Needle Time

  Public Image Limited - Happy? [208 605 GER 1987 24-Bit FLAC] It's John Lydon's 66th birthday today, so to celebrate, here is a brand new rip of the Happy? album from 1987. Quite a few have asked for this ....and it is a significant upgrade on my old November 2018 rip. John Lydon and his ever rotating band of musicians stick the Public Image Limited name on what is essentially a polished eighties rock album. If it wasn't for the spiky ginger one's gritty and discordant monotone, Happy? could well be an album by any of a string of eighties hair-rock bands, however none of that lot had the late John McGeoch rocking out with the riffs. Is this really a PIL album, it is a zillion miles from Metal Box , after all those rifts and splits, my jury is out - however it is an entertaining listen and it does sound great when cranked up really loud, especially with all that McGeoch guitar which saves the record from eighties polished mediocrity. I am indebted to long time blog fo...

  Placebo - Placebo [MOVLP1093 EU 2018 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released an a very rare vinyl album in 1974 on Harvest Records, it is time to attempt a new rip of this album, released on white vinyl by Music On Vinyl a few years back. This rip is a significant improvement on my attempts back in February 2019. MOV have used the Record Industry plant in Haarlem, NLD to press this version. We know that plant are capable of decent quality pressings (all those Be With/KPM library albums were pressed there), however this is on colored vinyl and we will have to get over a little bonus noise in the quieter sections. Still, this album is essential and no other label has the rights to release it in better quality. To be honest, the noise isn't all that bad, only sporadic and gives me some confidence to track down black vinyl versions of the other two Placebo albums. Placebo was formed by Marc Moulin (out of Bruxelles francophone commune, Ixelles) in 1971 and has no connection with nineties c...

  Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters [APJ 084 USA  2021 24-Bit FLAC] As it is a Sunday evening, you usually get some jazz, this week you get two jazz albums. Both in similar styles (funky & innovative), however they vary geographically and in the quality of the finished product. After Donald Byrd last week, it only seemed right that Herbie should follow next. Good copies of Head Hunters are extremely difficult to find these days, with Music On vinyl swamping the market with substandard product. I originally had in mind a 1977 Japanese repress from my usual source of Japanese vinyl, however without an obi, such records are not really worth the investment. So for the some cost (around fifty quid), I happened upon this 2021 repress on Chad Kassem's Analogue Productions label, imported from the US.  This version is mastered from the original analogue reels and pressed onto superior quality vinyl in limited batches by Kassem's own Quality Record Pressings plant in Salina, Kans...

  Joy Division - Still [FACT 40 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC] I notice from social media that 'Joy Division' are reissuing Still as a fortieth anniversary edition in, what looks like, a maroon sleeve on clear vinyl on February 11th - I make that a 40 years, four months and 3 day anniversary. Will I be buying it? Well no, I will not. I bought the original as a young lad of fifteen years in Manchester nearly forty years ago and feel no need whatsoever for a new pressing of unknown heritage on noisy, cheap clear vinyl - I am assuming this release will possibly be the Frank Arkwright 2015 digital remaster, regurgitated for the diehard collector (only 10,000 pressed!) or the new fans and the curious.  You might well have realised by now, that I am losing interest in digitally mastered recordings pressed onto analogue & poor quality plastic. Perhaps if a company like MFSL or any of the many newer high quality labels had been offered that chance to master & press from the original an...

  After This - Fields [12 OPA 012 UK 1986 24-Bit FLAC] Surprisingly, Fields is one of the most requested re-ups (I usually delete old links after about a year), so I decided to give the vinyl a good clean and re-rip in a choice of resolutions. This will be the last time I rip this record, it does sound really great and I don't think I will ever be able to improve on this After This. I can't say that I know much about After This, the sleeve says very little and internet research reveals nothing, except that the songwriting credit goes to Richard Lowe who seems to have been involved with nothing else. This gentle and cheery synthpop single was produced by former Associate and Paul Haig collaborator Alan Rankine, and released on Les Disques du Crepescule's British subsidiary Operation Afterglow.  Fields evokes good memories of decent Scouse synth acts such as OMD or China Crisis, whereas the more mundane Hollow Hills on the flip-side does lack the sparkle of the A-side. Some...

  Stockholm Monsters - Fairy Tales [FAC 41 UK 1982 24-Bit FLAC] How on earth do I follow that last post? How about this.... and while I will never make a habit posting 176.4kHz seven inch singles, I thought why the hell not! Fairy Tales was the debut single by Burnage ruffians, Stockholm Monsters, released by Factory Records in January 1982 in a very expensive leather effect sleeve conceived by Mark Farrow, printed by Garrod & Lofthouse and paid for by Tony Wilson.  Fairy Tales was produced by Martin Hannett and shows off his trademark delayed snares, the flipside was produced by band mentor, Peter Hook. Original Monster Ged Duffy has recently put his story into print and produces a really good read if the Mancunian music scene from the seventies through to those Factory years & beyond is your thing. You also get a chance to improve your Burnage dialect and discover who really are the bin dippers. A1 Fairy Tales B1 Death Is Slowly Coming

  ZZ Top - Various British & German Twelves [24-Bit 88.2kHz FLAC] I take absolutely no responsibility for what is about to happen! I will be watching the hit count meter on this one as I follow up Meat Loaf earlier this week with more American rock legends from Texas. If he doesn't mind, I would like to put the blame solely at the feet of penguinflight who donated these five twelves to the old ESWA blog in 2016. They were among a lot of boxes of really good stuff and I know he has been eagerly awaiting my attempts at real rock rippage. Here you are old boy, these actually sound great ...enjoy, keep well and keep safe.  ZZ Top - Gimme All Your Lovin' W 9693(T) UK 1983 A1 Gimme All Your Lovin' A2 Jesus Just Left Chicago B1 Arrested For Driving While Blind B2 Heard It On The X ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man W 9576(T) DEU 1984 A1 Sharp Dressed Man  B1 I Got The Six B2 La Grange ZZ Top - Sleeping Bag W 2001 (T) UK 1985 A1 Sleeping Bag B1 Party On...

  The Pastels - Up For A Bit With The Pastels [GLALP 021 UK 1987 24-Bit FLAC] Glasgow's The Pastels formed in 1981 thus predating most similar indie-pop acts by several years, and that includes The Smiths and The Jesus And Mary Chain. It took them six years, six singles and four record labels to finally release Up For A Bit... on Glass Records in 1987. I acquired this album pre-release, it still has the promo sticker kindly affixed by my Cartel sales rep and surprisingly it hasn't had much play for about thirty something years. Let there be no doubt, this record is an indie-rock classic from a greatly overlooked band, with oodles of fuzzy pop and some great melodies. Get sucked into the majestic Ride , the wonderfully twangy glitter pop of Crawl Babies and the psychedelic fuzz-drone of Baby Honey (always a personal favourite). As I mentioned, The Pastels pre-date C86 but ended up getting dragged along on the breed's coat tails as they attempted to distance themselves fr...

  Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell [EPC 12-7018 UK Red Vinyl 1979 24-Bit FLAC] I guess, like many of you, our youth was tarnished by this record. It came out around the same time as Metal Box but likely appealed to a very different audience. Michael Lee Aday sadly passed away after contracting Covid, in Nashville a few days ago - A larger than real life character, he will be remembered best by me for Rocky Horror Picture Show and his unusual role in Fight Club . This red vinyl UK 12" pressing  has sat in penguinflight 's boxes for a few years now, it seems fitting that it finally gets to grace these pages. A1 Bat Out Of Hell B1 Heaven Can Wait

  Public Image Limited - Second Edition [2WX 3288 USA 1979 2LP Promo 24-Bit FLAC] I've ripped my copy of Metal Box a few times over the years, however this edition came my way recently and just had to be ripped! I've always found the mastering on Metal Box to be a little shrill, and often wondered how the album would sound when mastered as a 33rpm long player. The band's American label, Island Records (via Warners) declined the opportunity to expensively mirror Virgin's triple 45rpm tin edition and instead sent the reels to Sterling Sound Inc in New Jersey for mastering and then to the highly regarded Capitol Records Pressing plant in Los Angeles. Virgin Records adopted this format and title for subsequent UK versions of the album from around February 1980 onwards. Here are the results, my recent acquisition is a 1979 original pressing - complete with the gold embossed promo stamp as shown. I couldn't resist the opportunity to create a 176.4kHz archive. Turn this...

  The Deirdre Wilson Tabac ‎- The Deirdre Wilson Tabac [BEWITH029LP UK 2018 24-Bit FLAC] Before we change tempo and step up a few gears, how about a little psychedelic soul to kick off the week? The short career of The Deirdre Wilson Tabac began with their  The Other Side Of Life single for RCA in 1969 before their only album for the label the following year. Slipping below most radars, this album was recorded in Philadelphia in 1969 - a mix of self-penned numbers and covers, it was later to find favour in specialist markets mixing progressive funky jazz-soul with complex sixties psyche pop arrangements.  This is the one-off 2018 quality repress courtesy from Manchester's Be With Records and it was a joy to rip. Enjoy.... something different. A1 The Other Side Of Life A2 (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay A3 Let's All Join Together A4 Get Back A5 Angel Baby B1 The Last Thing On His Mind B2 I Can't Keep From Cryin' Sometimes B3 Look In My Face B4 Mag...

  Donald Byrd - Places And Spaces [BN-LA549-G USA 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Over the last few years, those nice folks at Blue Note have contracted Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio to master new quality vinyl pressings of key legacy releases from their back catalogue using the original analogue reels. The results are spectacular..... Originally released in 1975, Places And Spaces was an album of disco-soul and punchy neo-funk from jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd which spawned classics such as  Change (Makes You Want To Hustle) and his most famous single,  Dominoes .  A1 Change (Makes You Want To Hustle) A2 Wind Parade A3 Dominoes B1 Places And Spaces B2 You And The Music B3 Night Whistler B4 Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)

  Khruangbin - Mordechai [DOC193 UK 2020 24-Bit FLAC] From the state of Texas, which has already given us Pantera, Butthole Surfers and ZZ Top, come Houston's Khruangbin. Taking influences from nineties trip-hop, blending it with Thai-spiced psychedelic funk then adding a touch of tex-mex dub, this trio have been responsible for some of the more interesting new albums of the last seven years.  Mordechai was their most recent, and possibly most refined album. Released in a whole variety of coloured editions, I opted for safety with a UK black vinyl pressing, here are the results.... A1 First Class A2 Time (You and I) A3 Connaissais De Face A4 Father Bird, Mother Bird A5 If There Is No Question B1 Pelota B2 One To Remember B3 Dearest Alfred B4 So We Won’t Forget B5 Shida

  Alan Parker & John Cameron  - Afro Rock [BEWITH058LP UK 2019 24-Bit FLAC] Closing out this run of KPM represses comes this wonderfully pressed album of funk & rock instrumentals influenced by all things African, from Alan Parker (not the film director) and John Cameron. Ooodles of Hammond organ hooks remind us this is more seventies Britain than Africana, and it does bring to mind early Santana in places - which I don't mind at all.  Play loud! A1 Heavy Water A2 Ice Breaker A3 Solid Satin A4 Punch Bowl A5 Frozen Steam A6 Black Light A7 Range Rover B1 Swamp Fever B2 Safari So Good B3 Survival B4 Afro Waltz B5 Sahara Sunrise B6 Rockin Rhino B7 Heat Haze B8 Afro Metropolis

  A Certain Ratio - Fila Brazillia Versus A Certain Ratio [T019 12'' WL UK 2003 24-Bit FLAC] I've no real desire to post any more ACR for the forseeable future, so to finish off, here is an obscure white label pre-sold to fans during early 2003. A low key official release appeared a little later, however as the band had seemed dormant since 1996, sales were limited. The lead track, Starlight had previously been previewed as a demo and this was to be it's debut on vinyl before the Mind Made Up album five years later. Very Busy Man also appeared re-recorded on the first compact disc versions of that album, Fila Brazillia's re-work of Wild Party is just damn funky. A1 Starlight (Fila Brazillia Mix) B1 Wild Party (Fila Brazillia Remix) B2 I'm A Very Busy Man (Fila Brazillia Mix)

  Roxy Music - Roxy Music (Steven Wilson Stereo Mix) [00602508553660 UK/EU RSD 2020 24-Bit FLAC] As blog follower 'popontoast' commented when I last attempted a rip of this album, there's an excellent mix in there somewhere.... so let's have another go... in 176.4kHz. Universal Music gave Wilson's remasters of this album to Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road who cut a new lacquer for this release - probably at great expense. They then shipped it to the GZ Media plant in the Czech Republic, who literally made a pig's ear of the pressing. Even after a surfactant treatment and a couple of decent rinses you will still hear some fuzz in the left channel and the occasional thump on the right but this rip is substantially better than my first back in October 2020.  I've cranked up the levels to allow Wilson's tinkering to glisten ..and wow, it really does. Everything is exactly in perfect place, the mids have plenty of body, highs really shine but are not too sharpl...

  Chet Baker - In New York [RLP 1119 USA 2020 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released in a choice of mono or stereo on Riverside Records in 1958, remastered from the analogue master tape by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, pressed onto lovely quiet black 180gm vinyl by Record Technology Incorporated. Ripped here in a choice of 88.2kHz or 176.4kHz. My local hi-fi dealer has recently moved into the world of vinyl sales (makes perfect sense to me) and began by buying up leftover stock from a dealer when went bust during the worst of the recent lockdowns. Most of this stock is MFSL, Craft, Analogue Productions, Blue Note/Tone Poet and Impex Records - all US imports from labels specialising in high quality represses on excellent quality vinyl from analogue sources. I am like a kid in a sweetshop in his store now, whilst saving up for a Project Tube Box DS2 to match my pimped up Project Classic turntable (any donations gratefully received), I foolishly diverted a chunk of my funds to a smal...

  Campbell • Mallinder • Benge - Clinker [TWI 1256 UK 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Eagerly anticipated by many (I guess) last year was this collaboration album from Julie 'LoneLady' Campbell, Stephen 'Mal' Mallinder and Ben 'Benge' Edwards. Put anything with Mal on a record and it will sound like Cabaret Voltaire, right? Too bloody right! Despite Clinker clearly being a 96kHz digital recording (I know, I've seen the spectrogram), this album does have the feel of 1981-1983 Cabs and is highly recommended to anybody who appreciates this era. Campbell's stabby Fender riffs are less subtle than the late R.H. Kirk's treated guitars and her occasional vocals bring you back to reality and up to date. All Cab fans will love to hear the sound of Mal's voice once more. Only 800 copies of this album were pressed (on nasty turquoise vinyl) and Les Disques Du Crépuscule have selected the cheap option of careless, noisy & dirty pressings once more. Despite a clean-u...

  Reality - Disco Party [PLP-7771 JPN 2021 24-Bit FLAC] As it's Friday night, it's time for a socially distanced party on plastic! Bring your own, anybody? Japanese label P-Vine Records have dug up this absolute gem of a record as part of their ongoing Groove-Diggers series, although I have my suspicions that the original master tapes were unavailable. Reality released this instrumental album of seventies disco-funk back in 1976 on the TSG Records label and original copies have been impossible to find ever since. Expect an aural assault of tight & hard funky basslines, wah-wah guitars, percussion and horns .....more than enough to entertain, even on the dullest of January weekends. A1 Reality A2 Road A3 Disco Party (Let's Have A) A4 Welcome B1 Movin' & Groovin' B2 Let's Party People B3 You Keep Me Holdin' On B4 Clap & Hustle

  A Certain Ratio - Won't Stop Loving You [ACRY 540 UK 1990 24-Bit FLAC] In the summer of 1990, A&M Records were forced to abort the release of a new recording of ACR's Shack Up - an uncleared sample of Shine On You Crazy Diamond on the Norman Cook remix was suggested as the reason. The gap was filled by the band's reworking of The Big E , giving it a much more upbeat and commercial club sound, with New Order's Bernard Sumner adding keyboards and sequencers. The result was a huge pounding commercial dance single which failed to dent the charts and signaled the beginning of the end of the band's relationship with the label. Note the significantly blatant sampling of Banbarra's Shack Up on the Norman Cook remix. A1 Won't Stop Loving You (Bernard Sumner Mix) B1 Won't Stop Loving You (Norman Cook Mix) B2 Won't Stop Loving You (Instrumental)

  The Higsons - Got To Let This Heat Out [12 WAAP 1 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC] Immortalised by Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians in 1985, this is the first time that I have ripped my original Waap records twelve inch single of classic punk-funk. It took a bit of a deep clean and the results are spectacular with its punchy funky bassline, jangly guitars, screeching horn section and tight rhythms. The real gem could well be the full six minute and twenty-three version of It Goes Waap adorning the flipside. I love this rip so much, I have just debuted The Higsons at 176.4kHz. A1 Got To Let This Heat Out B1 It Goes Waap

  John Cameron - Jazzrock [BEWITH059LP UK 2019 24-Bit FLAC] Sounding like a whole blitz of TV cop show themes, comes John Cameron and the repressed version of his 1972 album for KPM, Jazzrock . Beautifully remastered for 180gm vinyl by Simon Francis and pressed by Dutch plant, Record Industry, this is one hell of an library album. Some of the very first albums I ever bought as a kid were TV and movie themes, it is now time to be whisked back to that golden era of non-politically correct, badly dressed coppers in sideburns and flares.  A1 49th Street Shakedown A2 Brass Monkey A3 The Great Escape A4 Chicago Sidewalk A5 Four O'Clock Earthquake B1 Underlying Expectancy B2 The Prowler B3 No Place To Go B4 Regular Progress B5 Smokey Joe's Dilemma

  Arthur Russell - Another Thought [BEWITH108LP UK 2LP 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Originally best known on these shores as the key protagonist behind dance singles by Dinosaur (L), Loose Joints and Lola, in addition to his work with New York wavesters The Necessaries, Arthur Russell's 'career' really took off after he sadly passed away in 1992. Russell's experimental album World Of Echo was released by Rough Trade to minimalist sales in 1987 yet it received critical acclaim. Another Thought was the follow-up, released as a compact disc posthumously in 1993 - it was to be another twenty years, during a spike in interest for Arthur Russell music until it was reissued. Manchester's Be With label have now picked up the album for a delightfully mastered and pressed double vinyl edition. A million miles from those dance or punk days, Russell takes the experiment directions from World Of Echo and crafts new ideas into more melodic songs based around his cello (Russell is a clas...

  Clan Of Xymox - Medusa [CAD 613 UK 1986 24-Bit FLAC] I find it remarkable that the 'new' owners of 4AD Records have failed to repress many of the great albums from the label's best period. Whilst Clan Of Xymox may not have benefitted from the same size of following as The Cocteau Twins, there has been significant interest in the original line-up's darker wave releases, especially in Europe. Consequently, both this album and their more upbeat debut still sit comfortably among the label's more important releases, and when you remember they secured a major deal with Polydor following their stint on the iconic British label. The problem with Clan Of Xymox is that they wanted to be a 4AD band and deliberately shaped their sound to be what they thought a 4AD band should sound like. The dark electro sound they found for their debut was spot on however then they thought best to sound like an amalgamation of all the other artists on the label, tempering their energy acco...

  Sea Fever - Folding Lines [SF001LP UK 2021 24-Bit FLAC] After a run of five virtual singles in 2021, Sea Fever finally delivered a tangible product. Unless you participated in the Manchester live music scene, Sea Fever could well have passed you by as the band had to rely on word of mouth, social media and a very difficult period for live music to find an audience. Folding Lines finally came out late last year to spark further interest, although it is likely sales may have been polarised around north western Britain. Frontman Iwan Gronow was once in Mancunian indie-rockers Haven (who disappeared after two albums in the early noughties), the pixie-like Beth Cassidy was one of two Cassidy offspring spawned into the revitalised Section 25 around about the same time. Phil Cunningham is best known as the guitarist who joined New Order to cover for Gillian ...then stuck around, Tom Chapman tightened up his bass strings to fill the shoes of Peter Hook in New order more recently. ...

  Modern English - Mesh & Lace [CAD 105 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC] I reached for this record shortly after last week's Stop Start post, purely because I wanted to remember how raw and unpolished the young Modern English really were. Mesh & Lace was their debut long player, released over forty years ago in 1981 on a fledgling 4AD label.  This the raw post-punk sound of Essex, experimental in places, gloomy in others - you can hear bits of The Sound, New Order, Joy Division and even Bauhaus in early Modern English. It was their follow-up After The Snow which grabbed most attention, I would suggest then that it is about time we reappraised  Mesh & Lace once more in a choice of fuller resolutions. Enjoy! A1 16 Days A2 Just A Thought A3 Move In Light A4 Grief B1 The Token Man B2 A Viable Commercial B3 Black Houses B4 Dance Of Devotion (A Love Song)

  Keith Mansfield - Contempo [BEWITH093LP UK 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Best known in the UK for composing the theme tune to the BBC's Grandstand Saturday afternoon sports marathon and a whole bunch of other sporting TV themes, Mansfield also turned out a significant number of albums for the KPM label, including his incredibly funky Contempo  long player which was first released back in 1976. Mansfield is also the name of an unremarkable English town in Nottinghamshire, best known for its brewing of warm English beer and coal mining, but you already knew that and this record is much more interesting. A1 The Fix A2 What's Cooking A3 Cut To Music A4 Man Alive A5 Funky Footage B1 Breezin' B2 Good Vibrations B3 Sun Goddess B4 Love Deluxe B5 Snake Hips

  A Certain Ratio - Good Together [No Cat 12" WL UK 1989 24-Bit FLAC] I still recall the day in the summer of 1989 when a sweaty-handed A&M Records rep handed me this anonymous 12" white label, knowing that I was an ACR fan, he remarked along the lines of..." You might want to play this instore now "....I did. Within minutes, we were getting requests at the counter for copies, selling all his promo stock in one swoop - except of course this copy which I persuaded him to gift me.  According to Discogs, only 500 copies were pressed. At about the same time, electronic dance records such as 808 State's Quadrastate were in significant demand - so here was a major record label with what could have been a squelchy Manc-monster of a dance hit ...and they just sat on it. The track was eventually an extra track on the compact disc version on the album of the same name, then a year later it was eventually released as a seven-inch only and as lead track on the  Four F...

  Robbie Robertson - Robbie Robertson [WX 133 UK 1987 24-Bit FLAC] Courtesy of a rather excellent Warners eighties pressing, comes the 'debut' long player from Canadian rock legend Robbie Robertson. If you enjoyed my recent Daniel Lanois post, then you may well need this as a fine accompaniment, again in a choice of resolutions. As older readers will testify (you know who you are), Robertson is revered for his work as guitarist with The Band (and The Bob), however it is this album which opened up his work to me. I was working for a large British music chain store at the time of release, and courtesy of my boss (a huge Band-fan), this album seemed permanently stuck on the instore turntable playlist. As an indie-boy, I guess I would normally have been expected to turn my nose up at this kind of americana-riff-rock-stuff, however my appreciation was completely the opposite so consequently this album has stuck with me since. Backed with an impressive line-up of backing musicians:...

  Brian Bennett & Alan Hawkshaw - Synthesis [BEWITH046LP UK 2018 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on KPM Music in 1974 and subtitled as 'vivid contemporary sounds for a fresh visual image'.  I hope you have all been keeping up with these fabulous KPM library archives, there are plenty more to come, so if you haven't then you are certainly missing out. Synthesis is another twelve tracks of ARP Odyssey g-funk and spaced out seventies rock, combined and composed by masters of the genre, Brian Bennett & Alan Hawkshaw.  A1 Collision Course A2 The Executive A3 Hovercraft A4 Big Black Cadillac A5 Deadline A6 Hit Me, Hit Me B1 Forum B2 Where The Action Is B3 Getting It Together B4 Helter Skelter B5 Alto Glide B6 Mermaid

  A Certain Ratio - Your Blue Eyes [ACRY 534 UK 1989 24-Bit FLAC] Trevor Horn's right-hand-man, Stuart Bruce was chosen to remix Your Blue Eyes for the 'final' single from the Good Together album. This uplifting slice of eighties pop again failed to inspire the British record buying public and it vanished quickly without any trace.  It was then, the band (and their label) started to dabble with what had gone before in an attempt to restore credibility, realign with the band's fanbase ....and generate sales. A1 Your Blue Eyes (Extended Version) B1 Thin Grey Line B2 Coldest Days

  A Certain Ratio - Backs To The Wall [ACRY 517 UK 1989 24-Bit FLAC] In theory, getting Frankie Knuckles to make a twelve inch remix of ACR's Backs To The Wall sounded like a great idea. Whilst these days, the track may sound like just any other dated pop/house remix, but at the time these were all the rage and his regal Knuckles was in great demand.  Here is where it all went wrong: A&M financed a lavish (and possibly quite expensive) pop video filmed as a dance party on a River Thames riverboat during the summer of 1989 as a promotional tool and it was prime MTV material. The single was then released on the 28th August 1989 - one week after 51 people tragically died on the Thames in the  Marchioness party-boat disaster. Consequently, the video was never aired beyond A&M instore promotional videos.  The single never sold in any quantity and failed to chart. The Knuckles remix does give the originally funky album track a bouncy club-ready feel, with Dojo'...

  A Certain Ratio - The Big E [ACRY 514 UK 1989 24-Bit FLAC] In all my years of blogging, A Certain Ratio are very likely my most covered band, The Big E was their biggest stab at the hit parade. The song is lush & textured pop music, wrapped in a highly polished Julian Mendelsohn production, it could have been a huge hit on the radio - it wasn't. It could have repaid the Mancunian trio for all their years of hard graft after they jumped from the important yet commercially naïve  Factory Records into the arms of sharp and shiny suited major label execs - it didn't.  A few weeks ago, I promised a multi-resolution re-visit to those singles from their A&M Records years, here is the first. A1 The Big E B1 Love Is The Way (Instrumental) B2 Day 2

  Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises [PLP-7135 JPN 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Promises seems to feature on nearly all 'best-of' album lists for 2021, so what is it all about? Some of the genrefication police will struggle with a tag for this album, I have settled for ambient , but it could also be jazz or classical ......choose whatever you prefer. This is a recording full of air and space - I chose the black vinyl Japanese version on the P-Vine label, rather than all the different coloured Luaka Bop vinyl versions or the compact disc. The vinyl has a low noise floor which allows the music to shine through, even at lower volumes.  Sam Shepherd's simple pattern of keyboard notes builds on familiarity as the nine segments build - they must have heavily mic'ed the studio as you can hear his hands move across the keyboard and his feet move across the piano pedals. Pharoah Sanders' saxophone drifts and floats at the front of the sound...