2350.org - Compilation - The Jet Chamber Collection

This collection is, as with the other MP3 releases from Fax, a single data CD (not audio) that contains all tracks of the previously released "Jet Chamber" series by Pete Namlook & Atom Heart in MP3 format. The MP3 format does not know about any DRM (Digital Rights Management), so there are no playback, copying, or whatever else restrictions. A very open and convenient way that Fax Records have chosen for this type of releases.

Since there are reviews available for each single album, I'll only describe the technical details of The Jet Chamber Collection.

First, all tracks are compressed to MP3 using the Fraunhofer encoder (which probably is the reference commercial encoder, rivaled only by the free and open-source LAME). The encoder has been set to a constant bitrate of 320kbps (that is the possible maximum allowed within the MP3 specifications) which is sufficient to provide transparency even with demanding audio material as it is presented on the Jet Chamber records. All tracks are tagged propperly with ID3 tags, but only with ID3v2. There are no ID3v1 tags available - a bit of a disappointment maybe if you have a mobile player which doesn't support ID3v2.

The first album has not been split into single tracks - it is one huge MP3 file, which is very wise for the listening experience, since the tracks all overlap into each other and you'd suffer from short gaps if the tracks were split (the MP3 format is not truely gapless since everything is divided into frames). Whats missing however is a so-called "Cue-Sheet" that would allow one to skip right to the individual 5 tracks (with MP3 players that support cue-sheets). Whats more about the first album is the filename - its "01 Split Wide - Rotor Cabinet - Chaos Impuls - Feedback Fluc.mp3", but who cares, really. The other albums are available as single tracks (since they're not mixed into each other) and can be accessed directly.

All of the albums are in the CDs root directory. There are no subdirectories for the individual albums, and the tracks are numbered straight thru from the (entire) first album to the last track of the fifth album. That, together with the fact that the whole first album with its 5 tracks is only one file, leaves a bit of confusion, because e.g. track 1 of the third album has the tracknumber 5 on the collection. But the booklet has track listings for all 5 albums which represent the track numbers on the CD itself, so you can easily navigate to the exact track you want to listen to, easily (except for the first album, as stated above). But its confusing then again that the track's ID3 tags have the track numbers as they were on the original album (except for the first in the series, again).

In addition, the booklet also has the cover art of all the five albums (of which I find #1 is the cutest and #4 sucks worst *g*). Furthermore, there is an XML file on the CD which has apparently been created with Apples iTunes. Its some sort of a database for the CD contents. I can't do a thing with it as I don't have iTunes. An M3U playlist would've been a nice addition.

As of writing this, there are still new copies of the collection available for the original sales price of around 25 Euro. A good chance for all collectors to grab all 5 releases of the Jet Chamber series in one piece - the perfect quality of 320kbps allows decoding from MP3 to WAV and burning as CDDA with pleasure. I'm no "Fax completist" and joined the Fax fan community very late, but I like the Jet Chamber series very much. Personally, I am very happy to have this collection, instead of hunting down the single releases at ebay and elsewhere for sky-high prices. :-)

(review by Alexander Kunz)