Needle Time

  Bill Evans - You Must Believe In Spring [CR00455 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Jazz piano legend Bill Evan's final recording session at Capitol Studio in the summer of 1977 was released after his death by Warners in 1981. Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio cut this new double 45rpm pressing for Craft Recordings direct from the original analogue master tape. These seven gorgeous instrumental pieces, dedicated to his late partner & his brother, who both took their own lives, is enhanced by the superb original recording on two 45rpm platters, pressed by Record Technology Incorporated in Camarillo. I've traveled for work all around the world, and whilst there is an air of expensive hotel lobby music to this album, this also makes this the perfect record for any chilled Sunday morning. A1 B Minor Waltz (For Ellaine) A2 You Must Believe In Spring B1 Gary's Theme B2 We Will Meet Again (For Harry) C1 The Peacocks C2 Sometime Ago D1 Theme From M*A*S*H (Aka Suicide I...

  Television - Marquee Moon [R1 1098 DEU 2012 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Allegedly Television practiced for months before recording Marquee Moon back in 1976, following an aborted attempt to record some of these tracks with Brian Eno for Island Records in 1974. They wanted to be proper musicians ....who went onto record one of the most important alternative rock albums of our time. This record shouldn't need much introduction to most, just consider this part of an occasional series to find the best mastered versions of classic albums.  Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering cut the lacquers for this pressing of Marquee Moon , the metal work was prepared at RTI before being shipped to Optimal Media in Germany for pressing. Word is that lacquers don't travel well. A1 See No Evil A2 Venus A3 Friction A4 Marquee Moon B1 Elevation B2 Guiding Light B3 Prove It B4 Torn Curtain

  Out - Tough Enough [ILL 4612 UK 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Another old favourite single, finally gets cleaned up for a brand new rip, the first since 2011. When highly regarded indie-funk band Stimulin split after extensive touring and a Peel Session, without actually releasing a record, front man Alix Sharkey continued in music as a writer and eventually co-editor of the influential I-D magazine. He also formed Out with producer Simon Boswell, releasing just the one single  Tough Enough on Illuminated Records. The duo were also responsible for Tara Butler's infectious  Up Against The Wall single for the same label.  Success eluded the duo, possibly due to Illuminated Records limited promotional ability, however this fine electronic dance-pop single crossed over into London's gay club scene where the subject matter was a perfect fit. If you know the fine Heavy Duty Breaks album, then this single formed the back beat to the key segments of that record. Sharkey w...

  Fini Tribe - Let The Tribe Grow [CRF 611 UK 1986 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] From Edinburgh came Fini Tribe, or as they were later to be known better as crusty electronic terrorists Finitribe. Originally dwelling in post-Josef K arty punk funk, the Fini Tribe sound developed further for this EP -  their second single, released on Robert King's (he of Pleasantly Surprised tape fame) Glaswegian label Cathexis Recordings. If you were listening to Peel in the mid-eighties, then you will know the main track, De Testimony , as this one of the most regularly requested tracks on Peel's radio show. It was often referred to as 'the one with the bells' ...or often misnamed Let The Tribe Grow . Whilst the A-side is high quality industrial dance, the b-side tracks take us to a darker almost neo-folk territory merging into the sounds of early Coil. A1 De Testimony (Collapsing Edit) B1 Throttle Hearts (Rising Mix) B2 Adults Absolved B3 Monimail

  Cabaret Voltaire - The Dream Ticket [CVS 2-12 UK 1983 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] A classic but much overlooked Some Bizzare era Cabaret Voltaire twelve, which fits in perfectly between The Crackdown , Just Fascination and Sensoria -  ripped to full resolution and running at over fourteen minutes in total. Oh ...go on then! A1 The Dream Ticket B1 Safety Zone

  Richard H. Kirk - Time High Fiction [DVR 2 UK 1983 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] This rip has been on my back burner for a while, I'm finally pleased with the results of my rip of this difficult double album, released back in 1983 on Cabaret Voltaire's Doublevision label in a classic Neville Brody sleeve, similar to The Crackdown era Cabs. Most of the tracks on Time High Fiction date back to 1979 Western Works sessions rather than the later beat driven works. Consequently this album is more a compilation of experiments over time rather than works of a specific period in RHK's recordings. This is remarkably accessible music in places and there is much to like, however those with a nervous disposition should best stay clear of the two Dead Relatives pieces. A1 The Greedy Eye A2 Shaking Down The Tower Of Babel A3 Force Of Habit A4 Day Of Waiting B1 Black Honeymoon B2 Nocturnal Children B3 Wiretrap B4 The Power Of Autosuggestion C1 Dead Relatives Part O...

  Ronnie Foster - Two Headed Freap [BST-84382 DEU 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Blue Note have dived into their funkier seventies era for their current batches of Classic Series releases, all cut from analogue master tapes at Cohearant Audio and pressed in Germany at Optimal. What's extra remarkable is that the whole series retails at regular album prices. These fit in below their Tone Poet release price points using standard jackets and inner sleeves. Two Headed Freap was funky organist Ronnie Foster's debut long player - this is a fantastic sounding record of groovy seventies funky jazz with Foster's organ accompanied by Gordon Edwards on Fender bass, George Duvivier on double bass, Gene Bertoncini on guitar,  Jimmy Johnson on drums and Arthur Jenkins on percussion. A1 Chunky A2 Drowning In The Sea Of Love A3 The Two Headed Freap A4 Summer Song B1 Let's Stay Together B2 Don't Knock My Love B3 Mystic Brew B4 Kentucky Fried Chicken

  Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucía - Saturday Night In San Francisco [0217243EMU DEU 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Friday Night In San Francisco by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin & Paco De Lucía is widely accepted as one of the finest live albums of the last fifty years. Recorded with multiple microphones at The Warfield Theatre in December 1980 to capture the full atmosphere of the event, what wasn't known until recently was that the same mobile recording team had also captured the following night's performance to tape. Now comes the intriguing part... if you read the current marketing from quality label Impex Records, you will be told that the label baked and transferred the tapes found Al Di Meola's basement at Skywalker Studios and asked Bernie Grundman to cut an all analogue lacquer for a new release. On the very same release day, Ear Music Records in Germany released a different mix (by Di Meola) of the album cut and pressed at Optimal Media in Germany. Th...

  Slab! - Sanity Allergy [INK 037 UK 1988 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I last ripped this album around 2014 as the final part of a run of Slab! posts on my old ESWA blog, two members of the band joined in the comments discussion to add to Steven Wilson's 2011 blog comment that Slab! were his favourite alternative eighties band, suggesting they were like Michael Gira's Swans had found funk. Here is a brand new full resolution rip of their second & final album Sanity Allergy . Slab! front man Stephen Dray described Sanity Allergy as a series of bad demos - I suggest he was being a tad over critical of this record. Whilst Station KY and Land Of The Midnight Sun sound unfinished and misplaced, Son Of Sloth seguing into the magnificent Born In A Wreck are among Slab!'s best work. Cancer Beach is confusing as it twists between gospel-funk and Sabbath metal riffs. Switchback Ride is loud, powerful and driven by distortion - it was a fine antidote to the poor Deaths Head Soup ...

  Santana - Lotus (Live In Japan) [SIJP 46~8 JPN 2017 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I guess my timing is somewhat appropriate with this post. This triple album reproduction set was ripped a few weeks back, before all this week's furor about the news that high-end label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has knowingly had a digital step in it's mastering chain since possibly as far back as 2008.   Originally released as a quadraphonic album in Japan back in 1974 and then standard stereo in Europe a few years later, Lotus was recorded live onstage at Kosei Nenkin Hall, Osaka, Japan on the 3rd & 4th July 1973. It is a triple album set and this rather splendidly packaged version features a 22 panel fold-out sleeve, packed with posters, release notes, flyers, postcards and other ephemera. This release is not on Mobile Fidelity - Sony Japan gave MoFi access to the master tapes, and as they are an honest bunch, the Japanese label declare that the album was mastered from high-definitio...

  Frank Chickens - Fujiyama Mama b/w We Are Ninja [KAZ 10 UK 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] The driving force behind this novelty Jap-Synth-Pop were David Toop and Steve Beresford, both distinguished composers, studio engineers and producers, with the public face being London based ex-jap-pats Kazuko Hohki and Kazumi Taguchi - its a great single, although the production does sound a bit weird in places. Both sides were huge Peel favourites when I was a lad. Getting two Japanese girls to cover a song about the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan is somewhat ironic. If you can't understand what they are singing, the Wanda Jackson original can be heard below. All good fun ....of course. A1 Fujiyama Mama AA We Are Ninja

  Shark Vegas - You Hurt Me [FAC 111 UK 1986 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Mancunian Mark Reeder was Factory Records' man in Berlin - promoting the label and working closely with local bands, including Malaria! whom he brought to a wider European audience through Les Disques du Crépuscule. He was one third of Die Unbekannten alongside Alistair Grey, with whom he first released You Hurt Me as Shark Vegas in 1984. The original single was mixed by Connie Plank and released on Totenkopf Records. Reeder was also good chums with Bernard Sumner - the single was remixed again by Sumner and Donald Johnson for Factory Records and the Manchester label released this new version in early 1986. The track is catchy but dark & moody euro-synth, in three mixes, made all that more New Order with Sumner's added guitar. Enjoy. A1 You Hurt Me B1 You Hurt Me Version B2 But Now Your Flesh Lies Rotting In Hell

  Jackie McLean - Tippin' The Scales [BST 84427 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Saxophonist Jackie Mclean's hard bop Tippin' The Scales album was originally recorded in September of 1962 at Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio, however it was never saw the light of day until 1979 when Blue Note Japan released it in a rather dated sleeve . It took until 1984 for US and European pressings to materialise in a different and also dated sleeve This album has been out-of-print since, until Blue Note very recent new all analogue pressing direct from the original masters as part of their Tone Poet series, in this superior high specification jacket. This new pressing sounds amazing, placing the listener perfectly between the musicians - sax to the left and drums to the right, a deep double bass fills the background, whilst Sonny Clark's damn fine piano work fills the foreground.  Most of you will know McLean's standard Rainy Blues , however very few will have heard it wit...

  Honeymoon In Green - Angels Bringing [RR033 AUS 1987 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I have to thank regular blog follower Rob from Holland, who regularly donates to fund vinyl purchases, for introducing me to Honeymoon In Green, Today I can present their only and hard to find album in full high resolution. Some of you may know more about them, especially those from down under , but most will have never heard anything before. If Australian alternative rock bands were film directors, then The Triffids would be the Coen Brothers, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds would be David Lynch, then Honeymoon In Green would just have to be Tarantino. I think that has to be the best way to sum up Honeymoon In Green. This band take their cues from American rock bands such as Green On Red and The Long Ryders, blending in outback rock with singer John Danyl's voice fitting neatly between Nick Cave & David McComb. If you are seeking a stand out, I Saw The Lights epitomises the Honeymoon In Green sound, dri...

  Van Morrison - Moondance [R1 1835 DEU 2015 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Online high-quality vinyl influencers are currently reeling over the revelations that one of the biggest high end reissue vinyl labels may possibly have been misleading punters over the sources and the steps used in their 'Ultra Analogue' releases. I have a queue of rips from this label in the pipeline so will reserve further comment until then. In the meantime, here is an all analogue repress of one of the best selling & most acclaimed albums of all time, mastered by Kevin Gray & Steve Hoffman at Acoustech Mastering and plated at RTI. This is the European pressing which is pressed from RTI metal work at Optimal Media in Germany, as part of Warner Bros 'Back To Vinyl' series. A1 Stoned Me A2 Moondance A3 Crazy Love A4 Caravan A5 Into The Mystic B1 Come Running B2 These Dreams Of You B3 Brand New Day B4 Everyone B5 Glad Tidings

  Shriekback - Go Bang! [ILPS 9910 UK 1988 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Shriekback began to disintegrate when Carl Marsh left after Oil & Gold , followed by bassist Dave Allen when the band signed to Island Records, therefore leaving Barry Andrews in full charge. Go Bang! was to be the band's final album of the eighties with Andrews backed by regular drummer Martyn Baker, Doug Wimbish on bass (a worthy replacement for Allen) and a randomly rotating selection of session musicians. The album produced only one single, a catchy pop-funk cover of KC & The Sunshine Band's Get Down Tonight . I confirm that this is not my favourite Shriekback record (by a long way) and this copy has sat on the shelf unplayed for a number of decades, however it is a very well produced album and made for an enjoyable rip. All that's missing is a bit of Marsh & Allen. A1 Intoxication A2 Shark-Walk A3 Over The Wire A4 New Man A5 Nighttown B1 Go Bang B2 Big Fun B3 Get Down Tonight...

  Various Artists - Meanwhile Back At The Ranch Big Dan Is Fightin' For His Life [MARX 075 UK 1987 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] The Bam Caruso label were responsible for diverse & rare re-releases such as Jan & Dean Meet Batman , The Prisoner OST, early lost albums by John's Children, The Walker Brothers, The Seeds, The Pretty Things, The Left Banke and the very first Nirvana. Meanwhile Back At The Ranch... was a low priced compilation aimed at launching the career of many of the labels eighties acts. There were quite a few low-priced label compilations in the eighties, some such as Pillows & Prayers are highly revered these days, this one has been overlooked for too long, plus it is possibly in the best mid-price sleeve design of all time. The Palace Of Light were essentially latter day Felts - but did it rather well - their only album Beginning Here & Travelling Outward remains a long-time personal favourite. The Wild Kitchen were groovy post-punk monks akin to C...

  Slab! - Descension [INK 32 UK 1987 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I suggested I could squeeze one more in .....so here you go! If you don't know this album (this is the third time I have ripped it over the years), you are in for a treat!! Best described as the best fusion of brutal funk, industrial and noise aesthetics you have ever come across, like early Swans if they had got the funk. The Slab! sound is immense, noisy, funky and dirty. The band had moved their sound on from the original singles and sessions, now experimenting with multiple layers of noise & distortion carefully constructed to form the basis of what we would recognise as a song, but with twists & meanderings with shock tactics to keep the listener enthralled. Opener, Tunnel of Love is not a warm and comfortable place, it is frightening, painful and grinding. It builds to a crescendo of noise, you don't know or care what vocalist Stephen Dray is saying, you just know that you have to prepare for the r...

  The Pretenders - Learning To Crawl [MFSL 1-339 USA 2012 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] There is a current trend online of 'MoFi bashing' over their variable quality control, I will try not to get too involved, however when you pay forty quid for a vinyl album, you rightly expect top notch quality. I am pleased to say that they got this one mostly right, however the lottery of the label's quality control needs to be addressed - especially when they open their new Fidelity Music pressing plant next year. The third Pretenders long-player followed a hiatus after the deaths of two band members from persistent drug use. Although it was less raw & rocking than their first & second, Learning To Crawl marked a shift towards a more adult pop/rock sound, it also produced some of the bands most famous singles. The album was preceded by 1982's Back On The Chain Gang and the massive Christmas 1983 single 2000 Miles . Middle Of The Road did better in the US as a single than the U...

  Bobbi Humphrey - Fancy Dancer [BN-LA550-G DEU 2021 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Flutist (flautist for us Brits) Bobbi Humphrey came from Marlin, Texas and was the first female instrumentalist signed to Blue Note Records. She release twelve albums over the years and it is highly fitting that Blue Note repressed her 1975 album Fancy Dancer as part of their Classic Series last year. This album features twelve fresh & breezy funky-jazzy-soul compositions recorded in Hollywood during the summer of 1975, with Kevin Gray taking care of this new all analogue remaster, pressed remarkably quietly by Optimal Media in Germany. The perfect album for your sunny Monday morning. A1 Uno Esta A2 The Trip A3 You Make Me Feel So Good B1 Fancy Dancer B2 Mestizo Eyes B3 Sweeter Than Sugar B4 Please Set Me At Ease

  Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus [APRJ 7076 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] This Sunday's jazz masterpiece comes courtesy of a 'found' box of extra jackets in the Analogue Productions warehouse, hence this new very limited repress of Sonny Rollins' mono masterpiece, as part of the label's Prestige Mono Series.  The original was recorded by Rudy Geller at his studio in Hackensack, NJ in 1956 and released on Prestige in 1957. This new release uses those original reels, it is mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed at QRP in Kansas.  A1 St. Thomas A2 You Don't Know What Love Is A3 Strode Rode B1 Moritat B2 Blue Seven

  Manu Dibango - Africadelic [GXH-1047 JPN 1977 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Should you need an antidote to what was posted previously, then this will hopefully do the job. This Japanese pressing of Manu Dibango's classic Africadelic album must be my bargain bin find of the year so far. The vinyl is in almost minty condition, the sleeve is mostly damage free, the obi is present and intact, plus it has the inner leaflet. All for a fiver!  The vinyl has cleaned up really well and this album was a joy to rip. This record sounds truly amazing - oodles of percussion drive the band's funky afro-beats and the mighty Cameroonian's sax is prominent in the mix, all backed up by a substantial horn section. A1 Soul Fiesta A2 Africadelic A3 The Panther A4 African Battle A5 Black Beauty A6 African Carnaval B1 Moving Waves B2 Afro-Soul B3 Oriental Sunset B4 Monkey Beat B5 Wa-Wa B6 Percussion Storm

  Lynyrd Skynyrd - (Pronounced'Lĕh-'nérd'Skin-'nérd) [APP 363-45 USA 2021 45RPM 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] If you told me all those years ago when I started blogging that I would post this album, then I would have laughed in your face. Lynyrd Skynyrd are not the type of band who fit my musical & cultural DNA, however I thought if I can get away with ZZ Top and Aerosmith, then why the hell not. Originally released as the band's debut album on MCA Records in 1973, this recent double 45rpm pressing by Quality Record Pressings, mastered from the original reels by Ryan K. Smith and released by Analogue Productions is genuinely appreciated as the best pressing of this slice of classic rock Americana. My copy came my way as part of a batch of high quality vinyl acquired a few months back. I thought yesterday I would take it for a spin to hear what all the fuss was about.  Firstly the pressing is amazingly quiet and backs up QRP's claim to have the very best pressing pl...