More Prog Rock
- This is an outstanding Island Sunray domestic pressing offering spacious Tubey Magical Double Plus (A++) sound throughout – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- Low Spark is clearly one of the best sounding Proggy/Arty Rock records ever made – the space it recreates in your listening room is HUGE
- A Better Records Top 100 album and a real Demo Disc on a pressing that sounds as good as this one does
- 4 1/2 stars: “The commercial and artistic apex of the second coming of Traffic… The standout was the 12-minute title track, with its distinctive piano riff and its lyrics of weary disillusionment with the music business. “
UPDATE 2025
The shootout described here was carried out in 2019. The domestic pressings do not do as well now as they did then. Our best domestic pressing earned a grade of 1.5+ on both sides, which would put it in our section for good, not great sounding LPs. It’s possible a domestic pressing could earn a grade of 2+ in the next shootout, but my feeling is that it would not be very likely.
The best early imports are a huge step-up in sound quality and they have won and will win all the shootouts we do in the future.
Note that it was six years between shootouts for this title. They are hard to find in audiophile playing condition and only getting harder, and dramatically more expensive when you do find them.
After doing the shootout for John Barleycorn recently, a record we love in spite of its problematic sound, this album was truly a breath of fresh air. I can honestly and enthusiastically say that the sound we heard on the best pressings was OUT OF THIS WORLD. This album is a permanent member of our Rock And Jazz Top 100, that’s how good it is.
Who knew? We had no idea this recording could sound so incredibly spacious and open. The distortion level is so close to zero that we don’t even want to assign a positive number to it. Let’s just say it’s below the threshold of hearing; does that work for you?