Month: October 2019

John Coltrane / Blue Train – Our Shootout Winner from 2011

This Blue Note pressing has THE BEST SIDE TWO we’ve ever heard or expect to hear! It does EVERYTHING right, giving you the kind of Blue Train sound that most jazz fans have dreamed of forever but certainly have never heard before. The sound is absolutely KILLER, sounding dramatically more like live music than any copy we’ve played. It’s full-bodied and rich with tons of energy, YOU ARE THERE immediacy and wonderful clarity. There’s also a ton of tubey magic and an unbelievably strong bottom end, making this the kind of record that’s going to BLOW YOU AWAY. I bet you never believed Blue Train could sound like this — heck, we sure didn’t! (more…)

McCoy Tyner – Extensions

  • With nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on side one this copy has the real Blue Note magic 
  • The sound on side one was bigger, clearer, less boxy and simply more relaxed and musical than almost any other side we heard
  • The really good RVG pressings like this one sound shockingly close to live music
  • 4 1/2 Stars: “The all-star sextet stretches out on lengthy renditions of four of Tyner’s modal originals, and there is strong solo space for the leader and the two saxophonists. Wayne Shorter in particular is often quite intense. Stimulating music.”

With Alice Coltrane on harp, this is one trippy album! For those with adventurous tastes you are sure to have an interesting musical experience with this one.

We enjoy the sound of a great many Blue Note pressings from the ’70s, although to be fair there are plenty of dogs out there too. The reason this LP and others from the era have such transparency and such an extended top end compared with some of RVG’s older recordings is due, at least to some degree, to the better cutting equipment he had available to him in the ’70s. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “…you turn me on to albums I would never have even thought to listen to.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Harry Nilsson Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom, 

I was totally blown away by the Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 album you sent me. The lovely, sweet female vocals and the awesome percussion was to die for. For a supposed easy listening album, I was getting very excited! In fact, I cannot stop listening to it. My only complaint is it is too short in duration. When it is over, I want (need?) more! Do his other albums sound like this? If so, I will be buying more.

This is what I love about you guys, you turn me on to albums I would never have even thought to listen to. For example, on your recommendation, I ordered Harry Nillsson’s A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night.

This is an album I would never have given a second look at, yet, as soon as the needle hit the groove, I was floored. The vocal presence is startling. It is like Harry is in the room singing to me.

It reminds me a lot of one of my other favourites I bought from you a while back – a White Hot copy of Willie Nelson’s Stardust. 

Willie, Harry and Sergio as demo discs…who would have thought!

Jody S. 

Chopin / Ashkenazy in Concert

Superb sounding Decca British Import LP!

This live recording has very natural sound. I normally do not care for Ashkenazy’s playing, but here he plays with a conviction that is usually lacking. Check out the 2nd movement on the sonata.

This album includes Chopin’s Sonata No. 2, Two Nocturnes, Mazurka in A and Grande Valse Brillante.

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New Jazz Conceptions Is Not What It Should Be on OJC

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Bill Evans Available Now

Another weak sounding jazz reissue on Original Jazz Classics from the 80s.

Don’t get us wrong — they are a lot of good ones. Here is the list of the OJCs we’ve auditioned and found to have at least the potential for good sound.

And here are the OJCs we’ve auditioned and found wanting to some degree.

Not all of them are bad; some are just not very good and would not be suitable for an audiophile with high standards.

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Ry Cooder – Boomer’s Story

More Ry Cooder

This is a QUIET Reprise Tan Label LP with a good side one and a GREAT side two. It’s not the best copy we’ve ever heard but it’s a step up from most of what’s out there. Side two is very natural and incredibly clean. The presence is wonderful, the top end is sweet, and the transparency is top-notch. Side one is similar but a bit smooth for our tastes.

We’re big Ry Cooder fans here at Better Records, and this is one of our favorites. Make sure to check out the lovely reading of Dark End Of The Street that opens side two. (more…)

Surrealistic Pillow – We Found a Good Sounding Orange Label Pressing

Hot Stamper Pressings of Folk Rock Albums Available Now

This review was written more than ten years ago. At this time [2023] we no longer pick up any pressings with the later label. So few sound any good, why waste time searching for so few needles sitting in so many haystacks?

This QUIET orange label (!) pressing has surprisingly good sound, some of the best sound we have ever heard for that more-often-than-not dismal second label in fact. It actually beat a few of our black label originals, with more tubey magic and less distortion and harshness than we expect from these later pressings. 

We always have fun playing this psychedelic ’60s masterpiece. The sound — problematical as it may be — gives you so many of the qualities we love about good ol’ analog. No one’s recording albums these days with this kind of richness, sweetness, and warmth, that’s for sure. Drop the needle on My Best Friend or Today to hear that trippy Sixties San Francisco sound at its best.

This album is an exceedingly difficult nut to crack — no matter how many copies we have, no matter how much information we have to work with. Play the typical copy and you’ll likely run for cover — we heard copies that were aggressive, shrill, lifeless, dull, thick, veiled, bass-shy — you name it, we heard it. Not only that, but as a rule most pressings, even the orange labels ones, are BEAT TO DEATH. Finding a copy that sounds any good and plays Mint Minus Minus or better is a real challenge.

Less Distortion

This one is cut very clean, with less of the grit and grunge that you hear on so many copies. The overall sound is rich, full, and tonally correct. There’s a touch of smear and the vocals don’t have all the presence of the best originals, but this is still an excellent copy that will sound better and play quieter than most copies out there. (more…)

Sly and The Family Stone’s Fresh Was Revolutionary

More of the Music of Sly and the Family Stone

Reviews and Commentaries for Sly and the Family Stone

Jazz legend Miles Davis was so impressed by the song “In Time” from the album that he made his band listen to the track repeatedly for a full 30 minutes.

Composer and music theorist Brian Eno cited Fresh as having heralded a shift in the history of recording, “where the rhythm instruments, particularly the bass drum and bass, suddenly [became] the important instruments in the mix.”

George Clinton, who has listed Fresh as one his favorite albums, later convinced the Red Hot Chili Peppers to cover “If You Want Me to Stay” on their second album, the Clinton-produced Freaky Styley.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 186 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Wikipedia

Fresh expands and brightens the slow grooves of There’s a Riot Goin’ On, turning them, for the most part, into friendly, welcoming rhythms. There are still traces of the narcotic haze of Riot, particularly on the brilliant, crawling inversion of “Que Sera, Sera,” yet this never feels like an invitation into a junkie’s lair.

Still, this isn’t necessarily lighter than Riot — in fact, his social commentary is more explicit, and while the music doesn’t telegraph his resignation the way Riot did, it comes from the same source. So, Fresh winds up more varied, musically and lyrically, which may not make it as unified, but it does result in more traditional funk that certainly is appealing in its own right.

Besides, this isn’t conventional funk — it’s eccentric, where even concise catchy tunes like “If You Want Me to Stay” seem as elastic as the opener, “In Time.” That’s the album’s ultimate charm — it finds Sly precisely at the point where he’s balancing funk and pop, about to fall into the brink, but creating an utterly individual album that wound up being his last masterwork and one of the great funk albums of its era.

Allmusic

Mystery To Me – Whomp Factor on “Why”

More of the Music of Fleetwood Mac

Reviews and Commentaries for Fleetwood Mac

That bass drum tells you a lot about your deep bass reproduction, but we prize a little something called whomp here at Better Records every bit as much. It’s the WEIGHT and POWER you sense happening down below that translates into whomp factor. (This is the frequency area that screens and small dynamic drivers have the most trouble with. You need to be able to move lots of air under, say, 200 cycles to give the music a sense of real power down below. Few systems I’ve run into over the last thirty years can really pull it off.) 

That bass drum tells you a lot about your deep bass reproduction, but we prize a little something called whomp here at Better Records every bit as much. It’s the WEIGHT and POWER you sense happening down below that translates into whomp factor.

“Why”

Speaking of the song “Why,” I have to confess that it’s my favorite Fleetwood Mac song of all time. Considering how many great songs this band has recorded over the last thirty plus years, that’s really saying something. (“Need Your Love So Bad” off Pious Bird is right up there with it.) (more…)