bound to happen sooner or later, so I'll let this be my last cry baby post. Thanks for reading.

Edited by drds89
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10 minutes ago, drds89 said:

I can clean up the mud on Malacoda, Ghost and Raven (the tunes that need cranking the most). I've owned all but the Euro press, and the 1st press Black is the best;  some are hopeless and only good for collecting purposes. The Maroon Haze comes to mind.

 

edit: to your point, this is almost the 'opposite; of Tertia, thin, shrill, tinny, but worse on my ears. I wouldn't even call it Lo-Fi. Had the mids and highs all the way down, and lows up, still couldn't get rid of the tinnitus or any umph to the bass. Maybe I just got a bum copy. Bound to happen sooner or later, so I'll let this be my last cry baby post. Thanks for reading.

I enjoy your opinions don't leave the thread! From personally seeing what you listen to most I can definitely see how this type of production isn't agreeable at all. They just so happen to be aping one of my favorite bands and I'm enamored by it.

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For me GoE was a 9.5. ToT, maybe 7.5. I have been very restrained and not listened to any single at all from this, so I am going into the whole thing fresh. Intrigued to hear it. I've seen them 4 times now, and planned to in Dec when they are over here. But I have really bad tinnitus, and don't want to make it worse, I wore earplugs to gigs recently, and despite those it got worse, so I am really conflicted. 

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20 hours ago, ✦ S U N S H I N E ✦ 日 光 ♡♡ said:

I'd love to hear what you think in comparison to this record. Do it.

Yo this sounds like someone covered all the mics in piles of laundry. It's gets worse the louder you go. Jesus Christ.

 

Dance on the Blacktop and Tertia aren't even in the same game, let alone playing on the same field production wise. I knew it wasn't good...but can we kickstart a rerecording? Because the music is amazing.

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Finally getting a chance to spin mine up. Sounds fine to me. I'm only on track four currently, but the production isn't bothering me at all. Had already heard Zero Day and it's a solid opener, really dug Blue Line Baby which I hadn't listened to yet, You Wind Me Up has been my least favorite so far, but I'm really enjoying Plastic Migraine. Us/We/Are was a pretty solid side ender, and Hail On Palace Pier was a good start to the new side. Listening to I Hate the Flowers, I'm starting to wish the drums were a little punchier. Super solid last two songs too. Great album, loads better than T.O.T. ever hoped to be.

 

Seems like I prefer Nothing when the vocals are pushed back a little further and I can understand how some people aren't as crazy about that, but for me that's the sweet spot for them.

 

edit: to be fair, I enjoy the muddied up sound they've got going on, but I typically like really fuzzy, sludgy stuff anyway.

Edited by Ishtar
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28 minutes ago, Bladewillisisdead said:

Yo this sounds like someone covered all the mics in piles of laundry. It's gets worse the louder you go. Jesus Christ.

 

Dance on the Blacktop and Tertia aren't even in the same game, let alone playing on the same field production wise. I knew it wasn't good...but can we kickstart a rerecording? Because the music is amazing.

That awesome 1-2 punch of a bad recording and bad mastering probably gets that record top honors for worst in my collection. It always gets brought up somehow on VC when we're talking about bad sounding records. Funny that they overhaul the packaging every time they repress it... keep tryna dress up a turd.

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26 minutes ago, Bladewillisisdead said:

but can we kickstart a rerecording? Because the music is amazing.

Last I heard, the band is very interested in re-recording Tertia for re-release, specifically to renovate the production.  Should be happening next year to coincide with the 10-year anniversary tour.  Way overdue.

 

19 minutes ago, Ishtar said:

Seems like I prefer Nothing when the vocals are pushed back a little further and I can understand how some people aren't as crazy about that

For me it has nothing at all to do with how far back the vocals are, how prominent the guitars may be, or how much the instruments "mesh" together in the mix.  I'm hardly a shoegaze connoisseur but I've had the genre in my rotation for at least 10 years now, and am no stranger to muffled vocals / muddy production.  But when the guitars come in on Zero Day, it sounds like I jumped back to 1998 and downloaded the file in 96 kbps through Napster and then tried playing it through my Razr flip phone.

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1 minute ago, Derek™ said:

But when the guitars come in on Zero Day, it sounds like I jumped back to 1998 and downloaded the file in 96 kbps through Napster and then tried playing it through my Razr flip phone.

:lol: I love this description!

 

I'll definitely concede that the guitars sound super tinny, and especially so on that song now that I'm listening for it. It doesn't really bother me for some reason though. The drums have really started bugging me a little bit though, I'll try my best to ignore it though because I really do enjoy the album as a whole.

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Just now, Ishtar said:

:lol: I love this description!

 

I'll definitely concede that the guitars sound super tinny, and especially so on that song now that I'm listening for it. It doesn't really bother me for some reason though. The drums have really started bugging me a little bit though, I'll try my best to ignore it though because I really do enjoy the album as a whole.

I think the songwriting on the album really redeems any production issues I may have – hopefully you'll agree when it's all said and done.  Also worth noting that my time spent with the record has been with 320 MP3s and Spotify streaming.  I can't speak to the mastering done for the cassette or vinyl; ended up going the VMP route so I won't even have a copy in hand until next month.

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I listened on Spotify on my way home today and it sounded fine. Had my volume at 45 rather than my usual 35ish.

 

I dunno, the production feels really intentional and I think it works. The songs definitely slap though. Gonna have to say it's my favorite thing they've done even if that one riff in ACB is the best.

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