Customer Reviews

Race Against Time: Clay Years

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simply an awesome collection of the raw, underproduced music that defined a slice of generation that helped guide what PUNK rock is all about. Not for Wankers!! Cheers to one of the GREAT ones!

Like the title says, unless you're a die hard GBH fan, this is pretty much all the GBH you need. The way I describe GBH to people is "chainsaw punk." Back in junior high I used to sit in class with my headphones and listen to GBH for 30 minutes straight. To me they sounded like chainsaws and after I'd take the headphones off, I could still hear the sawing in my head for a few minutes. Pure bliss for a 14 year old sitting in spanish class.

I think this was a great idea; to have all these songs in one spot, especially when most are pretty short. Given that GBH albums in general aren't the greatest recordings to begin with, care needs to be taken when mucking with the sound as to not make it worse...which unfortunately is the case here.

I have two big complaints about this set:

1. The guitar is lost in the mix. I can hear the bass guitar and hi-hat much better than I can hear the guitar! "Knife Edge" is a perfect example of this - the guitar is completely buried.

2. The sound is too "HOT" You can easily hear the music distorting/clipping even at lower volumes. This is especially prevalent on Disc1 and the beginning of Disc2. I opened a song from "Leather/Bristles..." and one from this set in Audacity and you can clearly see the difference in levels.

I played this set and then my one other GBH cd "Leather/Bristles..." back-to-back to compare and the mix in Leather is much more even and the sound at a more normal volume.

I would recommend sticking to the original releases of these albums, assuming they are more in line with the sound of my Leather cd