Record Lists

Various Artists – Musique de la Grèce Antique / Musicae de Madrid / Paniagua

More Classical and Orchestral Recordings

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) sides or close to them, this original Harmonia Mundi France import pressing will be very hard to beat – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Spacious, rich and smooth (particularly on side two) – only vintage analog seems capable of reproducing all three of these qualities without sacrificing resolution, staging, imaging or presence
  • So transparent, dynamic and real, this copy raises the bar for the sound of this kind of unique music on vinyl (also particularly on side two)
  • “Perhaps [Atrium Musicae de Madrid]’s most famous recording is Musique de la Grèce Antique (Music of Ancient Greece), in which they performed ancient Greek music carefully taken from scattered extant fragments of papyrus. Performing the ancient compositions also meant they had to reconstruct an arsenal of ancient instruments. This ancient music was an important aspect of the group’s live performances during a series of acclaimed international tours.” – oldmusicbook.wordpress.com
  • “Utilizing a small chorus of six and a battery of instruments, [Paniagua] creates a fascinating landscape of sound, with thunderous breaks of fragmented melody and shards of recited and sung poetry breaking up periods of silence.”

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We Get Letters – “…the parallax on Autobahn that lets you feel like you are physically moving through space necessitates a full 3D soundstage.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of Art Rock Albums Available Now

Our good customer Aaron thought his Hot Stamper pressing of Autobahn was pretty special. He writes:

Good morning Tom,

I’m catching up on some work and sipping my coffee this Sunday morning, way too cold to go outside.

I’ve got my NWHS of Autobahn playing. The room is absolutely filling up with sweet sound. I had always thought of Kraftwerk’s music as cold and distant, intentionally, but this copy is bringing out a whole different character to the music. It is organic and warm and really humane.

Isn’t it funny to think that of all the bands, it is Kraftwerk who is done a particular disservice by digital formatting? On the surface, their music seems like it would be so amenable to digital, but it’s all the play and joy that’s less on the surface that really makes it music, and digital strips that right out.

I bought this one as part of pushing my envelope during the 12 days sale.

My other copy is the 1985 Parlophone repress. It’s not bad, but I’ve only played it a couple times before, which says everything you need to know.

Whereas the hot stamper is currently one of my go-to records to put on. The hot stamper fills my room with sound.

It’s more somatic than auditory, you can feel it. That’s always true for white hot stampers, but it makes all the difference for this album – the parallax on Autobahn that lets you feel like you are physically moving through space necessitates a full 3D soundstage.

That effect of actually moving just does not happen when you’re playing the 1985 pressing.

So, I would say Autobahn is another one of those albums where it’s essential to have a hot stamper pressing to actually appreciate the music.

Digital won’t do it, and even a different good pressing doesn’t convey the magic – the organic nature and the three dimensional experience – that the hot stamper gives you.

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Kate Bush– Lionheart

More of the Music of Kate Bush

  • An original UK pressing of Kate’s sophomore LP (only the second copy to ever hit the site) with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish
  • We shot out a number of other imports and the midrange presence, bass, and dynamics on this outstanding copy placed it head and shoulders above most of the other pressings we played
  • Both of these sides are dramatically richer, fuller and more Tubey Magical than all others we played, with Kate’s exceptionally present and breathy vocals front and center where they belong

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Joni Mitchell / Shadows and Light

More of the Music of Joni Mitchell

  • A superb copy of Mitchell’s second live album with solid Double Plus (A+++) grades or BETTER on all FOUR sides of these vintage Asylum pressings
  • The sound is full-bodied, lively and dynamic, with wonderful immediately to Joni’s remarkably present and breathy vocals
  • If you’re a fan of Joni’s more experimental work from the mid to late 70s, this album is a Must Own
  • “…it serves as a good retrospective of her jazzy period from 1975-1979. As expected, she assembles a group of all-star musicians including Pat Metheny (guitar), Jaco Pastorius (bass), Lyle Mays (keyboards), and Michael Brecker (saxophone) who give these compositions more energy than on the studio recordings.”

Four outstanding sides! We recently had a huge shootout for this famous double album and this copy blew our minds with Double Plus sonics (or better) and reasonably quiet vinyl from start to finish. In the high-stakes game of Better Records Double Album Poker, that’s a full house, man. This one gives you the kind of you are there immediacy and transparency that put you front and center for a late 70s jazzy Joni Mitchell show. Not too many copies will do that.

Joni’s voice is breathy and present with real texture, and the three-dimensional imaging gives the music a real sense of space — just like you’d get at a concert. This helps convey the intimacy of the songs and the performances, and isn’t that what we audiophiles got in this crazy hobby for in the first place?

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Charles Mingus – Oh Yeah

More of the Music of Charles Mingus

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, this vintage Stereo Atlantic Blue and Green Label pressing of Mingus’s brilliant Oh Yeah was doing just about everything right
  • Tubey Magical, lively and clear, with three-dimensionality that will fill your listening room from wall to wall
  • Phil Iehle and Tom Dowd made up the engineering team for these sessions, which explains why the better copies of the album sound so damn good
  • A raucous (and rockin’) deviation from traditional jazz, this compilation incorporates R&B and soul influences – Mingus even lends his rich vocal stylings to a few songs
  • Forget the later label pressings – we stopped buying them years ago
  • 5 stars: “Oh Yeah is probably the most offbeat Mingus album ever, and that’s what makes it so vital.”
  • It’s hard to imagine that any list of the Best Jazz Albums of 1962 would not have this record on it

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Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense

More of the Music of Talking Heads

 

  • A vintage Sire pressing with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Every five years, like clockwork, we do a shootout for this superb title — our last was in 2021
  • Both of these sides are big, bold and dynamic, with the kind of energy that you rarely find outside of the live event
  • “. . . ‘A bona fide classic,’ opined Neil Jeffries in a five-star review of the reissue for Empire, ‘a perfectly measured snapshot of a widely loved and respected band playing at the height of their powers … No other band could do this. No other music movie soundtrack sounds this good.'” -Wikipedia

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Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run

More of the Music of Bruce Springsteen

  • A Born To Run like you’ve never heard, with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound throughout
  • Not the best sounding Springsteen record – we think that’s The River – but the most groundbreaking and probably the most important
  • The title track here really sounds the way you want to hear it – big, bold, and full of rock and roll energy that jumps out of the speakers (which, as most of you know, is the kind of thing that never happens when playing modern Heavy Vinyl pressings)
  • A 5 star album in the AMG, and the Boss’ first Masterpiece – who can argue with the power of this music?
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • “Layers of guitar, layers of echo on the vocals, lots of keyboards, thunderous drums — Born to Run had a big sound, and Springsteen wrote big songs to match it.” (Did he ever!)

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Frank Sinatra – Trilogy: Past, Present and Future

More of the Music of Frank Sinatra

  • A killer copy of Sinatra’s wonderful 1980 release with Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on all SIX sides – just shy of out Shootout Winner (side four actually won the shootout)
  • The sonics here are rich and full-bodied with much less grain and much more Tubey Magic than practically all other copies we played in our recent shootout
  • Credit the brilliant engineering of Frank Laico for the excellent sound – this record doesn’t sound like 1980, and that’s a very, very good thing
  • “An audacious, ambitious way to stage a comeback, each of the album’s three records was conceived as an individual work, and each was arranged by one of Sinatra’s major collaborators. . . the best moments are triumphant, proving that the Voice was still vital in his fourth decade of recording.”

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Little Feat / Hoy-Hoy Sampler – A Demo Disc Disc Like No Other

More Rock and Pop Demo Discs

  • Knockout Demo Disc Rock and Roll sound for this amazing Little Feat EP, with both sides earning INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • This is the Big Rock Sound we love – huge and punchy with plenty of space and a big bottom end
  • This EP may only hold four songs, but each is a Demo Disc track of the highest order

It may contain only a handful of tracks from the Hoy Hoy album but, folks, stunning sound doesn’t begin to do justice to this EP. I would state categorically that there is not a single rock record on the TAS List that can hold a candle to it in terms of live-rock-in-your-living-room blasting power. This is one of the most Amazing Demo Discs of All Time. If it were an album I would put it on a Top Ten Best Sounding Rock and Pop List (if we had such a thing).

It’s really not fair to judge the Harry’s List by records like this, which have never been the man’s forte. We, on the other hand, know these kinds of records about as well as anyone can, and to prove it we would love to send you this copy.

And do you know how we discovered it many, many years ago? We had a couple of these promos lying around, and after shooting out the Hot Stamper Hoy-Hoys, we figured what the hell, throw one of them on just for fun. To our shock and dismay, it blew the doors off our BEST Hot Stamper pressings song for song. As good as those album sides sound, the EP took the same material to an entirely new level of sonic splendor.

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Talking Heads / Remain In Light

More of the Music of Talking Heads

  • Here is a vintage Sire pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Everything we were hoping for from this music is here and more — richness, sweetness, great energy, big time presence, weight down low, punchy drum sound and so on
  • Both of these sides are also open and transparent with lots of space around the different parts
  • The sonics have extraordinarily high-resolution, which lets you hear all the detail and texture of the crazy synths
  • 5 stars: “Even without a single, Remain in Light was a hit, indicating that Talking Heads were connecting with an audience ready to follow their musical evolution, and the album was so inventive and influential, it was no wonder.”

It takes an exceptional pressing to get all the elements correct — the funky bottom end; the processed, multi-tracked vocals; the Brian Eno production weirdness and so on.

This is a brilliant album but a typically problematic record. Most copies get some things right but fail in other areas. There are smeary copies that can’t deliver the punchy bottom you need, grainy copies that make the vocals painful to listen to, and plenty of copies that are just too dark or flat sounding for anyone to enjoy. Note that the first track on both sides will sound the worst. The sound gets better, though, as you get further into the album.

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