Natural Snow Buildings. Live At Cragg Vale (was it das?, 2014)
"Oh boy, this is a complete live set from Natural Snow Buildings European tour earlier this year. We took two recordings, one from the mixing desk and one room recording, and took them to Andrew Liles (Nurse With Wound, Current 93 and many more) to mix together and master. The results are VERY satisfying.
For about a year or two, I had been hoping Natural Snow Buildings would tour again because this time I had a much more atmospheric and appropriate venue for them than the one I put them on at before. Cragg Vale is a beautiful, wooded valley steeped in macabre history. The Tour De France took advantage of it having England’s longest continuous gradient just a couple of weeks after the gig. It reaches from the bottom of the Calder Valley up to the bleak moorlands, going up 968 feet in just over 5.5 miles.
The Robin Hood pub has been in business since around 1800 and has a strange little function room round at the back. With its low roof it creates an intimate feeling and focuses the sound right through the audience. We got a nice, deep sounding P.A. in there and set up the band in front of two large windows looking out across the valley. With the gig being so close to midsummer’s night, I turned out all the lights for the gig and the band played as the light slowly died behind them, reducing them finally to silhouettes in front of the green.
It was my third Natural Snow Buildings gig and the best. It felt like the perfect location, the perfect time, the perfect sound. Just perfect. So glad we have this auditory snapshop of the night to offer to you. I was entranced by both the atmospheric room recording that John Miller made and the detailed desk recording by Gareth Babb. Liles has seamlssly blended them together to create the best of both worlds, not to mention some quality mastering." Was It Das
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