Small Faces - Ogdens Nut Gone Flake 2012 mono vinyl:

Cause for celebration in 2012 - the Small Faces Immediate catalog is getting remastered, for the first time in nearly half a century from the original masters. There was a taste on Record Store Day - singles of Tin Soldier and Itchykoo Park that sound fabulous. Now comes Ogdens Nut Gone Flake on LP, from the mono masters, with the original round cover nicely reproduced.

The packaging sucks. It's just plain stupid to put a 180g LP inside the round paper cover without it's own sleeve or any protection. It not only flys around the outer sleeve in transit, it flys straight through the paper cover as well as the thick plastic outer sleeve. This is just purposely designed to ensure that virtually every copy will have a torn cover and seam split sleeve. Stupid.

The Lp pressing (and fortunately at least my pressing survived in transit, from online UK dealer Burning Shed, who should know better), and it is a decently quiet pressing, if not the best looking one. A good clean with Nitty Gritty First Rv took care of the business end.

I admit I have not the slightest clue what an original mono sounds like. This one sounds just great - punchy, powerful, lots of definition, strong bass. Vocals can be on some songs a tad recessed, but this is almost certainly both intentional and indicative of the recordings themselves, which were all over the map and not aimed at demo quality. Overall sonically it is well balanced and tonally excellent.

Without a doubt Ogden was meant to be heard in stereo. The stereo mix - I have a decent sounding Japanese pressing - has the psych tendencies the mono tends to downplay, through the two channel mix. So this might be considered a curiosity, it is a different view of a great classic album, and although inevitably there are some who will jump all over it sonically for no good reason, it sounds very good, is all analog from true master tapes, is mastered with care, and despite the shitty packaging is highly recommended.