RnRanimal is right. The Matrix tapes are truly unbelievable! They are not and do not need to be cleaned up. They are the best sounding live VU you will ever hear for a couple of reasons: they are orginal four track recordings and they've been carefully preserved for all these years.rnranimal wrote:Very sad news, Easytree has just been shut down (as reported on their yahoo group forum). It was a great place to get lossless rare music, actually the only place that I know of. I was really holding out hope of seeing the full disc on there, but it can't happen now.
PS- Speaking of the cleaned up Matrix tapes, I actually got to hear samples of quite a few of the songs and can say they are AMAZING. They aren't just cleaned up, but are stereo mixes from the original 4-track soundboard tapes and are truly top notch in sound quality. Even much better than the Live 1969 tracks as those were from 1st or 2nd gen mixdowns. Man, how I wish these would be released, but last I heard the guy sitting on the tapes was not being cooperative and the whole thing was called off. Damn shame. On the subject of the boot series and elusive tapes, what happened to that other Max's '70 show (the Freeman tape, I believe it was called)?
As far as the performances go, there are beautiful versions of "There She Goes", "Venus in Furs", a drop-dead gorgeous funky 'Waiting for the Man" and much more. The tapes contain several performances of 22 unique titles recorded over various dates in the fall/winter of 1969.
Joseph Freeman's Max's tape is also very interesting. It was recorded a few weeks before the exisitng Max's set and is in stereo and an overall better recording. The set is similar to the familiar one. Fifteen tracks total including a blues jam, "It's Just Too Much", "Ocean", and "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'"
Wish I could tell you all that there is progress in resolving the nonsense that stands in the way of this and so much more, but I can't.
BTW RnRAnimal, if you don't mind PMing me, I'd like a word.