1972

Frank Zappa – Waka/Jawaka

More of the Music of Frank Zappa

  • This vintage copy was doing just about everything right, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them on both of these TAS-approved sides – fairly QUIET vinyl too
  • It took whomever is running the TAS Super Disc list about twenty years to catch up to us, but we’re glad they did – this is one of the most amazing sounding records we have the privilege to play, even if it does take us three years to get a shootout going
  • A Top 100 title, and deservedly so – the sound is big, rich, punchy, lively, clear and above all, analog (particularly on side one)
  • This copy will show you the size and power of a big band, Frank Zappa style (also particularly on side one) – there is (almost*) nothing like it
  • Rolling Stone raved that this Jazz Rock Fusion album contains “…some of the best material he’s done in years” and we could not agree more

(*Other than The Grand Wazoo, which can have sound every bit as good but is not the equal of Waka/Jawaka musically.)

What an incredible album. I know of no other like it. It’s not big band, it’s not rock, it’s not jazz, it’s a unique amalgamation of all three with an overlay of some of Zappa’s idiosyncratic compositional predilections (say that three times fast) thrown in for good measure.

In our opinion it’s nothing less than Zappa’s masterpiece, the summation of his talents, and a record that belongs in every right-thinking audiophile’s collection. (We say that about a lot of records audiophiles don’t know well, but we’ve been doing it for most of our 30+ years in this business and don’t see much reason to stop now.)

Most copies, especially the WB brown label reissues, are dull and smeary with little in the way of top end extension, failing pretty miserably at getting this music to come to life.

Not long ago we discovered the secret to separating the men from the boys on side one. On the lively, punchy, dynamic copies — which are of course the best ones — you can follow the drumming at the beginning of “Big Swifty” note for note: every beat, every kick of the kick drum, every fill, every roll — it’s all there to be heard and appreciated. If that track on this copy doesn’t make you a huge fan of Aynsley Dunbar, I can’t imagine what would. The guy had a gift.

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Stevie Wonder – Talking Book

More of the Music of Stevie Wonder

  • This is a Talking Book that sounds the way you always hoped it would, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom – fairly (and unusually) quiet vinyl for this notoriously problematic title
  • Richer, warmer, more natural, more relaxed, this is what vintage analog is all about, that smooth sound that never calls attention to itself and just lets the music flow
  • So many great songs: “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” “Tuesday Heartbreak,” “You’ve Got It Bad Girl,” “Superstition,” and many, many more
  • “Superstition” is one of the funkiest songs ever recorded, with my favorite clavinet work of all time
  • Add in moog bass and, with big speakers playing at loud levels, you now have yourself a Demo Disc for funky low end that’s so good it’s hard to believe
  • Finding copies with audiophile sound and surfaces, and no scratches that play, is no mean feat, which makes this a very special one indeed
  • 5 stars: “What had been hinted at on the intriguing project Music of My Mind was here focused into a laser beam of tight songwriting, warm electronic arrangements, and ebullient performances — altogether the most realistic vision of musical personality ever put to wax…”
  • One customer who loved his Hot Stamper pressing of the album took our critics to task in a letter he wrote to us not long ago
  • If I could recommend one Stevie Wonder album to every audiophile and music lover, it would be Fulfillingness’ First Finale. No record collection should be without it, and Innervisions as well, the two albums which happen to be his best sounding with his best music. (Talking Book and Songs in the Key of Life, in that order, would be right behind them.)

Those of you familiar with this record will not be surprised to learn that these shootouts are TOUGH. Very few copies are any better than mediocre, and the Motown vinyl holds many of the better sounding pressings back with excessive noise and grain.

This copy is more dynamic, open and transparent than most pressings by far. There’s ton of space around all of the instruments, the bass is big and punchy and the vocals are present, warm and tonally right on the money. (more…)

The Kinks – Everybody’s In Showbiz

More Rock and Pop

  • Everybody’s In Showbiz makes its Hot Stamper debut with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them on all FOUR sides of these vintage RCA pressings
  • It’s lively and rich, with plenty of deep punchy bass, a nicely extended top and a huge three-dimensional soundfield (particularly on sides one and two)
  • The sound on sides one and two is remarkably full-bodied, with solid, present vocals, as well as excellent clarity all around, and sides three and four are not far behind in all those areas
  • “…they were in full bloom at this point in their career. Infectious, sly, brazen, and solidly awesome, this is that pre-Arista Kinks stuff you should be hip to.”

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Crosby / Nash – Graham Nash / David Crosby

More of the Music of David Crosby and Graham Nash

  • This early Atlantic pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in over twenty-one months) boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish
  • Quiet vinyl for this album, especially considering how rare clean copies of formerly common titles like this one have become in the last twenty years
  • The vocals are remarkably breathy, smooth and sweet here – this recording is the very definition of Midrange Magic, thanks to the brilliant engineering of Bill Halverson
  • 4 stars: “This self-titled release is one of most impressive side project to arise from CSN. The best elements of each are readily available here, punctuated at every turn by their complicated vocal arrangements and air-lock harmonies.”

Where in the world did all the Midrange Magic that we were hearing on this copy of the album come from?

On a song like “Where Will I Be” the sound is so unbelievably transparent, open and intimate it sounds like an outtake from David Crosby’s first album, one of the ten best sounding rock records ever made.

I was in high school when I first played this album and I remember being disappointed with it, mostly because I was expecting another Deja Vu. As I’ve grown older, I have come to appreciate other qualities in a recording than those found on Deja Vu.

I’ve come to appreciate this album for what it is: not the grand musical statement that Deja Vu is, but a simpler, more intimate portrait of two artists at the start of a lifelong, harmonious collaboration (which ended prior to Crosby’s passing because he was such a jerk).

This is a damn fine batch of songs they’ve written and the two men sing them well.

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ZZ Top – Rio Grande Mud

More of the Music of ZZ Top

  • ZZ Top’s sophomore release debuts on the site with solid Double Plus (A++) grades throughout this early London pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • From first note to last, the sound works for this music — tonally right, lively and plenty of top end extension
  • Both sides are rich and smooth like good analog should be, with an abundance of energy and rock and roll drive
  • “…Rio Grande Mud is the first flowering of ZZ Top as a great, down-n-dirty blooze rock band.”

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Santana – Caravanserai

More of the Music of Santana

  • Solid Double Plus (A++) sound brings Santana’s 1972 release to life on this vintage Columbia pressing (one of only a handful of copies to ever hit the site)
  • The sonics are rich, full-bodied and musical with punchy drums and guitar solos that really get loud
  • Remarkable transparency – you hear into the huge, deep soundfield with almost nothing between you and the musicians
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – those on “Future Primitive” are especially bad – but if you can tough those out, this copy is going to blow your mind
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…make no mistake: this is one of Santana’s finest accomplishments.

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Rick Nelson – Garden Party

More Country and Country Rock

  • Garden Party returns to the site after a ten month hiatus, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides of this original Decca pressing
  • This is an amazingly rich, Tubey Magical recording, and when you get a good copy with enough clarity and top end extension to bring it to life it can sound very good indeed
  • If you like the sound of albums engineered by Stephen Barncard (think Deja Vu, American Beauty and Tarkio for starters) then you are going to find much to like about the rich, smooth, natural and relaxed sound here
  • “Rick Nelson’s Garden Party rocks a lot harder than the title track would lead one to believe, and is also as much of a showcase for the Stone Canyon Band as it is for Nelson.”

It’s tough to find copies without marks or problems in the vinyl to one degree or another, or ones that play this quietly, making this a special one indeed.

The music is quite enjoyable — even the younger guys around here were getting a lot out of it. Drop the needle on the title track (a top ten single) or “Are You Really Real?” to hear these guys at their best. Rick’s Stone Canyon Band at times featured future members of Poco and The Eagles, so that should tell you something.

Acoustic guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this recording. The harmonic coherency, the richness, the body as well as phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum.

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Lincoln Mayorga – The Missing Linc

More of the Music of Lincoln Mayorga

  • With two STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides, this Sheffield Direct to Disc recording is certainly as good a copy as we have ever heard
  • Guaranteed to be dramatically richer, fuller and more Tubey Magical than any other copy you have heard, with especially punchy drums and rosiny-textured strings
  • The bass on side one extends all the way into whomp land for that big bass drum at the end of “Limehouse Blues” – what a sound!
  • The top end is key to the better pressings too – lots of string harmonics and bells and other high frequency stuff gets lost on most pressings, but not this one, it’s all there on this pressing
  • The audiophile “Sgt. Pepper” of its day, a record that was so much better than anything else you’d ever heard it made you rethink the possibilities (and they did the same thing with Volume III two years later)
  • If you’re a Sheffield Labs fan, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this title from 1972 is clearly one of their best
  • If you’re a fan of big drums in a big room, with jump out of the speakers sound, this is the album for you.

This is definitely not your typical Sheffield pressing. Some of them are aggressive, many of them are dull and lack the spark of live music, some of them have wonky bass or are lacking in the lowest octave — they are prey to every fault that befalls other pressings.

Which shouldn’t be too surprising. Records are records. Pressing variations exist for every album ever made. If you haven’t noticed that yet, start playing multiple copies of the same album while listening carefully and critically.

Just listen to the texture on the saxophone on “Limehouse Blues” — you can really hear the leading edge transients of the brass that are so important to the sound of those instruments. Track after track, the sound gets surprisingly more open and airy. The harpsichord has such great presence it jumps out of the speakers. 

I was selling audio equipment (Audio Research, Fulton speakers) back in the ’70s and this was a favorite demo disc in our store. The bass drum at the end of track two would shake the foundation with a big speaker like the Fulton J.

Every bit as amazing to me was the string quartet on side 2. You could actually hear the musicians breathing and turning the pages on their music stands, just as if you were actually in their “living presence.”

This is one of the albums that made me realize how good audio in the home could really be. In a way this was the Audiophile “Sgt. Pepper” of its day, a record that was so much better than anything else you’d ever heard it made you rethink the possibilities.

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Richard Thompson – Henry the Human Fly

More Richard Thompson

  • This original UK Pink Rim Island pressing of Thompson’s solo debut (one of only a handful of copies to ever hit the site) boasts two very good Hot Stamper sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • It’s richer, fuller and with more presence than the average copy, and that’s especially true for whatever godawful Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently being foisted on an unsuspecting record buying public
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Cuts such as ‘The Poor Ditching Boy,’ ‘The New St. George,’ and ‘The Old Changing Way’ have the timelessness of the best traditional material Fairport [Convention] had been mining in the past, while ‘Roll Over Vaughn Williams,’ with its swirling electric guitar, and the accordion and electric guitar interplay of the folk-rocker ‘The Angels Took My Racehorse Away’ are prime examples of Thompson’s vision of fusing the old and the new.”

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Grateful Dead – Europe ’72

More Grateful Dead

  • Here is a seriously good copy of Europe 72 (one of only a handful to hit the site in three years) with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it on all SIX sides of these vintage Green Label pressings
  • Marks and problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, but once you hear just how superb sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and pops and just be swept away by the music
  • “No record album can replace a live appearance by the Dead – but those who can’t get enough of this exceptional band will be kept busy for a good little while with this one.” – Rolling Stone
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The band mixes a bevy of new material with revisitations of back-catalog favorites. Sadly, this European jaunt would be the last of its kind to include the formidable talents and soul of founding member Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan, who was in increasingly fragile health. Although few in number, his contributions to Europe 72 are among the most commanding not only of this release, but of his career.”

*NOTE: There is a mark that plays 10 times at a moderate level at the start of track 1 on side 2, “Jack Straw.”

A bunch of classic Dead songs that never appeared on a studio album are here in their definitive versions, including “He’s Gone,” “Jack Straw,” “Brown-Eyed Woman,” “Ramble On Rose” and “Tennessee Jed.”

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