Needle Time

  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...

  Cowboys International -  The Original Sin [V2136 UK 1979 24-Bit 48kHz FLAC] We sadly lost Keith Levine this week, so this crackly old post-punk classic kicks things off. Originally posted to ESWA in September 2016, presented here as the original rip. Ripped from a vinyl album released on Virgin Records (V 2136) in 1979 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. Post-punk history has forgotten Cowboys International to its cost. If ever there was a band who should be applauded for steering the direction of post-punk into the more mass audience friendly new wave sound, it is these highly influential Scotsmen who after just one album steered a whole generation of genres.  Originally known as The Quick Spurts (great punk name), Ken Lockie and Keith Levene formed Cowboys International. Levene moved on to other more successful projects but did lend his unique guitar sound to the closing Wish . Lockie worked with an ever changing line-up of talent in the two short years the Cowboys...