Month: May 2021

Al Green – The Belle Album – Our Shootout Winner from 2011

More Al Green

SUPER HOT STAMPERS and QUIET VINYL on BOTH sides of this fun ’70s Al Green album! This AMG 4 Star-rated album is the last secular music Green put out for a long time, and it sure is funky! We played a ton of these and found that the best copies such as this one are incredibly lively, clear and fun! 

The typical copy is dull up top and small in size. We played copy after copy and wondered “Where’s the energy?” until a Hot Stamper pressing finally hit the table and showed us how great this music can sound. While the typical copies put us to sleep, the Hot copies such as this one are so lively, present and balanced that it’s hard not to move your body to the beat.

It’s tough to find great sounding copies of Al Green’s great music, but it’s always a thrill to hear one of the best voices in soul when the sound is right. These shootouts are a labor of love — the records never come very cheaply and almost always disappoint, but it’s all worth it when you get to hear a pressing that presents the music with the kind of sound you know the musicians and engineers were going for. (more…)

John Lee Hooker – Free Beer and Chicken

More John Lee Hooker

  • KILLER sound from start to finish with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or very close to it
  • Hooker’s albums are surprisingly good sounding – they have the open, immediate, dynamic qualities of a live-in-the-studio session – my understanding is that most of them are recorded precisely that way
  • These sides are doing it right – they’re big, rich and Tubey Magical, with wonderfully present vocals and huge amounts of energy
  • Free Beer And Chicken is one of the better sounding John Lee Hooker records we’ve ever played lately – an interesting lineup of guests too, including the one and only Mr. Joe Cocker!

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The Zombies – She’s Not There

  • This superb Stereo pressing of The Zombies’ 1981 compilation album boasts outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last
  • This copy was doing it all right — bigger, fuller, more Tubey Magic, excellent bass, and the list goes on
  • Exceptionally quiet vinyl throughout — Mint Minus to Mint Minus Minus

Copies with rich lower mids did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record! We know, we’ve heard them all.

Top end extension is critical to the sound of the best copies. Lots of old records (and new ones) have no real top end; consequently, the studio or stage will be missing much of its natural ambience and space, and instruments will lack their full complement of harmonic information.

Tube smear is common to pressings from every era and this is no exception. The copies that tend to do the best in a shootout will have the least (or none), yet are full-bodied, tubey and rich. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “…just pure delight with those New Orleans horns.”

More Singer Songwriter Albums

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Randy Newman

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

Hey Tom,   

Another big surprise here; I almost cancelled ordering this before it shipped, as I have an old pressing that to me sounded White Hot Stamper material, impossible to improve on, and I intended just to shoot it out for kicks/education.

But this was a revelation, there was SO MUCH room for improvement. The whole thing as artistic edifice came alive with your pressing, conveying much more on an emotional and intellectual level than I’d picked up on before. And sound-wise it was so juicy in parts, just pure delight with those New Orleans horns.

I might have listened to this record a couple of times a year previously, whereas now it’s become a bible of soul and panache.

Dear Sir,

Thanks very much for your letter.  Allow me to give a short refresher on some Hot Stamper basics that bear repeating:

There can be no hot stamper designation without a shootout for the album having been done.

Good sounding records like the one you owned and was happy with are just good sounding records, not Hot Stampers.

Shootouts will sometimes be a revelation, as was the case here, White Hots especially. 

How high is up?

You can’t know how good a record can sound until you play a bunch of copies and discover the one that shows you just how high “up” really is.

We’ve been doing shootouts for this album for well over a decade. We understand on a purely practical level exactly what the best copies can be expected to do, and how good the best copies can sound. If you haven’t played scores of copies of the album, how could you possibly know any of these things?

Such a great album. Glad to hear you are enjoying it as much as we did.

Best, TP

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John Prine – Self-Titled

  • An outstanding copy of John Prine’s debut album with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more space, richness, vocal presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true if you made the mistake of buying whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently on the market
  • 5 stars: “A revelation upon its release, this album is now a collection of standards… Prine’s music, a mixture of folk, rock, and country, is deceptively simple, like his pointed lyrics, and his easy vocal style adds a humorous edge that makes otherwise funny jokes downright hilarious.”

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Lalo / Tchaikovsky – Symphonie Espagnole / Serenade Melancolique / Kogan

More of the Music of Edouard Lalo (1823-1892)

More of the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

  • This wonderful classical recording finally makes its Hot Stamper debut here with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish
  • This is some Demo Disc sound as long as long as you can reverse your polarity – if you can’t do that, don’t buy this record, because it won’t sound right
  • Here is sound that is both tubey and real, with much more space and a much bigger and more realistic presentation of the hall than any performance of the music you have ever heard
  • “The Symphonie Espagnole is one of Lalo’s two most often played works, the other being his Cello Concerto in D minor.”

My notes for side one read:

  • Big and Lively! Rich and Balanced.
  • Violin surrounded by lots of space.
  • Exciting performance.

The Lalo on side two is clear and spacious but could use a bit more warmth. The Tchaikovsky piece that finishes out the side is richer and smoother than the Lalo. Listen for it!

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Emmylou Harris – Roses In The Snow

More Emmylou Harris

More Country and Country Rock

  • Roses in the Snow finally returns to the site with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or very close to it from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The immediacy of the vocals is startling — Emmylou is IN THE ROOM with you, belting out these heartfelt, emotional songs. If that doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will!
  • We’ve done several shootouts for this album now, and we’ve completely fallen in love with both the music and the sound – when you hear a copy like this, it’s easy to see why
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Combining acoustic bluegrass with traditional Appalachian melodies (and tossing one contemporary tune, Paul Simon’s “The Boxer,” into the mix), Roses in the Snow ranks among Emmylou Harris’ riskiest — and most satisfying — gambits.”

Both sides have wonderful clarity and transparency. Emmylou’s vocals are breathy with lots of texture, the stringed instruments have the proper amount of pluck and twang, and the bass is Right On The Money. Yee-haw! (more…)

Was (Not Was) – Born To Laugh At Tornadoes

This is an Original Geffen Promo LP of one of my favorite wacked out records! I’ve never heard anything like it. Every song sports a unique arrangement and almost all of them have different vocalists, including a magical performance by Mel Torme.

If you like offbeat records, this is one you might get a kick out of.

“The Was brothers provide a strange bunch of songs with irresistible dance beats, plus an array of guest singers that is, well, unusual to say the least: Mitch Ryder, Doug Fieger (of The Knack), Ozzy Osbourne, and, on the ballad “Zaz Turned Blue,” Mel Tormé.” — AMG (more…)

Sarah Vaughan – In a Romantic Mood

More Sarah Vaughan

  • Sarah Vaughan’s superb In a Romantic Mood album from 1957 finally debuts on the site, and what a copy it is, taking top honors for side two and earning our coveted Triple Plus (A+++) grade
  • No other copy could touch this original Black Label Mono Mercury pressing for warmth, richness, and, most especially, vocal intimacy and in-the-room presence
  • If all you know are the Classic Records and Speakers Corner Heavy Vinyl reissues, our Shootout Winner here should be a sonic treat you have simply never experiences before
  • An original Mercury pressing that has no audible marks and plays as quietly as this one does is a rare find indeed – it seems to be the quietest copy from our shootout, and even better, no other copy earned higher grades

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Julie London – Julie Is Her Name

More Pop and Jazz Vocal Albums

  • Julie’s debut finally arrives on the site with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish
  • The vocal naturalness and immediacy of this early Liberty pressing will put Julie in the room with you – more than anything else, it lets her performance come to life
  • The naturalness of the presentation puts this album right at the top of best-sounding female vocal albums of all time
  • 4 stars: “Her debut is her best, a set of fairly basic interpretations of standards in which she is accompanied tastefully by guitarist Barney Kessel and bassist Ray Leatherwood.”

Listen to how rich the bottom end is on Barney Kessel’s guitar. The Tubey Magic here is off the charts. Some copies can be dry, but that is clearly not a problem on this one.

To take nothing away from her performance, which got better with every copy we played. Julie’s rendition of Cry Me a River may be definitive.

If only Ella Fitzgerald on Clap Hands got this kind of sound! As good as the best copies of that album are, this record takes the concept of intimate female vocals to an entirely new level.

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