Railroad (album)

Railroad is an album by American fingerstyle guitarist and composer John Fahey, released in 1983. It was originally released as Railroad 1 by mistake. The Shanachie Records reissue is correctly labeled as Railroad. It was his last principal recording for Takoma Records, the label he founded in 1959.

History

John Fahey had a lifelong attraction to trains and railroads. His long-time friend and collaborator Barry Hansen recalled in an interview about Fahey's initial move to Oregon, "He loved the green countryside. He was near a railroad track and he liked that. He loved to watch trains." In his original liner notes, Fahey writes of train yards, individuals related to trains, and memories of trains and railroads. Nearly every track title refers to a train or railroad.

Railroad was Fahey's last principal recording for Takoma Records, the label he founded in 1959. He cited the strain of running the label and its lack of direction as reasons for selling it to the UK-based Chrysalis Records. In a 1997 interview with Jason Gross, he stated "The reason that I got rid of it was almost everybody in the office started taking cocaine and I couldn't get rid of it. We weren't losing money or anything. We were still selling records. I made the terrible mistake of giving stock to the employees so I couldn't fire them. The only thing I could do was to dissolve the company. While I was doing that, Chrysalis offered to buy it and I said 'sure, take it.'" Other sources refer to Fahey's lack of interest in the business side of running Takoma, the company's debt, and the current poor business climate of the record industry.

! (album)

! is an album by The Dismemberment Plan. It was released on October 2, 1995, on DeSoto Records. The band's original drummer, Steve Cummings, played on this album but left shortly after its release.

Track listing

Personnel

The following people were involved in the making of !:

References

"@" (album)

"@" is a studio album by John Zorn and Thurston Moore. It is the first collaborative album by the duo and was recorded in New York City in February, 2013 and released by Tzadik Records in September 2013. The album consists of improvised music by Zorn and Moore that was recorded in the studio in real time with no edits or overdubs.

Reception

Allmusic said "@ finds two of New York City's longest-running fringe dwellers churning out sheets of collaborative sounds that conjoin their respective and distinct states of constant freak-out... These seven improvisations sound inspired without feeling at all heavy-handed or urgent. More so, @ succeeds with the type of conversational playing that could only be achieved by two masters so deep into their craft that it probably feels a lot like breathing to them by now".

Track listing

All compositions by John Zorn and Thurston Moore

Album

Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, then from 1948 as vinyl LP records played at 33 ¹⁄₃ rpm. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century albums sales have mostly focused on compact disc (CD) and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used in the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl.

An album may be recorded in a recording studio (fixed or mobile), in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to several years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately, and then brought or "mixed" together. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed "live", even when done in a studio. Studios are built to absorb sound, eliminating reverberation, so as to assist in mixing different takes; other locations, such as concert venues and some "live rooms", allow for reverberation, which creates a "live" sound. The majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at separate times while listening to the other parts using headphones; with each part recorded as a separate track.

Salekhard–Igarka Railway

The 1,524 mm (5 ft) broad gauge Salekhard–Igarka Railway, (Трансполярная магистраль, Transpolyarnaya Magistral - "Transpolar Mainline") also referred to variously as Мёртвая дорога (Dead Road), and Stalinbahn, is an incomplete railway in northern Siberia. The railway was a project of the Soviet Gulag system that took place from 1947 to 1953. Construction was coordinated via two separate Gulag projects, the 501 Railroad beginning on the River Ob and 503 Railroad beginning on the River Yenisey, part of a grand design of Joseph Stalin to span a railroad across northern Siberia to reach the Soviet Union's easternmost territories.

The planned route from Igarka to Salekhard measured 806 miles (1,297 km) in length. The project was built mostly with prisoner labour, particularly that of political prisoners, and thousands perished.

A rebuilt section of the railway between Novy Urengoy and Stary Nadym on the east bank of the Nadym River is still in operation, as is the extreme western section connecting Labytnangi and the railway to Vorkuta. The section from Salekhard and Nadym is planned to be rebuilt, including a new bridge over the Ob to connect Salekhard to the rest of the Russian railway system via Labytnangi.