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Showing posts from May, 2021

Pulsating

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  Almunia - Pulsar [C56LP005R UK 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Claremont 56 Records have finally reissued the 2013 album, Pulsar by Italian duo Almunia onto vinyl. Unless you were one of the lucky few to pick up of the scarcely available originals, you will have had to back do with one of the rather carelessly mastered CD or download files. They have only pressed 500 of this edition, so these will be snapped up quickly as well. Leo Ceccanti and Gianluca Salvadori deliver dreamy psychedelia for guitar and synth, tagged as Balearic for fans of modern genrefication. This album, sometimes funky, occasionally with dabs of seventies space-rock, glistens in the Mediterranean sun with gentle acoustic & electric guitar harmonies and waves of intricate synthesizer melodies, This is music for for lazing on empty beaches, flung far from the masses, this is music for those who don't need chemical highs to relax and unwind. If you can't get to those places right now, this is also for you.  A1 T...

Full Frontal System

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  Inoyamaland - Danzindan-Pojidon (New Master Edition) [WRWTFWW040 CHE 2020 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on Yen Records in Japan only during 1983, here is the new mastering of Inoyama Land's (note the subtle name change) important debut album of ambient electronics, produced by YMO's Haruomi Hosono. An original vinyl would set you back a few bob and the official 2018 Japanese reissue is elusive outside Japan, so thankfully those nice chaps at Geneva's We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records have managed to secure this for interested ears on this side of the globe. Eno-like European electronics, inspired by the usual friends in Germany, mixed with modern classic composition are the order of play here. Pour yourself a glass of something nice, put your feet up ...and enjoy. A1 Shüffer A2 Pokala A3 Glass Chaim A4 Pon A5 Wässer B1 Mizue B2 Collecting Net B3 Apple Star B4 Meine Reflexion B5 8·31

The Sound Of Music

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  Yellow Magic Orchestra - BGM [ALR-28015 JPN 1981 24-Bit FLAC] YMO's third album proper ripped from my original 1981 Japanese pressing. This rip was a little more challenging than usual, in fact I never want to have to go through the clean up process required on Loom ever again, perhaps I need to offload this copy and get the recent Japanese remaster (which is bound to sound good) - maybe one day. Harry Housono is said to have over-worked the rhythm sections of the original recordings, resulting in a compressed sound to the drums. This technique was subsequently, and quite oddly, adopted by other bands in the years which followed. This album marks the introduction of the TR-808 drum machine, growing in popularity so much that its use spread widely and quickly. Friction was beginning to develop between Housono and Sakamoto at the time of recording over musical differences, which was eventually lead to the YMO split - there is only only full band composition on the whole record. H...

Happy Endings

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  Happy End - Kazemachi Roman [PCJA-00066 JPN 2017 24-Bit FLAC] Ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as the number one Japanese rock album of all time,  Kazemachi Roman (translates as Windy City Romance) was the second album by Happy End, it was also one of the first Japanese rock albums to be sung in the native tongue rather than the usual English. The style here is very western seventies rock, especially by our cousins over in the USA - I've likely put some of you off by now. It is tempting to list potential influences, but this record was actually first released in 1971, therefore bang up to date for the period, although yodeling in Japanese is new to me. Never released officially in the west, this is a tight remaster using the half-speed process by the chaps at Metropolis in London. The packaging is superb and the pressing quality is as how we now expect with such product.  The more knowledgeable and observant of you may recognise the young chap (and eyebrows) lower lef...

Funky Suzuki

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  Hiromasa Suzuki - High-Flying [HMJY-111 JPN 2016 24-Bit FLAC] It is now time for one of the most sonically proficient (imho) albums in my collection, and you won't be surprised to know that it is a Japanese pressing.   I've mentioned before that when Japanese musicians adopt a genre, they do so with incredible skill, attention to detail and professionalism. Hiromasa Suzuki was a jazz pianist, with an eighteen album repertoire who found the funk ...the High-Flying album is coincidentally his funk masterpiece.  Originally released on Nippon Columbia in 1976, never outside Japan, the album was finally remastered for vinyl as part of the HMV Project Re:Vinyl series in Japan a few years back. This rip sounds superb, whether on a full blown audio system or just through headphones. Enjoy. A1 High-Flying A2 Screwdriver A3 Scramble B1 Between O&M B2 Smash B3 Straight Flash B4 Out Of Focus

Big Apple Productions

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  Robert Cotter - Missing You [WWSLP39 FRA 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Next up, an album with a bit of a story (I'll try to keep it brief). Recorded in 1975, Missing You was the result of album sessions with American soul singer Robert Cotter backed by The Big Apple Band. The Big Apples changed their name to Chic after America's version of James Last, Walter Murphy named his backing band the very same. This album features the only sessions by Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards as The Big Apple Band and it was pulled just before release, so never commercially available, Some copies snuck out and now fetch hefty figures among collectors. In among these ten soul & funk standards, there are one or two real gems, especially the excellent Love Rite and Saturday , however things go off kilter with a few rough folky blues numbers with acoustic guitar, sax & harmonica. French label WeWantSounds don't reveal the source material for this release, they just refer to it as the first offici...

Keeping It Together

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  A Certain Ratio - ACR:EPA [12 MUTE 631 UK 021 24-Bit FLAC] A couple of weeks ago, ACR:EPA was the second best selling (vinyl) single in the UK. Things have come a long way since All Night Party . To put things into perspective, only 2000 were pressed which really emphasises the condition of modern music sales. In comparison 5000 copies of All Night Party were pressed way back in 1979. This is a new highly productive ACR, backed by heavy promotional activity by the label & band and this is the first of three EPs scheduled for 2021. The original core three remain and new keyboard Matt Steele is proving to be quite a find. He is easily their most accomplished ivory tinkler since Andy Connell (no disrespect to Liam Mullen, of course). These tracks are sadly also among the very last to feature the gorgeous voice of Denise Johnson. I am most certainly falling for the gorgeous Feel No Fear . A1 Wonderland A2 Keep It Together B1 Down & Dirty B2 Feel No Fear

Victime de Afrique

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  Mdou Moctar ‎- Afrique Victime [OLE 1614LP UK 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Thank you for all the kind gestures and comments these last few days ....I can't tell you how much they are genuinely appreciated. Right then, time for something very different. I have a few African albums, generally the acknowledged classics and mostly on compact disc. This album is very different in many ways from all those, it is delivered from a purple platter, but could very well be added to that list of African classic albums. Dressed in traditional robes, which would have all Trump fanatics rushing for their M4 Carbines, Nigerien Mdou Moctor, real name Mahamadou Souleymane picks up his guitar and delivers a kaleidoscope of rock pyrotechnics, blending in atmospheric field recordings and traditional Nigerien folk rhythms & harmonies. The songs are in his native Taureg tongue, lyrically ladled (if you speak Taureg) with fierce criticism of the French colonial legacy in his native Niger (pronounced niʒɛʁ...

Little Red Cherries

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  Various Artists ‎- Pillows & Prayers [Z RED 41 UK 1982 24-Bit FLAC] Alongside Pay It All Back Volume 1 , here is the other most important independent record label compilation of all time. It was only 99p, we all bought it didn't we - it certainly opened my eyes and ears to a wide variety of music after the blinkered years of my youth. My copy has seen a lot of play and cleaning this record up was a time consuming challenge. I think I've nailed it, let me know what you think. These days Cherry Red are reissue label scraping the bottom of the musical bargain bucket and inflicting heavily compressed compact disc remasters on the listening public. However, there once was a day when they were one of the most important independent labels with an impressive roster varying through acoustic pop, folk, new psyche (and old psychedelia), poetry and alternative synth-pop. Famous as the label which launched Everything But The Girl (and their respective parts), The Nightingales and Fel...

A Brief Update

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  Now that I have your attention ..... a brief update.  Firstly, thank you to all those who follow and leave comments/feedback on my work. It is heartening to know that my work with vinyl is widely appreciated, so thank you. It does worry me that we still have many silent lurkers who never find the time to pop up and say something. There are around 1000 regular daily visitors to Needle Time and with around 890,000 visits since the site first launched, it seems I may have a considerable audience.  The most popular posts will always be the classic post-punk and indie albums, I would have thought most of you already have these in one format or another but they still form the core of my vinyl collection. Interspersions of jazz, soul and classic rock have been less so and my reasonable sized portfolio of Japanese albums have found the ear of some of you. These will continue for sure (actually there could be another run of them coming soon) as I have about thirty or so albums y...

Fodderstomping

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  Public Image Limited - Public Image (First Issue) [V2114 UK 1978 24-Bit FLAC] Butter wouldn't melt .....John Rotten Lydon in a business suit, well groomed without the red hair dye and not a safety pin in sight. The album which allegedly ended punk, welcome to a new world of post-Pistols, post-punk. The attitude never changed, the musicians were just better. In a modern day world, the title track would have opened the album but Johnny wanted us to know that things were now different. Here is a new rip from my original UK pressing, you know what you need to do now..... A1 Theme A2 Religion I A3 Religion II A4 Annalisa B1 Public Image B2 Low Life B3 Attack B4 Fodderstompf

That Was Entertainment

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  Cabaret Voltaire ‎- The Voice Of America [ROUGH 11 UK 1980 24-Bit FLAC] Here is a rip of my original UK pressing of Cabaret Voltaire's uncompromising second album. I was checking Cabs posts across my blogging history and realised that I had never attempted a rip before, well until now. Self-recorded and self-produced at their own Western Works studio, Voice Of America is a dark sampled examination of the world on the other side of the Atlantic ..from these Sheffield industrial music pioneers' perspective of course. Stay Out If It gets a special mention as it is the least electronic track in the band's entire repertoire: untreated guitar, vocals and bass; live drums; and what sounds like a Contempi organ. I am sure this now makes it ten from ten rips of the most important Cabaret Voltaire albums on Needle Time. A1 The Voice Of America / Damage Is Done A2 Partially Submerged A3 Kneel To The Boss A4 Premonition B1 This Is Entertainment B2 If The Shado...

Fool's Gold

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  The Apryl Fool - Apryl Fool [SVVRCH 008 AUS 2019 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on a ridiculously rare gatefold album on Nippon Columbia in 1969 (YS-10068-J), Australian label Survival Research Records managed to acquire the rights following a multitude of bootlegs from all corners of the globe in 2019. Japanese labels released very few vinyl albums between the late eighties and the mid-2010s, however these days, vinyl reissues are common place and licences are often shared out to other territories to satisfy the curious. You may recognise the unmistakable image of Haroumi Hosono on the sleeve, The Apryl Fool was his first proper band and this was their only album, in fact they split on the day of release. Blending psychedelia and blues, this quintet were clearly influenced by the sounds coming out of the USA & UK at the time, becoming one of the very first Japanese bands to sing in English. You may not be into psyche and blues, but you may well be curious.. A1 Tomorrow's...

Face Up

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  The Bridge - Face Down Everybody Looks The Same [FST 099 DEU 2015 24-Bit FLAC] As expected, my re-rip of The Bridge's Industrial Love Dance has proved to be one of the biggest Needle Time attractions of recent years - maybe somebody cross-posted it to social media? I mentioned that the band released some of their original demos and sessions via the German indie reissue label, Firestation Records in 2015. No sooner had I mentioned that and I received a generous donation from a blog follower, who wishes to remain anonymous, with the explicit instruction to acquire said album, rip it to high res flac and share for all blog followers. So here you are.... The Bridge's notoriety came from a misperception by many that they were New Order in disguise. This was not the case, as you will hear from these tracks. Rains Run Free , Believe In Love and Light Fades each have a New Order feel to them but they are not mimicking our favourite Mancunian pop-pickers. What is clear that origina...

Almost Mint

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  Holy Fuck - Deleter [HF 001 USA 2020 24-Bit FLAC] In the never ending battle of music versus noise in amongst an industry's infatuation with applying compressed digital audio onto vinyl, I again raise the case for preserving the eardrums of a generation. What follows is a really good album, it would be even better without compression & limiting. The compact disc is deafening, the vinyl version is almost perfect. Arriving at a moment where attention spans are short and anxieties are publicly exhumed on social media, Deleter - the fifth album by noisy Canadians Holy Fuck’s is a defiantly full-bodied affair. Polyrhythmic and pleasure-focused, Deleter sees the quartet seamlessly fuse the gauzy drive of dreamy hypnotic techno and deep house’s dreamy ineffability, expertly blending purring motorik percussion with the sort of foggy synthetic fizz, fudge and twang they have borrowed for all their fifteen years. Holy Fuck do not record bedroom electronica on laptops, this stuff is ...

Blood Of America

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  James 'Blood' Ulmer - Are You Glad To Be In America [RTL-8 JPN 1981 24-Bit FLAC] It often forgotten that Rough Trade released an album by one of the most unique jazz guitarists of all time, who once performed with Ornette Coleman and Art Blakey, and whose style with the Gibson Byrdland could be described as a jagged mix of Hendrix and Beefheart. James 'Blood' Ulmer did his own thing, which likely makes him incredibly unique, so perhaps Rough Trade was the ideal label for his blend of industrial jazz, rough edged blues and warped funk. This is a rip from my original Japanese pressing of his album for Rough Trade which deserves a dust off, spin & rip if only for his powerful  Jazz Is The Teacher (Funk Is The Preacher) and his blues infused statement, (or maybe it's a question?)  Are You Glad To Be In America ? What's left could be unlike anything else you have heard before. A1 Layout A2 Pressure A3 Interview A4 Jazz Is The Teacher (Funk Is The Preac...

Yuki-Taka-Neuro

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  Yukihiro Takahashi - Neuromantic [ALF 85393 UK 1982 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released in Japan during 1981, Yukihiro Takahashi's third 'solo' album was aided & abetted not only by his fellow YMO chums, Haruomi Hosono & Ryuichi Sakamoto, but also by Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay who added their parts in the UK before the final mix. Unlike his suave debut album , Neuromantic was very much a synthpop record, fitting neatly around the YMO sound, with the occasional dab of Roxy. This is my rip of the UK pressing, licensed to CBS Records back in the day from Alfa Records.  A1 Glass A2 Grand Espoir A3 Connection A4 New (Red) Roses B1 Extra-Ordinary B2 Drip Dry Eyes B3 Curtains B4 Charge B5 Something In The Air

Thieves Like Us

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  The Bridge - Industrial Love Dance [SV 12003 UK 1984 24-Bit FLAC] If there is one single with the highest number of re-post requests in all my ten+ years of blogging, then it is Industrial Love Dance by Middlesex indie-pop band The Bridge. Take a Fairlight CMI synth, an Oberheim DMX drum machine, an Emulator, a highly strung bass, and (wait for it) a Melodica, then add a few melancholy vocals ....and what do you get? It's a New Order single. Except that it is not New Order, but they had some people fooled, even Discogs credits Peter Hook with the bass. The Bridge were something to do with Zerra One, but this single (in three mixes) was miles better than anything Zerra One could ever muster. The remainder of the bands recordings fit between early The Beloved and Prefab Sprout (is there such a place?) and I will feature some of their other recordings when I return from a break with blogging in about ten days. So, feel free to talk among yourselves, or dig through all my blog ...

Muck It Out!

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  The Farmers Boys - Muck It Out [12EMI 5380 UK 1983 24-Bit FLAC] The Farmers Boys go all Moroder with their catchiest tune, Muck It Out . They were slightly more successful than those other local Norwich heroes, The Higsons. They had two minor hits, this fantastic catchy synth-pop/disco ditty and a cover of Sir Cliff's In The Country . A1 Muck It Out (Dereham Club Mix) B1 Funky Combine, John B2 Muck It Out!

Ethereal Swirl

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  Felt ‎- Ignite The Seven Cannons [FLT 183 UK 1983 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on Cherry Red Records (BRED 65) in 1985, Ignite The Seven Cannons And Set Sail For The Sun was Felt's most well received album at the time, helped greatly by Robin Guthrie on production duties. They have fiddled with the original quite a bit, regardless here is the last of my three Felt reissues. This is what the Cherry Red press release says about this version: Produced by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins and featuring the skyscraping vocal of Elizabeth Fraser on the mighty Primitive Painters. Felt found themselves at the top of the independent charts. Unhappy with the overall sound though – it was as if some of Lawrence’s best songs were lost in an “ethereal swirl.” John A. Rivers has been given access to the original master tapes and six songs have been remixed. Also – side 2 has been focused, edited and “made symmetrical.” Finally these songs can be heard as intended by Felt. It has become at lon...

Dune Tunes

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  Level 42 - Level 42 [POLS 1036 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC] I may have been mocked occasionally over on ESWA 2.0 regarding my mild appreciation for Level 42. I'd like to clear things up by saying that my appreciation goes no further than their earliest work, likely stopping with this album. I despise Level 42 and 99.999% of their crappy textbook pop-funk. I cringe at the sound of happy clapper Mike Lindup on keyboards and his whiny falsetto harmonies, Wally Badarou steps up on this album. Oddly, I do like this album with its stripped down uncomplicated arrangements and no matter what we think about the band, Mark King is a damn fine bass player. Love Games was a great single, Starchild and Turn It On less so, the real gems are "43" , Heathrow and the the lovely Dune Tune . The Isle Of Wight continues to under-achieve today and should still only be embraced as the birthplace of the Britten-Norman Islander, even the famous rock festival went mainstream! A1 Turn It On A2 ...

High Times

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  Hiroshi Sato - Super Market [HMJA-124 JPN 2019 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on the Wave Concept label in 1976, in Japan. Never released outside Japan, here is the slick city-pop of Super Market , conceived during trips to Los Angeles by Sato and delivered as a mix of AOR, pop, jazz, rock, soul. Hiroshi was on a journey to make his mark in electronic music - if you haven't already check out my rip his excellent Orient album. Super Market echoes where so many of his contemporaries also began, with heavy influences of American jazz-rock, soul and funk. This is a slick, almost (dare I say)  smoochy album, delivery with panache and style - for me the highlight has to be High Times (very apt) where Sato builds traditional Japanese classical music, spacey electronics & dreamy jazz-rock into a gorgeous multi-dimensional instrumental. A1 私の彼氏は200歳 A2 レインボー・シーライン A3 F. W. Y. A4 用意はいいかな A5 Night In L.A. B1 High Times B2 いとしのマリー B3 スーパー・マー...

Saravah!

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  Yukihiro Takahashi ‎- Saravah! [WWSLP 26 FRA 2019 24-Bit FLAC] Originally recorded with  Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono and released on the Seven Seas label in 1978, it took 41 years for Yukihiro Takahashi's debut solo album to be released on Europe. Takahashi's vision for Japanese city-pop was to put on a dinner jacket and blend French sophistication & exotica with breezy & slick Italian pop and bossanova. You could forgiven to think that the Japanese drummer was lost in a world between Charles Aznavour, Al Martino and Dean Martin, however this was just a few months before the first Yellow Magic Orchestra album and Takahashi needed to dust off the sixties & seventies beforeYMO were to change the sound of music over the coming decade. A1 Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu) A2 Saravah! A3 C'est Si Bon A4 La Rosa A5 Mood Indigo B1 Elastic Dummy B2 Sunset B3 Black Street Midnight Queen B4 Present

From The Cradle To The Grave

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  Crispy Ambulance - From The Cradle To The Grave [AAR-001 MCR 1980 24-Bit FLAC] Digging an old favourite out of the singles box.... I last ripped this single in June 2011, so let's hear how it sounds now! From Manchester with love, very likely one of the most misunderstood bands from the early eighties. Yes the doom & gloom of a decadent & despairing young quartet is very similar to where Joy Division were a year earlier. The Crispy attitude was that if they can do it, so can we and we will try to be better (they probably didn't achieve that). From The Cradle To The Grave is dark & broody with poignant lyrics and a booming chorus, Four Minutes From The Frontline is JD's Interzone and the Bauhaus interpretation of Third Uncle rolled into one. Alan Hempsall famously stood in for Ian Curtis at the notorious Derby Hall fiasco in April 1980. Crispy Ambulance have never split up and subsequent material was to develop with a more psychedelic feel, however they we...

Into The Grey Zone

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  Grauzone - Grauzone [WRWTFWW042 CHE 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on Off Course Records in their native Switzerland in 1981, the debut album by this post-punk trio has become a collector's item. The UK version on EMI is almost as rare, so thankfully We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records have reissued it as a double platter, including all of the band's singles and studio work. I've had the original  Eisbær single (their most famous track) for a number of years, I am now pleased to possess this considerately remastered version of the album and vinyl, plus of course those very hard to find single tracks.  A1 Film 2 A2 Schlachtet! A3 Hinter Den Bergen A4 Maikäfer Flieg A5 Marmelade Und Himbeereis B1 Wütendes Glas B2 Kälte Kriecht B3 Kunstgewerbe B4 Der Weg Zu Zweit B5 In Der Nacht C1 Eisbär C2 Ich Lieb Sie C3 Moskau C4 Ein Tanz Mit Dem Tod D1 Traüme Mit Mir D2 Ich Und Du D3 Wütendes Glas (Max...

Japanamericana

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  Haruomi Hosono - Hosono House [FJLP-1005 JPN 2018 24-Bit FLAC] Another of my Shubiya purchases made in May 2018, here is the double vinyl 45rpm pressing from the original analogue tapes of Haruomi Hosono's debut solo album Hosono House . Let's just mention now that this sounds amazing. The album title is a reflection on one of Japan's most prolific musicians life in Sayama, Japan following his early psychedelic years with Apryl Fool and Happy End. He lived in an area filled with houses built for US servicemen and their families. Samaya became a hub for creative types escaping the hustle & bustle of Tokyo and his new surroundings clearly influenced this album with it's very unique mixture of Japanese and American music styles. His home became a live in studio for his full band, which clearly led to the album's title.  In March 2019, Hosono revisited this album in the studio and reinterpreted it in a more modern style, in case you overlooked it, my rip of that v...

In The Eighties

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  Killing Joke - Night Time [EGLP 61 UK 1985 24-Bit FLAC] The preceding singles warned us to expect anthemic, commercially polished alternative rock for the American market and that is exactly what we got on Killing Joke's fifth studio album, Night Time . This was Killing Joke before Jaz Coleman morphed into Alice Cooper's little brother and it was also a Killing Joke without Youth, although stand-in, Paul Raven does unleash one of the most memorable basslines of the decade on Eighties .  This is a brand new rip from penguinflight 's immaculate copy and easily tops my efforts for the first attempt on ESWA 2.0 in March 2018. Enjoy! A1  Night Time A2  Darkness Before Dawn A3  Love Like Blood A4  Kings And Queens B1  Tabazan B2  Multitudes B3  Europe B4  Eighties

Raunchy Death Ray Twang

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  Inca Babies - Grunt Cadillac Hotel [INC. 002 UK 1984 24-Bit FLAC] Just in case you feel damaged by my last post, here's some gasssss guzzzzling Inca Babies for your entertainment. They came from Manchester, there was nobody else like them .....err maybe with one exception, but they were not from Manchester. Sometime in 1982 or 1983 in Manchester’s Hulme district the Inca Babies were formed. Hulme, those curved concrete monoliths across streets in the sky project, was at that time a demi-bohemia over run with artists, musicians, students, addicts and ne’er do wells. Previous tenants, mainly families, put there to benefit from this magical new living space, realising a slum was a slum regardless of how high off the ground you put it, had long gone. At the time Manchester music was gripped by a schizophrenic Jazz funk scene which was emulated by the indie scene’s own approximation with its jangly, dancy pop. In this climate the Inca Babies had no choice but to come up with their o...

Immerse Yourself

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  Pink Floyd - The Division Bell 対 (TSUI) [SIJP 26~7 JPN 2016 24-Bit FLAC] Here is another of my acquisitions on a trip to Tokyo a few years back. Originally released in 1994, The Division Bell was the last/final album proper by Pink Floyd. For me, it stands comfortable head an shoulders above anything they have done since the seventies and whilst anthemic stadium rock may not be to everybody's taste, it is an album I have enjoyed since I first bought the UK compact disc. The remastering of the original audio was completed by James Guthrie at his Das Boot studios in California at the turn of the last decade and his trademark light touch approach lifts the compact disc original to new levels. This album needs to be enjoyed in full on proper hi-fi equipment, portable audio just won't do it justice as these lush soundscapes need your full immersion. I am not a top-end audiophile hardware buyer, but this album sounds amazing on playback through my meagre Cambridge Audio amp and ...

Sempiternal

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  Felt - The Strange Idols Pattern And Other Short Stories [FLT182 UK 2018 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on Cherry Red Records (BRED 63), here is another in my short run of Felt vinyl remasterings. Lawrence chose Kevin Metcalfe to work on these, who has bumped the levels up a few notches resulting in a much fuller sound. The original Cherry Red pressings were quite flimsy vinyl, mastered with more emphasis on the mid-upper frequencies, whereas these are on meaty 180gm vinyl and the modern digital mastering process provides more oomph in the low end. This results in a small drop in dynamic response on six out ten tracks when compared to the original vinyl rip posted on ESWA back in February 2017. The song titles are becoming that little bit more eclectic in this phase of Felt. You will also notice how Lawrence and Maurice are evolving into better guitars, the mix of styles from the baroque  Sempiternal Darkness into the flamenco styling of Crucifix Heaven evidence th...