Ah, December. When most Album of the Year lists are out in the world by the first week of November, what kind of self-defeatist logic would see you releasing music in the Bublé zone? Well, here at Just Played we like to salute those willing to take the plunge, as well as wrapping up – it’s compulsory, leave me alone – other recent bits and bobs we might have missed. So, if you need a gift idea or three, or just fancy a trip to the record shop in order to give the boiler a rest, read on.
Freshly Pressed:
It’s hard to recall indie label WIAIWYA ever putting a foot wrong, but they’ve delivered gold with the latest Spearmint album, ‘This Candle Is For You’. Shimmering, swooning, jangly guitar pop with a true gift for narratives, it continues the band’s reputation for understated beauty. And you can’t help feeling it should be a little more well-known and highly-regarded in the current musical landscape. The combined voices of Simon Calnan and songwriter Shirley Lee are in that same category of musical comfort occupied by Teenage Fanclub at their most heartwarming. Affecting tribute ‘Melody’s Mother’s Jam’ features the wonderful lyric, “must be some kind of irony that a jam can’t be preserved,” while ‘Never Far From Saturday Night’ is a paean to domestic contentment. Rhodri Marsden provides excellent production and the GZ pressing is near silent throughout. Add in a glorious lyric book with commentary and this is a very satisfying package indeed.
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The pastoral beauty of Midlake at their peak, across 2006’s ‘The Trials Of Van Occupanther’ and 2010’s ‘The Courage Of Others’, owed much to the presence of frontman and vocalist Tim Smith. He left in 2012 and they would never be quite the same again. And it’s been a long wait for more exposure to that glorious voice. Thankfully ‘Albion’, the debut album from Harp, shares a fair bit of melancholic DNA with the latter of the two corkers mentioned above. Working with his wife, Kathi Zung, he has crafted an album that feels out of time, from its sleeve art to its grooves. There are many highlights, but ‘Shining Spires’ is a particularly moving track as it swirls hypnotically around the room. Noel Summerville delivers a bewitchingly nuanced mastering that lets this curious, brilliant music occupy the room and the quiet Takt pressing serves it well. A late 2023 highlight.
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For most people, the mere mention of the Cuban Boys calls to mind festive oddity ‘Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia’ from December 1999. Associated with early internet craze The Hamster Dance, it was a breakout hit from the eclectic world of John Peel’s Radio 1 shows. At the start of that year, they’d been a live guest for him and the January 13th outing is the latest to get the Precious Recordings Of London BBC Sessions 10” treatment. Peelie loved them and played pretty much everything they sent in, making them stalwarts of the Festive Fifty. While that song isn’t here, we do get a disorientating cover of ‘Hanging On The Telephone’ featuring reverse reverb from producer Mike Engles and a riotous ‘Oh My God! They Killed Kenny’ which melds South Park samples to Kenny’s Seventies smash ‘The Bump’. It’s great fun, of course, and a largely quiet GZ pressing does justice to Ian Button’s fine mastering work. An effusive sleevenote and art cards seal the deal.
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‘Integrated Tech Solutions’ is the first album in three years from American rapper and producer Aesop Rock. Its deluxe edition drew a few headlines with its built-in switchboard that operates multi-coloured flashing LED lights and plays an exclusive track, all while being chargeable via a micro-USB port. It’s £240 on Discogs at time of writing, so let’s not dwell on it. Just Played sampled the fairly quiet GZ-pressed white double LP edition, which has a still pleasing matte gatefold and embossed reverse-board inners. While it may well be a concept record about “lifestyle and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience,” (nope, me neither) it will play well with fans, maintaining a distinctive sound forged over many years. Guests include Nikki Jean, Lealani Teano and Hanni El Khatib and the mastering goes heavy on the bottom end. This is somewhat to the detriment of the top end, but not a serious concern.
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After a recent run of catalogue reissues, the time has come for a fresh Eels compilation, mopping up the time following the first instalment. ‘Eels So Good – Essential Eels Vol 2’ cherry picks 2007-2020 across four sides of transparent green vinyl. It’s best to just accept that, for many, E’s golden period pre-dates this timespan and take these twenty tracks on their own merits. It’s a pleasure to be reacquainted with ‘That Look You Give That Guy’, ‘Spectacular Girl’ and ‘Today Is The Day’, this selection of highlights holding up a little better than some of the late-period albums do on their own. Side D features a trio of previously unreleased tracks and two making their debut on vinyl. The highlight from this quintet is ‘Christmas, Why You Gotta Do Me Like This’, which has an amusingly blunt annotation in the accompanying glossy 12-page booklet. Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering has delivered a very satisfying vinyl cut with a pleasingly open soundstage and plenty of clarity in the top end. The Takt pressing is reasonably quiet, but you can pretty much pretend any surface noise is part of the mix on most Eels tracks.
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Ella Thompson recently released her debut record ‘Domino’ via Melbourne label Hopestreet Recordings. A songwriter since childhood, this is her first solo release despite previously working with Renee Geyer and Mark Ronson. Thompson’s expressive vocals lean towards jazz atop some richly soulful backdrops. This short seven-song set suggests an artist with a love of many decades of music offering up a very modern take on a selection of classic sounds. ‘Wouldn’t It Be Easy’ is a particular highlight, with its rolling drumbeat and plucked guitar. Alex De Turk’s mastering emphasises the mids and bottom end, ahead of the highs. The pressing, via Australian plant Program, is solid if unspectacular, featuring a little noise and slightly hot cut.
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A little over a year ago, your correspondent was raving about the Panda Bear & Sonic Boom collaboration ‘Reset’, with its Beach Boys meets The Avalanches psychedelic pop sheen, and it’s now time for ‘Reset In Dub’. Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound have been on the case, rebuilding the tracks from the bass up. New parts have been recorded and it all feels a little like gently easing into the morning after last night’s party with the parent album. The soundstage is fabulous, reaching far beyond the speakers and sculpting all aspects with clarity and depth. Simon Davey delivers another excellent cut, having done ‘Reset’ originally, and the Optimal pressing is silent throughout. Neat die-cut sleeve too.
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‘MARMA’ is the debut record from Liverpool-based Beatowls and, despite some slightly underwhelming cover art, it’s a hugely promising first release. The press bumf references The xx, Portishead and Broadcast with some justification. There’s definitely something bewitching about Darcie Chazen’s vocals, which are deployed in a variety of ways across the ten tracks. The slightly fuzzy treatment on ‘(Do You Want To Be) Loved?’ is particularly memorable and there’s a wonderful sense of heavy atmospherics mixed with an insistent energy throughout the whole record. ‘All I See Is Trouble’ is another highlight and the mastering by Mike Cave does a fine job of delivering heft without losing any of the subtle textures. A near-silent Optimal pressing is the icing on the rather menacing cake. Give it a listen.
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Back in April, this column reviewed the debut solo album from Ben Gregory, ‘Episode’, in favourable terms and hot on its heels comes a project rather tailored to regular readers of this column. ‘Live From Metropolis’ captures a moment in time and was recorded straight to vinyl, with no pauses, no overdubs and no polish. Performing with Marika Hackman and Mystery Jets’ Blaine Harrison, who co-produced the previous release, the unique endeavour was helmed by the rightly-lauded Matt Colton, whose vinyl cuts are routinely raved about in these quarters. This is no different. A limited pressing is now available for purchase and the GZ pressing is fairly quiet, thankfully. ‘Same Mistakes’ and ‘(Dreaming)’ are particular highlights, but all seven tracks fizz with the emotional clarity that made the debut so compelling. Don’t sleep on it.
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Legendary label Tommy Boy gets the deluxe vinyl box treatment just in time for gift buying. ‘…And You Don’t Stop – A Celebration Of 50 Years Of Hip-Hop’ is a faintly confusing title for an extensive compilation of something that started in 1981 and restrains its musical journey to just under two decades from 1982 to 2001. However, the genre’s origins are traced back to DJ Kool Herc’s 1973 Bronx party in the accompanying liner notes and Tommy Boy has certainly been a prominent participant for many of the years since. A linen slipcase with gold-foil finishing houses six GZ-pressed discs packed with catalogue highlights remastered by Tony Dawsey at Phantom.
Playback is pretty quiet throughout and the soundstage is rather satisfying. On House Of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’, the bottom end has heft but the mid-range and vocals keep their own distinct places in the mix. Early tracks like ‘Play At Your Own Risk’ from Planet Patrol have pristine electronic beats, while De La Soul ‘Me, Myself And I’ sounds sharp and a little less heavy than on their recent reissues. K7’s ‘Come Baby Come’ is enormous, with fantastic use of the space across the stereo spectrum. Fast forward to Coolio’s ‘C U When You Get There’ and the gospel vocals on the chorus are delightfully smooth. This superb package keeps the frills to a minimum and focuses the listener on a consistently impressive array of music from the archive. Highly recommended.
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All Kinds Of Blue:
It’s one of those occasional months where there’s a direct overlap between the two Blue Note reissue programmes. The common thread this December is Grant Green who gets a Tone Poet and a Classic. The former is 1965’s ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, an album which offered jazz re-workings of more conventional pop songs including the ubiquitous title track. The seven-and-a-half-minute long interpretation of said Beatles song is endearingly playful, pulling at different threads at different times and deconstructing the DNA of a song almost everybody knows inside out. It’s perhaps not a truly essential title, but when the supporting band features Elvin Jones, Hank Mobley and Larry Young it’s never less than excellent. The latter’s playing on ‘This Could Be The Start Of Something’ is irresistible and Kevin Gray’s cut renders it in breathtakingly three-dimensional sound.
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As something of a McCoy Tyner fan, the addition of ‘Extensions’ to the Tone Poet range is particularly exciting for your correspondent. You may well know its iconic National Geographic-inspired sleeve and the list of supporting musicians is remarkable. The aforementioned Elvin Jones and Ron Carter form the rhythm section, alongside saxophonists Gary Bartz and Wayne Shorter. The extra stardust here, though, is the presence of Alice Coltrane on harp and let’s not forget Duke Pearson on production. If you’re wondering what’s so special about these not inexpensive audiophile pressings – cut by Gray, pressed at RTI, as ever – then this would be an ideal demonstration record. The whole thing pours from the speakers, but put opener ‘Message From The Nile’ on and plonk yourself in the sweet spot for your system to experience something pretty overwhelming. The way in which certain aspects of the mix seem to reach even further up and out of an already expansive soundstage is genuinely thrilling. Modal pieces with an ear on African grooves, this was something of a shift from his previous work and three years passed between its recording and eventual release in 1973. This new edition is a truly essential purchase for jazz fans and plenty beyond.
Grant Green month concludes with the unsubtly branded ‘Green Street’, replete with suitably hued cover art. It’s a glorious listen, with Ben Tucker on bass and Dave Bailey on drums completing a tight trio that is on fire throughout. The space afforded by a small arrangement is especially effective in this superb Kevin Gray all-analogue cut. The version of ‘’Round About Midnight’ is a very special thing indeed and your correspondent had to put it on several times in a row to bask in its presentation of Green’s nuanced reading. Those with an aversion to puns may find ‘Green With Envy’ a step too far, but it’s a musical delight on which Bailey shimmers alongside the bandleader. A perfectly silent Optimal pressing for this essential title too.
The other Classic release for December is Sonny Rollins’ 1966 stormer ‘Newk’s Time’. Another striking sleeve design draws the listener into a performance that features Doug Watkins on bass, Philly Joe Jones at the drums and a commanding turn from pianist Wynton Kelly. ‘Asiatic Raes’ is a captivating workout for the quartet, giving each musician the chance to steer proceedings. Kelly’s work on the keys, as across the whole record, truly shines, given a rich, resonant position in the typically striking soundstage. And then there’s closer ‘Namely You’, a piece that shows Rollins parting in style. Optimal and Gray deliver once more.
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Going Round Again:
‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’, the 1981 debut by Soft Cell, is simultaneously restored to the racks as a comprehensive 6CD set and 2LP edition with a bonus disc of single versions and b-sides. The original album is a multifaceted overview of Marc Almond and Dave Ball’s unique partnership, their electro-goth take on ‘Tainted Love’ nestled close to the strident ‘Sex Dwarf’ and the whole thing rounded off by the majestic ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’. For this return to wax, Barry Grint at AIR has provided the mastering and Adrian Thrills has interviewed the duo for an entertaining new essay. The Pallas pressing sounds very good, with near-silent playback of a vibrant soundstage that favours the bottom end slightly, as per modern tastes. The second record includes their radiant cover of ‘Where Did Our Love Go’?’ along with singles ‘Torch’ and the Melinda Marx track ‘What!’ The faithful will probably want the big box, but this is a very fine way to get the highlights.
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It’s a year since Demon Records launched their half-speed mastered series and, having covered a wide range of genres and decades so far, they mark the first anniversary by returning to an artist featured in that initial batch. Labi Siffre’s self-titled debut has now had the customarily meticulous treatment from Phil Kinrade who has worked from the original production master tapes, with Barry Grint delivering the cut. The artwork is solid if a little dull compared to an original, but pictures of the tapes boxes adorn the insert that also features a thorough sleevenote contextualising the music. A GZ pressing housed in a poly-lined inner, playback was near silent throughout and the mastering is excellent, most notably on the gleeful rhythm section of ‘Something On My Mind’ and the intimate cover of Nilsson’s ‘Maybe’. Siffre’s voice has a sizeable presence and plenty of space across the record, but make sure your turntable settings are finely-tuned as it seems to be cut a little hot at points.
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Universal’s vinyl scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should when it came to marking the tenth anniversary of Ariana Grande’s excellent debut, ‘Yours Truly’. A highly listenable Ian Sefchick cut from 2019, plated at Optimal and previously on black or coloured vinyl, has now been pressed up as a not-especially-exciting picture disc. Essentially, you get the same splendid sonics for delights like ‘Baby I’, ‘The Way’ and ‘Right There’ but with a little background rumble. For this notoriously noisy format, this is pretty quiet during playback and it’s sure to make a neat gift for completists.
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The 2x45rpm half-speed mastered ABBA reissue series arrives at ‘The Visitors’. Previously titles have been largely well received, including several covered in this column. Early releases have soared in value, although they’re not that cheap to begin with. Thankfully, Miles Showell’s work warrants a listen and this new cut easily surpasses any of the recent reissues in the various box sets. It’s open and full of texture, but with a really compelling, controlled bottom end. Just listen to ‘When All Is Said And Done’ or ‘One Of Us’ to hear some of the benefits of this impressively balanced soundstage. This is all presented across a pair of silent Optimal-pressed discs and my only criticism – pricing aside – is that the artwork could be a little sharper. The more obsessive fan will also be tempted by a rather natty singles box with four replica 7”s that are assigned a selection of bright but transparent hues.
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As we come to the end of a year which saw an uptick in interest for the return of the original Sugababes, following festival performances and a physical release for their ‘The Lost Tapes’ album, we’re now treated to a first vinyl edition for Siobhan Donaghy’s debut solo offering ‘Revolution In Me’, marking its twentieth anniversary. It holds up well as a slice of early-Noughties exploratory pop, trying on several genres and awash with enormous hooks. ‘Man Without Friends’ is an immediate earworm, while first single ‘Overrated’ is pure early-years Natalie Imbruglia. At fifty-three minutes long, there’s a fair bit to squeeze onto one disc but the mastering takes it into account and a fairly quiet GZ pressing does a decent job of relaying this largely excellent record. The green disc mirrors the colour of the sleeve typography, which is uncannily similar to that used by a certain girl band at the time, one which Donaghy had just left.
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There is a risk that this section may prove faintly annoying, but consider it salient advice for the year ahead. If you’re a fan of Saint Etienne but don’t subscribe to their mailing list, you’ll likely have missed their latest pair of splendid festive releases. Always a band to value the tangible pleasures of physical media, they’ve developed quite the tradition of releasing fan club titles and desirable reissues at the end of each year. This time around, it’s a vinyl debut for ‘Built On Sand’ – a rarities set from 1999 – and a 10” single of ‘Music For Hermione’ which features music composed to soundtrack Andy Holden’s animated film ‘Kingdom Of The Sick’.
Each title gets a standard (though actually more limited) black outing and a coloured variant, catering to all tastes. In other words, they get it really, really right. Indeed, the only mildly frustrating aspect of the whole endeavour is the limited numbers involved, which see pretty much everything sell out on the same day it goes up for pre-order. As such, you may have to get into Discogs wantlist territory for these two fantastic releases now. Both have been done at Optimal, with artwork designed specifically for these editions. The soundstages are pretty pleasing, especially considering the various different origins and purposes across the collected tracks. Obviously, cassette-sourced curios like ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ – another unsuccessful Nineties band Bond pitch – can only sound so good, but the combined novelty and superb sleevenotes make this a welcome addition to the collection. We’ll have more on Bob, Pete and Sarah next month too.
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We do enjoy a good jazz reissue here at Just Played and Chichester-based indie store Analogue October has decided to start releasing records as well as selling them. For their first title, they’ve opted to return Courtney Pine’s 1986 debut, ‘Journey To The Urge Within’, to the racks and you know you’re in safe hands before you get past the hype sticker. It has been mastered by the impeccable folk at Gearbox from Universal’s digital files via all sorts of audiophile kit, fully detailed on a heavyweight insert that also includes an informative sleevenote from Jazzwise editor Mike Flynn. In short, this is a no-stone-unturned approach to delivering a special product to the listener and that is especially evident when it matters most – on the turntable. The soundstage is enormous and there’s discernible space within the performances: Gary Crosby’s fingers on the strings of his bass are palpable and Pine’s saxophone is a rich, fluid presence in the centre. The delicate beauty of Horace Silver’s ‘Peace’ hovers in the room and the impact of ‘Children Of The Ghetto’ is assisted by Susaye Greene’s majestic vocal. To top it off, the Optimal pressing is near-silent. This is quite the way to announce yourself on reissue scene. More, please, Analogue October.
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Following last month’s anniversary outing for the sublime ‘Up’, a bunch of much-delayed R.E.M. vinyl reissues have hit the racks en masse. Their final four albums have been dusted off, all having been out of print since their original releases. Regular readers may recall November’s tale of woe with regard to the US Cohearant Audio mastering not being used for the European pressings – done at GZ – and the same is true for three-quarters of this batch too. Bizarrely, ‘Accelerate’ uses the US plates while the rest appear to be in-house cuts from the Czech plant. In an unfortunate twist, that particular album is, by some distance, the worst sounding with some curious decisions taken to try and address the ear-bleeding sonic onslaught of the original production, mix and mastering. While still quite loud, the 2LP 45rpm cut that emerged in 2008 has a vibrancy and thrust that Just Played finds rather compelling. This new edition is muddy, neutered in the top end and oddly unmoving.
2001’s ‘Reveal’ sounds pretty lovely, all things considered, although it’s a long record for one disc. Add some volume and the soundstage opens up a little. A quick comparison with the US reissue suggests that we’ve not missed out by quite the same extent as with ‘Up’ and the European pressing definitely has less surface noise. ‘Around The Sun’, 2004’s career nadir, still has its moments and this edition is fairly dynamic, if not quite as open as the original 2LP release. The end came in 2011 with ‘Collapse Into Now’, featuring a farewell wave on the cover, and it also fares pretty well with its new cut and there’s not much difference between it and the Record Industry original. A little GZ roulette will come into play, if you’re up for trying these, as most sides I listened to were pretty quiet, but some noise did creep in on a couple.
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A quick mention now for a couple of additional treats from the Black Story campaign that Universal launched recently and this column covered last month. Vivian Weathers’ 1978 album, ‘Bad Weathers’, was his only solo release, although he was a part of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s band. The artwork is fabulous and his distinctive, versatile falsetto elevates these tunes to somewhere special. Although it barely made a mark originally, it has been recognised subsequently as a striking demonstration of an obvious talent. The other extra tip is 1994’s ‘Bad Brothers’, a mini-album featuring a collaborative effort credited as Ronny Jordan Meets DJ Krush. To many people’s delight, this gets its first vinyl reissue in almost three decades and the teal wax contains six lengthy pieces which mix Jordan’s acid jazz and the heavy beats of the Japanese hip-hop producer and DJ. ‘The Jackal (The Illest Mix)’ is a particular delight, with a huge bottom end but not to the detriment to the detail in the mids. As with the whole series, both were cut superbly by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road and pressed at Takt.
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While there was a previous vinyl edition of the Love Actually soundtrack, a new pressing marks the first time that the contents of the original release have been committed to wax. One disc is transparent red, while the other is clear and the set has been manufactured at Optimal. In much the same way that the festive film roped in a vast array of big names, its accompanying tunes include The Beach Boys, Otis Redding, Norah Jones and only flipping Girls Aloud. It’s possibly also worth pointing out that you get the orchestral re-working of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ from the album of the of the same name that figures so prominently in the movie on the highly fetishized format of…the CD. But that particular revival hasn’t quite kicked in just yet, so needs must. It’s a quiet pressing with the mastering well balanced to ensure the decade-hopping selections sit well alongside each other and the early-Noughties tracks possess a more measured soundstage than they might have twenty years ago. However, Bill Nighy’s Billy Mack rendition of ‘Christmas Is All Around’ hasn’t improved at all with the passing of time.
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One of the gems to have slipped through this column’s net in recent months was the National Album Day reissue of Babybird’s most well-known record, 1996’s ‘Ugly Beautiful’. Propelled to the public consciousness by ‘You’re Beautiful’, Stephen Jones’ music was at its most poppy in this era and benefitted from the prevailing mood of the time. Despite this, there’s plenty of the more angular, idiosyncratic and complex aspects of his work still on show here. Seek out ‘Jesus Is My Girlfriend’ and ‘Too Handsome To Be Homeless’ to get a sense of this, not that ‘Candy Girl’ and ‘Cornershop’ aren’t full of charm too. A near-silent German cut, this is a great sounding, dynamic mastering and a neat opportunity to pick up a long out of print title ahead of more of the catalogue getting a reissue in 2024.
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One of the less obvious lockdown projects resulted in a substantial amount of stylistically varied work from Tim Finn & Phil Manzanera. A self-titled 3LP set now collects together the two previously released albums drawn from those recordings, ‘Caught By The Heart’ and ‘The Ghost Of Santiago’, and adds a bonus EP entitled ‘Viento En Popa’. As Finn recalls in the sleevenotes, in March 2020 he “reached out to Phil in the UK and asked him if he had any slow Latin grooves I could work with.” The globetrotting genre-hopping found over these discs was partly inspired by the world’s interconnectedness during a time of great uncertainty and some of the lyrics are in Spanish and Italian. There’s salsa, reggae, prog, pop and classical nods all in the mix across this intriguing set.
It doesn’t all work and the first album is clearly the superior material – although brace yourself for ‘Dominoes’ at the very end – but fans of either should find plenty to enjoy here. A rather flimsy cardboard slipcase houses the individual 12” discs which each have their own artwork and inners. The Abbey Road mastering is strong, allowing plenty of nuance in the presentation. The Takt pressings are fairly quiet, although there were some noticeable pops at a number of points. Although it’s limited to 1,000 copies, the price point around £40 seems almost absurdly sensible for these times.
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At The Front Of The Racks:
Chrysalis deliver yet another archive gem with a twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Black Box Recorder’s debut, ‘England Made Me’. One of Luke Haines’ many projects, they were best known for Sarah Nixey’s incredibly distinctive, rather disaffected vocal style. Phil Kinrade at AIR remastered the album and a selection of bonus bits and Alex Wharton cut the lacquers at Abbey Road. Add in a quiet, hefty pressing via The Vinyl Factory and all of the constituent parts have aligned. It’s a fascinating listen at this remove and ‘Girl Singing In The Wreckage’, ‘Child Psychology’ and ‘Hated Sunday’ provide a glorious summary of what to expect, all still sounding remarkably fresh.
The soundstage is a treat, with a taut bottom end, superb vocal presence and real nuance in the mid-range. The wilfully languid cover of ‘Up Town Top Ranking’ on the record’s second side now has a similarly calculating companion in the version of ‘Seasons In The Sun’ that nestles with five other extra tracks on a bonus 10”. The gatefold is neatly done and a six-page foldout insert offers lyrics and imagery. While the original may have been a 2x45rpm release, this remaster and cut leave very little to be desired. In short, it’s a tremendous reissue of a sought after curio that won’t break the bank. Full marks.
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All titles reviewed above were cleaned before playback using the ultrasonic record cleaning machine, Degritter. A full review of its capabilities can be found in a previous column and you can find local dealers at www.degritter.com
Words: Gareth James (For more vinyl reviews and turntable shots, follow @JustPlayed on Twitter or Bluesky)