Album name: Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 1
Release date: July 21, 1998
Release format: cassette
Studio name: Metal XOR Studio
Tracks:
1. Snowflake in a Desert
2. I Wonder
3. I Cannot Tell A Lie
4. Flathead Midget
5. African Pygmies
6. ID Band
7. Lost in Detroit (Free II)
8. We Need Toner
9. Greasy Mystic
10. I Need A Drink
11. You've Given Me Air
12. It's Not Me You're Talking To
13. Wicked Game (Chime Can Mix)
14. The Wrong Spryte
15. Outter Gossamer Ring
This album came from a jam session that Harry, Jason, and Jimmy had on Friday, May 22, 1998 in Jimmy's room which at the time was still called Exit 23 Studio. This was unofficially known as "Isthmus Jam 4".
This, like the ORC album Purging the Great Abyss, could have an entire book written about it. It was the comeback album for Isthmus following the disaster of their 1996 album New Mexico Igloo. And the story of this album goes a little something like this. . .
Jimmy and Jason set up the equipment the previous night. Nikki was there too and the three of them recorded a few songs during the sound check. The next morning Isthmus met at Exit 23 Studio. For most of the day Jimmy played drums, Harry played guitar, and Jason played bass. But that was switched up a couple of times. They recorded for at least five hours, filling six 45-minute cassettes using Jason's 4-track recorder. They also recorded the session with a standard cassette recorder set in the middle of the room. And they had two camcorders that recorded the session. So this was the most documented recording session to date.
In all, 55 songs were recorded that day. And Jason got right to work cleaning the songs up and adding post-production tracks of additional instruments and sound effects. Right away they knew they had too much material for one album, so it was decided to do Metal XOR Studio's first 2-album release. The first album was released in July, which was a very fast turnaround from the recording date, and the second album was released in 1999. A promotional poster was created for this album on July 2, 1998.
And knowing it was a 2-album set, the two album covers were designed to fit together to make one complete picture. The whole cyclical theme was continued with the subtitle of the album being "Solstice to Equinox" and volume 2's subtitle being "Equinox to Solstice". To further the seasonal theme, Volume 1 side A was labeled 'summer' and side B was labeled 'winter', Volume 2 side A was labeled 'autumn' and side B was labeled 'spring'.
There were a few variations of the album. The first three copies were for the band members and were designated 'alpha' and had a Greek alpha symbol on the inside of the tape jacket. These copies had a bonus track called "Cornbread". The rest of the first run was then labeled as 'beta' tapes and had a Greek beta symbol on the inside of the tape jacket. Later, a second run of the tapes were released when the first run ran out. The difference in the two runs is that the original tapes released had dark tape cases and the second run had light cases.
This album came out just before the advent of home CD-recording, so it was the last album to be released on cassette. But there are plans to re-release both volumes on CD. An all-encompassing Special Edition has also been mentioned containing every song recorded that day (in their album versions and raw unedited versions) along with interviews each band member made about each song on the album and much more! But that has yet to be completed.
Next May marks the 10-year anniversary of Isthmus' crowning achievement. We'll see if there is any hubbub to be had.
Update:
On May 22, 2008, the 3-CD Parabolic Dish Festival 10th Anniversary Edition was released. Now the rumors have started of an Ultimate Edition to be released in the future. Is there really that much more material to be released?
Next week's Album of the Week: Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 2 by Isthmus from 1999.
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