Walter Gibbons Salsoul Anthology

[NYPaul]

Don't know if this was already mentioned here, but there's a new 'Walter Gibbons Salsoul Anthology' out. Looks like so far it's only available in the US as an import. It's available on Amazon.Com here:

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK
http://www.discomusic.com/cds-more/4057_0_3_0_C/

I learned about this originally on G-Man's page deephousepage.com in one of the message board postings:

http://deephousepage.com/ubb/ultimat...;f=23;t=002722

Apparently a guy who does a radio show in Montreal posted it, and he provided links to 2 of his shows. It sounds to me like he actually put together whole radio shows of the songs on Walter Gibbons CD, and edited it together. I think he did a great job, sounds great to me. I gotta get the Walter Gibbons CD now!

Here's the links to the 2 Montreal radio station shows, in MP3 format. Download them before they're gone, I think they only archive them for a short bit:

Walter Gibbons (HiFi - 128 bit)
http://132.216.18.132/128/20050128.04.40-05.30.mp3

Walter Gibbons (LoFi - 64 bit)
http://132.216.18.132/64/20050128.04.40-05.30.mp3

Mixed With Love (HiFi - 128 bit)
http://132.216.18.132/128/20050204.04.21-05.14.mp3

Mixed With Love (LoFi - 64 bit)
http://132.216.18.132/64/20050204.04.21-05.14.mp3

One last bit. Check out the link above to the posting on G-Man's page for a good in depth history of Walter Gibbons.

Paul

[Salsoul1975]

Hi NYPaul,

You also might want to check out a review for "Mixed With Love" at this web site's "Disco CDs & DVD Reviews". It's listed there along with some reviews.
http://www.discomusic.com/cds-more/4057_0_3_0_C/

I have this in my collection, and it's quite a set--three discs in all. Gibbons has a major legacy with his remixing work on not just Salsoul, but on many others.

The 3-disc anthology has many great songs on it, particularly the ones by Double Exposure, Loleatta Holloway, True Example, Love Committee and others. The third disc might take a couple of listens to get used to. With the exception of a halved version of Holloway's ten-minute-plus "Catch Me On The Rebound", many of the songs take on a spacey, trippy sound. "Moon Maiden" by Luv You Madly Orchestra is a standout. The last two songs are disco-fied country/western, if you can believe that. They were new to me when I bought this anthology. It also contains an extended version of "Salsoul 3001", which I had never seen on any Salsoul compilation before. This was one of the most ambitious songs put out by the orchestra. All in all, the anthology has its strengths and weaknesses but Suss'd UK has put a lot of devotion into re-releasing a lot of Salsoul material that would've remained forgotten in the States. I would also recommend "Crossover Flavas" and "Philly Soul Flavas", both put out by the Suss'd. For fans of Gibbons' remixing work on Salsoul Records, this is a must-have.

[RobbaDobba]

I wanted to bump this oldie up for one question...

Is this one of the "bad" Suss'd comps that used less than stellar resources? I've heard some trax from it (namely "Ten Percent") and it sounds HORRIBLE to me...overcompressed, over EQ'd, just over everything. Nothing like the excellent "Ten Percent" on, say, the "Salsoul Classics" comp.

Is the sound quality on it hit and/or miss?

[Disco Funk]

I got the Unidisc version, and it sounds pretty good. It definitely doesn't suffer from the compression issues that one gets when a CD producer uses cheap software to remove pops and crackles from vinyl sources they're using. I think Moulton mastered all the Salsoul stuff from the original tapes. Even so, I find that the mixes seem to lack fidelity for some reason. Many of them just sounded too thin. I don't own the original vinyl, so I'm basing it on the Unidisc CD and the reissue on vinyl from a few years ago.

Disco Funk

[ashley_k]

I wanted to bump this oldie up for one question...

Is this one of the "bad" Suss'd comps that used less than stellar resources? I've heard some trax from it (namely "Ten Percent") and it sounds HORRIBLE to me...overcompressed, over EQ'd, just over everything. Nothing like the excellent "Ten Percent" on, say, the "Salsoul Classics" comp.

Is the sound quality on it hit and/or miss?

I have the "Mixed With Love" 3 CD set and it's a mixed bag, I was rather disappointed with it, and that's taking into consideration I picked it up for next to nothing.

If you want the "Disco Madness" tracks then get the Unidisc "Disco Madness" CD as it's far better than the "Disco Madness" tracks on the "Mixed with Love" CD, the Unidisc "Disco Madness" CD maybe a touch over-mastered but only by a tiny bit, and it sounds like it was taken from vinyl too but it's a lot better than the "Mixed with Love" CD, as the "Disco Madness" tracks on "Mixed With Love" sounds like someone recorded them from vinyl over used the de-clicking software while cleaning them up, and then made them into mp3s and then put it on to the CD which is a shame, as a bit more effort on the sound front would have made the "Mixed With Love" set a totally essential buy.

Having seen a few comments about Suss'd CDs being a bit hit and miss, and after buying this one, I've just avoided all the rest of the product they put out.

The "Mixed with Love" set was a brilliant idea and well compiled by a very nice Salsoul nut, it is worth picking up if you see it for a reasonable price (I wouldn't pay big bucks for it as you may be disappointed), the CD booklet is nice, but this CD set was really let down by some patchy sounding tracks, some of the tracks just sound dull and muddy, although some sound OK, it depends on how fussy you are I guess.

ashley_k

[BrunoRepublic]

I got the Unidisc version, and it sounds pretty good. It definitely doesn't suffer from the compression issues that one gets when a CD producer uses cheap software to remove pops and crackles from vinyl sources they're using.

That wouldn't be compression but lousy digital noise reduction.

[RobbaDobba]

I got the Unidisc version, and it sounds pretty good.

Since there wasn't a Unidisc version of "Mixed With Love" that I'm aware of, I'm guessing you mean "Disco Madness" on Unidisc, right?

...the "Disco Madness" tracks on "Mixed With Love" sounds like someone recorded them from vinyl over used the de-clicking software while cleaning them up, and then made them into mp3s and then put it on to the CD which is a shame...

...the CD booklet is nice, but this CD set was really let down by some patchy sounding tracks, some of the tracks just sound dull and muddy, although some sound OK, it depends on how fussy you are I guess.

Thanks, ashley! It sounds less like noise-reduction and more like lazy tape research and mastering to me...especially on "Ten Percent". Suss'd even had a better master of that same mix on other comps for pete's sake!

And as for the liners...you can get them (at least the Tim Lawrence essay) for free on Tim Lawrence's website.

That wouldn't be compression but lousy digital noise reduction.

There's lots of compression there too, and radical smiley-face EQ. Ironically that's similar in style to a lot of Unidisc product, which seems to not be the case on these latest Salsoul masters. Suss'd had some great ideas...sad.

I really wish a Rhino, Hip-O or Legacy got the rights to this stuff...then we'd hear something special!

Thanks everyone for their input.

[Salsoul1975]

I feel a need to throw some more two cents into the discussion, since I previously responded to it years back.

I think the US releases of Salsoul catalog material is superior to the (English) imports in terms of overall layout and sound quality. The Original Salsoul Classics, Volumes 1-4 are must-owns (especially Volumes 1-2). The tracks compiled were excellent, the sound was terrific and it just had a wonderful flow-through for roughly 150 minutes. Even Volumes 3-4, with an emphasis on lesser-known Salsoul tracks, made for great listening (although the sound quality on Metropolis' "I Love NY" was atrocious as the song went past the two-minute mark). Despite that one flaw, it was a great way to round out that collection.

Suss'd had a great idea in the beginning of releasing Salsoul material that not everyone may have heard before, but the old adage rings true: LESS IS MORE. Certain compilations contained material that should've stayed in the vaults, and the liner notes on certain records were vague ("Good Clean Fun"? by Hambone was dated as being from 1981 but this sounded like it was released in 1975). Also, was it really necessary to release an entire CD of acapella versions of Salsoul songs? And when CD titles read "Philly Funk Flavas", "Soul Sista Flavas", "...With Love" and whatnot you just know that the people behind this were British blue-eyed soul brothas wishing they weren't.... you get the idea.

Looking back on this Gibbons' compilation, not everything he did was golden. The discofied country and western standards and songs like "Super Queen" by Cellophane are listenable once every half-decade... And the deconstructed version of "It's Good For The Soul" just irritated me with his queeny, oft-muted vocals in the background. The version heard on Salsoul Orchestra's "Nice & Naasty" album is perfect as is.

Nowadays, there's so much "best of" Salsoul CD's on the market they're right up there with Donna Summer as to how many hit compilations can be cranked out over the span of 10-15 years. Stick with the US-based "The Original Salsoul Classics Volumes 1-4", "Disco Boogie Volumes 1-2" and "The Salsoul 12" Gold Master Series Volume 1-3" and you're good to go (I think there may have been another volume to the latter, but I forget).

[DyscoSouljah]

Absolutely true! Please keep the unreleased material in the vaults, and in a few people's basement. Al this releasing is giving all the re-editors, bootleggers, re-re-remixers, and plain copy-paste reissuers new material to steal. I say, a rare track is worth the hunt, not buying it at amazon.com in bad quality.

Coming back to Salsoul, how much I love them especially Love Committee, True Example, & Double Exposure, one can never forget MFSB. It was that band which laid out the foundations for Salsoul.

[RobbaDobba]

Absolutely correct on the Bethlehem-distributed American comps. There were only 3 volumes of the Gold Master series (liners say 5 were planned). Biggest reason for the sound and cohesion of those are Tom Moulton. If it's true that he was involved in the recent Unidisc tape transfers, then that would explain why they sound better than the Suss'd stuff.

Generally, UK comps are excellent, especially Soul Jazz's ("A Tom Moulton Mix", "Philadelphia Roots 1 & 2"...). The Philly Soul comps that come out of the UK are a revelation and kick the ass of the same PIR stuff released over and over again on these shores.

But Suss'd went with quantity over quality. Hopefully someone gets them right in abundance someday. Till then, the Bethlehem/Salsoul releases mentioned above rule.

[Disco Funk]

That wouldn't be compression but lousy digital noise reduction.

Yeah, I got confused when I was writing that sentence. I combined two trains of thoughts, however, I have found that using digital noise reduction software on dirty records and converting a crackly record into an mp3 has the same result in that there's a cut-off of the highs. I think the crackling is deemed as redundant data by the mp3 converter and it ends up chopping out some of the fidelity of the audio (even more than a clean record source) causing more of a swishing effect. The Disco Madness Unidisc CD is definitely better quality than the Suss'd CD. I bought that anthology thinking I would be getting a better quality version of those tracks than the vinyl boot I had bought. It turned out the vinyl boot sounded better! I think that Suss'd company uses CD sources when they already had been released by Bethlehem, Charly or Unidisc, but if those companies hadn't put tracks out on CD, they used a poor vinyl source copy. The Unidisc CD has good fidelity, but if you listen carefully on some cuts, you can hear what sounds like faint crackling on the outer edges of each channel. I'm not sure if old master tapes can also create that same effect. I'm not crazy about Walter Gibbons mixes. When I first heard Disco Madness I was blown away, but as time goes on, I just find a lot of his mixes are inferior in terms of their fidelity and structure. I especially disliked his reworkings of Law & Order and Let No Man Put Asunder. I figure he probably put them together for his own mixing tool, which is why they are mostly acapella with percussion. But they don't hold up on their own. Also, having another remix or re-edit of Catch Me On The Rebound, which he already had done with the 12in, was sort of redundant. It would have been nice if he tried his hand at another Gold Mind track. Disco Funk