Needle Time

  Toshifumi Hinata ‎- Broken Belief [MFM 042 NLD 2019 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] When all else is falling around about you, it is time for some calm... I've ripped this album before, most probably overlooked it, it is a wonderful listen, so much so that I thought that it deserved a 176.4kHz rip on an improved set-up. Broken Belief is a selection of compositions by Japanese musician Toshifumi Hinata, released on a beautifully packaged and wonderfully pressed vinyl album by eclectic Dutch label Music From Memory a few years back. His music eludes a magical ambiance which sits comfortably between the instrumental works of The Durutti Column, modern jazz etchings and Japanese new age music. This is much more than synthetic ambient drone, organic instruments also feature; harps, violins, bass guitar, tablas and an alto sax.  Hinatsa's releases are well work tracking down, especially some of the beautiful Japanese compact discs - the vinyl pressings can be expensive - thankfully this a...

  Van Der Graaf Generator - Theme One [CB 175 UK 1972 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Firstly, this lot are not the normal around on these pages. I despised this kind of stuff when I was younger, however when flicking through the boxes of vinyl from penguinflight, I happened upon this, a 1972 pressing on Charisma Records. The band didn't release may singles, I wondered how it sounded and considering it is a fifty year old seven inch single, it was in pretty good shape. This lot have to be the ultimate in pomp-rock. Bring on the pomp! A1 Theme One B1 W

  Europeans - Recurring Dreams [AMA 5034 UK 1984 24-Bit 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Not the original West Country new wave band, these Europeans were mostly Scottish, except for keyboardist and joint lead singer, Steve Hogarth - he was brought up in Doncaster. Based in London, Europeans managed two credible art-wave-rock albums for A&M Records before getting the heave ho. Despite a large live following, sales were disappointing and major labels are impatient. Recurring Dreams was their second album of polished art-rock, it sounds very eighties with occasionally over-produced complex arrangements, fitting around the more grown-up sound of Talk Talk before they started to look inwards and clever adult rock-pop bands like Vitamin Z and Red Box. It's the Hogarth voice which should appeal to most who enjoy the genre - with his unique vocal quality & range, he was the vocalist chosen to replace the departed Derek Dick in former Genesis tribute band, Marillion. (only kidding Marillion...

  Afternoon All We have had about 50-60 new users discover Needle Time in the past 48 hours, with thanks, to a post on another vinyl rippers website. Welcome aboard, you helped push the blog hit count over 1.25 million! Seriously, I would rather stay nice and hidden away in my tiny corner of the internet, however I have seen my rips now appear on a well know Russian pirating site, that has made me feel somewhat uncomfortable - I know that's not always possible to keep hidden on Blogger, so if things become tricky with too much unwanted attention, I will have to go 'private'. Links (if you know where to look) are only live for just over a year, so everything post March 1st 2021 should be current. I do get a lot of requests for new links for old rips - to be honest I would much rather re-rip than re-post as my set-up is regularly evolving and improving. There are not just enough hours in the day, this isn't my day job and I have a busy life away from both working & r...

  Bill Nelson - Banal [WILL 12 UK 1981 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] The man who had ten years in bands between solo careers, proud Yorkshire man Bill Nelson remains one of our finest and most prolific musicians. Banal was supposed to be a track on the second Red Noise album, however the band had been dropped by EMI/Harvest Records so Nelson decided to release Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam as a solo album, some ten years after his first. The track sits firmly between art-rock and electronic new wave, sounding much like it could have been an early Roxy Music track. It deserves to be played loud .....so you must. By the way, I last ripped this twelve inch EP back in February 2014 for ESWA. Back then I promised to delve into the Be Bop Deluxe albums plus the Red Noise long-player. They are still coming, I have decided to raise funds for an ultrasonic cleaner so that I can make even better rips of my older vinyl. In the meantime, here's a little bit of Bill in 176.4kHz. A1 Banal B1 ...

  Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost! [DFA2267 2LP USA 2011 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Alex Frankel & Nick Millhiser came from Brooklyn, New York - they liked disco, old-school hip-hop, funk and eighties British synthpop - they wanted to make a record. Holy Ghost!'s first single, Hold On ,  came out in 2007 when downloads were peaking, when vinyl was at its lowest ebb, cds were becoming unlistenable and nobody had the idea or the bandwidth to stream. Their mate, James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) had his own record label, DFA Records, it seemed right that Holy Ghost! went with DFA Records.  It was few years before the duo released their self-titled debut album, think Cowley & Moroder meet Dan Hartman, with a bit of Prince & Chic thrown in, add a drop of Afrika Bambaataa and then oodles of the poppier side of New Order, and you get Holy Ghost!  Wait a minute .....can I hear Michael McDonald? 👀 A1 Do It, Again A2 Wait & See A3 Hold My Breath B1 Say My Name ...

  Happy Mondays - Madchester Rave On EP [FAC 242 1989 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Likely the single which made and then broke Factory Records within a few short years. If Anthony H. Wilson still walked this mortal coil he would possibly keep reminding us that Shaun Ryder was the new voice of a generation ....the new John Lydon  ....a new youth icon. He may have been right, after all Ryder's lyrics were inspired - what Wilson didn't realise until too late, that despite all his hype and praxis, putting Ryder and chums into a studio with Martin Hannett would eventually lead to the musicians and their producer smoking and snorting away his record label's bottom line. I grew up with Factory Records, in Manchester I remember when the Hacienda was an empty cavernous wasteland, a great place to see bands (I've seen quite a few there) but a crap nightclub. It was possibly also a crap place to see bands but I didn't care back then. The whole Madchester scene made Factory a mint a...

  Section 25 - Girls Don't Count [FAC 18/12 UK 1980 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Released in 1980 in a choice of three twelve inch sleeves and a rarer grease proof paper seven inch, Girls Don't Count was the debut single by Blackpool's Section 25. The girl on my sleeve is Angela Flowers who was eventually to marry drummer Vin Cassidy and become part of the band for their more electronic From The Hip phase. The single was produced by Ian Curtis and Joy Division manager Rob Gretton, their mix is raw and edgy which only add to the significance and the sound on this release. They could have asked Martin Hannett ....needless to say the production duo of Curtis & Gretton was rarely seen in control of a recording studio mixing desk again. This is the first time that I have attempted a full resolution rip of this single. After a light application of Tergikleen solution followed by two soaks in distilled water with 5% isopropyl, it really shines, the Larry Cassidy bass pounds away at...

  Chet Baker - Chet [RLP 1135 USA 2020 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] This week's Sunday night jazz slot goes to another album from Chet Baker. Recorded at Hazard Reeves' studio in New York between December 1958 and January 1959, Chet was originally released on Riverside Records later in 1959, in a choice of mono or stereo pressings. Those original three track stereo masters were used for this all analogue pressing by Craft Recordings as part of the labels five album boxed set of Chet Baker recordings for Riverside, repressed as single albums in 2020. For me, along with Chet Baker In New York and Chet Sings (the world still awaits a Tone Poet repress), this album forms his three essential works, representing a fine introduction to the work of one of the coolest trumpets on earth. What is impressive that it is not just about the Baker horn, the line-up on this album represents some of the very best; Kenny Burrell on guitar, Bill Evans on piano, Pepper Adams on sax and Herbie Mann on f...

  The Jazz Defektors - The Jazz Defektors [FACT 205 UK 1988 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] There was a time when the British cool jazzdance was a re-emerging eighties underground scene, beginning in London with bands such as Blue Rondo A La Turk. Manchester's own, The Jazz Defektors were part of it and signed to Factory Records. After numerous PA appearances at The Hacienda, a single backing Jazzchester's Kalima, a splendid live performance at 1985's IYY Festival, further touring and cameo's in the 1986 movie Absolute Beginners with David Bowie, Ray Davies and Patsy Kensit, things were looking up for the The Jazz Defektors. Unfortunately for them, it took three years for Factory to get their album released and by the time it did in 1988, youth culture was sucking on little tabs of impregnated paper, popping smiley pills and waving their arms in the air like loonies in baggy jeans & tie-dye t-shirts. Even the jazzdance scene had conformed and became acid jazz - no place for...

  The Doors - The Doors [AAPP 74007-45 USA 2020 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I recently paid forty-five quid for this album, the last copy that I bought of The Doors was a WEA mid-price copy (you know, the one with the exclamation sticker) for a tenth of that price around 1982.This version is a very recent deluxe packaged remaster from the original analogue tape pressed at 45rpm onto two virgin platters, my first is likely a West German pressing from a master cut by Strawberry in London.  I wonder which copy sounds best?  Without waiting for some of you to twiddle those thumbs whilst this downloads, and then do your a/b comparisons, I'll cut to the chase and say this 2020 Analogue Productions re-release, cut by the late Doug Saxe at The Mastering Lab in California around 2012 wins hands down. Who says modern vinyl pressings are awful ....possibly me a few years back? This is really a post about how a mastering engineer can make such a difference to the final product, afte...

  Fred Wesley And The Horny Horns - A Blow For Me, A Toot To You [SD 18214 DEU 2021 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I've mentioned quality German all-analogue reissue label, Speakers Corners Records previously, and essentially if you value audio preservation, clarity and fidelity their catelogue is seriously varied and worth a browse. Back in the mid-late eighties, I collected a lot of American p-funk pressings, including an original Atlantic Records copy of this album, which was sadly never in the best condition. Imagine my delight when Speakers Corner chose Fred Wesley's p-funk gem,  A Blow For Me, A Toot To You for a re-release direct from the original masters, pressed at Pallas. The line-up on this record is formidable;  Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, George Clinton and Randy Crawford all form part of trombonist Fred Wesley's backing band. The mastering quality is outstanding (DR14 to DR15), using zero compression, every instrument is heard in total clarit...

  Amii Stewart - Light My Fire/137 Disco Heaven [K 11728(CT) UK 1979 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] It's Friday night, this is my blog and I can post whatever the hell I feel like! American disco chanteuse Amii Stewart was bigger in Europe than the USA. Best known for her cover of Eddie Floyd's Knock On Wood , Stewart followed it with a eight and a half minute disco-massacre of The Doors' Light My Fire. Nurtured by Barry Leng and Simon May (remember him!), the songstress fed the German and Italian appetites for trite seventies disco some two years after the genre first hit America. Go on ...you know you want this! A1 Light My Fire /137 Disco Heaven B1 Bring It On Back To Me

  The Danse Society - Hold On (To What You've Got) [SOC DJ129 UK Promo 1986 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Dingy goths given a good wash & polish by a major label, The Danse Society developed into a more commercial sound as the eighties developed.  Hold On (To What You've Got) was seemingly aimed at the Simple Minds/U2 crowd with pounding bass & drums, pinned down by some nice Edge-type guitar. The song never charted, however this promo version also included the previously unavailable dance remix of an earlier single, Heaven Is Waiting ...which I really quite like! A1 Hold On (To What You've Got) B1 Heaven Is Waiting (Dance Mix)

  The Clash - Rock The Casbah [656814 6 UK 1991 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Tucked away in one of penguinflight 's boxes was this nineties repress of The Clash's biggest pop hit with the bonus of the disco mix of one of my favourite Clash tracks,  The Magnificent Seven on the flip. I dunno if it was deliberately timed to coincide with Operation Desert Storm, but you never know with A&R men!  This is likely the best quality version you would possibly hear of the a-side, nicely pressed (loudly but no noticeable compression) onto nasty nineties recycled vinyl.  Enjoy! A1 Rock The Casbah B1 Mustapha Dance B2 The Magnificent Dance

  Sudden Afternoon - Industry & Nature [DONG 16 UK 1985 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Back in December 2020, I posted my rip of the only album by London-based acid goths, Sudden Afternoon. Industry & Nature was the accompanying EP, also released on the Midnight Music label. I did include my 2016 rip of the EP as a bonus in that post, however I think it needs an upgrade, purely so the excellent Sea Of Life can be enjoyed in full quality resolution.  So here you are.... A1 New Age A2 Apollo B1 Sea Of Life

  Depeche Mode - Everything Counts (Live EP) [12 BONG 16 UK 1989 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I have never been the biggest Depeche Mode fan, I have a couple of the early singles and there are copies of the first two albums in the penguinflight archive which need ripping. The other day, I pulled out about 10 twelve inch singles for cleaning/ripping and this was among the pile. From the same Pasadena Rose Bowl live set used for the 101 album, this EP also features two additional live tracks which were missed off the vinyl record. I guess that makes this EP that little more collectible for fans of the Essex boys. The production is a bit weird with some awful processed crowd noise from the ecstatic American audience. A1 Everything Counts A2 Nothing B1 Sacred B2 A Question Of Lust

  Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones [ILPM 9762 UK 1987 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] An album which should little introduction to most, however time for a much needed high resolution clean and re-rip. Last ripped in 2017, you should consider this rip a serious upgrade from my last. Primal tin-pan alley blues from a gin soaked piano (and bagpipes!) in smokey back street dives... nobody did it better than ole'Tom. His lyrics are fantastic as he wallows through the darker sides of life, Shore Leave ,   16 Shells From A 30.6 ,  Town With No Cheer ,  In The Neighborhood , Frank's Wild Years ....all classic Tom Waits.  Pour yourself a glass and wallow away..... A1   Underground A2   Shore Leave A3   Dave The Butcher A4   Johnsburg, Illinois A5   16 Shells From A 30.6 A6   Town With No Cheer A7   In The Neighborhood B1   Just Another Sucker On The Vine B2   Frank's Wild Years B3 ...

  Norah Jones - Come Away With Me [APP 042 USA 2021 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] It's hard to believe this album was first released twenty years ago, it took a few years for Blue Note to get around to pressing Come Away With Me on vinyl, and all those who own one of the noughties compact disc or other Blue Note via Universal vinyl versions will have experienced some unnecessary compression. In fact, even the most recent pressings are compressed.  What most people don't know is that this album was recorded as pure analogue, so a few years later along came Classic Records who acquired the rights, and then pressed the album onto 200gm vinyl. Classic Records were bought by Analogue Productions who then recut the album with Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio, then repressed it at the label's Quality Record Pressing plant (the clue is in the name) in Salina, Kansas. Prior to this year's Blue Note 20th Anniversary edition (4xLP box set - and likely from the digitally compressed files), ...

  Elvis Costello And The Attractions - Punch The Clock [MFSL 1-389 USA 2013 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Originally released on F-Beat Records in 1983. This is a rip of my splendidly packaged Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab release, marketed as part of the label's  GAIN 2™ Ultra Analog LP 180g Series. A new week kicks off with the eighth album from London/Anglo-Irish new-wave-pop-blues institution Elvis Costello. It is difficult to keep track of exactly how many albums Declan Patrick MacManus has released, from the early bespectacled punky pre-new wave attitude of My Aim Is True , This Year's Model and Armed Forces , through the jazz, soul and the blues influenced early eighties albums to Punch The Clock , his pop pinnacle. This was the album which finally gave Our Elvis his big American hit,  Everyday I Write The Book . In Britain, we grew up with Elvis Costello and an impressively lengthy string of hit singles between 1977 and 1986. This was also the album where Cos...

  Gil Evans And His Orchestra - New Bottle Old Wine [WP-1246 USA 2019 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] As it is a Sunday morning, here is another from Blue Note's Tone Poet series of classic jazz reissues mastered from analogue by Kevin Gray and pressed onto virgin 180gm vinyl at RTI. As always, these Tone Poets are packaged in high quality replica tip-on jackets made by Stoughton Printing in LA. Originally released on World Pacific Records in 1958, as either a mono or three-track stereo vinyl edition, Evans and his orchestra featured Cannonball Adderley on saxophone and Art Blakey on drums covering a succession of jazz standards. So pour yourself a glass, get your feet up and enjoy! A1 St. Louis Blues A2 King Porter Stomp A3 Willow Tree A4 Struttin' With Some Barbeque B1 Lester Leaps In B2 'Round About Midnight B3 Manteca B4 Bird Feathers

  Run DMC - Raising Hell [MFSL 2-494 USA 2021 2x45RPM 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Likely one of the only hip-hop releases to get the MoFi treatment is the classic third album by Run DMC. With sales boosted throughout the world due to that massive Aerosmith collaboration, even I was tempted to pass over the cash at Virgin Ames Records (remember that concessionary brand?) in a department store in the Surrey stockbroker belt market town where I lived at the time.  This recent very limited Mobile Fidelity release has sold out already of its 3000 pressing run as a double 12" 45rpm in a top quality gate-fold. You need to be quick with these MoFi releases as they double in value quickly. I was never a big funky fresh hip-hop fan, however Raising Hell , along with early albums by LL Cool J, Mantronix, Beastie Boys and Public Enemy were must haves back then. I've even seen Run DMC supported by the Beasties in Brighton when they toured a year later. Right now, it's time to relive your hi...

  Porcupine Tree - The Incident [TRANSM262LP UK 2021 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Some will know that Steven Wilson has decided to reform/reassemble Porcupine Tree with a new album and extensive tour lined up for later in 2022. This was the band's last farewell, although not acknowledged at the time, many could read between the lines and see/hear that back in 2009, Wilson had begun to lose interest in the band formula. The Incident was originally released as a compact disc only on Roadrunner Records, with small Dutch specialist label Tonefloat picking up a limited run of vinyl editions. The compact disc was mastered loudly and never represented the album in its best light. Wilson reissued The Incident last year on his own Transmission Recordings label, carefully pressed by Record Industry in Haarlem. This rip is created from the 2021 pressing. The music press, and to some extent Wilson were somewhat ambivalent about the final product - this is an album which wraps itself up in too ...

  Verve - She's A Superstar [HUTT 16 UK 1992 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] A hop across the Pennines from Yorkshire to the red rose county of Lancashire, and to Wigan, famous for its northern soul, and also the home of Verve. Once a psychedelic indie-rock band who accidentally went mainstream with thanks to a Rolling Stones sample in 1997, Verve were forced into a subtle name change to keep the corporate lawyers at bay. They achieved moderate commercial success on Virgin Records, before front man Richard Ashcroft parked his attitude and became a housewife's favourite on daytime radio playlists.  The first four Verve indie singles are stunningly created wall of sound productions and courtesy of penguinflight , we have three of them on original vinyl. Here is their second, and my personal favourite, She's A Superstar backed with the even better Feel . A1 She's A Superstar B1 Feel

  The Danse Society - Heaven Is Waiting [205 972 UK 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I have covered The Danse Society extensively in years gone by, in fact my last attempt at a rip of this album was in June 2012. I guess we now need an upgrade? Like last weeks Party Day, The Danse Society were from Barnsley, they were the more successful of the two bands with a bit of a wider commercial appeal - a bit more Kid Jensen & Janice Long than John Peel, if you know what I mean. Arista Records licensed the bands own Society label to give them this, their major label debut album, which is pressed onto horribly thin vinyl by Sonopress. Ironically it was to be the band's last, as the band fragmented shortly after a few minor chart indentations with the album's excellent title single and a tabla-tinged goth disco cover of 2000 Light Years From Home .  Probably a bit to much synth to fit around the pure goth genre, yet there are dark influences here from The Cure to Joy Division. There are e...

  Lee Morgan - ¡Caramba! [BST 84289 DEU 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] It's a Sunday morning, and that can only mean one thing. Originally released by Blue Note in 1965, this new all analogue remaster of Lee Morgan's Caramba hit the stores a few weeks back as part of Blue Note's Classic Vinyl Series.  This series continues to prove that with proper mastering on carefully pressed vinyl, it is still possible to release high quality albums at a regular price - all in this series sell for less than twenty quid. This is an important album for all those who like their jazz with a Latin tinge, it is also an essential album for all those who want to explore the multiple faceted realms of the wider jazz genre. A1 Caramba A2 Suicide City B1 Cunning Lee B2 Soulita B3 Helen's Ritual

  Big Star - #1 Record [CR00211 USA 2020 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Just over a year back, I posted my rip of the 1986 German white vinyl pressing of this fabulous album originally released on Ardent Records in 1972. I mentioned then that Craft Recordings had released an all analogue remaster from the original tapes by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl. Powell happens to have been originally employed as a mastering engineer at Ardent back in the day. The stampers were cut at Record Technology Incorporated and the final product was pressed at Memphis Record Pressing. The debut album by Big Star had no chance of ever reaching #1 , as the label just couldn't get them out to record stores due to issues at there distributor, Stax Records. It never saw a release outside the US for many years and I have memories of selling bucket loads of the eventual UK re-release, courtesy of Big Beat Records, at my provincial home counties chain store in 1986. Is this likely to be the best available ...

  Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul [SXE 005 UK 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Last week's non-analogue sourced Marvin Gaye vinyl rip gave me cause to pull this from the shelf and put things right. Properly mastered from the original analogue tapes by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters, pressed onto decent (but not the quietest) 180gm black buttery vinyl by our noisy chums at GZE, and then released in a quality reproduction tip-on jacket, Concord/Stax have been able to put this out at a regular album price. If they (and Blue Note) can do it, why can't the rest of them? Oddly, and somewhat off-topic, every time I hear By The Time I Get To Phoenix , I think of Al Pacino in the movie Heat. Enjoy! A1 Walk On By A2 Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalmistic B1 One Woman B2 By The Time I Get To Phoenix

  Party Day - Sorted! [OPT4.029 UK 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] If like me, you listened religiously to (and taped) Peel in those important years before 1986, then you may have come across Party Day. They were never invited to record a session, they were never courted by the majors, let alone the larger independent labels, so they went it alone releasing two singles and two fantastic albums on their own Party Day Records label before Richard Rouska released their Glasshouse single as the very first on his important Rouska label. Party Day came out of Barnsley, a dismal place back then, better known for its coal mining and post-Maggie deprivation than as a musical hotbed. Barnsley is in South Yorkshire and Party Day became in-bedded in the Yorkshire alternative indie-rock scene, especially live where they developed a good following. Mistakenly labelled as goth, Party Day took their lead from Killing Joke, Joy Division and pre-silliness The Cure, blending those influences into powerful...

  Sunstroke - Nothing's Wrong in Paradise [LVLP-2107 FRA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Originally released on a very hard-to-find vinyl album on Copperhead Records (COP 1), and hence now very expensive record in 1985. Belgian ambient electronic duo Ben Bollaert and Etienne Delaruye only released one album together as Sunstroke, although they each have an extensive recording history - one with Pablo's Eye and the other with Kandahar.  Nothing's Wrong in Paradise is an electronic journey, much like an imaginary film score, floating through your head space somewhere between Tangerine Dream, Sakamoto and Vangelis ....and then beyond. This album was recorded in mid-eighties dark, gloomy & grey Belgium (Destelbergen near Ghent to be precise), Sunstroke add acoustic cello, pianos and percussion taking the listener well beyond the realms of ordinary electronic ambiance into chill out territory without dulling the senses.  French quality reissue label Libreville ...

  The Teardrop Explodes - Wilder [6359 056 UK 1981 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] My 2015 rip of this flimsy Mercury Records original pressing was never going to be that great, move on a good few years when my equipment and skills have developed, I believe this is the best it will ever sound. Wilder is a seriously under-rated album when compared to Kilimanjaro .  David Balfe, Gary Dwyer, Julian Cope & Troy Tate's psychedelic eighties pop deserves to be heard once more.  If you just listen to snippets of my rips, today make them the two closing tracks, ... And The Fighting Takes Over and The Great Dominions . The world today is a very different place to 1981, the cold war is over however we now have a piggy-eyed bully in the east killing indiscriminately in another country in pursuit of his sick, twisted & dated ideology. We have a small number of blog followers in Ukraine, I really hope you are all safe. We also have about 55 followers in Russia, whilst I know your govern...

  KC & The Sunshine Band - KC & The Sunshine Band [MOFI 1-012 USA 2011 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Originally released on T.K. Records in 1975, here is a full resolution rip of my Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Silver Label Series pressing. The MoFi Silver Label editions are pressed on regular weight virgin vinyl and mastered from the best possible source available. This is an album full of hits, especially on the A-side, lots of feel good sounds for difficult times. I find it difficult to think about this record without being reminded of when Shriekback splintered and made a failed dash for the charts in 1988, and Barry Andrews' rapping on his version of Get Down Tonight . A1 Let It Go (Part One) A2 That's The Way (I Like It) A3 Get Down Tonight A4 Boogie Shoes B1 Ain't Nothin' Wrong B2 I'm So Crazy ('Bout You) B3 What Makes You Happy B4 I Get Lifted B5 Let It Go (Part Two) I warned you...

  Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (Original Detroit Mix) [PROT-7018 JPN 2021 24-Bit 88.2kHz FLAC] There is much interest in this official Japanese release, supposedly exclusive to HMV Japan, however it seems to be widely available in Europe and the USA. The source material is likely the mix used for the 2011 fortieth anniversary special edition, however this release was mastered in Japan by Universal and then pressed in the Czech Republic by our old 'friends' GZ Media. There are plenty of hints that the source was from a digital file which kinda spoils things for me, especially when I discovered that there wasn't much going on over 96kHz. A1 What's Going On A2 What's Happening Brother A3 Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky) A4 Save The Children A5 God Is Love A6 Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) B1 Right On B2 Wholy Holy B3 Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)

  The Wake - Something That No One Else Could Bring [FAC 178 UK 1979 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] My March 2019 of this EP was a bit of a pop'n'crackle festival, so time to squirt on some surfactant and hear the results ...in full 176.4kHz resolution. The final release on Factory Records by The Wake was this four track twelve inch EP which marked their move into more of a guitar based indie-pop sound which also featured the first tracks with Carolyn Allen on lead vocals. The cheerful Pale Spectre was promo'd as a seven inch single however, even of the back of C86 jangle pop, Factory chose not to release it. The EP lines up as a series of stepping stones between the band's Factory years and the upcoming Sarah Records period and the move to twee. Plastic Flowers could easily have been a track from Here Comes Everybody with its washes of synth and the gentle vocal harmonies by Caesar and Carolyn. Furious Sea nods back at the period running up to the second album, however Gru...