(TomP) Original Master Recording

Polar Bear
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Spitz Club
London
12th Feb 2004

Contrast Clause:
This is my own master recording....

Source: BBC DAB (MPEG-I Layer II at 192 kb/s joint stereo) > Yamaha 1300 audio HDR
Editing: None
Transfer: CDRW > EAC > Flac Frontend (level 6)

Previous post by fastone (now removed), his master recording, FM > md > cdr

Quality: EX, digital all the way to you
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Since his original post was well received, fastone has chased me to put up my own digital recording of this great Polar Bear set - thanks for the encouragement - which of course according to Dime rules, had to wait until his FM version was removed.

If ever there was an example of why that rule should be the other way round, this version provides further evidence that the DAB beats FM, confirming my own experience of those opportunities where I've been able to make my own recordings from BBC Jazz on 3 of both the original FM broadcast and then the repeated DAB version - there being absolutely no comparison in quality, so now I have sold my FM tuner. Note in this post, the background noise is in the venue, not the recording medium.

Back to the music, it is a great set and if you did not grab it first time round or if you want the very best quality version, jump on it now and...

...Enjoy

Polar Bear
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Mark Lockheart - Tenor sax
Pete Wareham - Tenor sax
Tom Herbert - Double Bass
Sebastian Rochford - drums

...+ Guests on *

Johnny Phillips - Guitar
Julia Beal - vocals
Leafcutter John - Electronics

8.17 Heavy Paws
6.11 Argumentative
9.10 Not Here, Not Near
7.57 Snow *
5.54 ??
9.36 ??
4.49 King of Aberdeen


Notes:
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1. Details were on the Radio 3 web site, until they deleted records from before mid-2004
2. As usual, no artworks - anybody?
3. Does anybody know the missing track names ??

Stuff:
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Please ask before posting this anywhere
Don't transfer to MP3 or other Lossy media
For trading only, don't sell or do anything else you shouldn't do with this good stuff!
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Some reviews, courtesy of fastone's original info >>>

Polar bear, is it free jazz, postjazz or postrock,…. It sounds awesome

"This is not nu jazz, acid jazz, Jamie jazz, Parky jazz, Brit jazz, beardo jazz, post-jazz or twee jazz. It's dream jazz." Paul Morley, Observer Music Monthly "The big-hitters of the current new wave" Phil Johnson, Independent On Sunday - ABC

"Polar Bear blast out of the past, full of straight, cool school skills, and detonate the past, bursting with edgy, forward-looking lust." Paul Morley, Observer Music Monthly

"[The album] explores a mix of trance-like, long-note music over eerie, hypnotic grooves, full-on electronics and free-improv, melancholic songs, punky thrashes and some of the best two-sax conversation to be heard on the current scene." John Fordham, The Guardian

"Polar Bear… snort, shriek and wrestle somewhere ominous and charming between the tumultuous energy of Keith Tippett's 50-piece orchestra Centipede, and the eclecticism of Tortoise" Paul Morley, Observer Music Monthly

"Castanet-like handclaps trigger long, guttural sax lines; electronics fly across the speakers and give way to free-blasting; and odd, pogo-dancing themes over bumpy drumming sound like punk interpretations of Parisian café music." John Fordham, The Guardian

"…a highly creative successor to the equally distinctive Dim Lit" John Fordham, The Guardian "Here's something worth your time. Polar Bear are a significant ripple in the new wave of youthful, ahem, post-jazz". Nick Coleman, Independent On Sunday - ABC