smoke signals / nerduban. 1968 [full album • double lp • analog psych noir rock]

Unearthed from a forgotten reel-to-reel tape labeled “Nerduban – Violet Lantern Sessions.”

This 30-track double LP was tracked in Spring 1968 at The Violet Lantern Club, South Side Chicago — a nocturnal journey of analog tremolo guitars, swirling Farfisa organs, brushed snares, modal jazz fragments, and hypnotic noir psychedelia. -Captured straight to mono tape — no edits, no overdubs. -All bleed, hiss, and hum left intact. -Restored carefully from decayed tape and analog drift. – Let the echo pull you in.
Double LP – Reel-to-Reel Archive Edition

🎵 FULL TRACKLIST:

• REEL A – Side One

00:00:00 — 1. Signal in the Dust
00:02:22 — 2. The Light Stays On
00:07:02 — 3. Down from the Rooftop
00:11:54 — 4. She Spoke in Tremolo
00:15:54 — 5. Only the Drums Remember
00:19:43 — 6. Room Full of Nothing
00:23:27 — 7. Half a Cigarette
00:27:20 — 8. Ash on the Snare

• REEL A – Side Two

00:30:03 — 9. Ceiling Fan Waltz
00:33:17 — 10. Farfisa Lullaby
00:36:52 — 11. The Back Door Swings
00:40:01 — 12. No One Said Goodbye
00:43:09 — 13. Velour Transmission
00:45:42 — 14. Crying Through the Spring Tank
00:48:31 — 15. Don’t Wake the Light

• REEL B – Side Three

00:51:20 — 16. Dust Tape Bloom
00:57:00 — 17. Violet Matches
00:59:44 — 18. Flicker Hour
01:04:14 — 19. Echo Static Love Song
01:07:03 — 20. Ashtray Weather
01:10:43 — 21. Mirage in 7/4
01:15:58 — 22. Midnight Is a Window
01:20:02 — 23. Farfisa of Babylon

• REEL B – Side Four

01:23:52 — 24. Ghosts Hum in B Minor
01:28:12 — 25. She Left Before the Downbeat
01:32:29 — 26. Tape Deck Gospel
01:36:14 — 27. No Key, Just Room Tone
01:40:44 — 28. Amp Sleeps with One Eye Open
01:44:58 — 29. Last Call at the Violet Lantern
01:48:23 — 30. Smoke Signals (Title Track)

——Recorded: Spring 1968. Location: The Violet Lantern Club, South Side Chicago 🛠️ Format: Mono • Tape-Saturated • Raw Analog Mix. Restored by: Nerduban Archive Circle

LINER NOTES: From the inner sleeve of the 1968 Violet Lantern pressing: “Nerduban never played for the crowd. They played for the shadows in the room.”

Recorded in the spring of 1968 inside the dim-lit rehearsal chamber of Chicago’s Violet Lantern Club, Smoke Signals captures a moment that feels both ancient and eerily current. This isn’t music made for the radio, but for the tape deck of a forgotten basement — where echo swirls, tremolo pulses, and stories never find their endings. Every hiss you hear is real. Every amp buzz, every tape drift, every ghost in the left channel — it all stayed. No edits. No second takes. This was Nerduban at their most honest: ambient, abstract, moody, raw. With analog equipment humming just past the point of breakdown, they mapped out a noir-psychedelic terrain that sways between modal jazz and smoke-drenched rock séance. You don’t listen to this record — you drift through it. — W. K. HEINGART Archivist & Engineer Nerduban Archive Circle, 2025 

#PsychedelicRock #NoirRock #1960sRock #AnalogTape #Nerduban #SmokeSignals1968 #LostAlbum #FarfisaOrgan #TremoloGuitar #MonoMix #ReelToReel

#1960sRock #1968 #abstract #Ambient #analog #analogPsych #analogPsychNoirRock #AnalogTape #doubleLp #Farfisa #FarfisaOrgans #FarfisaOrgan #fullAlbum #HKHeingart #jazz #jazzFragments #LostAlbum #mono #monoRecording #MonoMix #moody #music #musica #Nerduban #NerdubanArchive #NerdubanArchiveCircle #noir #noirPsychedelia #noirRock #NoirRock #psychedelia #PsychedelicRock #RAW #rawAnalog #recording #reelToReel #reelToReelTape #ReelToReel #restoredRecording #SmokeSignals1968 #sound #SouthSideChicago #tape #TremoloGuitar #VioletLantern

@dryak @argv_minus_one @Timpostma

Yes I've seen that horrible concoction where they put + 5 volts somewhere that you can't protect your equipment if you don't know about that

It's not like 48V phantom power on PA & studio 🎙️ hardware, which does nothing to your equipment if it is wired properly

However this is not the case with all PC sound cards
The ones that I used, only have tip sleeve for the mic input, but I made sure that they were wired that way. I could never use those by the way, an XLR microphone just sounds way better, the balanced input is key here

#RetroComputing #RetroAudio #Audio #AnalogTape #demagnetizer #directBox #CompactCassette #TDK #HighBias #Metallica #MasterOfPuppets

@dryak @argv_minus_one

You have pointed it out correctly, the regular XLR microphone input on a mixing console, has a different level of voltage and current in mili amperes, that it expects, than the line level output of a cassette deck
You have to match those with a direct box.

With home equipment it's also not feasible to use the microphone input of a sound card, which is just tip sleeve, thus unbalanced, and sent the high level line output of a cassette deck to it; you would get extreme levels of distortion.

With professional audio, you always have to match the input levels of the channel strip, with the output levels of the device. With home audio you still have to match the input levels of your recorder with the output levels of your device.

For the best results you still have to get a digitizer which is properly matched with its input levels towards the output levels of the tape deck.

@Timpostma

#RetroComputing #RetroAudio #Audio #AnalogTape #demagnetizer #directBox #CompactCassette #TDK #HighBias #Metallica #MasterOfPuppets

A Couple of hours ago somebody asked me how you would go about digitizing a cassette tape.

In the short run it's simple if you are Sound Engineer like me:

* you take a Dual Channel passive direct-box
* you take an output cable which goes from RCA to quarter inch plugs
* you insert those in the direct box
* you pull two XLR cables to your mixing console

From your mixing console you send the analog audio from the subgroups outputs to one of your many digitizers and you're done.

For a home user there's a challenge; the home user first needs to get a working cassette deck, most Engineers who have been in the profession for years have at least one or two of them. Some Engineers even still have Quarter inch tape decks in running condition.

So the home user will need to buy a brand new cassette deck which has a USB output which is in fact a built-in simple digitizer.

I have a check for those, because I do not wish to play my retro cassettes again, even though they are in perfect condition. Compact cassette always sounded low quality to me.

So in conclusion, you need a running cassette deck with demagnetized Heads, new belts, a pre amp and a digitizer, then you can digitize your analog cassette tape

#RetroComputing #RetroAudio #Audio #AnalogTape #demagnetizer #directBox #CompactCassette #TDK #HighBias #Metallica #MasterOfPuppets

Winding up the small batch of tapes for my next release 🌏

#analogtape #reeltoreel #ambient

Fuck it we loop

#reeltoreel #tapeloops #analogtape #3DPrinting

Hope you got everything you wanted for #Christmas, like Sid did.
#Xmas #Audio #Sound #SoundSound #Recording #HomeRecording #Music #AnalogTape

https://youtu.be/8mblxjfh5kE?feature=shared

While I doubt I’ll book more sessions at the current studio, I am going to squeeze some tape transfers in. Still looking for a new home if you’ve got suggestions.

#nikon #nikond700 #nikoncamera #digitalphotography #colorphotography #colourphotography #digitaldarkroom #studer #tascam #analogtape

Custom 1/4" headstack for the ATR 104. 1/4 Track Stereo in the Sync position / Full Track Mono in the Repro position. Both wired through the Repro electronics, so no need for a switch. Noiseless. This makes format switching and realignment so much easier. #analogtape #audioarchiving #archiving #audiorestoration #audiopreservation #analogaudio #hifi

Flash back to one of the worst collections I've had the pleasure to catalog. This was just a portion of 2" tapes that had been in a fire and then basically a flood.. most were un-remediable, but some managed to survive. ALL of the assets were damaged. Mass carnage. #archiving #audioarchiving #preservation #audiopreservation #remediation #analogtape

The Magnetic Viewer is the coolest little tool I've ever encountered. Super simple science, but without it my job would be way harder. It's tiny magnetic particles react to the recorded material on the tape, revealing the format. Here's a 4 track on a 1/4" tape. Without documentation, this tool is a mystery solver. #archival #audioarchiving #audiopreservation #audiorestoration #analogtape #analog

Here's a common before and after example of mold remediation on a reel of 1/2" analog tape. Mold loves to settle on polyester formulas when stored in a humid environment- although we sometimes see it on acetate. This poly reel was incubated and cleaned before transferring smoothly. Chemicals and patience. Mostly patience. #audioarchiving #analogtape #preservation #restoration #remediation #audiophile