New Blue Note vinyl from Toshiba Japan - 200g mono LP's:

Here we have a new series from Toshiba-EMI Japan - Blue Note mono pressings on 200g vinyl.

The technical stuff: Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant. Pressed at Quality Records, Chad Kassem's new Kansas pressing plant. Sleeves printed inthe USA. Taken from the original RVG mono master tapes (which are known to be 'fold-downs' of the stereo tapes, but wrongly assumed to be nothing more than a straight fold-down). Horribly expensive to import (I got mine from HMV Japan). The usual high standard of packing the Japanese are known for - LP packed outside the sleeve, even outside the inner sleeve, with a round bottom anti-static sleeve contained in a separate white cardboard cover. Japanese outer sleeve. Bulletproof.

Now, much will be made (and is being made by Chad Kassem/Quality Record Pressings) about a Japanese record company using a US plant to press vinyl. Unfortunately, I have to say this turns out to be a terrible mistake.

I have been enjoying quite a bit of the fast growing QRP output - and at the same time thinking 'this is all a bit too fast and too much output for a new plant' - and sure enough, I have been finding QRP pressings pretty good as far as flatness and centering goes, but no better than RTI (even a bit more inconsistent) in terms of quietness. To be blunt - I find that QRP, just like RTI, produces records than have tons of micro scruffs and scratches, and simply too many ticks and pops.


Getting down to these new QRP pressed Toshiba-EMI Blue Note pressings - I got Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage, and Hank Mobley's Soul Station. Both I have on 33rpm King Blue Note, Maiden Voyage also on AP 45 rpm, Soul Station on Music Matters 45rpm. Sonically, bearing in mind I am comparing mono to stereo, I prefer the direct and robust sounding mono Toshiba Hancock to the Analogue Productions which is too smoothed over and lacks punch and dynamism, but the Mobley I prefer the Music Matters for its more vivid and tonally rich presentation.

But both Toshiba pressings are, unfortunately, much too noisy for a $60+ pressing. The quality, while obviously better than, say, a Rainbo pressing, just isn't at the top echelon yet. And QRP messed up BOTH labels- see the picture below for what I mean - this just is not the quality I expect at this price point, and sheesh, even Rainbo can get a label on a record cleanly.

 

Sonically - interesting, and worthwhile. Quality needs to take a big step up.