THE OZ TAPES and OZ DAYS LIVE ’72-’73 Kichijoji (50th Anniversary Collection) were released with Makoto Kubota producing the original recordings by OZ, and US label Temporal Drift leading the production (production and distribution in Asian region by Japanese label Tuff Beats). The former was released in Japan on April 27, 2022 (overseas shipping for vinyl will be in November) and the latter was released digitally on September 23, 2022 (the 3CD SET release will be delayed until after the end of October).
The Last One Musique has fully collaborated with this OZ-related project as a tribute to Minoru Tezuka, who contributed greatly to the career of Les Rallizes Dénudés in the 1970s.
Following this, The Last One Musique then took the lead in the project to reissue the original Rallizes albums released in 1991: ’67-’69 Studio et Live, Mizutani / Les Rallizes Dénudés and ’77 Live. Tuff Beats will continue to produce, distribute, and market the reissues in Japan and Asia, with Temporal Drift assisting in the rest of the world.
For the reissue of these three albums, a total of 14 digital masters (Umatic 3/4 inch cassette tapes) were unearthed. This project began, first of all, by salvaging the sound embedded in these tapes.
Digital technology, cutting edge back in the early 90s, is by now a remnant of the past, and there are hardly any machines left in good enough condition to play back these digital tapes, popularly known at the time as ‘Shibusan’ in Japanese, in a play on the word for 3/4. However, thanks to the efforts of Makoto Kubota, we were fortunate enough to find the means to replay these tapes and preserve them. The data, successfully recovered and copied, now preserves the sound that Takashi Mizutani once worked so hard to compile, exhaustively going through various trial and error to archive the totality of the Les Rallizes Dénudés recordings up to the 1970s in album format.
In 1990, digital recording technology was still in its development, and converting the digital master to CD medium bringing even more obstacles, the production process became more and more difficult, it is told. However, with the advances of technology in the more than thirty years past, it has become possible to bring the sound of the original digital master to the listener in a more perfected form.
As part of this process, 11 open-reel tapes, 18 DATs, and 17 cassette tapes were also lined up in parallel to the 14 digital masters, as part of the original sound sources. All of these are the original materials assembled by Mizutani for the compilation of the three albums.
The sound of the digital masters and the CDs completed in 1991 was compared and verified by Kubota with utmost care, while also referencing the vast collection of original sound sources. The new masters were created, using all the latest digital technology as his tools, and the bearing ‘What was the kind of sound Takashi Mizutani most wanted to hear?’ as his guide.
The artwork was supervised by the same designer who worked on the original albums, reproducing as many of the original photographs as possible, without compromising the original concept.
In addition, all three titles are now being released on analog vinyl. At the time these albums were released in the CD-dominated market of the 1990s, this couldn’t be realized, but it can well be imagined that they were originally intended to be released in LP vinyl format – and in fact such testimonies from the time have been confirmed true. The release of these albums in vinyl format, a vision finally materialized, can truly be said the realization of a dream in the making for more than 30 years.