Hot Stamper Pressings of Jazz-Rock Fusion Albums Available Now
In our shootout from 2021, we asked the question:
British or domestic?
The answer we gave was incorrect. At the time we wrote:
Both can be good in our experience. For a while we were convinced that the British originals were the way to go, but since then we’ve found domestic pressings that were their equal. We do the same shootouts over and over, and it’s not unusual for the rules to get broken. The records tell us their stories. Our job is to keep our minds and our ears open enough to hear what they are trying to say.
Now, in 2024, having just done the shootout, it’s clear to us that the early Brits are clearly a step up sonically over even the best domestics we have on hand. The domestics can earn a Super Hot (A++) grade, but it is unlikely — although you never know! — that they will earn the third plus it takes to win a shootout.
Live and learn is our motto, and progress in audio is a feature, not a bug, of record collecting at the most advanced levels.
A True Demo Disc
Birds of Fire is one of the top two or three Jazz/Rock Fusion albums of all time. In my 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 big dynamic system for it.
Ken Scott, Recording Genius
The amazing engineer Ken Scott (Ziggy Stardust, Magical Mystery Tour, Honky Chateau) is the man responsible for the sound here, but the explosive dynamics are not just for show. They’re here for a reason. This music requires that level of sonic realism; better yet, demands it. In truth, the sound is not only up to the challenge of expressing the life of the music on this album, it positively enhances it.
Drums!
Those monster Billy Cobham drum rolls that run across the soundstage from wall to wall may be a recording studio trick, but they’re there to draw your attention to his amazing powers, and it works! The drums are everywhere on this album, constantly jumping out of the soundfield and taking the energy of the music into the stratosphere where it belongs.
We know of few recordings where the drums are placed so prominently in the mix, almost as if the rest of the band is there to support the drummer. (On Cobham’s solo albums that is indeed the case.) But that’s precisely what makes this record such a joy to listen to. The drummer is as good as out of his mind on most of these songs — the rest of the band has to step up their game just to be able to keep up with the guy.
None More Hard Rocking
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 Houses of the Holy and Zep II and Dark Side of the Moon for hour upon 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? Birds of Fire is to Jazz what Zep II is to Rock — the ultimate statement by a band at the absolute top of their game.
We tried doing a shootout for this album in 2008 and failed miserably. At that time, not that long ago when you think about it, there was no way we could get this music to play so loud, so cleanly, and with such correct tonality, from the deepest bass to the highest highs, complete with the wild swings in dynamics that the recording captures so well.
This link will take you to more titles from the none rocks harder series.
Side One
Birds of Fire
Miles Beyond
Listen for the powerful kick drum underneath the music. On the better copies it will kick like a mule.
(Here is a very small sampling of other records with especially punchy kick drums.)
The snare should sound very clear and very real on this track. If your system is slow, veiled or thick, or you have a mediocre copy, that snare sound will not impress you much. Get a Hot Stamper and work on your system until it sounds impressive, it will be worth it.
Celestial Terrestrial Commuters
Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love
Thousand Island Park
Hope
Side Two
One Word
Another track with a brilliantly recorded snare. Ken Scott recorded the super fat drums on Ziggy Stardust, but he knows how to record a snare to sound exactly like the real thing when the music calls for it. This is Fusion, not Glam, and the snare sound on the best copies is about as good as it gets on vinyl.
Here are some other records that are good for testing the sound of the snare drum.
Sanctuary
Open Country Joy
Resolution
Further Reading
The blog you are on now as well as our website are both devoted to very special records such as this.
Birds of Fire is the very definition of a big speaker album. The better pressings have the kind of energy in their grooves that are sure to leave most audiophile systems begging for mercy.
It’s clear that albums like this informed not only my taste in music but the actual stereo I play that music on. That is what progress in audio is all about. I’ve had large scale dynamic speakers for close to five decades, precisely in order to play demanding recordings such as this one.
