Needle Time

  Screaming Trees - Asylum [12NTV 24 UK 1987 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] I last ripped this single over ten years ago for my old ESWA blog, I had forgotten just how entertaining it is, so here is a brand new rip for all those who might be expecting a Pacific Northwestern psyche/grunge band named Screaming Trees. This particular Screaming Trees were an industrial influenced indie rock band who moved into more electronic music, ripping up a few musical rule books as they went. Asylum could well be one of the finest 12" singles ever to come out of Sheffield, England. Engineered & mixed by Hula's Alan Fish, recorded by Screaming Trees and their buddies Workforce at Vibrasound & produced by former ABC fringe Stephen Singleton. This single was released a few months after The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu launched 1987 on an unsuspecting world, and the new craze for well placed subtle sampling of commercial artistic properties is duly used & abused to epic proportions on an in...

  Siglo XX - Dubbel Album [ANTLER 031 BEL 2023 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Originally released a a double album on Antler Records in 1984. Some may be aware that Antwerp based label Starman Records have picked up the rights to the back catelogue of formerly important Belgian label Antler Records. The first release is the Dubbel Album of studio & live tracks by Genk's coldwave/post-punk rockers Siglo XX. Original pressings are almost impossible to find in good condition these days, so this was a must have for me. You should be familiar about the story that the individual members of Joy Division were inspired to form a band at a Sex Pistols gig at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall - it should be no surprise that a whole bunch of Belgian bands were inspired by their attendance at a Joy Division gig in Brussels some years later. Siglo XX were to move onto a more electronic sound later in the eighties, however it is these earlier more post-punk influenced recordings for Antler Rec...

  Lady Blackbird - Black Acid Soul [FM0008 UK 2021 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] If you overlooked this album back when I posted it in 2021, then shame on you. Black Acid Soul is very possibly the best vocal jazz album in recent years. Today, I revisited my copy with a brand new rip. Here's what I wrote back then when I posted by 2021 advance copy. The hype hasn't properly started yet about Lady Blackbird, so let's get in there quickly before the Jools Holland viewers and Guardian readers unleash those 'new Nina Simone' recommendations to their dinner party friends etc etc etc. Actually, Marley Munroe (from Los Angeles)  has already been on Jools late night Friday TV show ...therefore the cat is quite possibly out of the bag. If this was thirty plus years ago, I would expect the majors to be sniffing around waving their cheque books and promising the earth. Black Acid Soul is the first release on the new Foundation Music label, an independent based in London, who, quite ...

  Chet Baker - Chet Baker Sings [PJ-1222 USA 2023 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Originally released on Pacific Jazz Records in 1956. When Chet Baker Sings was released in 2020 as part of the Blue Note Tone Poet reissue series, a world of jazz-lovers in lockdown snapped up copies so quickly the initial pressing run was done & dusted in days. This version became one of the most desirable Tone Poet releases and consequently copies were changing hands for over $200 on reseller markets. It took three years for Blue Note to find space in the RTI production schedule to get more pressed up and these seem to be disappearing just as quickly as the first pressing. Dodgy European reissue labels were jumping on the Chet bandwagon by pressing up their own cheap vaguely sourced, unofficial versions between 2020 & 2023. Give those a wide berth, this is the version you need of one of the most popular albums by the trumpet-player, although I wouldn't necessarily say that is the best sounding Tome ...

  The B-52's - Wild Planet [MOFI 1-014 USA 2011 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Originally released on Warner Brothers Records in the USA, and Island Records in Europe during September 1980. A couple of weeks back, I posted the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab  Silver Label Vinyl Series pressing of the first B-52's album . It sounded fantastic ......wondering now how their follow up sounds? You will certainly not be disappointed. The Silver Label Series were for releases where the original master tape was not available, however the MoFi website declares this release was cut from the original tape, all analogue by Paul Stubblebine.  A1 Party Out Of Bounds A2 Dirty Back Road A3 Runnin' Around A4 Give Me Back My Man A5 Private Idaho B1 Devil In My Car B2 Quiche Lorraine B3 Strobe Light B4 53 Miles West Of Venus

  The Durutti Column - LC [23JAL-2 JPN 1981 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] About eleven months back, I posted my rip of the extended Factory Benelux 2016 vinyl remaster of this album. That version sounds fine however I felt the digital compression applied for this release had spoilt the true dynamics of what is essentially a home recording by one of Britain's finest guitarists. My original UK pressing is showing its age, so I reached out and found a mint condition original Japanese pressing. I firmly believe that this is the best sounding version of this album with an ultra quiet vinyl pressing. As today is the forty-second year anniversary of its release, I worthy posting was needed. Brian Eno has gone on record, and like many other musician,s has stated that LC is his all-time favourite album. LC was recorded on a home TEAC 4-track tape recorded with Bruce Mitchell on percussion and Reilly playing everything else. The album was first released on Factory Records (FACT 44) on November 4...

  Beck, Bogert & Appice - Beck, Bogert & Appice [MOVLP3276 NLD 2023 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Originally released on Epic Records in 1973. Here's the first of two albums today by great British guitarists, the first some heavy blues rock from Jeff Beck's power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice, featuring  Americans Tim Bogert on bass & sharing the vocals and Carmine Appice on drums.  The other guitarist to be featured today is a little more eclectic in style, however just as skilled, so check back later for that one. This edition of the trio's only studio album was marketed as a 50th Anniversary pressing limited to 1500 on translucent red vinyl on the Music On Vinyl label - there has subsequently been a more widely available black vinyl edition. The label operate out of the former CBS pressing plant in The Netherlands, so I can only make assumptions over the sourcing of the reels for this particular release. Varying from raw & hard-edged blues rock to melodi...

  Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks [MFSL 1-381 USA 2013 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Like Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's Miles Davis reissue series, their remasters of the Bob Dylan catelogue are widely praised as some the nest sounding versions of classic albums by these artists. Most of that praise was thrown around before 'DSDGate' however I do now wonder if some may have changed their opinion. I only own two from the series and thought Blood On The Tracks needed to be ripped. It is my favourite Dylan album, and whilst I can only compare with a nineties compact disc, there is a richness, depth and warmth to this pressing, which although also made from digital is missing on the compact disc. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab tend to cut quietly so I have added an extra 3db of gain to this rip to help all that detail shine through. A1 Tangled Up In Blue A2 Simple Twist Of Fate A3 You're A Big Girl Now A4 Idiot Wind A5 You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go B1 Meet Me...

  Various Artists - A Factory Quartet [FACT 24 UK 1980 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Time now for a brand new rip of an old ESWA favourite.... The second Factory Records sampler was originally planned as a double 10" set, but thankfully the label settled on this beautifully packaged double album with an embossed polaroid-style Garrod & Lofthouse sleeve.  Like the first 7" sampler, each artist gets one side of vinyl to introduce themselves, though The Durutti Column had already appeared on the label, this was Vini Reilly with a different line-up. The diversity of the chosen artists is huge, ranging from the ethereal beauty of The Durutti Column, through the distorted jazz-rock of Blurt, to scouser dirge noise terrorists The Royal Family And The Poor. Kevin Hewick supplies a difficult mix of live sets, where perhaps his 1980 Graveyard sessions would have fitted better, but as history says, he never got to finish five songs (with New Order), Hewick has dined out on Haystack for ye...

  The Empty Quarter - Delirium [AMA 24 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] The Empty Quarter was a two album collaboration between Youth (former Killing Joke bassist) and Ben Watkins (Flowerpot Man & future Juno Reactor) which fitted nicely around Youth's more time demanding work with his other band Brilliant. These nine instrumental electronic tracks vary between hard industrial techno-funk and eclectic laid back atmospheric mood pieces tinged with jazz and elements from world music. The opening salvo of Bullshit and Glass Finger (also a single) are really something, and need to be heard. There are moments of calmness to follow as the duo reveal their gentler side with some lush arrangements and atmospheric compositions.  In the past, I mistakenly believed it was Youth who performs all the hard-funk and intricate bass playing on this record. In actual fact those thumbs all belong to session musician Guy Pratt who since then, has become much better known for his work with Pink Floyd....

  Hula - Fever Car [RED T47 UK 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Last week's Hula rips seem to have caught the interest of many blog followers, this afternoon I returned to a single which I last ripped in 2012 - a brand new high resolution rip should go down well with many of you. The grinding electro-industrial-funk of Fever Car was possibly the band's best known single from their Murmur period, which eventually got the Sheffield troupe a slot supporting Depeche Mode on tour in 1986. More Hula soon, as time allows. A1 (No One Leaves The) Fever Car B1 In The Shutout B2 Bats Lost .....Bloodrush B3 Hard Stripes

  Test Department - Compulsion [TEST 112 UK 1983 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] A slight change in direction.... My love of percussive music has already been hinted at in these pages. It is time to return to a band a 'band' who used to hit things really hard - usually sheets of metal with metal pipes and the odd mechanical tool, drill or buzz-saw used for riffing purposes. Test Department, from Deptford I believe,  were the key UK act in this genre, and Compulsion was their debut single on  Some Bizzare Records via Phonogram  following a few self released cassettes. Originally, Test Department gigged in disused factories in London's East End before refining their shows to fit on the stages of the Europe's smaller venues. Compulsion is just pure brutal energy, whilst on the flip-side, the more electronic Pulsations 1 & 2 feature sequencers programmed and produced by Cabaret Voltaire. Later releases comprised more sampling, bagpipes and occasionally difficult subject mat...