Atlantic/Atco/Rolling Stones Records

Crosby, Stills and Nash – Self-Titled

More of the Music of Crosby, Stills, Nash

  • A vintage copy of CS&N’s self-titled debut LP that was doing just about everything right, with both sides earning superb grades
  • The sound is big and rich, the vocals breathy and immediate, and you will not believe all the space and ambience
  • We love the album, but it is a cryin’ shame, as well as a fact, that few were mastered and pressed well, and that includes none of the originals in our experience
  • The reason you don’t see this title on the site more frequently is simply that it has become nearly impossible to find copies in audiophile playing condition with the right stampers
  • The right stampers for this album are at least ten times more rare than those for Zep II, but for some reason everybody thinks that record is rare!
  • We’ve discovered a hundred or more titles in which one stamper always wins, some of which we’ve identified, and no, we have no intention of giving out that information, sorry
  • The fact that only one specific later pressing ever wins our shootouts is proof that freeing your mind from unscientific thinking is the only way to find the highest quality pressings
  • 5 stars: “A definitive document of its era.”
  • This is a Must Own Hippie Folk Rock Masterpiece from 1969 that belongs in every right-thinking audiophile’s collection

Although millions of copies of this album were sold, so few were mastered and pressed well, and so many mastered seemingly with no regard to sound quality, that only a vanishingly small number of copies have ever made it to the site with Hot Stampers.

We consider this album a Masterpiece. It’s a recording that should be part of any serious Popular Music Collection.

Others that belong in that category can be found here.

(more…)

Dr. John – Desitively Bannaroo

More Dr. John

More Roots Rock LPs

  • This early Atco pressing was doing just about everything right, earning seriously good sonic grades on both sides
  • Richness and plenty of tight bass are key to bringing the rhythmically challenging music of New Orleans to life, and here there is plenty of both
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl they’re making – for Tubey Magic and energy, this is the only way to go
  • “As in In the Right Place, Mac has taken advantage of the specialized production talents of Allen Toussaint (at Toussaint’s own Sea-Saint Studios in New Orleans), and has again used the fabled New Orleans band The Meters as his studio group. Each of the 12 cuts on the LP has been well-conceived, clearly thought-out, and reveals a new level of musical depth for the doctor.”

(more…)

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.”

(more…)

J. Geils Band – Bloodshot

More J. Geils Band

  • A stunning pressing, with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from the first note to the last – this copy was rockin’ like no other
  • Credit Bill Szymczyk for the punchy, huge and energetic sound he produced and engineered
  • 4 stars: “The band sounds tighter, meaner, and funkier than on their first two releases… the first Geils album to stake a claim on the major leagues of rock & roll.”

While red vinyl pressings, like this one, sounded great, they are never quiet.

Big bass and lots of energy are essential to this music. In the loudest vocal parts almost all copies — when playing at the good loud levels we prefer — can get a bit harsh. It’s clearly not a problem that Szymczyk is too worried about. One of These Nights and practically any Joe Walsh album have some of it, and of course the badly mastered and badly pressed copies tend to have much too much. (more…)

Dr. John – The Sun, Moon & Herbs

More Dr. John

  • Superb sound throughout with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER for sound
  • Forget whatever lifeless, pointless Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful album from 1971, a vintage pressing like this one is the only way to go
  • “The seven cuts are all quite lengthy and the spells Dr. John and his consorts weave are dark and swampy… The Sun, Moon & Herbs is best listened to on a hot, muggy night with the sound of thunder rumbling off in the distance like jungle drums. Dr. John was definitely onto something here, but just what is left up to the listener.”

(more…)

Modern Jazz Quartet – European Concert, Volume 1

  • The Modern Jazz Quartet’s superb live 1960 release returns on the rare Blue and Green Atlantic label
  • With two nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sides, this copy is close to the BEST we have ever heard, right up there with our Shootout Winner
  • Exceptionally spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied – this early stereo pressing was a noticeable step up over every other copy but one
  • Recorded live in Sweden, this is the first of two volumes and widely considered among the group’s greatest performances
  • 5 stars: “Long considered one of, if not the classic album from the Modern Jazz Quartet, European Concert defines them simultaneously as a recording entity as well as a working band. MJQ presented jazz in the context of a formally structured environment, much like a chamber group in the classical context.”

A nearly impossible record to find on the original label in audiophile playing condition, especially in stereo. (more…)

The Rolling Stones – Steel Wheels

More Rolling Stones

  • With two Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides, we would be very surprised if you’ve ever heard Steel Wheels sound remotely as good as it does on this pressing
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more space, richness, vocal presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard
  • 4 1/2 stars in Rolling Stone: “All the ambivalence, recriminations, attempted rapprochement and psychological one-upmanship evident on Steel Wheels testify that the Stones are right in the element that has historically spawned their best music – a murky, dangerously charged environment in which nothing is merely what it seems. Against all odds, and at this late date, the Stones have once again generated an album that will have the world dancing to deeply troubling, unresolved emotions.”

(more…)

Manassas – Our First Shootout in 2009 Was a Rough One

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Stephen Stills Available Now

Our first Hot Stamper shootout for Manassas produced a number of good sounding sides on the original pressings, but we held back our highest sonic grade because even the best of the best still had problems. Most copies we played were a disaster: grungy, veiled, no real top end, grainy, stuck in the speakers, tubby bass — these and other problems were all too common. When a double album sounds like this it makes for a very long day.

After playing four or five bad sounding copies we almost threw in the towel. Everyone kept asking me: Does this record ever sound good?

I said I thought it did, I thought I heard a good copy or two when we listened to them in our preliminary rounds, but hey, maybe I was wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.

But then a copy like this one came along, and we got down to the serious business of going through them all, trying to find the few that had the qualities this one did.

What were we listening for exactly? An absence of all the bad qualities mentioned above would be the easiest answer. Once you find a copy without the nasty grit and the grain so many of them have you quickly start to key into the lovely ambience that the best copies have, you start to notice the tubey magic, the richness and sweetness, the extension up top, the kind of transparency that lets you hear into the soundfield and pick out all the players — pretty much the same kinds of things you’re always looking for in a Hot Stamper pressing, except in this case you just had to be willing to look a whole lot harder. (more…)

Charles Mingus – Me Myself an Eye

More of the Music of Charles Mingus

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Charles Mingus

If you hear something that sounds like Frank Zappa’s music circa Waka Jawaka, don’t be surprised, we heard it too. Mingus and Zappa were both eccentric geniuses so it only makes sense that they arrived at some of the same musical ideas as they evolved as composers. 

Side one is big, rich, Tubey Magical and natural. The saxophone that solos is front and center and lively. Above all the music works on this side.

Side two is especially rich and tubey. It will sound thick and dark unless you get the volume up to the level it wants to be for the mix to work (which simply means that the album was balanced at louder levels to sound correct at louder levels). A little more top end extension would be nice but the music sounds right on the copy the way it is. (more…)

Dr. John – In The Right Place

  • Off the charts “Triple Triple” sound for this Must Own Dr. John album – both sides earned our top grade of A+++
  • SURPRISINGLY GOOD SOUND – who knew how well recorded this album was? (Certainly not the audiophile press)
  • We don’t know of any other Dr. John album with sound remotely as good, and the modern albums of his we’ve played were just awful
  • 4 1/2 Stars: “Dr. John finally struck paydirt here and was certainly In the Right Place. With the hit single “Right Place Wrong Time” bounding up the charts, this fine collection saw many unaware listeners being initiated into New Orleans-style rock.”

Punchy drums, solid bass, smooth vocals, extended highs — this album was produced, recorded and mastered by superbly talented individuals who deserve a lot of credit for the work they have done here.

If you like Little Feat this album should be right up your alley. And if you like this album and don’t know little feat, the link on the left will take you to their music. They’re one of the all time great bands of the ’70s (and still going as far as I know). (more…)