Subtitled: Christmas Music from England & Early America. This is an original 1978 pressing in excellent condition, about as quiet as Nonesuch vinyl gets.
This is a famous TAS List recording with superb sound. (more…)
1978
David Gilmour – Self-Titled
Pink Floyd Hot Stamper Pressings Available Now
- You’ll find superb nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on both sides of this wonderful pressing – just shy of our Shootout Winner – fairly quiet vinyl too
- The bass is killer, tight with real weight, and the drums are punchy – exactly like the better Pink Floyd albums
- For my money, this is a better sounding recording than The Final Cut or the Roger Waters solo debut
- “By the time of Gilmour’s solo debut, he had not only established himself several times over as an underrated, powerful guitarist in Pink Floyd, but as a remarkably emotional singer…”
Keith Jarrett – My Song
- An outstanding pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish
- We just finished a shootout for this album, and were pleasantly surprised at how good this relaxed jazz can sound on the right pressing
- Typical copies are thin, lean, and lifeless, but we managed to unearth some copies (such as this one!) that really get it right
- 4 1/2 stars: “this album is the best known of the Jarrett-Garbarek collaborations and it actually is their most rewarding meeting on record. Jarrett contributed all six compositions and the results are relaxed and introspective yet full of inner tension.”
Ramones – Road to Ruin
- Road to Ruin makes its Hot Stamper debut here with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- This superb recording is huge and lively with startling dynamics and in-the-room-presence like nothing you’ve heard
- 4 1/2 stars: “It’s clear throughout that Tommy and Stasium definitely had the best interests of the band in mind as they aimed the sound a little closer to the mainstream, and the changes they made served to open it up in interesting ways.”
Bryan Ferry / The Bride Stripped Bare – A Personal Favorite
- A strong copy, with a Double Plus (A++) side two and a side one that’s nearly as good
- These two sides show us just what a monster rocker this album can be when it’s mastered and pressed right
- I’m a big fan of the record – it’s as original and as moving as practically anything the man ever did
- Bryan Ferry owned the 70s as much as David Bowie did; they’re both artistic giants in my book
- The Bride Stripped Bare is a personal favorite of yours truly
- It’s a well recorded album of excellent music, one that we think should be more popular with audiophiles
UPDATE 2024:
Our last shootout was 2016 as I recall. The album, like most of Ferry’s solo outings, does not sell well and so we have no plans to offer it to our customers in the short term, but you never know when we might chance upon a great souding copy and decide to give it another shot.
Our notes from 2016:
It’s been years since I last played this album, and I’m happy, ecstatic even, to report that it sounds way better than I remember it. In the old days, I recall it sounding dry, flat and transistory. Now it’s BIG and BOLD, revealing a band that’s on fire in the studio.
These two sides show us just what a monster rocker this album can be when it’s mastered and pressed right. The reviews were mixed when the album was released in 1978, but time has been kind to it — after hearing the killer copies I would rank it up at the top with the best of Ferry’s and Roxy’s bodies of work.
We were a bit surprised to find that the domestic copies we played were clearly better sounding than the UK imports. It may be counterintuitive, but these are the kinds of things you find out when doing shootouts. We have little use for intuitions (UK recording, UK pressing) and rules of thumb (original equals better).
Hard data — the kind you get from actually playing the records — trumps them all.
Top Bryan Ferry / Roxy Sound
Let’s face it, we love many of Roxy Music’s and Bryan Ferry’s records, but most of them have their share of problems. Perhaps at a later date we will break them down in more detail, but for now let’s just say that this is one of the strongest sounding of Ferry’s solo output. This and the first three albums are all very well-recorded. The first three are clearly better on import, but the next two, In Your Mind and this one, both recorded by Steve Nye, are best on domestic vinyl in our experience.
In Your Mind is another personal favorite, but the sound is not quite up to Hot Stamper standards. As good as the music is, we were forced to abandon our attempt at a shootout years ago and haven’t heard a good enough sounding copy since to change our minds.
It doesn’t happen very often — today’s modern cleaning technologies have made many shootouts possible that had previously failed badly — but in some cases, even a dozen carefully cleaned LPs are not able to get even a single pressing over the finish line.
Schumann / Piano Concerto / LSO / Ashkenazy
DEMO QUALITY. Stunning sound. A fabulous, warm reading of this Schumann concerto. This has a similar sonic magic to the EMI Glazunov Concerto. The hall ambience is palpable. The tonal balance is almost perfect.
It’s simply hard to fault music and sound of this caliber.
This is an Older Classical/Orchestral Review
Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we started developing in the early 2000s and have since turned into a veritable science.
We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the Sonic Grades and Vinyl Playgrades are listed separately.)
We were often wrong back in those days, something we have no reason to hide. Audio equipment and record cleaning technologies have come a long way since those darker days, a subject we discuss here.
Currently, 99% (or more!) of the records we sell are cleaned, then auditioned under rigorously controlled conditions, up against a number of other pressings. We award them sonic grades, and then condition check them for surface noise.
As you may imagine, this approach requires a great deal of time, effort and skill, which is why we currently have a highly trained staff of about ten. No individual or business without the aid of such a committed group could possibly dig as deep into the sound of records as we have, and it is unlikely that anyone besides us could ever come along to do the kind of work we do.
The term “Hot Stampers” gets thrown around a lot these days, but to us it means only one thing: a record that has been through the shootout process and found to be of exceptionally high quality.
The result of our labor is the hundreds of titles seen here, every one of which is unique and guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio – Red Gardenia
- Off the charts “Triple Triple” (A+++) sound for this classic Yamamoto Philips Direct to Disc album – both sides earned our top grade of Triple Plus – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- The piano is dynamic and solid – imagine a Three Blind Mice piano date recorded Direct-to-Disc – that’s the sound of this album
- This is one of the few audiophile records worthy of the name. It’s also five times as rare as Blues to East and the music is better
- There are two Stevie Wonder songs given a wonderful piano trio arrangement here that are just out of this world
This group plays with tremendous vigor. They really swing and are tight as a drum. On this album there’s almost none of that “introspective noodling jazz” that the Japanese are infamous for. I love Midnight Sugar as much as the next guy, but too much of that kind of music is wearying.
Yamamoto’s Trio wants to show that it can play good old-fashioned straight ahead American lively piano jazz with the best of them. And they can. You will also be hard pressed to find better sound for a small ensemble like this. Since Rudy Van Gelder was not particularly adept at recording the piano, many of the great pianists cannot be heard properly on Prestige, Blue Note and other original label recordings.
Philips is one of the better direct disc labels from back in the day (although that isn’t saying much because most of them were mediocre at best). It was garnering rave reviews from TAS a couple of decades ago. Does anybody remember? Probably not, but I do. I flipped out when I saw this record in my local shop. They charged top dollar but I paid it, knowing what a rare and special record it is. (more…)
Donny Hathaway – The Best of Donny Hathaway
- Hathaway’s 1978 compilation album finally arrives on the site with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout
- Richer, warmer, more natural, more relaxed, these vintage pressings are what analog is all about, that long-lost sound that never calls attention to itself and just lets the music flow
- The legendary Roberta Flack joins Hathaway on two or our favorite duets of all time: “You’ve Got A Friend” and “Where Is The Love” – the results are nothing short of magical
- 4 stars: “…taste the musical genius of the late Donny Hathaway… he delivers a strong, understated reading of Leon Russell’s song. He blends deliciously with Roberta Flack… their chemistry is breathtaking.”
Joe Walsh – The Best of…
More Joe Walsh
- An outstanding copy of Walsh’s first compilation album, with Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on side one matched to a Hot Stamper side two
- With sound close to our Shootout Winner on side one, Turn To Stone and Rocky Mountain Way are amazing here
- We expected to hear dubby, sub-generation tape copy sound, but instead we discovered that these tracks – on the right pressings, natch – sound pretty darn close to the ones on the albums they originally came from
- The perfect sampler for a casual Joe Walsh fan, featuring songs from his tenure with the James Gang along with some of his best known solo tracks
Stanley Turrentine / Jubilee Shouts – Reviewed in 2005
More Stanley Turrentine
More Albums on Blue Note
Two Minty looking Blue Note LPs of two previously unreleased sessions featuring the great tenor saxophonist with Tommy Turrentine, Kenny Burrell, Horace Parlan, Sonny Clark and others.
If you want to hear Turrentine at his best, skip right to track two, the beautiful ballad Then I’ll Be Tired Of You, featuring his brother Tommy on trumpet. The music is powerful and the sound is excellent.
This is an older jazz review.
Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we developed in the early 2000s and have since turned into a fine art.
We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the sonic grades and vinyl playgrades are listed separately.)
We were often wrong back in those days, something we have no reason to hide. Audio equipment and record cleaning technologies have come a long way since those darker days, a subject we discuss here.
Currently, 99% (or more!) of the records we sell are cleaned, then auditioned under rigorously controlled conditions, up against a number of other pressings. We award them sonic grades, and then condition check them for surface noise.
As you may imagine, this approach requires a great deal of time, effort and skill, which is why we currently have a highly trained staff of about ten. No individual or business without the aid of such a committed group could possibly dig as deep into the sound of records as we have, and it is unlikely that anyone besides us could ever come along to do the kind of work we do.
The term “Hot Stampers” gets thrown around a lot these days, but to us it means only one thing: a record that has been through the shootout process and found to be of exceptionally high quality.
Not just a good sounding record. A record that was played in a shootout and did well.
The result of our labor is the scores of jazz titles seen here, every one of which is unique and guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.
Further Reading