Our good customer, Dan, wrote to tell us he was positively astounded by our Hot Stamper pressing of Abraxas. We told Dan to listen to this record as loud as his ears could take it. Take it from the man himself: “As you suggested, I played this album as loud as my ears could tolerate and the result was astounding.”
Hey Tom,
Today I was blown away by yet another Hot Stamper I bought from your store: Santana’s Abraxas. Now, I have always been in awe of the musicianship of the band’s first three albums, but it was not until I heard the grooves in this Hot Stamper that I realized they are geniuses. Santana’s guitar is scorching on this record! Those leads just burst out of the musical soundscape that’s behind him. But it never sounded like that in the hundreds of times I’ve heard it. Sure, his leads always stood out, but they didn’t leap out.
As you suggested, I played this album as loud as my ears could tolerate and the result was astounding. Though my stereo is still short of being able to reproduce a live concert (for now!), it felt pretty damn close to that experience with this record! Mike Shrieve’s drums positively exploded with power after that organ intro on “Hope You’re Feeling Better”. There’s no denying it, playing this music at a polite volume would be a sin, and one I happily did not commit. This record is just poppin’ all over the place with dynamics, and the only way to hear everything is to set the dial to 11.
On a similar topic, I recently purchased the Mofi pressing of Santana’s first album and later stumbled upon your commentary on it. It is indeed good, but no nowhere near alive. My hot stamper of “Abraxas” gives me an excellent reference point for the Santana sound, and I can see just how much is missing now from Mofi’s pressing of their debut.
Anyhow, just wanted to say thank you again a keep up the great work at Better Records!
Dan
Dan, I’m glad to see you hadn’t wasted your money on the awful MoFi pressing of Abraxas, which, as I pointed out in my blog, is so bad (compressed to death, whomp factor = zero) we refused to carry it.
The first album barely made the cut, and part of the reason we let that questionable sounding pressing onto the site is that the originals are almost always noisy, and the reissues lean and flat sounding, so what’s an audiophile to do? Our Hot Stampers for the first album are killer, but they get expensive in a hurry. Down the road, if you want a first album that kills the MoFi, we would be more than happy to get you one.
[We have since apologized for carrying the first album on MoFi, which you can read about here.]
Musicanship
Like Abraxas, when you play a Hot Stamper copy good and loud, you find yourself marvelling at the musicanship of the group — because the Hot Stamper pressings, communicating all the energy and clarity the recording has to offer, let you hear what a great band they were. On badly mastered records, such as the MoFi or CBS Half-Speed, the music lacks the power of the real thing. I want to hear Santana ROCK. Only the best pressings let me do that. Dan, you heard one of them; you know what I’m talkin’ about.
Folks, next time we do a shootout for this album (or the first album) you owe it to yourself to hear what a great band Santana were back in the day. If you’ve got the stereo that can play live rock and roll, we’ve got the record that sounds like Santana live. It is truly a thrill.
Dan, thanks again for your letter. Enjoy your album!
TP