Needle Time

  Japan - Life In Tokyo [600 048 DEU 1979 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] So you are a young glam-rock band, out of Catford, south-east London with a penchant for Roxy Music & Bowie and fascination in a far eastern island nation, you want to break into the big time. What's big in '79 ...well punk is dead, new-wave is popular, but not popular enough. Why not go disco ...who do you call? ....Giorgio Moroder, of course! Life In Tokyo was to be that stepping stone between glam-rock and complicated art-rock, it was big in Japan (of course) and sold well in Europe courtesy of their label Hansa Records, but it peaked outside the UK top twenty. It's strange that it took one of their most inaccessible of tracks, Ghosts to get them a top five hit. This remains a great disco record and this new rip is from my original German Hansa Records twelve inch single for your Friday night enjoyment. A1 Life In Tokyo Part I (Disco Version) B1 Life In Tokyo Part II (Single Version) .

  The Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland [MOFI 1-021 USA 2013 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] So then, just how many 'original PCM digital masters' of an album can there possibly be? I know we have all come to question Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's honesty in source marketing techniques these days, but maybe, as we found with the Thriller one-step, the finished studio product could sound very different to the eventual commercial release.  This MoFi Silver Series release is mastered much quieter than the original 1987 European release, but to these ears it sounds quite different. My assumption is that they wanted the drum sounds more prominent on the original release, however on this version, they are much more controlled and more distant in the sound stage. Is it better? I am undecided, it sounds less dynamic but there seems to be a bit more going on. I am sure there are internet forums for TSOM fans everywhere where the matter has been mused at length. What we do know is that Patricia M...

  Cowboys International -  The Original Sin [V2136 UK 1979 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] If you grabbed by limited historic re-post of The Original Sin back in November, you would probably agree it didn't sound as good as my current work, let's put that right. This record was never going to sound great, the production and mastering was very much of the period and it has spent over forty years in a flimsy card inner sleeve, wrapped in a PVC outer with limited protection so that the vinyl has been impregnated with nasty shards of cheap cardboard. Following a deep clean in surfactant and then multiple cleans in an ultrasonic cleaner, I am more than pleased with the results.  The Original Sin has never been repressed since 1979 and it would appear that all the international stampers were made from the same lacquer as the British pressing. The US release was in a very different sleeve with an inner bag - I don't have a copy of that for comparison reasons. My original UK can now go b...

  Wire - Ahead [12 MUTE 57 UK 1987 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] The last of my Wire vinyl on Mute Records is something which I have ripped a few times before, this will be the last ....and I'd say for sure the best it could sound. I will put my Mute compact discs up onto Digitalia over the next few days. If any of you still need Digitalia access, please see the comments. Ahead is Wire at their most accessible (well as accessible as Wire could ever be), it was never a big seller but it should have been huge. This hook-laden post-punk single is right up there with the very best from that 1980-1988 late-post-punk period and as I've no doubt said before, Ahead is possible the last great post-punk single. Many will also love the three live tracks adorning the flip. A1 Ahead B1 Ambulance Chasers B2 Feed Me B3 Vivid Riot Of Red

  In The Nursery - Twins [SAX 014 UK 1986 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Out of the post-punk embers into a world of neo-folk, industrial electronica and proto-classical music came the twin brothers Klive & Nigel Humberstone. After limited releases on the Paragon label and Death In June's NER: New European Recordings, the Sheffield duo found solace on Rob Deacon's important Sweatbox Records. The aptly named Twins  album followed the Temper EP in 1985. Designed to disturb & yet composed to enrich the listener,  Twins represents a journey from the depths of pounding electronica, through ethereal Eastern European choruses, tightly sharp snares, loops & samples, and into rich cinematic soundscapes.  It should be no surprise that eventually the Humberstone brothers would find themselves scoring feature films. This was their first properly recorded & produced album ...This is where it all started. Once you've heard  Judgement Of Paris , you could believ...

  Wire - Manscape [STUMM 80 UK 1990 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Wire's penultimate album for Mute Records was recorded at Rak Studios with producer David M. Allen, pressed onto unquiet vinyl at Damont and wrapped in this great sleeve design by Neville Brody & Jon Wozencroft.  This original vinyl pressing of Manscape was also Wire's first album not to include any singles, you needed to get the compact disc for the single which also came with a different tracklisting & running order. Manscape documents Wire's move into a more electronic sound, still remaining true to the band's creative art-rock roots, the addition of sequencers and drum machines hinted at a modernisation in the quartet's approach to songwriting, although it is important to recall that many of Wire's splinter bands and solo projects had already embraced electronica. A1 Patterns Of Behaviour A2 Goodbye Ploy A3 Morning Bell A4 Small Black Reptile A5 Torch It B1 Other Moments B2 ...

  The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy - Angels [GLASS 12049 UK 1986 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Very possibly the fifth coolest 'shades' wearer in rock & roll (I'll leave you to surmise the top four), my musical world misses Pat Fish aka The Jazz Butcher. Glass Records period Jazz Butcher was, for me at least, their most entertaining period. Pat injected his own sublime wit into Jazz Butcher songs but Angels is one of his rare love songs... It's two a.m. and I'm feeling fine, Staying up late with these men of mine. I've seen the angels and the things they do and every one Just makes me think of you. ...I can see them. Here they come now. There's thousands of them. They're bearing you up. They're holding you up. I want to hold you in my arms. If you need some riff-rocking Jazz Butcher, look no further than the fabulous  Rebecca Wants Her Bike Back which adorns the flip. In summary, Northampton's finest conjure up some random delightful sentimental wit for...

  Ella Fitzgerald And Louis Armstrong - Ella And Louis [MG V-4003 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Two of the most iconic voices (and one trumpet) of all time, backed by Buddy Rich on drums, Ray Brown on bass, Herb Ellis on guitar and Oscar Peterson in piano. Mastered from the original mono master tape by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling sound and pressed at QRP as part of the Verve Acoustic Sounds series. This album was originally recorded and released on 1956, the age of the tape is quite apparent and this could well be the very last time this tape gets run through in a mastering studio. This very organic recording is so well recorded by Norman Granz, that it is hard to believe that it is in mono. A1 Can't We Be Friends A2 Isn't This A Lovely Day A3 Moonlight In Vermont A4 They Can't Take That Away From Me A5 Under A Blanket Of Blue A6 Tenderly B1 A Foggy Day B2 Stars Fell On Alabama B3 Cheek To Cheek B4 The Nearness Of You B5 April In Paris 

  Lovelock - Washington Park [BEWITH107LP UK 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Some of you may have worked out this was coming, so prepare to be totally lounged out. New York state musician Lovelock went totally downtempo with this six track album of instrumental lounge and synth-exotica. This is music for seventies American soap operas, Italian b-list movies, hotel lobbies and purple rinse ballroom all performed on a mix of Moogs, Prophets, Rolands, Fenders and a lone saxophone.  Consider yourselves warned. A1 It Means Love A2 Washington Park A3 We'll See B1 Seduction B2 Center Square B3 Rhythm 77

  A Certain Ratio - Knife Slits Water [FAC 62 UK 7" 1982 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] There were three different studio versions of A Certain Ratio's Knife Slits Water for official release. Ask me which do I prefer, and depending on my mood, I would regularly suggest the original UK seven inch single.  The track was originally written in early 1981 as a dark & moody seven and a half minute proto-funk track during the sessions for the album Sextet featuring vocals and lyrics by Martha Tilson. She had returned to the USA by early 1982, so the re-recorded four minute seven inch version featured dreamy soulful vocals by Donald Johnson, who also performed the track's iconic bassline.  A very different, more uptempo and effect-filled ten minute twelve inch version was also recorded and released in September 1982 with Simon Topping vocals, Johnson provided the vocal harmonies and a slightly different bassline. Factory Records were share holders in MVS (Record Pressings) Ltd (alo...

  Section 25 - Charnel Ground [FAC BN 3-006 BEL 1980 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Part two in an occasional series of 176.4kHz rips from original seven inch singles. Whilst this isn't necessarily the cheeriest record for a Friday, it is an important (and slightly rare) record in the Factory Records/Factory Benelux catelogue.  After the throbbing punk noise of their splendid debut Girls Don't Count , Section 25 were farmed out to the Benelux division for the post-punk drone single Charnel Ground backed with the more uptempo Haunted , both featuring the instantly recognisable sound of a Martin Hannett production. Given that this record is well over forty years of age, this rip sounds really rather good and easily better than any of the digital remasters which have appeared over the years since release. A1 Charnel Ground B1 Haunted

  Wire - In Vivo [12 MUTE 98 UK 1989 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Before I go quiet for about a week, here is another great Wire twelve inch from their second coming on Mute Records. In Vivo was a stand-alone single and didn't actually appear on a Wire studio album, although the original version was included as an extra track on the compact disc version of the live album,  It's Beginning To And Back Again . This extended twelve inch version was from remix of the original track into seven minutes of industrial electro-beat. I think it works really well and is backed by a new thumping & grinding instrumental, Illuminated and a tight live rendition of The Finest Drops . A1 In Vivo B1 Illuminated B2 Finest Drops (Live)

  Miles Davis - Milestones [MFSL 1-374 USA 2013 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Originally released on Columbia Records in 1958. From the years between 'Round About Midnight and A Kind Of Blue , Milestones tends to be overlooked as one of the great Miles Davis albums. It should never, especially as it features the iconic title track, all performed by the classic line-up of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones and Red Garland. Aside from the title track, you really need to hear Billy Boy .  Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab treated us to this superb mono pressing about ten years back cut from the original master tape via a DSD-digital step, but please don't let that put you off, you will unlikely hear a better pressing of this album. Please never be tempted by the cheap nasty grey market European pressings on Jazz Images, Dol Records, Jazz Wax Records or Ermitage - they all came from highly dubious sources - this is the one to have. A1 Dr. Jek...

  Miles Davis - Star People [VMP-C066 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Many a purist will suggest his eighties comeback period is best alone, I only had a Japanese pressing of The Man With The Horn until Vinyl Me Please offered this double 33rpm edition of Star People recently. I have discovered this is certainly an era worth exploring, and have subsequently invested in a couple of other new pressings of albums from this period. This VMP Classics edition was mastered all analogue by Ryan K. Smith (likely from a master tape copy) at Sterling Sound and it sounds bloody amazing. This is not subtle background music, this is full-on, dense and complex - the mastering brings out every detail of every instrument. No more so than John Scofield's intricate guitar work and Marcus Miller's funky slap bass - the Miles Davis trumpet is shrill and spices the gaps between the supporting solos. Davis was also playing keyboards during this period and his dexterity is even more obvious during t...

  Multivizion - Work To Live Don't Live To Work [SIT 8T UK 1981 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] A little toe tapper for your Saturday morning. This superbly dated (and slightly corny) indie brit-funk single was released on goth label Situation Two Records in two mixes. Work To Live Don't Live To Work was produced and mostly performed by talented Freeez thumbster Pete Maas, with vocals by Frank Dew. Freeez were signed to brother label Beggars Banquet at the time.  This single sounds much in the same vein as I'd Like To See You Again period A Certain Ratio, who may well have appreciated the track before recording Touch and Guess Who ? It would seems they were all getting down post- haste ..post-punk. A1 Work To Live Don't Live To Work B2 Work To Live Don't Live To Work (Re-Mix)

  Various Artists - Gate That Snare! [12 PDS 85 UK 1985 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Here's the final illuminating rip for now.... Very much like it's contemporary, Factory Records, the Illuminated Records label turned towards the promotion of dance music in the mid-80s. House music & rap imports were flooding over from the USA, and the label's mainstay 400 Blows had a minor dance hit with Movin'  ...and then 23 Skidoo began to flirt with rap. This five track EP was released in 1985, aimed at the promotional market and the many DJs who had now begun to influence music purchases & chart positions from the dance floor. None of the subsequent singles made any impact in reality and it was to sound the death bell of what was once a truly influential and ground breaking record label. The record beholds two very worthy stand-outs. The street-soulful Traitor by Elevation is superb and should have broken through and found chart success - it still manages to stand up well ove...

  400 Blows - Groove Jumping [ILL 48812 UK 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Take a hard electro-beat-box rhythm, tie it down with a heavy funk slap bassline, then overlay samples and tape loops. That's pretty easy these days without even picking up a musical instrument or entering a studio. However, this was 1984 and Groove Jumping is one of the hardest & funkiest tracks to come out of the UK's alternative dance scene. Released only as a twelve inch single on Illuminated Records and only ever aired on John Peel's radio show, it never received the recognition deserved. It's a classic. A1 Groove Jumping B1 Strangeways (Revisited)

  400 Blows - Declaration Of Intent [ILL 3012 UK 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] As early pioneers of the indie dance music scene, nobody came close to what Rob Taylor, Tony Thorpe, Alex Fraser and Andrew Edward Beer were doing in the studio in 1984 (except perhaps for those nice 23 Skidoo chaps). Throw in some over-dubs & effects by the Mad Professor and you get the hardest of indie-funk tracks in three mixes. In case there is any interest in other early 400 Blows singles, I have put up new links for my rips of Beat The Devil , Pressure and the very early EP by Concrete,  Ghoulish Practices . A1 Declaration Of Intent B1 Black And White Mix Up B2 Perspective 1

  400 Blows - The Return Of The Dog [ILL 2712 UK 1983 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I started blogging my vinyl rips back in around early 2009, and one of my very first posts was a compilation of my rips of singles by 400 Blows. They were a two piece industrial experimental outfit from London, whose he first single Beat The Devil was self-released on their Concrete Productions label in 1982 and was very much a stripped down minimalist affair which owed much to Cabaret Voltaire and the Sheffield sound.  Bassist Tony Thorpe joined in 1983 when the band also signed to Illuminated Records. The more percussion and bass driven The Return of the Dog was a minor indie hit which clearly leans more into a dance sound, very similar to the early releases by Manchester's A Certain Ratio.  Ripped from ultrasonically cleaned, near mint heavyweight vinyl, this moody post-punk-funk workout jumps of the platter and bites you hard with gruff treated vocals, funky bass lines punch you firmly in t...

  Various Artists - Breaking The Back Of Love [SDLP 1 FRA/UK 1985 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] From memory, last ripped nearly ten years ago, time to dust of an old compilation of fabulous tunes from the era of independent alternative dance music. Regulars will know that I am a bit of a labelcentric and have been known to purchase records based upon the release record label before actually hearing the music. In 1985, Illuminated Records made a sharp turn chasing commercial success following 400 Blows dent on the hit parade but this was to eventually be their downfall and the label folded shortly after.  French affiliate label Saderal Records had begun licensing some releases until their collapse. One of the few items to be released in the UK was this interesting compilation of mostly Illuminated related bands. Most of the acts have featured around my blogs before, except for the ital-disco-pop of Colour Me Pop, the post-goth hi-energy of Lilly AK (featuring Killing Joke's Youth on b...

  The Sinister Ducks - March Of The Sinister Ducks [SIT 25 UK 1983 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Novelty single time. I didn't ever think I would do a 176.4kHz rip of this totally nutty record, but what the hell! Very possibly the silliest thing ever by musicians who should know better, you'll laugh once - maybe twice if you are easily amused. "... like web-footed fascists with mad little eyes! " The Sinister Ducks 7" single snuck out on Situation 2 Records in 1983. In a fold-out, comic book type sleeve, there was absolutely no clue who these clever little, evil Anatidae were. In reality, The Sinister Ducks were... David J (Bauhaus bassist) Max Eider (The Jazz Butcher sax) Alan Moore (legendary Comic book writer) The splendid sleeve was designed by much missed 2000AD artist Kevin O'Neill and also features a comic strip to accompany the smoke filled Alan Moore monologue which adorns the double b-side. A1 March Of The Sinister Ducks B1 Old Gangsters Never Die duck...

  Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement [V2208 UK 1981 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I guess it just had to be this lot next..... I very much doubt anybody needs a history lesson about Heaven 17 and all that went before, it has been well documented elsewhere (and my blogs) before, however I do believe this abum deserved a brand new rip and a short appraisal. Topically, Heaven 17 were banned by the beeb for their political slant on the opening single,  (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang , which did little to help sales or any of the other singles from this album. It would be another year or so before they actually had a hit single. This album did chart and has achieved gold status - it is easily their best work. Originally planned as a spin-off from Marsh & Ware's British Electric Foundation, Heaven 17 would eventually become one of the biggest selling singles bands in 1983. The duo had also spent time helping Tina Turner's career get a restart, but it was their association...

  The Human League - Open Your Heart / Non-Stop [V 453-12 UK 1981 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] With the loss of two founding members, the addition of a Martin Rushent production and two local girls, picked up in a Sheffield nightclub, The Human League went from synthetic-artpop-terrorists to the top of the charts all over the globe. This original UK twelve inch has sat of the shelf unplayed for decades, so give it a good clean and hear how it sounds.... A1   Open Your Heart A2 Non-Stop B1   Open Your Heart / Non-Stop (Instrumentals)

  Chet Baker - Plays The Best Of Lerner & Loewe [CR00360 USA 2021 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Originally released on Riverside Records back in 1959. It is that time of the week to kick back, slip into something a little more comfortable, pour yourself a wee dram. It all starts again tomorrow, in the meantime here is some more Chet.  This was to be one of Baker's last albums recorded in the USA as he, along with many of his peers, was heading for Europe. On this album he plays the tunes of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe from the many musicals composed by the two. He is joined by Bill Evans on piano, Earl May on bass, Herbie Mann, Zoot Simms & Pepper Adams on sax, and Herbie Mann on flute.  Kevin Gray cut this release from the original master tapes for Craft Recordings a few years back, RTI took care of the pressing. A1 I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face A2 I Could Have Danced All Night A3 The Heather On The Hill A4 On The Street Where You Live B1 Almost Lik...

  Bayeté - Worlds Around The Sun [CR00417 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Pianist Todd Cochran was just twenty years old when he recorded Worlds Around The Sun for Prestige Records in 1972. This album was repressed for the very first time last year as part of the Jazz Dispensary/Vinyl Me Please series, with Kevin Gray taking care of mastering at Cohearent Audio and RTI dealing with pressing matters in a limited edition of 1000. This cosmic jazz record comprises a radical mix of styles from free-form funk to post-bop to fusion & beyond. It is also remarkable that all seven tracks are Cochran compositions.  A1 It Ain't A2 Free Angela (Thoughts... And All I've Got To Say) A3 Njeri (Belonging To A Warrior) A4 I'm On It B1 Bayeté (Between Man And God) B2 Eurus (The Southwest Wind)

  Funkadelic - Maggot Brain [HIQLP 2 096 UK 2023 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Funkadelic's psyche-funk-rock masterpiece has recently been re-cut from the original master tape (likely with a digital step along the way of course) for this new double vinyl edition on Westbound Records, who are now owned by Ace Records these days.  It is almost impossible to find minty-clean originals of this album at a reasonable price these days, and given the large number of dodgy reissues in recent years, we should at least be grateful that George Clinton allowed the master tape to be run through once more.  This album is of course, all about the title track and its ten minutes of screeching spaced-out psychedelia. Allegedly recorded in one take under the influence of LSD with guitarist Eddie Hazel playing, quite literally, out of his skin. Funkier numbers such as  You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks and Hit It & Quit It were singles and have been sampled to death over the decades. S...

  Lovelock - Pino Grigio [MINDLESS 021 BEL 2010 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] If you enjoyed last month's Burning Feeling album by electronic music whizz Lovelock (if not why the hell not), then this may well entertain you even further. The American musician got to grips with neo-disco and bashed out this twelve inch EP for Belgian remix label Mindless Boogie way back in 2010. The title track uses the classical score to Brian DePalma's eighties movie Body Double by Pino Donaggio, blending in gorgeous synth loops & hooks to form earworms of an almighty modern ital-disco classic. If you think that sounds intriguing, just wait until you hear what he has done with the pounding eurobeat of This Fear Of Gods by Simple Minds. To finish things off, Lovelock gets to grips with Tubular Bells and turns into a Balearic delight. Prepare to be entertained. A1 Pino Grigio B1 Singing Shower Gods B2 Totally Tubular

  Wire - Snakedrill [12 MUTE 53 UK 1986 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Here is a  brand new 2023 rip and a substantial upgrade on my 2016 rip of Wire's comeback EP, S nakedrill . I bought this twelve inch EP at the old HMV Shop on Swan Lane in Guildford, Surrey - which I recall had one of the very best indie music sections considering it was in an upmarket stockbroker belt town.  Wire had been dormant for six or seven years whilst they all went about their various solo careers and other complicated projects. This record represents a significant return to form and a new relationship with Mute Records  which produced four immaculate studio albums and six magnificent singles. None of the tracks on Snakedrill were to feature on an album at the time. ....could it be a drill? A1 "A Serious Of Snakes" A2 Drill B1 Advantage In Height B2 Up To The Sun Essential!

  David J - Songs From Another Season [BEGA 112 UK 1990 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Songs From Another Season was the third solo album by former Bauhaus bassist David J. Haskins. After they more difficult & arty albums  Etiquette Of Violence and  Crocodile Tears And The Velvet Cosh from the middle eighties, J. had found some recognition as part of Love & Rockets, more especially in the USA.  This album is possible his most accessible, drifting between post-Dylan singer-songwriter, country rock (the occasional twang does break out) and alternative rock. With help from Beggars Banquet Records & the bigger Warners Group in Europe and RCA Records in the USA, it was his most successful, anchored by the single  I'll Be Your Chauffeur .  Haskins deals with most of the instruments himself, however finds occasional support once more from the members of The Jazz Butcher. These songs have a better structure with a considerably better production than his earl...

  Charles Munch/Boston Symphony Orchestra - Bolero [AAPC 1984/LSC-1984 USA 2018 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] If you are British, and of a certain age, I only have two words Torvill & Dean ! Another in my intermittent series of popular classics from the RCA Living Stereo series, properly recorded, properly mastered (by Ryan K. Smith) and properly reissued by Analogue Productions. For retired police constables turned ice dancers, everywhere! A1 Bolero A2 La Valse (Choreographic Poem For Orchestra) B1 Rapsodie Espagnole B2 Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun

  Original Soundtrack - Les Rivières [BEWITH100LP UK 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Subtitled:  Un Récit Documentaire De Mai Hua Mancunian musician Kenny Dickenson has emerged from the late nineties trip-hop & dubstep cultures to become a renowned composer in his own right. Les Rivières is a self-reflective French language documentary film by Vietnamese-born film maker Mai Hua. Whilst the film may not appeal to all tastes, this post is all about the music, which in this case is a soundtrack by Dickerson. After years of session work, Dickerson is named throughout the credits on multiples of album genres over the years, he broke into composition work for commercials before this, his first film soundtrack. Cued from the ambient influences of Eno and modern classical music, this is an impressive work, which should appeal to fans of ambient music and the neo-classics.  References to Vietnam and Asia in general are surprisingly limited,  Les Rivière s blends pi...

  The Durutti Column - Amigos Em Portugal / Dedications For Jacqueline [FA 1652071 PRT 1983 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Back in December last year, I ripped my copy of the 2016 'Durutti Records' reissue of the hard-to-find Amigos Em Portugal album by The Durutti Column. I expressed my concern as to the provenance of the source material for this release and now believe it was from a 44.1kHz rip of a very crackly original vinyl. Since then, I have been able to source an original 1983 pressing and I think we can now do this album justice in full resolution.... In 1983, Vini Reilly was invited by Miguel Esteves Cardoso to Portugal to record a single for small Portuguese independent label, Fundação Atlântica. In a matter of days, in a recording studio in the small town of Paço D'Arcos - armed with his guitar & drum machine, borrowing a local grand piano, Reilly recorded a full albums worth of material in a matter of a few days. This was subsequently released as the now hard to ...

  World Of Twist - Sweets [YRT 72 UK 1991 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] World Of Twist bowed out with this infectious slab of indie-synthpop back in 1991 - Sweets is a deliciously catchy pop single, a far cry from their groovy psychedelic earlier releases, it did sustain the fact that Tony Ogden was a fine songwriter and a great frontman. All that started to go wrong soon after when the record label lost interest, and without warning, Ogden decided to step back from leading the band. Tracks were laid down for a follow up album and singles, however these were all shelved when the band finally split. A1 Sweets (Album Version) B1 Sweets (Barrett 200 Mix) B2 This Too Shall Pass Away (Chat)

  Gábor Szabó - Dreams [MH-8041/VMP C041 USA 2022 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Can the music of Hungarian-American guitarist Gábor Szabó really be considered jazz? Whilst those who may have an opinion ponder a response, the rest of us need to know that this is a remarkably well-performed & well-recorded album by a world renowned guitarist, who probably gets overlooked by all who do not know his music. It was mastered by Ryan K. Smith from the original master tapes as part of the Vinyl Me Please Classics series. Smith's lacquers were then plated up at Quality Record Pressings, part of Chad Kassem's vinyl empire in Salina, Kansas.  After a few years on historic jazz label, Impulse Records, Szabó set up Skye Records with Norman Schwartz, Cal Tjader and Gary McFarland in New York. Dreams was his second album for Skye Records, originally released in 1968. Comprising an entertaining mix of self-compositions and covers, Szabó's interpretation of Donovan's  Ferris Wheel ...

  Black Nasty - Talking To The People [CR00572 USA 2023 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] If you've been following my regular Saturday soul/funk slot, you may also have discovered that Vinyl Me Please are responsible for some damn fine rare reissues from AAA sources. This makes a refreshing change from digital remasters and by putting that little bit of extra effort to source the original master tapes of some very rare original releases, the label are carving themselves some very worthy praise among vinyl enthusiasts. Originally released in 1973 on Stax Records subsidiary Enterprise Records, Talking To The People was the only album by Detroit soul/funk collective Black Nasty. This 2023 reissue was mastered for vinyl by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and it sounds just plain amazing. The musicianship is outstanding, the production is tight & funky, and Smith's mastering skills bring this much overlooked album to life. A1 Talking To The People A2 I Must Be In Love A3 Nasty So...

  Wire - Eardrum Buzz [12 MUTE 87 UK 1989 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] The classic four-piece original Wire line-up were quite productive during their Mute Records period, however changes were afoot as Robert Gotobed was showing signs of needing to move on. Eardrum Buzz didn't feature on a studio album - it was a bonus track on their live album  It's Beginning To And Back Again and after the next single, In Vivo and the Manscape studio album Gotobed was to leave the band. The single was to be a live favourite with it's classic Colin Newman harmonies around the chorus, I have always thought it lacked a bottom end as the drums and bass were a little too restrained. The Offer on the flipside is by far the stand out piece on this single. A1 Eardrum Buzz B1 The Offer B2 It's A Boy (Instrumental)