Back in the early 70s, my dad decided to set up a music studio in the converted garage/granny flat where I live today... amongst the many cool things that were in that room back then were a pair of Altec speakers. I saw him build the cabinets on the back lawn.. I remember thinking how big they were and how much bigger they sounded. I wouldve been 6 years old I guess. Anyway, he let me listen to music on them quite a bit. A few years later, after returning from a Pacific cruise on the Fairstar (probably the most middle class thing we ever did as a family), the power was switched back on in the studio, simultaneously unleashing a mysterious fire that ruined many of the things in that studio. The Altec speakers survived - they were sold to somebody who operated a roller disco. The turntable also survived - it now lives out at my studio where itll be used for sampling stuff, and hey, just listenin to rekkids. Not long after that, Dad moved out, and the studio was now a pad for my brother and I to hang in. Yet, history has a strange way of repeating - my dear old friend of so many years, John Laird, also possessed a similar pair of Altecs. We used to listen to Pink Floyd on them in the 80s as a test of our school year intelligence. Particularly the ill-thought of Final Cut. I bought this album, re-mastered, on CD the other day to celebrate the act of said Mr. Laird, as he gifted me his Altecs. They now sit against the very same wall where the old mans units did about 40 years ago and they make the very same warm and precise fist of sound that floored me as a kid. It only serves to make me lament even harder, as I often do, the way people consume music these days - on tiny lap top speakers, ipod docks and horrible combo systems with ultra mega super bass and 3D spatial synthesisers blah blah blah... This is the real deal. Ive only just hooked em up, and fittingly, I just played the xmas gift my bro gave me - a pure audio blu-ray of Quadrophenia, possibly the best prog-rock album ever made (cue Pink Floyd retribution). The original was released in 1973 - close to the time this historical tale kicked off. Im listening now to the album I produced for Mick Daley, only mastered only a week ago. On these old speakers from the late 60s, its like the first time Ive ever heard the damn thing. For anybody interested, heres info on the units in question. voiceofthetheatre/images/419-8B.420A.1.jpg Long live music. Unquestionably the greatest form of art.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 02:36:15 +0000