What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XI)

The Kinks. State Of Confusion. On vinyl from 1983.

On vinyl.

Good call matt. I'm cueing up an early pressing, Reprise W7 label.

 The pedal steel guitar on this record is amazing.

Larry,

Did you buy your copy or were you one of the selected AARP Magazine readers?

bought it from Amazon. I was apprehensive about getting it but I really like it.

Glad you like it. Would have been a nice gift to get with the AARP magazine. 50,000 copies given away. I'm assuming they weren't vinyl, though it would probably be the target demographic for TT owners .

Philippe Herreweghe/La Chapelle Royale Mozart Requiem.

Fast and pacey as Gardiner set and this too is in the same HIP vein. The tunes flow one after another but never feeing hurried. Great build to the Confutatis and it has a scary menacing intro. ( like the cover art on the CD ) Painful Lacrimosa full of anguish and pleading.  Kyrie chorus is rather modern and scat like. Diction on singers is spot on and meticulous giving extra clarity and articulation. Sensible use of timpani in the background adds authority and weight. This is a powerful rendition in its own way, Herreweghe’s direction is smart and well throughout. It satisfies from a gut level. Tenor is leanish but good phrasing by Ian Bostridge. Soprano with a holographic singing voice sounds just effortless.

I am so impressed with this digital recording. 

Clean and dynamic but keeping naturalness all throgh the frequencies. No congestion heard on upper midrange chorus even at full on.

Nicol Matt/ Chamber Choir of Europe 2001 recording.

Well, I can't get over the fact that the soprano sounds like Billie Burke in Wizard of Oz. 

Flying Lotus:1983 

2006 original pressing.

I could not believe this record is listed at 70- 90$USD on Discogs!

Another confirmation that the main rig is so much better for music than the old ayepod (which I had further hobbled by playing high-res over VLC, a very staticky and non-high res experience). Anyway, a reappraisal of Anne Queffélec's Scarlatti has been largely positive. Compared with some high profile piano recordings (such as Pogorelich, Kamenz, Pletnev and Tharaud), hers is a more quiet, relaxed approach. She uses plenty of sustaining pedal to blend lines, for a warm sound. Not overly warm, fortunately, because of her slight emphasis of the right hand (or balance dialed in that way).

The 24/96 recorded quality is good, not great, slightly oversharpened sounding on my (neutral, on the warm side sounding) system.

EJ

A fine 3CD collection.

Streaming CD rip AIFF:-

ZZ Top - ZZ Top's First Album

Exploring my new reggae/dub collection given to me by my son in law.

Similar

Started to listen to this on a CD rip then decided to pull out my first press vinyl copy for a spin. Pleased I did. 

Thanks Steve, the nudge I needed to play this album on vinyl for the first time in over 20 years.

That's what i call satisfaction!

Another spin! Forgot how good this record is!

PIXIES   Bossanova   on cd.

Hawkwind  AREA S4   3 track cd single.

Steve, your picture has gone awol. Just wondering what your matrices are. I always thought mine was  first press  but have right matching the numbers  which are clearly printed but there are also etched letters that make no sense at all.

Side 1 has A1  AA  and  side 2  has A and heaven knows what ...well, here they are.

mine has what looks like OPRY 4543 3T

So does mine, Rob. I'd expect side 2 to have  "B" something on it. realy strange. Go figure!