Van Der Graaf Generator on Back On Black vinyl!!

 NOT to be confused with either the shitty recent 4 Men With Beards vinyl, or the low grade Universal Back To Black series, new 2012 releases from the U.K. reissue label Back On Black Prog Classics of 3 very important, seminal records by Van Der Graaf Generator - We Can Only Wave To Each Other, H To He Who Am The Only One, and Pawn Hearts. Each are double vinyl sets, the original album on the first record, the bonus tracks from the most recent CD remasters on the second. Nice. Unlike most "bonus tracks", which in my experience are usually net detractors and best left in the tape vault, each of these bonus tracks is near essential.

 If you don't know VDGG, you need to, fast. This was such an influential band, so unique, and so timeless. I first heard Pawn Hearts when I was around 13, I bought it in one of those sneak out of the house adventure trips downtown and bought it with my allowance money (along with Family's "Anyways") purely on the attraction of the cover, and the promise it held for the music, which I had never heard. It was a huge revelation and influence on me, that continues to this day. Such is my esteem for VDGG that a signed reproduction of the Pawn Hearts cover is in my dining room!

It's pretty obvious that the source is the Peter Hammill remasters, likely a hi-res file, but it has not been simply taken from digital and cut to vinyl - there has clearly been a mastering with sensitivity for this vinyl release, as they sound extremely good - very clear, transparent, detailed, not euphonic but not clinical either - if anything the bass is a bit too powerful. I have original U.K. pressings of each, and first Japanese pressings also. The sound here is not that of the U.K. originals, which are magical even though they were not demo class. There is a air that originals possess, a glow around the instruments and the voice, a very special quality. But as a modern remastering, these can hardly be faulted, and particularly for the bonus tracks. The pressings are pristine, flat and very quiet. Far superior to a 4 Men With Beards pressing, and sonically far superior also.

If you can get mint originals, do it. Then get these as well. You need them both. Desert Island music. Highest possible recommendation.