This Super Hot Stamper Black Label Original Contemporary pressing has SUPERB sound on BOTH sides. All that stuff we tend to say about the original tube-mastered Contemporary pressings being fat and dull does not apply here whatsoever. This record is mastered beautifully, we real transient attacks to all the percussion. When Shelly bangs on the bass drum it goes Ka-Boom and really rattles the walls. As a Demo Disc this one is pretty hard to beat!  

Remember the old Acoustic Sounds Analog Revival series mastered by Stan Ricker? This was one of the titles they did, and completely ruined of course. Ricker boosted the hell out of the top end, as is his wont, so all the percussion had the phony MoFi exaggerated spit and tizziness that we dislike so much around here at Better Records but that many if not most audiophiles never seem to notice.

The whole series was an audio disaster, but funnily enough, I cannot remember reading a single word of criticism anywhere discussing the shortcomings of that series of pressings. Outside of my own reviews of course. Has anything in audio really changed? 

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Instruments

Standard Bass Drum 
Jawbone of Ass 
High hat cymbal stand 
American Indian Tom-Toms 
Elephant and goat bells 
Standard snare drum 
Concert bass drum 
Hawaiian slit bamboo sticks
Assorted cymbals (sizzle cymbal on left)
Tom-toms 
African thumb piano 
Piccolo Boo-Bam 
Accessory case w/sand shaker, tambourine jingle stick and mallets shown on top
Loo-Jon 
Rubber mallets made from knitting needle and ball used in game of ‘jacks’
Timbales 
Rice 
Chinese Gong
Castanets

TRACK LISTING

Side One

Pionciana
My Funny Valentine
The Continental
By Myself
Stormy Weather
Begin the Beguine

Side Two

Night and Day
Makin’ Whoopee
The Piccolino
I’ll Remember April
The Boy Next Door
Temptation