More of the Music of Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Hot Stamper Pressings of Prog Rock Albums Available Now
This killer copy features some of the more intense prog rock sound to hit our table in quite some time. This is a true Demo Disc LP, one of the most dynamic and powerful rock recordings ever made.
The organ captured here by Eddie Offord (of Yes engineering fame, we’re his biggest fans) and then transferred so well onto our Hot Stamper pressings will rattle the foundation of your house if you’re not careful. This music really needs that kind of megawatt reproduction to make sense. It’s big Bombastic Prog that wants desperately to rock your world. At moderate levels it just sounds overblown and silly. At loud levels it actually does rock your world.
Unlike most British pressings of the first album, the Brits here really ROCK, with greater dynamic contrasts and seriously prodigious bass, some of the best ever committed to vinyl. This music needs real whomp down below and lots of jump factor to work its magic. These Brits are super-low distortion, with an open, sweet sound, especially up top, but they still manage to convey the awesome power of the music, no mean feat.
All but the best Brit pressings have a tendency to be a bit turgid and many of them lack the bottom end weight that music like this absolutely needs in order to work its magic. There are some good domestic copies — not in a league with the best Brits at all — but most of them have sub-generation sound that robs the instruments of their immediacy and texture (much the same way that Heavy Vinyl does, truth be told).
Tarkus has some of the biggest, boldest sound we have ever heard.
It’s clearly a Demo Disc for big speakers that can play at loud levels.
Play this one as loud as you can. The louder you play it, the better it sounds.
The hottest Hot Stamper pressings of Tarkus are Demo Discs in three other areas as well, Tubey Magic, bass and size and space, along with the titles linked below:
- More of our favorite Demo Discs for Tubey Magic
- More of our favorite Demo Discs for size and space
- More of our favorite Demo Discs for weight, bass and whomp
To see more reviews and commentaries for titles that we think sound their best on imported vinyl, please click here.
Please note that many of our Hot Stamper pressings are only available as imports. It has been our experience that the domestic pressings of these albums are simply not competitive with the better imports.
Advice
Want to avoid paying our admittedly high prices and find a top quality copy for yourself?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.
Tarkus should sound its best this way:
Further Reading
- Improving your critical listening skills
- Our stereo (and thoughts on equipment)
- Important lessons we learned from record experiments
