Needle Time

  Hiroshi Sato - Time [HMJA-101 JPN 2015 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I own three albums by Japanese keyboard whizz kid, Hiroshi Sato - well he was still in his twenties when this album was originally released in 1977 - Time was his second album and gets its debut outing to Needle Time from the 2015 HMV Japan repress. Essentially a city-pop album, Time blends jazz, soul, funk and Japanese MOR-style harmonies into the broadest possible entertaining listening experience, it even has a bits of honky-tonk, Hawaiian surf-guitar & oriental blues thrown in for good measure. Harry Hosono supplies the bass for a few tracks (he had to be involved somewhere) and the jazz vocal harmonies are supplied by Time Five. A1 Time A2 Joint A3 Minami Kaikisen A4 Choit A5 Yamate Hotel A6 Bad Janky Blues B1 Mezame B2 Akanegumo-No Machi B3 Black Coffee B4 Island Fantasy B5 Kage-Ni Mukatte B6 Saigo-No Tejina B7 Merry-Go-Round

  Toshifumi Hinata ‎- Broken Belief [MFM 042 NLD 2019 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] When all else is falling around about you, it is time for some calm... I've ripped this album before, most probably overlooked it, it is a wonderful listen, so much so that I thought that it deserved a 176.4kHz rip on an improved set-up. Broken Belief is a selection of compositions by Japanese musician Toshifumi Hinata, released on a beautifully packaged and wonderfully pressed vinyl album by eclectic Dutch label Music From Memory a few years back. His music eludes a magical ambiance which sits comfortably between the instrumental works of The Durutti Column, modern jazz etchings and Japanese new age music. This is much more than synthetic ambient drone, organic instruments also feature; harps, violins, bass guitar, tablas and an alto sax.  Hinatsa's releases are well work tracking down, especially some of the beautiful Japanese compact discs - the vinyl pressings can be expensive - thankfully this a...

  Van Der Graaf Generator - Theme One [CB 175 UK 1972 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Firstly, this lot are not the normal around on these pages. I despised this kind of stuff when I was younger, however when flicking through the boxes of vinyl from penguinflight, I happened upon this, a 1972 pressing on Charisma Records. The band didn't release may singles, I wondered how it sounded and considering it is a fifty year old seven inch single, it was in pretty good shape. This lot have to be the ultimate in pomp-rock. Bring on the pomp! A1 Theme One B1 W

  Europeans - Recurring Dreams [AMA 5034 UK 1984 24-Bit 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Not the original West Country new wave band, these Europeans were mostly Scottish, except for keyboardist and joint lead singer, Steve Hogarth - he was brought up in Doncaster. Based in London, Europeans managed two credible art-wave-rock albums for A&M Records before getting the heave ho. Despite a large live following, sales were disappointing and major labels are impatient. Recurring Dreams was their second album of polished art-rock, it sounds very eighties with occasionally over-produced complex arrangements, fitting around the more grown-up sound of Talk Talk before they started to look inwards and clever adult rock-pop bands like Vitamin Z and Red Box. It's the Hogarth voice which should appeal to most who enjoy the genre - with his unique vocal quality & range, he was the vocalist chosen to replace the departed Derek Dick in former Genesis tribute band, Marillion. (only kidding Marillion...

  Afternoon All We have had about 50-60 new users discover Needle Time in the past 48 hours, with thanks, to a post on another vinyl rippers website. Welcome aboard, you helped push the blog hit count over 1.25 million! Seriously, I would rather stay nice and hidden away in my tiny corner of the internet, however I have seen my rips now appear on a well know Russian pirating site, that has made me feel somewhat uncomfortable - I know that's not always possible to keep hidden on Blogger, so if things become tricky with too much unwanted attention, I will have to go 'private'. Links (if you know where to look) are only live for just over a year, so everything post March 1st 2021 should be current. I do get a lot of requests for new links for old rips - to be honest I would much rather re-rip than re-post as my set-up is regularly evolving and improving. There are not just enough hours in the day, this isn't my day job and I have a busy life away from both working & r...

  Bill Nelson - Banal [WILL 12 UK 1981 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] The man who had ten years in bands between solo careers, proud Yorkshire man Bill Nelson remains one of our finest and most prolific musicians. Banal was supposed to be a track on the second Red Noise album, however the band had been dropped by EMI/Harvest Records so Nelson decided to release Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam as a solo album, some ten years after his first. The track sits firmly between art-rock and electronic new wave, sounding much like it could have been an early Roxy Music track. It deserves to be played loud .....so you must. By the way, I last ripped this twelve inch EP back in February 2014 for ESWA. Back then I promised to delve into the Be Bop Deluxe albums plus the Red Noise long-player. They are still coming, I have decided to raise funds for an ultrasonic cleaner so that I can make even better rips of my older vinyl. In the meantime, here's a little bit of Bill in 176.4kHz. A1 Banal B1 ...

  Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost! [DFA2267 2LP USA 2011 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Alex Frankel & Nick Millhiser came from Brooklyn, New York - they liked disco, old-school hip-hop, funk and eighties British synthpop - they wanted to make a record. Holy Ghost!'s first single, Hold On ,  came out in 2007 when downloads were peaking, when vinyl was at its lowest ebb, cds were becoming unlistenable and nobody had the idea or the bandwidth to stream. Their mate, James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) had his own record label, DFA Records, it seemed right that Holy Ghost! went with DFA Records.  It was few years before the duo released their self-titled debut album, think Cowley & Moroder meet Dan Hartman, with a bit of Prince & Chic thrown in, add a drop of Afrika Bambaataa and then oodles of the poppier side of New Order, and you get Holy Ghost!  Wait a minute .....can I hear Michael McDonald? 👀 A1 Do It, Again A2 Wait & See A3 Hold My Breath B1 Say My Name ...

  Happy Mondays - Madchester Rave On EP [FAC 242 1989 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Likely the single which made and then broke Factory Records within a few short years. If Anthony H. Wilson still walked this mortal coil he would possibly keep reminding us that Shaun Ryder was the new voice of a generation ....the new John Lydon  ....a new youth icon. He may have been right, after all Ryder's lyrics were inspired - what Wilson didn't realise until too late, that despite all his hype and praxis, putting Ryder and chums into a studio with Martin Hannett would eventually lead to the musicians and their producer smoking and snorting away his record label's bottom line. I grew up with Factory Records, in Manchester I remember when the Hacienda was an empty cavernous wasteland, a great place to see bands (I've seen quite a few there) but a crap nightclub. It was possibly also a crap place to see bands but I didn't care back then. The whole Madchester scene made Factory a mint a...

  Section 25 - Girls Don't Count [FAC 18/12 UK 1980 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Released in 1980 in a choice of three twelve inch sleeves and a rarer grease proof paper seven inch, Girls Don't Count was the debut single by Blackpool's Section 25. The girl on my sleeve is Angela Flowers who was eventually to marry drummer Vin Cassidy and become part of the band for their more electronic From The Hip phase. The single was produced by Ian Curtis and Joy Division manager Rob Gretton, their mix is raw and edgy which only add to the significance and the sound on this release. They could have asked Martin Hannett ....needless to say the production duo of Curtis & Gretton was rarely seen in control of a recording studio mixing desk again. This is the first time that I have attempted a full resolution rip of this single. After a light application of Tergikleen solution followed by two soaks in distilled water with 5% isopropyl, it really shines, the Larry Cassidy bass pounds away at...

  Chet Baker - Chet [RLP 1135 USA 2020 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] This week's Sunday night jazz slot goes to another album from Chet Baker. Recorded at Hazard Reeves' studio in New York between December 1958 and January 1959, Chet was originally released on Riverside Records later in 1959, in a choice of mono or stereo pressings. Those original three track stereo masters were used for this all analogue pressing by Craft Recordings as part of the labels five album boxed set of Chet Baker recordings for Riverside, repressed as single albums in 2020. For me, along with Chet Baker In New York and Chet Sings (the world still awaits a Tone Poet repress), this album forms his three essential works, representing a fine introduction to the work of one of the coolest trumpets on earth. What is impressive that it is not just about the Baker horn, the line-up on this album represents some of the very best; Kenny Burrell on guitar, Bill Evans on piano, Pepper Adams on sax and Herbie Mann on f...

  The Jazz Defektors - The Jazz Defektors [FACT 205 UK 1988 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] There was a time when the British cool jazzdance was a re-emerging eighties underground scene, beginning in London with bands such as Blue Rondo A La Turk. Manchester's own, The Jazz Defektors were part of it and signed to Factory Records. After numerous PA appearances at The Hacienda, a single backing Jazzchester's Kalima, a splendid live performance at 1985's IYY Festival, further touring and cameo's in the 1986 movie Absolute Beginners with David Bowie, Ray Davies and Patsy Kensit, things were looking up for the The Jazz Defektors. Unfortunately for them, it took three years for Factory to get their album released and by the time it did in 1988, youth culture was sucking on little tabs of impregnated paper, popping smiley pills and waving their arms in the air like loonies in baggy jeans & tie-dye t-shirts. Even the jazzdance scene had conformed and became acid jazz - no place for...

  The Doors - The Doors [AAPP 74007-45 USA 2020 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I recently paid forty-five quid for this album, the last copy that I bought of The Doors was a WEA mid-price copy (you know, the one with the exclamation sticker) for a tenth of that price around 1982.This version is a very recent deluxe packaged remaster from the original analogue tape pressed at 45rpm onto two virgin platters, my first is likely a West German pressing from a master cut by Strawberry in London.  I wonder which copy sounds best?  Without waiting for some of you to twiddle those thumbs whilst this downloads, and then do your a/b comparisons, I'll cut to the chase and say this 2020 Analogue Productions re-release, cut by the late Doug Saxe at The Mastering Lab in California around 2012 wins hands down. Who says modern vinyl pressings are awful ....possibly me a few years back? This is really a post about how a mastering engineer can make such a difference to the final product, afte...