The BURNING WITCH 4LP boxed set is finally in production after various delays for various reasons. 4LPs will be contained in a black slipcase (heavy printed and side loading black box), with a 42 page 30cm square perfect bound book of artwork and photos, and a few texts.
Towers... & Rift.Canyon.Dreams LPs will have cloned covers (and identical track listing) from the original Slap-A-Ham & Merciless LPs, but printed as Stoughton tip-on style sleeves (and sans inserts).
Towers... LP is cut from the original 1/2" master tape that somehow was missing in all the years between its recording and post 2008 Crippled Lucifer release. Stuart Dahlquist at last managed to unearth said tape a few years ago and the resulting test pressing of this record sounds absolutely incredible. I dont know if I've been involved in a recording before or since which gives me the tactile, tangible satisfaction of said album.
Rift.Canyon.Dreams LP benefits greatly from a remastering for vinyl by Mell Dettmer (who mastered all 4 LPs in fact) and a great cut. Clarity is much improved to these 4 abstruse tracks.
The third vinyl in the set is a 12" with Bleeder & Rift.Canyon.Dreams (2008 mix version) tracks. Fourth LP is an amazing sounding recording of the 1996 live concert at Pioneer Theatre in Seattle (with Greg Anderson also on guitar) with an insert of photos from said concert. That was pre-Towers.. 3rd and 4th vinyls are housed in direct to board sleeves by Stoughton.
We are pleased to announce that Alan Dubin is involved in the project, he is authoring a DVD which contains the 2 known video recordings of the band live: 1996 Pioneer Square Theatre (from original super 8 videotape) and 1997 on Public Access channel 29 "29 Live" (from original super VHS). This DVD will be inserted into a pocket in the perfect bound book. Here is a photo of the capturing process...
All in all this is the complete (and final) retrospective of material from this long defunct group who survived a near miraculous afterlife and memory amongst the faithful. We neglected to include the demo or any rehearsal material as it's not worthy... you can find this all online anyway. We attempt to present it all in its original intention, and the supplementary pieces, in my opinion as art director of the Witch's releases over the past 16 years, follow that original aesthetic closely.
The boxed set will be manufactured in an edition of 1500 copies and available from Southern Lord Recordings this Autumn.
And so, after these long roads, the nails are in the coffin.
—Stephen O'Malley, Paris, July 2011
