Two key recordings which serve as bookends to Elliott Smith’s catalogue of solo recordings, Roman Candle (his first) and From A Basement on the Hill (ostensibly, his last), are being reissued by Kill Rock Stars on 6 April 2010. Roman Candle, Elliott’s first album, was issued by Portland’s Cavity Search Records in 1994. For the Kill Rock Stars reissue, Roman Candle been remastered by Smith family archivist Larry Crane. Crane, the respected long-time editor of Tape Op Magazine, served in several engineering capacities on Elliott’s work over the course of his career, predominantly as owner and operator of Jackpot! Recordings where Elliott recorded many of his earliest works.
Embarking on the journey of remastering Roman Candle, Crane says that his primary intention going in was to “make the album more listenable.” The job was never to create remixes from the masters or to purposefully make the record seem louder, Crane said. Instead, Crane tried to deal with intricacies that would give the audio a warmer quality. “We never tried to make this CD as loud as current, over-limited trends,” Crane says, “but just to match the volume of the rest of Elliott’s KRS catalog in a graceful way. Please note that none of this album is “remixed” from the master tapes – it is still composed of the mixes Elliott created himself.”
From A Basement on the Hill was previously released by ANTI- Records in 2004 and now becomes part of the Kill Rock Stars catalogue of Elliott Smith material.
To celebrate these two reissues, KRS is giving away this free, previously unreleased track, “Cecilia/Amanda” which was recorded at Jackpot! Recording Studio in 1997 by Larry Crane. And, until January 4th, Elliott Smith’s entire back catalogue is on sale both via KRS mail order (http://buyolympia.com/killrockstars) and via iTunes.
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