Show Notes
Hello Friends! As promised, it's finally time to blaze it up, with the 1967 LP from the much derided Herman's Hermits, Blaze. Issued in October of that year, the album was not issued at the time in the UK (though formed popular on the import market), the album comprised of 10 tracks produced by the ardent lover of mono, one Mickie Most. This overall leads to a generally simple stereo presentation, including two reprocessed stereo tracks (though not necessarily of the same mono mixes), but this does not mean these don't feature some significant differences. Things get more interesting when we bring in Ron Furmanek remixes from 1991 of the first 7 tracks for the album. If one hasn’t heard a Ron Furmanek remix before, it’s important to understand his sound for the period. These are very clean and open mixes, and compared to the often heavy compression and EQ used on ‘60s mixdowns, Ron prefers to keep it dynamic and dry, heavily aided by his very ahead-of-the-curve syncing of stage tapes, albeit with some minor sync issues sadly. I personally find them more fascinating insights than actual preferred listening experiences, and the tracks as presented on the Bear Family set also appear to have a bloated sounding EQ, especially apparent when moving from the ‘60s mixes, so do keep all these pointers in mind as we compare. As a little bonus, I’m going to be including the song ‘Mum & Dad’, which was recently brought to my attention by Andrew Sandoval as excised from the LP late in the production, present in the tracklist (but not audio) for the US reel-to-reel release, as the second to last track on the LP. Of course, this eventually saw release on The Best of Herman’s Hermits Volume III in the US only, which gave us true mono and stereo mixes of the track, and we were treated to a remix from Ron again for this one. All in all, this makes for an episode that was far more fun to make than I was expecting, and it was very much one initially done out of the love for the album over anything else. And hopefully you learn a lot too!
Happy Listening,
Frederick
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More from Mixology: The Mono/Stereo Mix Differences Podcast
Hello Friends! Today we celebrate the long awaited release of the 2026 Mix of Rubber Soul by doing what we do best, and breaking down every little bit of what makes these mixes tick compared to the previously 'standard' 1987 Stereo Mix, as found on the 2009 Remaster. This is - in my opinion - Giles Martin's best work so far on a full album Beatles Remix, and builds upon the 2023 mixes of 7 of the songs here, 6 of which have been reused. We will also be bringing in the two remixes done in 1999 for the Yellow Submarine Songtrack, and seeing how these mixes informed the decisions made here. If you want to know how the 1987 stereo mixes compare to the 1965 mono and stereo mixes, as well as the clutch of unique US mono and stereo mixes, be sure to check out my episode Rubber Soul (RM2) by The Beatles from 2022, which covered all of these. As always, if you want a stack more Mixology content, check out the Patreon, at www.patreon.com/backtomono Happy Listening, Frederick Patreon Email Instagram - @hypnoticfred
Hello Friends, Today I am delighted to welcome Andrew Sandoval back to Mixology to discuss the recent publication of The Kinks - All Day and All of The Night: The Day-by-Day Story, 1941-1970 by Doug Hinman and Andrew Sandoval. Published exclusively through Andrew's own imprint Beatland Books, Andrew and I work our way through a causal string of questions and answers, discussing everything from the intimately personal world of Ray Davies' songwriting, why the group were a management nightmare, the bizarre mixing decisions on Something Else by The Kinks, and most importantly - why you should never pass up on the reggae records. In addition to this, this is the very first video edition of the show, which you can find by heading over to the Patreon community. The video is available to all who visit the page, and is not behind the paywall, so please head on over there and add any of your thoughts in the comments. There is more than enough to get discussing in this one! You can find it at www.patreon.com/backtomono If you wish to grab a copy of this fantastic tome for yourself, you can do so by heading over to www.beatlandbooks.com/ - and don't forget to browse Andrew's other wonderful volumes while you're there! Happy Listening (& Watching), Frederick
Hello Friends! We're back in Holliesland this month on the show, with a look at the group's greatest pure-pop LP, 1966's For Certain Because.... Notable for being the first LP by the group composed entirely of original material, this Clark-Hicks-Nash composed album is chock full of fantastic mid-60s British pop, and even more full of great mix differences between the mono and stereo LPs. So, if additional vocal layers, extra echo, and revealing panning sound like a fun time to you, don't even think about changing! This ain't not peculiar situation, so be a crusader and and listen to this high classed episode. Happy Listening, Frederick Patreon Email Instagram - @hypnoticfred
Hello Friends! I've gone a little self-indulgent again on the show today, with a look at one of my favourite US-only LPs by The Dave Clark Five, 1967's 5 by 5. Issued with 'Nineteen Days' as the focus tracks, the 10 track 20 minute affair is an absolute blast, if wholly derivative of both the DC5 themselves and the music around them at the time. What is most important though is the fact that this was the first DC5 album to receive a true stereo mix, and as such we have the usual minor differences in echo, but also some pretty major ones too, such as mixed out ad libs and entirely missing layers of instruments and backing vocals, making this an album I absolutely had to cover on the show... when the time was right. But pick up your phone - that time is now! Happy Listening, Frederick Patreon Email
Hello Friends! This time on show we're finally returning to the Fold-Down Chronicles, looking at a further three LPs originally issued in both mono and stereo, but with mono mixes that don't entirely deserve that title. With this in mind, today we will be covering the following albums: