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June 12, 2024 – Qobuz, the music lovers’ high-quality music streaming and download platform, will exclusively release Dead Moon’s original nine albums in Hi-Res for the first time ever. The legendary DIY punk rock band’s first three studio albums, In the Graveyard, Unknown Passage, and Defiance, are out today on Qobuz, and later this summer, six more albums will be released in two drops on July 12th and August 16th.
Check out the first wave of releases, for the first time ever in Hi-Res, on Qobuz below:
In the Graveyard (1988)
Unknown Passage (1989)
Defiance (1990)
Dead Moon’s story began in the 1960s when teenage vocalist and guitar player Fred Cole was playing in various garage rock bands in Las Vegas, including The Weeds, who were exploited by the music business in all directions. Fred decided to keep on, but completely outside of the system, playing in several other groups with his wife Toody on bass and vocals, before ultimately forming Dead Moon in 1987 in Portland, Oregon.
A fundamental part of Dead Moon was its DIY sentiment: They recorded, designed, pressed their records, organized, roadied, and drove their own tours. Throughout more than nineteen years of constant hard work, Dead Moon toured worldwide and slowly built one of the most dedicated underground fan bases in rock. They recorded ten studio albums and countless live albums before calling it quits in 2006, eleven years before Fred Cole’s death in 2017.
Before Fred died, he oversaw the digital transfers from original master tapes of these albums for vinyl reissues, but these masters have never been released in Hi-Res nor streamed in any form until now. The Hi-Res at 96kHz 24-bit masters were newly prepared by Timothy Stollenwerk of Stereophonic Mastering in Portland Ore. with whom Fred did the high-quality digital transfers. While there have been releases of these albums and songs online previously, they are not the new Hi-Res masters that are in fact the definitive digital versions of this catalog.
Mastering engineer Timothy Stollenwerk says that “the most exciting part of mastering these albums in the analog domain at modern levels is finally being able to hear how monstrous Toody is on bass!"
Keeping with its “Boutique in a Superstore World” approach, and focus on independent music, Dead Moon’s new Hi-Res releases are the latest of Qobuz’ exclusive offerings for hard-core music lovers. Previous exclusives include Jeff Babko, Tim Lefebvre, and Mark Guiliana’s Clam City, Qobuz’ live-to-EP SXSW showcases (featuring Yazmin Lacey, Shana Cleveland, Miss Grit, Cosmo Pyke, Caramelo Haze, and Barrie); International Anthem’s Qobuz series (featuring live-to-record performances by Makaya McCraven, Alabaster DePlume with Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer, and Carlos Niño with DJ-producer Photay); and other exclusive releases from the likes of Dinosaur Jr., Circuit des Yeux, Christian McBride, Frank Zappa, Tower of Power, and many more.
“Dead Moon is an American institution with a global cult following ” says Qobuz Managing Director Dan Mackta. “We’ve been fans of this music from the start and it’s an honor to be chosen to introduce our audience to them. Their dedication to their craft and their sound makes them a perfect fit with the Qobuz ethos. The care with which these new digital masters were made sets a great example for artists with catalogs created during the analog era”.
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