Month: September 2020

Humble Pie – Self-Titled

  • Incredible sound for this classic Humble Pie album from 1970 with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades
  • A classic Glyn Johns British Blues Rock recording from 1970 – man, he was really on a roll back then
  • “Alternating hard-driving blues-rockers with country-folk numbers, Humble Pie neatly showcases the two sides of this band’s personality on their first release for a major American label and third album overall.”

This, their third album and first for A&M (which probably explains the master tape sound on domestic vinyl), is one of the few Humble Pie titles we’ve found that can offer honest-to-goodness Hot Stamper sound. Performance – Rockin’ The Fillmore is one of the best sounding live rock albums we have played, and Rock On can also be quite good, but after that it’s slim pickins for audiophiles.

The great sound is no mystery in this case; it comes courtesy of none other than Glyn Johns. He knows Heavy British Rock like nobody else on the planet, or did at the time anyway. If you want fat, meaty drums and grungy guitars — think Who’s Next, Sticky Fingers or A Nod Is As Good As A Wink — Glyn is your man.

Listen to how big and how far forward the drums are in the mix on the first track. That is a sound one rarely hears on a studio recording, and that’s a shame because the drum sound on this record is awesome.

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Smoky Babe – Hottest Brand Goin’

  • Smoky Babe makes his Hot Stamper debut here on this superb pressing, with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout
  • The mono sound is gloriously ANALOG, so smooth and full-bodied – no other copy in our shootout had this kind of exceptionally realistically relaxed sound
  • 4 stars: “Smoky Babe, aka Robert Brown, laid down a good set of down-home country blues on this 1961 session, with occasional assistance from harmonica players Clyde Causey and Henry Thomas… it’s sung with conviction, and the guitar playing is emphatic and chunkily rhythmic.”

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In The Pocket – A Personal Favorite

 Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of James Taylor Available Now

The quality of the songwriting is what makes this album such a moving listening experience. These songs are superb, individually and collectively, and can hold their own up against those found on Gorilla, an album with which In the Pocket has much in common.

Just as they did on Gorilla, Taylor and his multi-talented, multi-tracking production team polish these songs into three and four minute gems of popcraft, and they do so without ever compromising the emotional heart of the material. I’ve searched and I honestly cannot find a bad song on the album. Better than that, not even a weak one.

Side Two

The best we heard and SUPERB in all respects. It’s got Tubey Magic, and that’s one quality that’s hard to come by on this album. It’s fairly rich, smooth, yet transparent and high-rez. The vocals are breathy, and again, that is not something we heard nearly enough of in our shootout.

And no hardness. This is key. And the best tonal balance, which is also key. White Hot all the way.

Side One

Big and clear with lots of studio space and reverb. A bit shifted up tonally but very good this way.

We’re No Snobs

The critics have never had much love for In The Pocket, but I’ve always felt just the opposite — it’s one of my favorites of the JT canon, an absolute joy from first track to last. As a James Taylor fan I bought a copy as soon as it came out and proceeded to play it practically to death. At the time Rolling Stone magazine gave it a scathingly negative review, accusing Taylor of selling out for making a carefully-produced, sophisticated Soulful Pop Album. Plenty have derisively labeled it “slick”, but to my ear the material is very strong, with all the heart of his earlier albums. Glossy production values and a cast of the L.A. assembled multitudes is hardly cause to dismiss the emotional power of these songs. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “…your Off the Wall pressing was a religious experience.”

Hot Stamper Pressing of the Music of Michael Jackson Available Now

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

Hey Tom, 

These are absolutely fantastic – mind blowing. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but your Off the Wall pressing was a religious experience.

Thanks again,

Jonathan

Further Reading

Liszt / Sonata in B Minor – A Speakers Corner Disaster

More of the music of Franz Liszt (1811-1880)

More Classical and Orchestral Music

Sonic Grade: F

More vinyl dreck from Speakers Corner and a Hall of Shame pressing if ever there was one.

Pure mud. What piano ever sounded like this?

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Dan Fogelberg – Souvenirs

  • This superb copy of Fogelberg’s sophomore release boasts Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on both sides, just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • One of the better copies from our most recent shootout, the sound is super big, full, lively and spacious with deep punchy bass
  • “… easily placed him alongside such California hitmakers as Joni Mitchell, the Eagles, and Jackson Browne… ‘As the Raven Flies’ revealed Fogelberg to be capable of making edgy, guitar-driven rock and exhibited his range as a vocalist.”

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Sinead O’Connor / The Lion and the Cobra – Our Shootout Winner from 2014

More Sinead O’Connor

 

Big and lively on both sides, and that’s the sound you want. All her early records are hard to find in clean condition these days. 

Side Two

A++, big, open and clear, with breathy vocals. So spacious! A little more weight would have earned this one a White Hot Stamper grade!

Side One

A+ to A++, big and lively, but a bit of smear and congestion compared to side two. (more…)

Bryan Ferry – Bete Noire

More of the Music of Roxy Music

  • An exceptional pressing, with Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last
  • Both sides of this hit-packed 1987 Ferry UK pressing are big, rich and tubey – dramatically fuller than most of the others we played
  • Kiss & Tell and The Right Stuff are two of the bigger bangers here, and they both sound the way they should – big and clear
  • Four Stars in AMG: “Bete Noire sparkles as the highlight of Ferry’s post-Roxy solo career… Here, his trademark well-polished heartache strikes a fine balance between mysterious moodiness and dancefloor energy…”

Bigger, richer and cleaner than nearly any other copy we played. Almost no grain or congestion – just sweet, sweet sound like you have never heard on this album before.

There’s much less phony processing and grit on Ferry’s voice than on most of the copies we played. The space and ambience are likewise excellent. The sound by track two is actually quite good (track one being a bit dull as a rule). (more…)

Bryan Ferry / The Bride Stripped Bare – A Personal Favorite

More of the Music of Roxy Music

  • A strong copy, with a Double Plus (A++) side two and a side one that’s nearly as good
  • These two sides show us just what a monster rocker this album can be when it’s mastered and pressed right
  • I’m a big fan of the record – it’s as original and as moving as practically anything the man ever did
  • Bryan Ferry owned the 70s as much as David Bowie did; they’re both artistic giants in my book
  • The Bride Stripped Bare is a personal favorite of yours truly
  • It’s a well recorded album of excellent music, one that we think should be more popular with audiophiles

UPDATE 2024:

Our last shootout was 2016 as I recall. The album, like most of Ferry’s solo outings, does not sell well and so we have no plans to offer it to our customers in the short term, but you never know when we might chance upon a great souding copy and decide to give it another shot.

Our notes from 2016:

It’s been years since I last played this album, and I’m happy, ecstatic even, to report that it sounds way better than I remember it. In the old days, I recall it sounding dry, flat and transistory. Now it’s BIG and BOLD, revealing a band that’s on fire in the studio.

These two sides show us just what a monster rocker this album can be when it’s mastered and pressed right. The reviews were mixed when the album was released in 1978, but time has been kind to it — after hearing the killer copies I would rank it up at the top with the best of Ferry’s and Roxy’s bodies of work.

We were a bit surprised to find that the domestic copies we played were clearly better sounding than the UK imports. It may be counterintuitive, but these are the kinds of things you find out when doing shootouts. We have little use for intuitions (UK recording, UK pressing) and rules of thumb (original equals better).

Hard data — the kind you get from actually playing the records — trumps them all.

Top Bryan Ferry / Roxy Sound

Let’s face it, we love many of Roxy Music’s and Bryan Ferry’s records, but most of them have their share of problems. Perhaps at a later date we will break them down in more detail, but for now let’s just say that this is one of the strongest sounding of Ferry’s solo output. This and the first three albums are all very well-recorded. The first three are clearly better on import, but the next two, In Your Mind and this one, both recorded by Steve Nye, are best on domestic vinyl in our experience.

In Your Mind is another personal favorite, but the sound is not quite up to Hot Stamper standards. As good as the music is, we were forced to abandon our attempt at a shootout years ago and haven’t heard a good enough sounding copy since to change our minds.

It doesn’t happen very often — today’s modern cleaning technologies have made many shootouts possible that had previously failed badly — but in some cases, even a dozen carefully cleaned LPs are not able to get even a single pressing over the finish line.

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Our First Shootout for The Inner Mounting Flame

Hot Stamper Pressings of Top Quality Jazz Recordings Available Now

This is the first album by the band, recorded only a year after Bitches Brew single-handedly created the genre of Jazz Fusion itself. Or is it better described as an album of Prog Rock without the vocals? Remember, King Crimson had a violinist and not a whole lot of singing too.   

Whatever it is, mostly what this music wants to do is rock.

And on this copy it rocks like you will not believe. The louder you play it the better it sounds.

The best copies had huge amounts of bottom end weight as well as rich, Tubey Magical grungy guitar tone. Once you’ve heard it sound that way, on the copies without both you’ll notice that the sound falls flat pretty quickly.

It’s hard to think of another record that rocks as hard, and it’s not even a real rock record! We find ourselves playing albums like Zep II and Back in Black for hour after hour, with dozens of copies to get through, and we do it on a regular basis. If anybody knows Big Rock Sound, it’s us. But can we really say that those albums rock any harder than this one?

What to Listen For

The main problem we heard again and again on the copies we were auditioning was an obvious lack of top end extension and clarity. Without all the top there is not enough space for all the instruments to occupy. It then becomes easy for the sound to get congested and the musical lines to become jumbled, with the most subtle elements get progressively more and more lost in the dense mixes the band is known for.

With everyone blasting away at the same time the mixes on the album get very dense indeed. Big speakers in a carefully treated room are a must if you want to play The Inner Mounting Flame at the loud levels we prefer.

The sides that had the most space and the biggest, tightest low ends tended to do everything else right as well. The energy was rarely less than phenomenal, but that energy only works to increase the listener’s involvement when there is enough space and enough weight to keep the sound opened up above and anchored down below.

5 Stars All Over the Place

Based on the reviews one would have to rank this album as one of the top Jazz/Rock Fusion Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone gives it Five Stars, Allmusic gives it Five Stars, and even Robert Christgau, the toughest grader of them all, gives the album an “A.”

In our experience, few recordings within this genre can begin to compete with the Dynamics and Energy of the best pressings of the album — if you have the system designed to play it. (Even if you don’t the album will still rock like crazy.)

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