Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Cat Stevens Available Now
In 2025, in preparation for a new shootout, we ordered a copy of Teaser from overseas that supposedly had the right stampers — we know what they are and we are only interested in copies with the right ones — and were sent this “KEV” pressing by accident.
Accident is right — whoever KEV is, he sure has no business mastering records if the one we played is anything to go by.
Discogs has an entry for it, current price around $10. (Apparently the word got out about the sound of this miserable pressing.)
- This release is the pink ring Island Label. No Sterling etchings. (KEV) in matrix.
- Side 1 has 9514 hashed out and 9154 etched above
- Matrix / Runout (A-side runout. etched): ILPS 9154A-1K 1 KEV B
- Matrix / Runout (B-side runout. etched): ILPS 9154B-1K 1 KEV B
Our notes read:
- Loud, congested and hot.
- Big, wonky bass.
- Opaque and so compressed that it pumps.
And the best line of all:
- Not too different sounding from the 2021 remaster that’s on Spotify. (!)
I looked up that 2021 release, mastered at Abbey Road Studios, and it appears they remixed it for some reason, as those who work at Abbey Road are wont to do, the result of which seems to be one disaster after another.