JACO PASTORIUS arrives at 45 rpm from ORG:

Following on the heels of ORG's reissue of Weather Report's "Heavy Weather" comes Jaco Pastorius' first S/T album. This is a fabulous, amazing record that shows Jaco's dazzling bass technique and his diverse sense of adventure. It takes chances, knocks down walls, and deserves it's reputation as a classic, masterpiece of a record. As usual, Bernie Grundman does the honors and shows again why he is the best mastering guru in the business. The sound has never been, and probably never will be, bettered. And has unfortunately become the norm for ORG since it switched from Pallas to RTI, the pressing leaves much to be desired - just like with Heavy Weather, mine has a glaring defect on side two that should not be anywhere near a premium $55 pressing.

ORG is a fantastic label - going in the opposite direction from ORG Music in terms of great titles and great sound. But the pressing quality needs to match that standard. Absolutely, totally, highly recommended and hoping you get a defect free pressing.

Who says vinyl reissues are American Centric?

 I read a thread a short time ago, on you-know-who's board, decrying the dearth of 'audiophile' reissue labels outside of the American ones. Well, for an American, maybe that is true, particularly if one views the universe as revolving around Salina, Kansas. For others with a wider view, that is far from the case.

I suppose it revolves around what one's view of 'audiophile' reissues is. If it is what we are told in the American online and mainstream media, it means pressed at RTI or Pallas, mastered by some "big name" mastering guru, and produced by one of the specialist "audiophile' labels. That' s a construct invented and perpetrated by the American audiophile retailers, the online "big box" retailers that control the distribution chain for pricey audiophile reissues. And not surprisingly, the absence of awareness of vinyl reissues originating outside of America is completely perpetrated by those retailers - none of them carry any of the European labels, aside from the big ones - Speakers Corner and Pure Pleasure, as well as a few classical labels like Supercuts and Testament.

Reality is, though, that the best and most exciting reissues are coming out of Europe and have been for years. Spanish label Guerssen is a prime example. There has been a steady stream of top flight obscurities, underground classics, and minor masterpieces from this label, the latest being Octopus "Restless Night" and Apple's "An Apple A Day", wonderful records from the long defunct Penny Farthing label which was a prime mover of psych tinged pop in the 1960's. Both are far superior to the garage psych coming out of the U.S at the time, and either put most of the Sundazed catalog to shame. An amazing attention to detail on the part of Guerssen - authentic glossy flipback covers, sleeves that match the textures of the originals, cover art that at least is as good as was able to be produced back in the 60's, wonderful, dead quiet, clean 180g pressings, and much better lined inners than Speakers Corner or Pure Pleasure use.

Guerssen have also reissued two late 60's Hollies masterpieces - "Butterfly" and "Evolution" Both remastered analog with care, at least as good if not better sounding than the typical Salina fare.

 Coming soon from Guerssen is the Plastic Penny records originally on Penny Farthing - both are superb, particularly Currency (decent originals go for very big bucks). Look into Guerssen. They are right up there with the very best.

In the U.K., Sunbeam have been reissuing some amazing titles for several years.  Two recent issues, remastered at Abbey Road (analog, for this vinyl edition) are two classics by Kaleidoscope. Not the American Kaleidoscope, the U.K. band that issued two stone classic pieces of psychedelia - "Tangerine Dream" and "Faintly Blowing", the former being by a slight margin the better and harder rocking record. Both have long been considered psych masterpieces among underground collectors. Here they are beautifully pressed, sound fabulous, and deserve your attention. Sunbeam have a pretty impressive vinyl catalog that you need to check out - Blossom Toes, Gordon Jackson ( virtually a lost Traffic album!), Synanthesia, Moonkyte, Mighty Baby, and many others. Or, you can re-purchase The Doors catalog from Chad Kassem for the umpteenth time, and be bored.

 Then - there is Acme Records, that operate so far under the radar they barely register. This U.K. company have a website that hasn't been updated in years, but who can blame them - Acme product sells out the minute it hits the market, if not before. Titles that have come and gone include T2's legendary "It'll All Work Out In Boomland", as well as the long lost unreleased second T2 album, The Syn (Chris Squire's pre-Yes band), an amazing set of boxes featuring mostly obscure and highly collectible Decca psych and mod singles. Most of these have been long out of print and are highly prized.

 Andromeda's "Seven Lonely Street", a new reissue from Acme, a 1969 prog/psych/garage obscurities, has killer leads, a heavy proggy vibe and is just killer. Also look for the Acme reissue of Bulldog Breed's original Deram Nova album. Acme gives you superb remastered sound, that to my ears are analog, and decent if not always top pressings, well presented in period reproduction covers.

Even better from Acme is Fuzzy Duck's self titled album, another psych prog rock obscurity that commands big dollars on the collectors circuit, is given a fine reissue by Acme that includes a bonus rare 45. Not to be missed. The fuzz is in the guitars, the Hammond reminds of Jon Lord, and it rocks.

So there you go - the most interesting reissues are actually coming from the very vibrant European market, and never hit the mainstream over here. And I haven't even gotten to labels like Wah-Wah yet....

SACD from Esoteric and Toshiba/EMI Japan:

 I have been getting quite a few of the Esoteric SACD's from Japan, astonishingly high priced if bought from domestic dealers like Elusive Disc, Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds, a bit more if brought in from overseas (JPC gets them faster, cheaper and charge less to ship than any domestic source). Price is typically not the main driver to real hard core audiophiles, but wit Esoteric, the sonics have some question marks. Hi-res digitally sourced, the sound is incredibly transparent and detailed - but the warmth and tonality seem to be missing. It's all very "audiophile", but misses the organicness and tonality of a great remastering. Still, they have their strengths, and are alluring.

The remastered box of Rudolph Kempe's 1970's Beethoven symphonies may seem an odd choice. Kempe's Beethoven cycle was issued first as a quad novelty, never issued at full price in North America, and has critically not been placed at the top of the mountain of Beethoven cycles. So it is actually an absolutely inspired choice by Esoteric, as Kempe is hugely regadred in Japan, and in Europe, and only his unfortunate early death (Karajan so highly regarded Kempe that he stopped a concert in London to mark a minute of silence in tribute to Kempe) prevented him from reaching the age where conductors become legends.

As far as the music, Kempe's vision of Beethoven is quite unique, it is of the Germanic tradition, and at times is old worldly, but is very compelling, and musical, and is neither Klemperer, nor is it Karajan, it is certainly not Krips. On it's own this is a fine cycle, very German, by a singularly fine musician and an orchestra totally idiomatic. Here it sounds better than it ever has and Esoteric has given it very loving care.

A final tribute to Kempe - this set virtually sold out the minute it hit the market, almost entirely on the back of Asian sales. They know a great musician even if North Americans don't.

 It's safe to say that there are no classical music buyers who don't have an opinion on Herbert Von Karajan. Many myths abound about him as a person, particularly by Americans who want to hang on to falsehoods to validate their own angry politics. But as a musician, and advocate for classical music, there can be no denying that Karajan, from the late 60's through to past his death, was the market maker around whom the classical recording industry was built. As he entered the digital age, he became increasingly trapped by the machinery he helped to create, until shortly before his death, when unburdened by a BPO that had turned on their rainmaker, he made some transcendent recordings with the VPO that abandoned the pursuit of technical perfection in favor of exposing Karajan's soul. His VPO Bruckner 8 will never be equalled.

Esoteric bring a rather misleadingly labelled disc featuring his EMI digital recording of the Sibelius 2 which is glorious. The power of the final bars has never been equalled and Karajan invokes an other worldliness that is transformative. Fillers are earlier analog recordings of The Swan Of Tuonela and Finlandia, favorite Karajan lollipops - but without the En Saga listed on the cover, which would have been a better choice.

 Karl Bohm's BPO recording of Brahms' first is rightly regarded as one of the best ever made. Here it is given a very full bodied, yet detailed and transparent presentation that outshines any previous issue. Bohm's Brahms is worth every penny this disc costs. A great choice.

Last from Esoteric, Schubert's Great from Rudolph Kempe. A 1968 Munich recording, once again, Kempe is solidly in the modern Germanic tradition, but his virtues of being an exceptional musician and eschewing any flash or ego makes this one of the finest Schubert 9th ever recorded, and Esoteric give it a warm, detailed, and very transparent remastering. Highly recommended, as are virtually all Kempe recordings.

 Moving on to Toshiba EMI who have begun a new series of 100 hybrid SACD's newly remastered from original tapes at Abbey Road, directed at the Japanese market. Expensive, but about half the typical price of an Esoteric, these new transfers are exceptionally good. Far superior to earlier EMI remasters of this material, particularly the "Great Recordings Of The Century" series, these have been carefully and sympathetically remastered, and although the Prism noise reduction system has been used, it has been used judiciously, and in conjunction with a superior DSD chain.

The sound is better than I have ever heard from EMI, even better than the budget priced series of a few years back that was mastered in Japan without noise reduction and sounded very good. Martinon's 1960's complete Debussy recordings with the ORTF is a great example, wonderful tonality, big dynamic range, clarity, transparency, and not a hint of digititis.

Same with Samson Francois' Ravel Concertos recording, where the piano, so difficult to record correctly, has the tone and percussiveness it should, enveloped in a real acoustic surrounded by a wonderfully alive and vibrant orchestral bed.

In many ways, I have to judge the Toshiba EMI remasterings in this series superior to the sound Esoteric gets for a much higher price. Sometimes Abbey Road is criticized for the sound they produce, wrongly, as this series proves. Some of these are finding their way into a much more limited, and lower priced, domestic series. Grab those, and as many as the Japanese titles as you can. These are the best classical remasters to come around for a long time, and without a doubt, are being produced with a view down the road to EMI entering the high resolution download business with a bang.

A few more of those dubious mono Japanese 200g Blue Notes:

 I have previously written critically on the new series from Disk Union in Japan of mono Blue Note titles on 200g vinyl. Quite a few comments received on that, questioning the sources used, even going so far as to quote remastering engineer Kevin Gray - who should know definitively - that the sources are truly the original RVG mono Blue Note tapes.

As with everything else on the internet, believe what you care to. It's all too easy to find flat out false claims online and it's populated with shills and phony experts, and even decent people trying to sell a dubious product in a very tough economic climate. Don't believe what you read online, believe what you hear.

I've been pretty clear - I find these records pretty good sounding, a tribute to the skills of Gray. But they are nowhere near the Music Matters series, and my ears tell me they are not sourced from true mono masters. Case in point - Sonny Clark's "Cool Struttin". This one has all the telltale signs of the RVG digital remasters of a decade ago. Deep, wide soundstage with plenty of room ambiance, and a thinness on top and lack of power that reeks of a fold-down of a digital file. Nowhere near as good as the Classic Bernie Grundman mono, challenged though that series was (through no fault of Grundman) by an inferior cutting chain.

On the other hand, the recent Joe Henderson "In 'N Out" is much better, and while still nowhere near the Grundman Clasic monos (that were sourced from true Blue Note mono masters), on it's own it stands up fairly well. And it's a great record, not part of the Music Matters series.

Let's be fair, though. These are by far the most expensive 33rpm product out there - by a wide margin. Upwards of $50-60 plus shipping. They should be FABULOUS - awesome - mind boggling. And they are fairly ordinary at best. I don't blame Kevin Gray at all - in my business, I have lots of situations where a client wants a job done and it's not anywhere near optimal conditions - often not right at all, and I have the choice to stick to my standards or to leave the money on the table, knowing there are plenty of others who will gladly take the money and do the job, often not as well as I could. Gray has done the best possible here.

These are for collectors to own, frame, and never listen to. Make your decision accordingly.

POSTSCRIPT: I listened to the Classic Records pressing of the mono Donald Byrd "Fuego" right after listening to the Japanese Joe Henderson.  Much as some wankers like to jump all over Grundman's Classic mono Blue Notes, the Byrd blows the Henderson away with a huge walking bass sound that is just so right, that sense of space Grundman does so well, and the punchiness and vibrancy of mono that just comes strutting through. The Japanese monos sound two dimensional, weak, and lifeless by comparison.

CSN and Dio from Audio Fidelity:

 Let 's face it - Audio Fidelity has had 'challenges' since day one. Dubious marketing claims, quality control lapses and gaffes, flat out half and full untruths about their source tapes. Probably worst of all, they have tried to be a revived DCC, but unfortunately, mastering technology has caught up with them, and many audiophiles have been underwhelmed with the sound of AF reissues, appreciating the increased clarity but find the sound clinical - lacking the warmth of the old DCC's. Generally speaking, I have found that is a pretty fair summation of the AF sound.

So along comes Crosby, Stills & Nash and their S/T debut. Hoffman does the EQ consulting on this one, mastered by Stephen Marsh. Hoffman tried to prime the market on his forum by claiming this is the first version from the true masters, which is bullshit - the older gold CD from WEA is from the masters also. But mastering technology has taken some huge leaps in the interim, so it is interesting to see how this one turned out.

And on the surface, it's pretty impressive. Obviously a LOT of EQ tweaking has been done here, and the sound is very 'alive' and vibrant, highly detailed, with good dimensionality and transparency. On the surface, the 1993 Gaswirt gold CD can't touch it - by comparison, it sounds somewhat flatter and less alive. But...a few more listens, and getting past the surface gloss added by the master manipulator, and something very wrong is happening here. And if you know the sound of a Martin guitar, you will hear it pretty fast. Hoffman has pumped the mids to give the Martins used on this record a wetter, fatter and warmer sound - exactly what the notoriously dry sounding Martin guitars are not. And at that point, this remastering comes terribly off the rails. It's just TONALLY all wrong - the Gastwirt actually got it right, first time. Sure, the Marrakesh Express organ sound effects just pop right out with the AF - but is that really what was intended? Just look to Bernie Grundman's remastering on Classic vinyl to find out the truth. Hoffman has made those organ train whistles into sound effects - tinkly, garish sound effects.

Like I said, the AF offers some very clear and tangible sonic gains, and certainly has been made more "audiophile", and exciting though it is, the tonal truth is on the Gastwirt gold CD, and even more so on Grundman's vinyl.

On to Dio's "Holy Diver", an odd choice for an audiophile reissue. As far as Dio goes, it's his classic, but in the pantheon of metal, it hasn't aged overly well, and there is certainly a lot better metal choices out there. But if you are offering metal pop for the aged and infirm, I suppose this hits the bullseye.

Sounds very good on the AF. Warmer, yet at the same time that AF clinicalness is there. And that makes it rock less hard than it should - so although this is a fine sounding disc, and a fine remastering, it probably isn't in the league of what the old DCC would choose to put out.

ECM - still among the most vibrant and relevant labels:

 ECM after 3 decades still manages to keep itself relevant and interesting, even exciting. Many ECM titles end up being my most anticipated, and while I tend to veer away from some of the more 'atmospheric' titles (as in, slow, new age-y, moody as a genre type shit), there are some very cutting edge titles being released. You can find out about Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek ECM's on Amazon, I'm interested in some you probably haven't heard about - and should.

Andy Sheppard's Trio Libero is not surprisingly a trio record. Unlike the previous ECM 'Movements In Colour', which is a masterpiece where the case for tablas replacing drums is most persuasive, Trio Libero is more vague and less grounded, hampered ECM giving Sheppard a sound-space like Garbarek records - big, lots of echo, hollow - that doesn't suit the music.

Sheppard is a great player and Movements In Colour is essential in any collection. Trio Libero is a miss.

On the other hand, Tord Gustavsen's "The Well" is a fine European record that, well, doesn't swing in the New York sense, but swings hard in it's European Classical way. Tore Brunborg is here on tenor, and he's no Garbarek, thankfully. He's a full throated jazz player, without any pretensions. Gustavsen plays chamber jazz, yet shows blues and even gospel harmonies and runs within that framework. The music is a classic quartet, inspired, on the ground (albeit Norwegian ground, not American) and is among the best working groups on the current scene. Highly recommended.

Billy Hart keeps on working, and here comes a quartet with the tenor of Mark Turner (who does another ECM band called Fly which is truly awful), the piano of Ethan Iverson, and the fine bass of Ben Street. This working band has recorded previously for High Note (the ultrafine "Quartet") and this new CD, "All Our Reasons", is very fine also. Hart is one of the great drummers, or perhaps more accurately up with Elvin as one of the great 'cymbals' players, and he is the driving presence here, along with Street. Turner plays his best in front of Hart. A good, recommendable CD.

At the other spectrum, Masabumi Kikuchi is little known outside Japan, where his 1980's "Susto" was a minor fusion hit. He did a fair bit of respected acoustic work for Three Blind Mice, and after being under the radar for far too long, arrives with "Sunrise', a trio record featuring the great Paul Motian in one of his last sessions. And a great one it is - Motian comes full circle here from his Bill Evans era, with the great abstract player Kikuchi drawing bold tone poems and once both abstract and familiar, this will no doubt be acclaimed as one of the best jazz records of the year.

And what's great about ECM - their new release schedule shows even more highly anticipate-able recordings due in May. Stay tuned.

Record Store Day 2012 - my take...

Another Record Store Day comes and goes. Mixed feelings - it's a massive gouge, plenty of overpriced 45's and stuff that really is of marginal value and couldn't be sold other than on a promotional day like this. Some things of value, some hidden gems. But overall, there is little that would be missed if it never came out, yet, the flipside is that RSD puts a huge amount of profit into indie retailers pockets (and, sadly, Ebay record scalpers) and as that helps sustain retailers that often struggle financially and are swimming upstream against the tide, I can't complain and jump in there happily with my hand in my pocket.

I picked up most of the Sundazed singles. Sonically they are outstanding, musically, The Blues Project is awesome and the B-side is even better than the A-side, the Beefheart is good but pretty early, inessential and not fully formed Beefheart, The Byrds is well done but inessential, the Chocolate Watch Band and Blues Magoos are essential and are stompers. The Gene Clark is really a Byrds thing and is really good. The Paul Revere is missable.

The Mastodon/Flaming Lips single is excellent, the Mastodon/Feist less so, mostly due to the rather lightweight Feist, not helped by a really shitty pressing. The non-album B-side to the Paul Weller single is a great track, very worth having. Less so the B to the Springsteen single. Blitzen Trapper return with a good 45 offering, the Black Angels single is not really all that great, although the RaRaRiot split is. And so it goes...all the way to the two Small Faces singles, which are simply stupendous sounding, coming as analog cuts from true, long unused original masters - Tin Soldier has never sounded so good. The Clash London Calling 45 is rather poor value, the 2012 remix is no great revelation, and the instrumental version on the B-side a curiosity at best.

The revelatory 45 set of RSD 2012 comes from Light in The Attic, following last year's excellent Wheedle's Groove box with this years Flipside Of Stax box, a great set of long forgotten, yet absolutely revelatory Stax and Volt singles, beautifully pressed and presented with original labels and a very high quality booklet, containing a rare current interview with founders Jim Stewart and Al Bell. Should still be very easy to get a copy at your local.

The major box set of RSD 2012 must be the Tomahawk box. I haven't listened to Mit Gas in many years, awesome a record though it is, and here on vinyl it, and the other two Tomahawks albums in the set, sounds fabulous and is a good pressing. I got mine for under $50, a true bargain for 3 LPs. This is what makes Record Store Day worthwhile.

Picked up Spot the Pigeon, the Genesis EP on Audio Fidelity. Sounds really amazing, and the songs are good - very good actually, in ways better than anything on Wind & Wuthering, the sessions they come from. At the same time, I can hear why they weren't included on Wind & Wuthering - they don't fit that album conceptually, and would have made it a much different record. Lyrically they are at times inconsistent, but overall, great stuff and indicative of a stronger direction Genesis could have taken as they were concurrently heading in a poppier direction.

Seem that the 'hot' title this RSD was the Phish 3 LP set. I had it in my hands, and was tempted, even though I have never been able to 'get' Phish. Nice looking package though, but I passed - probably could have recouped a lot of my RSD investment by selling it on Ebay, but I never want to be one of those people.

I did get the usual Grateful Dead offering, though, well done and fairly priced, this time it is a continuation of the '72 live series, a single disc containing one performance of Dark Star spread over two sides, intelligently cut to be a continuous experience. Very good sounding, pressed at RTI in not their top quality, very worthwhile to Dark Star aficionados.

Likewise, mclusky's Do Dallas is one of those under the radar RSD treats - this is a seminal underground record, punkish, punchy, off beat and very lyrically offbeat, makes God Save The Queen sound like a stupid pop record. One to get.

Dinosaur Jr's Electronic Anthology is a marginal pressing that takes a bit of work to get quiet, these reworking of Dinosaur Jr tracks is actually very good and this is a record worth having.

Vanguard reissue Joan Baez (Farewell Angelina) and This Is Buddy Guy, both seminal records, both sounding very good and well pressed.

Sony brings out Forever Miles, an anthology of tracks from the various Miles CD box sets that have never appeared on vinyl before. I was going to pass, but got roped in by the interesting track selection, I'm glad I did as it is really very good, sounds pretty good, and is well pressed. Worth seeking out a copy.

The Flaming Lips are kind of a RSD staple, and "The Flaming Lips and Heady Fweinds" is a two LP set of tracks from various collaboration over the past year and a bit. 4 of the tracks have been previously issued on 12" 45's, the rest are new to this set, making it very worthwhile if your head is into where the Lips are these days, which is further out there than ever into 4:20 day territory, I love it and this is a great RSD release. Should be super easy to find for cheap as tons of these were pressed - don't buy on Ebay unless you are one of the dumber members of the 1%.

A few other odds & ends, like a Velvet Underground "Loaded" on pink vinyl that sounds ok, but not super, the source material is not great to begin with. Haven't been able to track down what looks to be an awesome Steven Wilson record.

That's it until the more dubious side of RSD hits on Black Friday.