| Artist: Crank Call Love Affair |
| Title: What's Wrong Yvette / Celluoid |
| Format: 7" vinyl 45 |
| Label: Self-released |
| Year: 1982 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, producer, mix |
| My comments: Recorded at the Packing House Studio in
Denver, you can really hear that natural Packing House reverb on
the drums. The band were all good friends of mine and we all played
in lots of bands together. It was the first thing I ever recorded
that came out on vinyl, and the first session where I had to make
an (unnoticeable) edit in a MASTER TAPE. I was terrified but kept
my cool...the resulting splices were perfect and the band just
assumed I knew exactly what I was doing. Naturally I acted as if
that were the case. |
|
| Artist: Spray Pals |
| Title: Happy Go Lucky / Dead Sea |
| Format: 7" vinyl 45 |
| Label: Self-released |
| Year: 1982 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, producer, drums, bass. |
| My comments: The band was Susanne Lewis who wrote the
songs and played guitar, and Kirsten Gushurst on keyboard. It was
the first time Susanne and I met and worked together. They also
brought in a Greek bouzouki player they'd met at a Greek
restaurant. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the studio on the
day they wanted to mix it, so it was mixed by someone else and
doesn't sound nearly as good as it would have. Oh well. After the
record came out we decided we wanted to do some concerts so we
drafted Mike Johnson to play bass, and did a few shows around
Denver. |
|
| Artist: Geoffrey Landers |
| Title: The Ever Decimal Pulse |
| Format: LP |
| Label: Self-released |
| Year: 1982 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, co-producer along with Geoff,
drums, bass, violin, maybe some other things, mixed some
tracks. |
| My comments: Geoff was the owner of the Packing House
Studio and this was his first album. Susanne Lewis wrote some
lyrics and sings on a track. Many, many times I have been asked:
"why doesn't Geoff re-release his albums?" and the answer is: he
doesn't want to, period, so please don't ask me! |
|
| Artist: Endgame |
| Title: Nothingness / A Process |
| Format: 7" vinyl 45 |
| Label: Limbo Records |
| Year: 1982 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, producer, mix. |
| My comments: Another Packing House recording. A young
group who really appreciated my way of working, it was a good
collaboration. |
|
| Artist: Susan and God |
| Title: Fluffy Goes to Hollywood / C. Spot Run |
| Format: 7" vinyl 45 |
| Label: Pancake Bitch Records |
| Year: 1982 (?) |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, producer, mix. |
| My comments: Another Packing House recording, a wacky
young group and a strange record. The drummer Kurt Bauer is still
one of my best pals. |
|
| Artist: Young Weasels |
| Title: Twist & Burn / Happy Feathers |
| Format: 7" vinyl 45 |
| Label: Local Anesthetic |
| Year: 1982 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, mix. |
| My comments: Young Weasels were an important 80's Denver
group. This was recorded at a live show with a couple of really
cheap mics and a worn-out Teac 3340 four track tape machine. The
sound was a bit pale as you'd expect, and I couldn't do much about
it in the mix. The guy who ran the label didn't seem to understand
why I couldn't get a big, rich, "produced" sound from a couple of
cheap mics and zero budget at a live gig in a crappy little
room! |
|
| Artist: Your Funeral |
| Title: I Wanna Be You / Final Abbyss |
| Format: 7" vinyl 45 |
| Label: Local Anesthetic |
| Year: 1982 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production. |
| My comments: Your Funeral was a trio of young women. The
songwriter and guitarist was Jeri Rossi, with whom I did several
more projects together over the years. Shortly after the record
came out, the group re-formed with Jeri on guitar, me on bass and
Grant Hall on drums (a drummer I played with in another important
80's Denver group called The Metrotones, who never did make a
record) and we did a raucous show in Denver with The Birthday Party
sometime around 1982-83. Anyway, back to the record: I recorded it, but according to this page it wasn't mixed by me. I honestly don't remember, and don't have a copy of it to remind me, but if it had been mixed by me as well it would have sounded lots better of course! |
|
| Artist:Jeri Rossi |
| Title: I Left My Heart but I don't Know Where / This is
a Man's Man's Man's World |
| Format: 7" vinyl 45 |
| Label: Local Anesthetic |
| Year: 1983 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, drums, bass, mix. |
| My comments: At the Packing House again. Jeri on guitar
and vocal, me on drums, bass, and organ, and instrument inventor
Neil Feather on sax. |
|
| Artist:Geoffrey Landers |
| Title: Habitual Features |
| Format:LP |
| Label: Self released |
| Year: 1983 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, co-production with Geoff, drums,
maybe some other things I don't recall? |
| My comments: At the Packing House again, naturally, and
it's Geoff's second record. I do recall that I mixed side 2, the
long piano/synth piece. |
|
| Artist: Thinking Plague |
| Title: ...a Thinking Plague |
| Format: LP |
| Label: Endemic Records |
| Year: 1984 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, mix, drums, bass,
guitar, balaliaka, Arp2600, voice, and ???? |
| My comments: At the Packing House again. Mike Johnson
and I borrowed money to press 500 LPs, I hand-painted 500 covers,
and we sent a few copies out to various distributors, hardly daring
to hope for a response. Some weeks later I received a letter from
Recommended Records in London, saying they'd take 200 copies. What
a great feeling that was! We couldn't afford to send them and had
to borrow the money for that too. This was the first record I
worked on that started to get some notice in various
countries. |
|
| Artist: Mau Mau 55 |
| Title: Mau Mau 55 |
| Format: Cassette |
| Label: Self release |
| Year: 1984 (?) |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, mix, drums, bg
voc. |
| My comments: Recorded on 4-track in a big reverberant
hallway at our abandoned yogurt factory rehearsal space. We did
several shows around Denver, there was always a crazy chaotic vibe
and lots of fun. The vocalist Mike Savage and guitarist Randy
Walters later moved to LA and carried on as Pigmy Love Circus. The
bassist, Wolfgang, who played bass on an Arp Oddysey, left to join
the Marines... |
|
| Artist: Corpses as Bedmates |
| Title: Babaa & Scheibel=69 |
| Format: Cassette |
| Label: Cow-Op |
| Year: 1984 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, mix, percussion, bg
voc, ???. |
| My comments: Recorded in the largest and most
reverberant room at our abandoned yogurt factory rehearsal space,
by ping-ponging between two cassette decks. The group was me,
Susanne Lewis on guitar, voice, viola, etc, and Karen Sheridan on
bass and voice. |
|
| Artist: Corpses as Bedmates |
| Title: Halo |
| Format: Cassette |
| Label: Cow-Op |
| Year: 1985 ? |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, mix, drums, synth, bg
voc, ???. |
| My comments: Recorded in various rooms at the yogurt
factory rehearsal space. I can't remember if we were still
ping-ponging between cassette machines or if we borrowed Bruce
Odland's Sony F1 two-track digital recorder and ping-ponged between
that and the cassette. Maybe it was a Teac 3340 4-track. Same
line-up as "Babaa..." except Mark Fuller joined us on drums and
percussion for some tracks. |
|
| Artist: Mau Mau 55 |
| Title: In The Trenches |
| Format: Cassette |
| Label: Self release |
| Year: 1985 (?) |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, mix, drums, bg
voc. |
| My comments: Patrick Bowers replaced synth-bassist
Wolfgang (who'd gone to join the Marines!) on bass guitar, and we
recorded this set of songs in a small 8-track studio. The sound in
this really dead, muffled studio was nowhere near the raw intensity
of our performances! This version of the group did several more
gigs before vocalist Mike Savage and guitarist Randy Walters moved
to LA and carried on as Pigmy Love Circus. |
|
| Artist: Bruce Odland Big Band |
| Title: Crossover |
| Format: LP |
| Label: XO Records |
| Year: 1986 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, mix, bass, bg
voc. |
| My comments: This was a group with a 5-piece horn
section, two drummers, two singing keyboardists, and me on bass.
The band was really something, and was at its best live. For some
reason we took a different approach for the record; a little more
like a science project, recorded the drums alone first and then
overdubbed the other instruments individually. One thing I'll say
about the drum tracks: they were recorded in stereo, both drummers
playing at once, with the craziest jerry-rigged mixer and mic setup
you could imagine, with speakers and mics setup all over the yogurt
factory so I could change the sound by sending the signal from
whichever mic into different rooms. For one song we took the
drumkits to a pedestrian tunnel under a freeway and recorded them
there on Bruce's Sony F1 digital two track recorder. In the end
these drums tracks hold up perfectly even after the layers of stuff
that were to come later. I'd learned a lot over the previous years
about recording in basic stereo out of necessity, and here it
really paid off. I still record all the drum tracks for my solo
albums directly to two tracks. In the end I'll simply say it was an
exhausting and extremely educational experience, an "interesting"
album but we probably ought to have done a live album. |
|
| Artist: Ron Miles |
| Title: Distance For Safety |
| Format: LP |
| Label: Prolific Records |
| Year: 1986 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, mix. |
| My comments: Our friend Arnie Swenson had started a
record label and booked us a few days in Avalance Studio in Denver.
The tracks for this album sounded great, but during the tracking
session the studio's house engineer (famous for that desperately
wannabe slick jazzrock sound) came in, listened for 30 seconds or
so, and said: "If I'd known you wanted such a crappy sound I would
have mis-aligned the tape machine before you came in". It went so
far as the studio manager saying they didn't want the studio
credited on the album! (I think they relented later.) We had to
deal with a lot of that kind of attitude in those days; they didn't
understand why anyone wouldn't want to slather glorious Lexicon 224
digital reverb all over the tracks and put expensive stereo chorus
on everything for example. So as a joke, for the benefit of that
disgruntled engineer we made one ridiculous "gated reverb" snare
hit during the first tune. |
|
| Artist: Corpses as Bedmates |
| Title: Venus Handcuffs |
| Format: LP |
| Label: Dead Man's Curve |
| Year: 1986 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, mix, drums, trash,
bass, viola, bg voc, etc. |
| My comments: It's me and Susanne Lewis, recorded on
dilapidated equipment in our abandoned yogurt factory rehearsal
building. Chris Cutler says it best I think: "These are recordings
that capture the empty rooms and alien machinery of their
birthplace", and that it "sounds like a spirit photograph". It's a
"tron"-full album, featuring Mellotron and Orchestron, and I really
used the sound of the rooms on this one. The terrible sounding
cheaply pressed LP was released by a label which immediately went
bankrupt so most of the LPs also immediately vanished along with
the label. Nearly 20 years it was released on CD by AdHoc Records
in 2005, remastered (by me of course!) from the original cassette
tape on which I'd mixed it. |
|
| Artist: Cage of Reason |
| Title: Shoving The Fork In The Ground |
| Format: Cassette |
| Label: self released |
| Year: 1986 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, production, mix. |
| My comments: It was a band with Susanne Lewis on vocals,
Mike Johnson on guitar, Patrick Bowers on bass, and Chad Ferguson
on drums. If I recall correctly, some of it was recorded on 4-track
cassette in our yogurt factory rehearsal space and some at a small
8-track studio. In any case I know I recorded the band at both of
those places, and the cassette stuff sounded best! |
|
| Artist: |
| Title: Mind Killer |
| Format: Film |
| Label: First Films |
| Year: 1987 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Sound effects, mix. |
My comments: For a couple of years I'd been working with
an acquaintance making sound effects for Halloween "haunted houses"
in Denver. Somewhere along the way he'd met this guy who started a
film company making cheap horror films and got me involved. It was
in my most penniless period of a generally penniless decade and the
$150 for two months work seemed like wealth beyond measure. Of
course I didn't have anything but a cassette machine and a Radio
Shack mic with which to do the job, but I did it. Of the three films I worked on for First Films, this one is the "best"...
|
| Artist: |
| Title: Night Vision |
| Format: Film |
| Label: First Films |
| Year: 1987 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Sound effects, mix. |
My comments: Another no-budget affair. The film required a lot of city ambience so I spent much time walking around downtown Denver with a cassette machine and a borrowed mic in a backpack. I'd look around behind the bushes at the base of skyscrapers or in parking garages and always find an electrical outlet, plug in the cassette deck and record the street ambience. Here's a good hard luck story that happened during the making of this film: One day while walking around downtown collecting sounds, I stopped by Wax Trax record shop to try and sell my last couple albums so I could buy something to eat, sat my backpack down just long enough to ask the guy at the counter if they'd give me a dollar or two for the albums, picked the backpack up again and it was empty...the cassette deck and mic had been stolen. Just like that, and right at my side! Naturally nobody in the store had seen anything. That taught me a lesson I should have already known living in Capitol Hill for so many years... Anyway, I survived, and the film also has music made by me and Eric Moon and Ron Miles, and it's a worse film than the first one ("Mind Killer", above.) I have no idea how they managed to do it, but the music was printed out of phase on the release!
|
| Artist: Thinking Plague |
| Title: Moonsongs |
| Format: LP |
| Label: Dead man's Curve |
| Year: 1987 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Bass, drums, engineering, production, mix. |
My comments: The Packing House studio was finished, so we recorded most of this album in a very small studio which had a very dead, muffled sound. We were attempting a production miles beyond the capabilities of this little 8-track studio, and though it has its charms the production sounds a bit dated to me now, except for the track we recorded live in our rehearsal room "Etude for Organism". I wrote a fairly detailed account about recording this album (about recording all the TP albums actually) which will be posted soon, I'll put the link here once it's posted.
|
| Artist: |
| Title: Lone Wolf |
| Format: Film |
| Label: First Films |
| Year: 1988 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Sound effects, mix. |
My comments: The last film in my First Films resumé. The bigger the budgets got for this company, the worse the results seemed to be. To make a long story short, this film was in my opinion, to put it as kindly as possible, not good, and taught me once and for all that the film world was not for me. The post-production ended up being a rush job (naturally) and I had to mix it in a marathon session, just me alone, lasting over 30 hours non-stop to finish it in time for the premiere. There was something strangely fascinating about doing these films and I'm glad I did them, but I certainly would NOT recommend watching any of them! I must put in a good word though about the guy who ran the film company, Michael Krueger. He was always extremely kind and generous to me, letting me borrow tape recorders and use the office after-hours as a recording studio for Thinking Plague and Hail. In 1990 he succumbed to cancer at the age of 39.
|
| Artist: The Fluid |
| Title: Clear Black Paper |
| Format: LP |
| Label: Subpop |
| Year: 1988 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, mix. |
My comments: This great band from Denver and asked me to engineer an album for them so I did. It was done very quickly and not under the best circumstances, but they were really grateful for my patience and hard work and even credited me on the album as "The Amazing Bob Drake"! I also remember singing a high harmony part on a song called "Cold Outside". I'd love to hear this album again because I haven't heard it since we recorded it.
|
| Artist: Hail |
| Title: Gypsy Cat and Gypsy Bird |
| Format: LP |
| Label: Prolific |
| Year: 1988 |
| Link: |
| What I did: Engineer, mix, bass, drums, a bit of guitar, ???, bg vox. |
My comments: The first Hail album. We recorded this one in a small, oppressive 8-track studio, a place I never really liked sonically but we made the best of it, and it was a relief from the broken and barely functioning recording equipment we'd used on the Corpses as Bedmates albums. The LP was pressed by a label who promptly went out of business so most of the LPs disappeared along with them. A couple of tracks from it were released on our Turn of the Screw CD, and we might be able to re-release the whole album on CD soon. It was named after Susanne's pets who were both called "Gypsy".
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Kim Stone: Earth School, Prolific Records 1989.
Thinking Plague: In This Life, ReR Megacorp 1989.
MC Smooth: Smooth & Legit, Crush Music 1990.
Calypso Rose: Soul On Fire, Strakers - 1990.
Hail: Turn Of The Screw, ReR Megacorp 1990.
U-Totem: U-Totem, Cuneiform Records, 1990.
Ice Cube: AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990).
Everlast: Forever Everlasting, Warner Archives 1990.
Bruce Odland: Leaving Eden, Arcadian Records 1991.
Boyz 'n the Hood: Film Soundtrack, 1991.
Charo: Guitar Passion, 1991.
Latin Alliance: Latin Alliance, Virgin Records America, Inc.
1991.
Winslow Crockwell: Follow The Way Of Your Heart, 1991? 92?
Duc Hoy: The Best of Duc Hoy - 1992 (?)
The College Boyz: Radio Fusion Radio, Atlantic Records 1992.
MC Jr Cas: Born 2 Flow, 1992.
Hail: Kirk, ReR Megacorp 1992.
Yoyo: Black Pearl, 1992.
Emmett North Jr.: I'll Never Let You Go - 1992.
Jim Witzel: Give & Take, Joplin & Sweeney 1992.
5UUs: Hunger's Teeth, ReR Megacorp 1994.
Bob Drake: What Day Is It? Self-released, 1994.
The (EC) Nudes: Vanishing Point, ReR Megacorp 1994.
The ReR Quarterly Volume 4 Number 1, ReR Megacorp 1994.
Cleee: Hello Hello Hello, 1995.
Otolithen: Otolithen, MF Records 1995.
Cal Bennett: A Stolen Moment, 1996.
Peter Blegvad: Just Woke Up, ReR Megacorp 1996.
Kampec Dolores: Zúgó - Rapid, Bahia Music 1996.
So Nicht: Boop, 1997.
Dull Schicksall: Ambush, AMF Records 1997.
5UUs: Crisis In Clay, ReR Megacorp 1997.
Steve MacLean: Opposite Of War, ReR Megacorp 1997.
N.O.R.M.A.: L' Arpa e L'Asino, ReR Megacorp 1997.
Otolihen: SOD, Cuneiform Records 1997.
Mauro Franceschi Band: Mauro Franceschi Band, 1997.
Vakki Plakkula: Una Barca, Angelica 1998.
Peter Blegvad, Hangman's Hill, ReR Megacorp 1998.
Bob Drake: Little Black Train, ReR Megacorp 1998.
Ossatura & Tim Hodgkinson: Dentro, ReR Megacorp 1998.
Peter Blegvad: Hangman's Hill, ReR Megacorp 1998.
Thinking Plague: In Extremis, Cuneiform Records 1998.
Jason DuMars: Singularity, self-released 1998.
Positive Nuns: The Bible II, 1999.
AA Kismet: Where's the rest of me? ADM Records 1999.
Bob Drake: Medallion Animal Carpet, ReR Megacorp 1999.
The Science Group: A Mere Coincidence, ReR Megacorp 1999.
Enhanced Gravity: Absolute Gravity, Yucca Tree Records 1999.
Jason Kahn: Drums and Metals, Cut 1999.
Jason Kahn: Select Dialect, Cut 1999.
Jason Kahn: Analogues, Cut 1999.
Fred Frith/Chris Cutler: 2 Gentlemen In Verona, ReR Megacorp
2000.
Thinking Plague: Early Plague Years, Cuneiform Records 2000.
Faust: The Wümme Years 1970-73 (5xCD Box) ReR Megacorp 2000.
Faust: BBC Sessions +, ReR Megacorp 2001.
Steve Buchanan: Tiny Grimes, Hanan 2001.
Jason Kahn: Plurabelle, Cut 2001.
AA Kismet: What's the Use of Crying When the Wolves Have Arrived?
Z6 Records 2001.
Bob Drake: The Skull Mailbox and Other Horrors, ReR Megacorp
2001.
Hamster Theatre: Carnival Detournement, Cuneiform Records,
2001.
The Dead Brothers: Day Of The Dead, Voodoo Rhythm 2002.
Chris Cutler/Tom DiMuzio: Dust, ReR Megacorp 2002.
Think Of One: Naft 2, Zonk Records 2002.
Coolhaven: Blue Mustache, 2002.
Dick El Demasiado: No Nos Dejamos Afeitar, Tomenota Records
2002.
Chris Cutler: Solo, ReR, 2002.
Best Before: 04/04/44, SMI, 2002.
Les Ormores: Aus Der Reihe, Z6 records 2002.
Les Collègues Pasha: Les Collègues Pasha, RecRecRecords, 2002.
Blast: Altrastrata, Cuneiform Records 2002.
Sotos: Platypus, Cuneirform Records 2002.
Dick El Demasiado: No Nos Dejamos Afeitar, Tomenota Records
2002.
NeBeLNeST: NoVa eXPReSS, Cuneiform Records 2002.
Fred Frith: Prints- Snapshots, Postcards, Messages And Miniatures.
Fred Records 2002.
Jason Kahn: Pool, Cut 2003.
Dick El Demasiado: Pero Peinamos Gratis, Tomenota Records 2003.
Bob Drake: 13 Songs and a Thing, ReR Megacorp 2003.
Zoambo Zoet Workestrao: Svakoga Dana U Svakom Pogledu Sve Manje
Nazadujem, Manufracture 2003.
The Science Group: Spoors, ReR Megacorp 2003.
The Homosexuals: The Homosexuals CD, ReR, 2003.
What's Wrong With Us?: What's Wrong With Us? 2004.
Thinking Plague: Upon Both Your Houses, Nearfest Records 2004.
Slapp Happy: Desperate Straights, ReR Megacorp 2004.
Nikola Kodjobashia: Reveries of the Solitary Walker, ReR Megacorp,
2004.
Miriodor: Live at Nearfest, Cuneiform records 2005.
Vril: Effigies In Cork, ReR Megacorp 2005.
Woof 7 Inches, AdHoc Records, 2005.
Nimby: Songs For Adults, AdHoc Records 2005.
Dick El Demasiado: Al Perdido Ganado, Tomenota Records 2005.
Vialka: Curiosities Of Popular Customs, VIA 2005.
Bob Drake: The Shunned Country, ReR Megacorp 2005.
Lentin / Martignoni: Un Fils De Constantine, 2006.
Henry Cow: Henry Cow Concerts, ReR Megacorp 2006.
Zaar: Zaar, Cuneiform Records 2006.
Pamela's Parade: Shake Sharks, 2006.
Dead Brothers: Wunderkammer, 2006.
News From Babel: Complete (all albums re-mastered) ReR Megacorp,
2006.
Coolhaven: Strömblock Phantasieën, Taple Records 2006.
Buttercup Metal Polish: 50 Ballets, Creativesources Records,
2006.
Picchio Dal Pozzo: Abbiamo Tutti I Suoi Problemi, ReR Megacorp,
2006.
Hail: Hello Debris, ReR Megacorp 2006.
Hamster Theatre: The Public Execution Of Mr. Personality / Quasi
Day Room, Cuneiform Records 2006.
The Rude Staircase: Sookie Jump, What Delicate Recordings 2007.
Vialka: Plus Vite que la Musique, VIA, 2007.
Condor Moments: "And Though We're Told We've Got It All, The All
We've Got Is Freezing Cold", What Delicate Recordings 2007.
Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp: Orchestre Tout Puissant
Marcel Duchamp, Strabique 2007.
The Peeesseye: Mayhem In The Mansion, Shivers In The Shack,
Evolving Ear 2007.
Max Der Zinger: Acoustique, 2007.
Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer: Cold Peace Counterpoints, ReR Megacorp
2008.
What's Wrong With Us? Cat's Claw, Urgence Disk, 2008.
Stinky Lou and the Goon Mat: 12 Roots and Boogie Blues Hits, Voodoo
Rhythm 2008. (Great entertaining album but someone else
re-mastered it volume-war style)
Mama Rosin: Tu as Perdu Ton Chemin, Voodoo Rhythm 2008
Zeno Tornado: Ramblin' Man, Voodoo Rhythm 2008 (great album,
great mix but someone else re-mastered it harshly and unnecessarily
in my opinion.)
The Brainville Trio: Trial By Headline, ReR Megacorp 2008.
Things I can't find any information about:
Engineered and mixed some tracks for a Brujeria record around 1993
or 94, don't know which one they ended up on if any.
Engineered and mixed an album by Francesco Cusa, late 90's perhaps,
don't have a copy, don't know what it was called...
Mixed a second Cleee album with Paed Conca, entitled "Low", don't
remember what year. I'll ask Paed.
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