Friday, January 15, 2021

JFK (of Grayskul/Oldominion) - Anchor Head Chronicles (2000)

 


We have a treat for you today - JFK's "Anchor Head Chronicles" from 2000! 

I had heard "legends" of the elusive "Anchor Head Chronicles" from my buddy, and OD encyclopedia, Donluc for years now. But I always assumed that if he couldn't have gotten his hands it, I had no chance. I eventually forgot about it until a couple months ago two separate people I've bought stuff from in the past brought up that they had a copy that they'd sell! 

I was of course pleasantly surprised, to say the least, that after all this time, not one but two people had a grail. Then some roadblocks came into the picture. The first guy's daughter cleaned out his car (where the cdr was) and accidentally left the jewel case in the rain, causing the inserts to be thrown away. He thought he still had the cdr, but didn't know where it was. Luckily, the second guy had a sealed copy(!) that we successfully bought. Unfortunately, upon trying to rip it...the data was not recognized (by laptop, cd player, car player, anything.) This was likely the result of the poor quality cdr and/or the fact that a strong adhesive disc sticker was used at the disc art. I told the guy who I bought it from who then tried playing his personal copy - which had the same problem. From there, after a couple weeks of waiting, I finally heard back from the first guy who had found the cdr and who said he was pretty sure his copy played fairly well (despite lots of marks.) So, somehow, I managed to find a copy with mint inserts + a disc that didn't work and a copy with no inserts + a disc that did work! 

When I got the second disc, however, I could only rip part of the cdr. The first two tracks didn't work for me. That's when I sent it off to ripping expert Dimxsk who successfully got the first two tracks to work!! So we have a full rip for you today.

So what exactly is this thing? Well, it's not really a full album. There's only 9 tracks. And it's not really even a solo project. JFK is on each track, but it comes across more as a promo release for Oldominion as a crew. The release date is 2000 and the insert promotes Oldominion's "One" (which also dropped in 2000,) so I'm guessing that this was some sort of very limited run, likely tour-only, promo release that JFK put together. The "label" is Veastvick, which is the name that Onry used for his debut "Knightingale" release. Unlike the official version of "Knightingale," however, this is not a professionally pressed CD. It's a cdr of lesser quality than the old MP3.com cdrs that Oldominion members used to sell. But it did come shrinkwrapped lol! 

Anyhow, seven of the nine tracks are actually available elsewhere: "Hendrix" and "No Pain" are available on Oldominion's "Vol. 1," "Nnetwerk" and "Just Ain't Got It" are available on Oldominion's "Vol. 2," "Train of Thought" is available on Oldominion's "Vol. 3," and "Screaming In The Wind" is available on Oldominion's "One." "Replacement Killers" is available on Oldominion's "Book of Fury" (and the crew's "Zero" release,) but this version has a slightly extended instrumental. 

Luckily, two of the tracks are, to my informed knowledge, exclusive to this release. And as fate would have it, they're not only the two best tracks on this thing, but also two of the best tracks I've heard from JFK. The first is "The Kite," a solo track produced by Zebulon Dak. The second is called "Paracite Eve," produced by Onry Ozzborn and featuring Onry and Snafu alongside JFK. Both tracks are melancholic introspective tracks and really display the skill of these guys even at the early stage. It's a shame the tracks never got a proper release.

So without further yada, here is the rip. It is rough at times due to the cdr quality (plus scratches,) but it's more than listenable. Enjoy!


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