Needle Time

  EP-4 - Lingua Franca-1 [WRWTFWW 032 CHE 2018 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Following on from last week's re-rip of their first EP of Japanese post-punk-funk, here is the debut album by EP-4 which was originally released as a vinyl album by Nippon Columbia in 1983. EP-4 was a Japanese collaborative formed by Kaoru Sato, the owner of new wave disco, Club Modern in Kyoto. Initially managing the independent label Skating Pears, Sato formed EP-4 as his 'house band' blending his love for funk, new wave and electro. The result was this debut long player followed by a tranche of hard to find 12" singles, some of which were released in Europe in the mid-eighties. This is an extraordinary set, mixing elements of New York disco-wave, 23 Skidoo and A Certain Ratio at their funkiest with Sato's vocal style which reminds me of Mark Stewart in places. You need this record! A1 Robothood Process A2 The Frump Jump A3 Similar A4 Coconut B1 E-Power B2 Talkin' Trash B3 Bro...

  Scott Walker - Scott [MOVLP716 NLD 2013 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Scott Walker's unique psychedelic baritone psychedelic style has often been mimicked but never bettered as he developed and influenced right up until his passing in 2019. You will struggle to find a nice clean copy of  Walker's classic 1967 debut album these days, recent pressings have come from grey market label, Men With 4 Beards and a noisy digital sourced pressing from GZ Media for UMe. Briefly in 2013 you could pick up this fine Record Industry pressing from Dutch label, Music On Vinyl. This is my go-to copy and I believe it was only removed from their catelogue when UMe decided to release it for themselves. Music On Vinyl rarely declare the lineage their source material, however since the Mo-Faux debacle, the following has appeared on their website.. We use the best audio available to cut our records. We receive and use different kinds of masters: analogue tapes, original metal parts, lacquers cut from anal...

  Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna (RCV1 628771 USA 2020 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] As a vinyl fan, the Vinyl Me, Please business model interests me greatly. Their recent announcement of their very own pressing plant in Denver (opening late 2022) was widely well received, and then the news that they had poached Gary Salstrom from Chad Kassem's Quality Record Pressing really raised eyebrows in the vinyl pressing trade. Whilst the principle of record clubs is not a new one (we all remember Britannia Music), the label's open & honest approach to source, mastering and pressing should be widely welcomed. The label covers all genres from classic rock to rap via country and tastes from modern pop through to jazz.  The new plant will finally end their relationship with GZ Media, giving them full control over costs, quality and pressing schedules. This release is mastered AAA from the original analogue master tape by Ryan K Smith at Sterling Sound and despite GZ's noisy (and dirty) pressi...

  John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman - John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman [A-40 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Coltrane on sax, Hartman on voice, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. Recorded in one sitting as mono & stereo on the 7th March 1963 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and released on Impulse! Records that same year. Acoustic Sounds have used the original stereo master tapes for this high specification re-issue, mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed at Quality Record Pressings. A1 They Say It's Wonderful A2 Dedicated To You A3 My One And Only Love B1 Lush Life B2 You Are Too Beautiful B3 Autumn Serenade

  Brother Jack McDuff - Moon Rappin' [BST 84334 DEU 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Kicking off a Sunday with the funkier side of Blue Note - originally released in 1970, big band leader Jack McDuff delivers five stunning, organ driven numbers brought back to life by Kevin Gray's all analogue mastering. You would usually pay about a tenner more for a high end release like this but Blue Note save a few pennies by using a more standard jacket and the cheaper pressing plant at Optimal in Germany rather than RTI or QRP, however Gray's mastering skills add extra value, especially when that kick drum literally kicks in! You won't find a better sounding twenty quid record anywhere else these days. A1 Flat Backin' A2 Oblighetto B1 Moon Rappin' B2 Made In Sweden B3 Loose Foot For regular donater Rob who I know is loving the funkier side of jazz.

  EP-4 - Lingua Franca-X [SIDE 8413 BEL 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] It is always nice to bring something rare to the table, and this obscure twelve inch EP is really quite rare. Some will recall my appreciation of Japanese post-punk funk, so here is some more EP-4, this time from an original pressing released on the Another Side Records label in Belgium during 1984.  I was never happy with my first attempt at a rip of this single, after a good ultrasonic clean, here is a much improved transfer. Kaoru Sato and his band hit a seriously heavy groove packed up inside a pounding beat and funky bass over three tracks. Many British bands were attempting, some succeeding - others failing to expand this genre at the time, most have featured heavily in my blogs, so please give it up for some post-punk jap-funk.  A1  Coco B1  dB B2  Zoy

  Life - Dites Moi [FBN 37 BEL 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Two new rips to highest resolution of two singles from the Factory Records catelogue by short lived band, Life. Life were Graham, Rita, Terry & Andy with a little help from Gillian & Steve! Their short lived career produced just two UK 7" singles (with 12" versions in Europe) and a handful of live gigs. I was lucky to see them support The Fall at The Hacienda and remember them actually being rather good.  Andy is in fact Andy Robinson, current New Order manager, I've no clue where Rita and the rest of Life have ended up. From memory they performed about 6 songs as a three piece with backing tapes and a drum machine. Steve Morris worked the tape machine from the left of the stage & Peter Hook acted as guitar roadie! A recording of that live set has subsequently appeared.   A1   Dites Moi A2   Tell Me Theme B1   Tell Me Life - Better [FBN 42 BEL 1985 24-Bit 176.4kHz FL...

  Motorhead - Eat The Rich [GWT 6 UK 1987 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I wasn't too sure how to follow Crawling Chaos and whilst I've never been a metal head, this twelve inch in one of penguinflight's vinyl boxes needed to be ripped. I shouldn't need to tell you to play loud! A1 Eat The Rich B1 Just 'Cos You've Got The Power B2 Cradle To The Grave

  Crawling Chaos - The Gas Chair [FACBN 6 BEL 1982 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Ripped from an original Factory Benelux vinyl platter to high resolution weirdness, here is the debut album proper from Doomage Khult and Strangely Perfect, straight out of university and known collectively as Crawling Chaos. I've been wanting to see if I can get a better rip than my first many moons ago. It first featured here in August 2019, but that was an old rip, this is a major improvement however the fuzzy crackle on their tribute to Harry Secombe remains. These two lads from Northumberland had a short-lived & tempestuous relationship with Tony Wilson and his Factory Records label.After an introduction through a television producer mutual friend, the duo were invited by Wilson to perform at the Zoo Meets Factory Leigh Festival and record a single for Factory, the infamous Sex Machine . The album sessions followed shortly and Factory managed to lose the final master, however the label then palmed t...

  Dubset - Flesh Made Word [960347-1 DEU 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I last ripped this album over ten years ago -  Flesh Made Word is remarkably different affair to  Hittites And Kassites - I am not saying it is worse (or even better) ...just different. Nigel Holland now turns his attentions to a more commercial sound influenced by the New York alternative dance club scene, and it's British equivalents. Finding a middle ground somewhere between Shriekback and Blue Rondo A La Turk with more than just a little Speaking In Tongues thrown in for good measure, this is a much more uptempo affair full of hooks and pop star sensibilities. It is a highly enjoyable collection of funky latino rhythms, horn sections and Holland's eccentric lyrical prose. This is very much an eighties new wave crossover sound and could be deemed a little dated in places, but like the first album the high quality of the arrangements makes a worthwhile listen. Like most German pressed Warners albums...

  Grace Cale's Dubset - Hittites And Kassites [POPELP 1 BEL 1983 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Known as Grace Cale's Dubset for this release (I doubt Grace exists), Dubset are really an East Coast based multi-influence project by extravagant anglophile Nigel Holland. This their self-released debut, is a highly unusual but superb piece of work. This record represents a complex twist of influences ranging from incessant rhythmic drumming through some fine dub reggae to post-industrial experimentation and then finally a whole side of abstract jazz. Side one works really well, imagine the sound of early 23 Skidoo playing On-U-Sound dub powered indigenous beats. Listen closely for some sharp dub and superb arrangements (and a didgeridoo). This is a very well recorded and mastered album, full of styles reflecting influences from 23 Skidoo,  The Pop Group, early Adrian Sherwood productions and Public Image Ltd. Side two turns everything on its head,  you are suddenly whisked away to a ...

  The Happy Family - The Man On Your Street [CAD 214 UK 1982 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Subtly subtitled Songs From The Career Of Dictator Hall From the early years of important British label 4AD Recods and from the jangle pop era of a post-Josef K Edinburgh, here is the only album from witty indie-popsters The Happy Family. It was clear years before Nick Currie became Momus he had his heart set on abstract pop stardom, though maybe his self-indulgent prose wasn't quite suited to the stripped back rhythms of some of the city's finest post-punk talent.  I really love this record because it leads on from where Josef K dropped us off, but only when I first disenfranchise it from the cult of personality that was his sexually frustrated guise of Momus. Consequently, I have always thought March In Turin was completely out of kilter with the rest of the album ...maybe that's why it is my favourite track. It is also important to realise that this album came four years before the C-86 ba...

  Donald Byrd - Chant [LT-991 USA 2019 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Not breaking with current tradition, this Sunday night's jazz slot is taken by another classic album, reissued and now out-of-print by Blue Note as part of their Tone Poet Series. I usually prefer for the music to speak for itself on Sunday nights ....so all you need to know is that this album was recorded with Rudy Van Gelder in 1961, however it sat in the Blue Note vaults released until 1979. Accompanying the Byrd trumpet are Pepper Adams on saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Teddy Robinson on drums and Doug Watkins on double bass. This recent pressing was mastered from that very same original master tape at Cohearant by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI. It comes wrapped in a high quality tip-on gatefold jacket by Stoughton Press.  Have a great Sunday evening everybody. A1 I'm An Old Cowhand A2 You're Next A3 Chant B1 That's All B2 Great God B3 Sophisticated Lady

  Marvin Gaye - What's Going On [B0033348-01 USA 2LP 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Back over the Summer, I suggested this might be coming, I recall around the time I posted the Kevin Gray & Steve Hoffman cut of Rumours . Before I go on, let me just say that this is the version you need! I'll continue.... back in March I ripped and posted the Japanese import version of what's known as The Detroit Mix of What's Going On . It was cut from a 96kHz digital file and pressed at GZ in The Czech Republic, before getting shipped back to Japan, then imported into Europe. (Are you keeping up?). I then thought (and still do) that posting a full resolution rip would just be a waste of everybody's time and hard drive space. Last year was the fiftieth anniversary of the original album's release, so Motown wanted to commemorate the event. In typical fashion, Universal have finally gotten around to releasing this double vinyl edition. The only issue is that there are two versi...

  Elvis Costello & The Attractions  - Goodbye Cruel World [MFSL 1-432 USA 2015 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] By his own admission, Elvis Costello's most difficult album with The Attractions. Close to breaking up and having a hard act to follow in Punch The Clock ,  Goodbye Cruel World hardly tickled the hit parade or enthused the critics, however the fan base stuck around ...and this album needs a reappraisal. One single, I Wanna Be Loved stands out revealing a little more pop than Costello's usual subtle political song writing. Perhaps due to his friendship with Paul Weller, this album reminds me much of the way in which the Bard Of Woking had been dabbling in pop music. Weller isn't involved, however Darryl Hall and Green Garside are among the pop stars who do feature on the album. Originally released on F-Beat Records in 1984, my current go-to copy is the 2015 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab repress. The label don't feature this album among their recent confessionals, but i...

  Information Society - Information Society [TB-5179-1 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Tommy Boy Records have decided to repress the first album by Information Society on clear vinyl. It was never released in the UK and I happened upon this new pressing in a large well known record store on the West Coast recently.  I was first introduced to Minneapolis act Information Society by my brother who was a huge hip-hop fan in the mid-eighties. It was the track Running which grabbed my attention with its European synthpop beats, melancholic lyrics and moody vocal style (kinda like early Depeche Mode meets New Order). The single was a big hit in the New York clubs in 1986 for Tommy Boy, some time after it had been originally self-released in 1983. I may have featured a rip of that single once or twice over the years. Other singles followed including the wonderful Leonard Nimoy-sampled What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy) , which was eventually released in the UK following a deal with Lo...

  Various Artists - Heisei No Oto [MFM053 NLD 2021 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Subtitled:  Japanese Left-Field Pop From The CD Age, 1989-1996 This double album compilation of Japanese electronica came out a year or so ago on eclectic Dutch label, Music From Memory. Sixteen artists, you have likely never hear of, from a time when Japan seemed to go compact disc only, arranged onto vinyl for the very first time. The styles vary from expansive ambiance through to electro-city-pop-dance, with the occasional traditional intervention. This is an album to chillax , pour yourself a glass of something nice, dim the lights, put your feet up... ...and enjoy! A1 Jun Sato - Lorang A2 Fumihiro Murakami - Miko A3 Love, Peace & Trance - Yeelen A4 Tadahiko Yokogawa - Stop Me B1 Ichiko Hashimoto - L'Ete B2 Yosui Inoue - Pi Po Pa B3 Eiki Nonaka - Phlanged Vortex B4 Kina Tomoko - Ink C1 Adi - Co-Cu-U C2 Xácara - Night In Aracaju C3 Poison Girl Friend - Nobody C4 Dream Dolph...

  Beck - Morning Phase [0602537649747 UK 2014 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I was compelled to revisit this album because I believed my first rip a few years back just didn't do it justice. Let's see what I can do about that! Bernie Grundman's mastering gives space and depth to Beck's original 'thick-bottomed' production. The Hana cartridge does its very best, coaxing these luscious melodies from the Pallas pressing. Beck's back catelogue is one you can just dip in ...or dip out of. Whilst his popularity has grown over the years, accelerating from his first break on this side of the Atlantic with Mellow Gold and Odelay . I enjoyed his mix of blues, folk, punk and hip-hop at first but then began to grow tired of it. As the title suggested, Sea Change in 2002 was just that, as Mr Hansen mixed fewer genres becoming more americana, and oddly it actually worked.  Morning Phase came along twelve years later, using some of the ideas conceived for Sea Change at Third Ma...

  Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - Duke Ellington & John Coltrane [A-30 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] The Duke on Piano, Coltrane on sax, augmented by bass & drums, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder on September 26th 1962. Mastered from the original session tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed onto high quality 180gm vinyl at Quality Record Pressings in Salina, Kansas as part of the Acoustic Sounds Verve/Impulse Classics Reissue Series. A1 In A Sentimental Mood A2 Take The Coltrane A3 Big Nick A4 Stevie B1 My Little Brown Book B2 Angelica B3 The Feeling Of Jazz

  Black Britain - Obvious [DIX 30 UK 1987 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Once the darlings of the British music press (especially the NME) long before they released anything, Black Britain seemed to be around for a while before getting snapped up by Virgin Records and subsequently offloaded onto the Ten Records sub-label. Following a successful tour with Public Image Limited, their excellent debut single, Ain't No Rockin' (In A Police State) struck a funky chord against the political situation in the UK at the time, long before the UK admitted the shame of  Windrush . The band developed under the guidance of Paul Weller & Mick Talbot, however the single suffered from a lack of radio play and the group struggled to follow up on its hard hitting electro-funk sound & its themes. Like many other potential talents from this era in British music, the mistake of getting in three different producers involved in this, their only album, would prove costly. From their original...

  Nina Simone - Pastel Blues [PHS 600-187 USA 2020 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] We have woken to a very different world today than the one we had yesterday, consequently I've chosen a very different post to that originally planned for your Friday listening. There are very few voices which evoke more passion than that of Nina Simone - virtually all since have been mere imitators. Pastel Blues is possibly her most evocative work, therefore here is the 2020 reissue on the Acoustic Sounds label, cut from the original analogue master tape by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and  pressed on to wonderful quality vinyl at Quality Record Pressings. A1 Be My Husband A2 Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out A3 End Of The Line A4 Trouble In Mind A5 Tell Me More And More And Then Some A6 Chilly Winds Don't Blow B1 Ain't No Use B2 Strange Fruit B3 Sinnerman

  Psychick TV - Allegory And Self (Illustrations In Sound) [SBR-3020 USA 2017 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Seemingly  Allegory And Self was only the third Psychic TV studio album (as Psychick TV), released some five years after Genesis and his merry troupe entertained the world (including executives of CBS & WEA Records) with their two major label releases. This album was originally released on the band's own Temple Records and has been picked up by Sacred Bones a few times. This rip is taken from my copy of the limited 300 pressing released on clear vinyl back in 2017. After a lengthy run of live albums, PTV were diminished by the departure of Balance & Sleazy - these were to be the final sessions with Alex Fergusson, augmented by Dave Ball (ex-Soft Cell), Rose McDowall and Monte Cazazza. The accompanying single Godstar (one of GPO's finest) is included, however the uptempo rock version of Roman P and the Beach Boy cover Good Vibrations  are overlooked....

  Ryo Kawasaki - Juice [MRBLP252 UK 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I was bowled over when British label Mr Bongo Records announced this repress of Japanese guitarist, Ryo Kawasaki's funk-fusion masterpiece, Juice .  Having searched out a 1976 original for many years, I was finding it impossible to locate a good clean copy from my usual sources, plus of course a new remaster would restore some of that funky bottom end which gets rolled off on many Japanese pressings at the mastering stage. This release was mastered by Heino Leja at Optimal in Germany and comes wrapped in a high quality tip-on jacket and obi. The sleeve is larger than most, so it requires the same size of protective cover you would need for MoFi, Analogue Productions or Tone Poet releases. At just 20 quid, this release is a bargain. Recorded in New York, with American musicians, the funky interplay between Kawasaki's guitar, Stu Woods' bass and Tom Coster's on the Arp Odyssey & Mini Moog is just superb. E...