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Bryan Ferry – Bete Noire

More of the Music of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music

  • Bete Noire returns to the site for the first time in years, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout this early Reprise pressing
  • Both sides of this hit-packed 1987 Ferry LP are big, rich and tubey – dramatically fuller than practically all of the others we played
  • “Kiss & Tell” and “The Right Stuff” are two of the bigger bangers here, and they both sound the way they should – big and clear
  • 4 stars: “Bete Noire sparkles as the highlight of Ferry’s post-Roxy solo career… Here, his trademark well-polished heartache strikes a fine balance between mysterious moodiness and dancefloor energy…”

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Miles Davis – Filles de Kilimanjaro

More of the Music of Miles Davis

  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides, this copy is certainly as good as we have ever heard
  • A tough shootout, as no other copy earned a 3+ grade on either side, which simply means that when you find a top copy, it sets such a high standard that everything else ends up getting marked down
  • This Columbia 360 Label LP boasts rich, full-bodied, clear sound with the space and three-dimensionality that was difficult to find on the later pressings we played
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… this middle ground between the adventurous bop of the mid-60s and the fusion of the late-60s is rewarding in its own right, since it’s possible to hear great musicians find the foundation of a new form. For that alone, Filles de Kilimanjaro is necessary listening.”

This is one of the all-time classic progressive jazz albums, and a copy like this allows you to appreciate the contributions of Miles and his top-notch band (Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and the great Ron Carter on most of the songs). This one’s not as “out there” as Bitches Brew, but it gives you a taste of the various directions these guys would take in the years to come.

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Free – Self-Titled

More Rock Classics

  • Free’s sophomore release, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER throughout this British Pink Rim reissue Island pressing
  • The sound is big, rich, and spacious, with an abundance of hard rockin’ energy and a solid bottom end
  • A record we have been trying to get going for five years – copies in clean condition take us years to find!
  • Only the right UK pressings had the Tubey Magical British Blues Rock sound we were looking for – the domestic pressings are made from dubs, something that A&M did most of the time for the British bands they distributed
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of the master tape, a vintage UK pressing like this one is the only way to go
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… an album that stands alongside its predecessor as a benchmark of British blues at the turn of the 1960s.”

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Roxy Music – Viva! Roxy Music

More of the Music of Roxy Music

  • Both sides of this original UK Island pressing (the first copy to ever hit the site) were doing everything right, earning INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from top to bottom – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • This is an album I have been playing regularly lately and it has really grown on me over the last couple of years – a truly fine album that rewards repeated plays, as should any classic release from this incredible band
  • A tough shootout, as no other copy earned a 3+ grade on either side, which simply means that when you find a top copy, it sets such a high standard that everything else ends up falling short of the standard and must be marked down accordingly
  • Guaranteed to be a huge improvement over anything you’ve heard, this Brit is big, punchy, and full-bodied – Bryan Ferry’s leads really soar
  • A killer pressing with energy and presence that positively JUMPS out of the speakers, two of the qualities that we prize most highly in our Hot Stampers, and two of things among many that Heavy Vinyl does so poorly
  • “…Viva! is a tough, powerful document of Roxy at the peak of their live powers, featuring a fine cross-section of their best work.”

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Aretha Franklin – Spirit In The Dark


  • You’ll find outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout this vintage Atlantic pressing
  • It’s lively, open, present and natural; the soundfield is big and spacious and the bottom end is killer; Aretha fans, you won’t want to miss out on this one
  • We’ve done a ton of Aretha shootouts over the years and I’d put this one right up there with any of her titles for top quality sound
  • Our last shootout was 2020 — we simply cannot find copies of albums like these with audiophile quality surfaces, and the future does not appear to be any brighter in that respect than the present
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Spirit in the Dark was one of Aretha Franklin’s more overlooked albums from her Atlantic prime, despite the inclusion of a couple hit singles (the title track and “Don’t Play That Song”)… it’s an exuberant and remarkably consistent effort.”

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Varese et al. / Percussion Music / New Jersey Percussion Ensemble

TAS List Records Available Now

  • This crazy fun 20th Century Percussion Music album featuring classical works which rely almost exclusively on percussion (piano and voice also make appearances) boasts INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades throughout
  • A tough shootout, as no other copy earned a 3+ grade on either side, which simply means that when you find a top copy, it sets such a high standard that everything else ends up getting marked down
  • Both of these TAS-approved sides are clear and spacious with sound that is positively jumping out of the speakers
  • This copy is transparent, speedy, and tonally correct from top to bottom like nothing else we played
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, but once you hear how amazing sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting stitches and just be swept away by the music

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Pentangle – Cruel Sister

More British Folk Rock

  • Here is an original UK import pressing of Pentangle’s 1970 release (the first copy to ever hit the site) with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The unprocessed quality found throughout the album has its audiophile credentials fully in order, especially in the area of guitar harmonics, as well as drums that sound like real drums actually sound
  • The true foundation of the music is provided by two legendary guitar heavyweights, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, with Jacqui McShee’s almost unbearably sweet vocals soaring above them
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Cruel Sister shows Pentangle at their artistic height, combining all of their skill and inspiration to create a vital and enduring album.”

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Oliver Nelson – Meet Oliver Nelson

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Saxophone

  • You’ll find INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades throughout this New Jazz recording pressed on fairly quiet OJC vinyl
  • A tough shootout, as no other copy earned a 3+ grade on either side, which simply means that when you find a top copy, it sets such a high standard that everything else ends up getting marked down
  • Full, rich, and spacious with an abundance of Tubey Magic and, better yet, never dry, hard or transistory – true Demo Disc quality sound
  • There’s so much life in these grooves – the sonics jump out of the speakers right into your lap
  • 4 stars: “…this was an impressive beginning to a short but productive career and gives one a strong example of the multi-talented Nelson’s tenor playing.”

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Satie – Previn Conducts Satie and Music from France / LSO

More Classical and Orchestral Recordings

  • Here is a vintage RCA Red Seal import pressing (the first to ever hit the site) with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from first note to last
  • A tough shootout, as no other copy earned a 3+ grade on either side, which simply means that when you find a top copy, it sets such a high standard that everything else ends up getting marked down
  • It’s simply bigger, more transparent, less distorted, more three-dimensional and more real than practically all of what we played
  • Everything that we listen for in a great classical recording can be heard on this copy – it’s immediate, dynamic, very low distortion, spacious, and alive

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Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery – The Dynamic Duo

More of the Music of Jimmy Smith

More of the Music of Wes Montgomery

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom, this is an wonderful sounding pressing of Jimmy and Wes’s classic jazz collaboration from 1966
  • Big, rich and lively, thanks to Oliver Nelson’s arrangements (and RVG’s engineering), this big group of top players is having a blast and we think you will too
  • 5 stars: “The romping, aggressive big band charts [represent] Oliver Nelson at his best… The results are incendiary — a near-ideal meeting of yin and yang… They are an amazing pair, complementing each other, driving each other, using their bop and blues taproots to fuse together a sound.”

The sound of this Verve stereo pressing is tonally correct and natural. The timbre of each and every instrument is right and it doesn’t take a pair of golden ears to hear it. So high-resolution too. If you love ’60s jazz you cannot go wrong here. (more…)