Spyder’s Vinyl Showcase (With Added Toe)

[SpyderTracks]

It's finally arrived. The Vinyl Me Please anthology box set of The Story Of Ghetto Records, the Joe Bataan story.

These are all famous presses from the early to mid 70s that were on Ghetto records which really introduced the Latin / South American musical styles to mainstream US, specifically New York. For whatever reason, Ghetto records folded extremely suddenly and almost all the original masters were lost / destroyed.

So these have mainly been recreated from the best copies that still exist, called a needle drop where you record from a record, and then it's been remastered and lacquers cut by Bernie Grundman who a lot would argue is one of the best in the business.

The few copies still in existence of the originals are so rare and beaten up, they literally sell for 10s of thousands in private sales.

This is a historic collection of Salsa and Latin Jazz and comes with a podcast that talks you through it actually by Joe Bataan.

I'm so excited for this, perfect timing for new years!

 

[SpyderTracks]

A really nice one here from a French Discogs Seller

This was a limited clear vinyl 12" single of Never Ever by All Saints, this looks unplayed to me, quite unusual to find it in this condition and was only 8 Euros.

All Saints never released their Albums on vinyl, only some singles, and I really like quite a few of their tracks.

 

[SpyderTracks]

My Leftfield - This Is What We Do replacement just came through .

There's a visual defect in the white vinyl which I was worried would affect the sound but it's fine, happy with this one!

 

[SpyderTracks]

A really important one today.

As soon as we got the new Maxi Jazz passed away, I looked up their records that I didn't own.

One album, No Roots has not been repressed since original release in 2004, and prices are high, I was worried that with Maxi's passing, prices would immediately leap up, so I jumped on it and grabbed a copy from a great shop in Leeds, run by a professional football referee at the premiere league level, Jon Moss, who turns out to be such a nice guy, and so helpful and trusting.

So here it is, not bad deal on this, NM record and VG+ Cover (bit of wear on the bottom edge), but it's nice to support the bricks and mortar stores wherever possible

The other ones I need are "Outrospective", but that's been repressed a few times so easy to find, and "The Dance" which is a 2010 album that I wasn't aware of until now as came out during The Dark Times in another lifetime. There's only a box set version of it that includes a vinyl issue, so it's gonna cost a bit, but need to complete my collection before it's too late.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Matt Zo's second album, Self Assemble

This was sold out in the UK for years (originally came out in 2016) and gave up on getting a copy, but his direct store in US had some copies so managed to pick one up, has taken a month to arrive from US, been with Evri for most of that time.

But nevermind, it's here.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Some lovely ones today

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin

James Brown - Soul On Top

Defected Sampler EP #13

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder

The Sidewinder and Moanin are both Blue Note Classic releases, dirt cheap but audiophile sound. The sound quality is amazing, but standard 140g records, and very basic single covers. A worthy tradeoff for some incredible albums very cheap.

 

[Robbie]

I've heard of these ancient relics before, never have I seen one (or heard one) in the flesh though... guess I'm too young

 

[Tron1982]

Some lovely ones today

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin

James Brown - Soul On Top

Defected Sampler EP #13

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder

The Sidewinder and Moanin are both Blue Note Classic releases, dirt cheap but audiophile sound. The sound quality is amazing, but standard 140g records, and very basic single covers. A worthy tradeoff for some incredible albums very cheap.

View attachment 35773

WHERE ARE THE TOES !?

(nice collection thought)

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hugely important one today, new release, only 250 copies made in this colour, 1000 overall with 500 being white.

Thrillseekers - Reconnected Anthems Vol II in transparent blue

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ok, apologies for the long post but this one warrants it.

I've not invested at all in collecting any Stones records simply because I picked up the Hot Rocks reissues, and the quality wasn't great, after a bit of investigating, this is the one band that really hasn't had any true due care in reissues. The original records are much harder to find and hence more expensive than equivalent Beatles, so it wasn't an avenue I was interested in looking into further.

In 2016, they released the first edition of The Rolling Stones In Mono Box Set which was 14 albums from their start all on black vinyl, plus one additional double record, "Stray Cats", which is outtakes and live recordings plus a really nice booklet. They were sourced from the original masters, but then put through digital step before pressing, but it was such a good effort, that the quality is widely regarded as being the best option outside of the originals. Early Stones mixes really suit Mono recordings, it loses some depth with a stereo mix.

That box set sold out pretty quickly and you couldn't find it for less than around £1500

They just reissued the box set, although this time on coloured vinyl, limited to 10,000 boxes worldwide, but it's the same mastering and they've managed to keep the quality almost as high, tiny bit more surface noise due to the coloured vinyl. I was waiting until next month to pick it up, but release day was yesterday and between the previous evening and yesterday morning, I guess scalpers got wind because stocks dried up literally overnight. So yesterday morning I jumped on it and managed to get one of the last copies available.

For me, early Stones is more important than early Beatles. The fusion of deep south honky tonk with British swagger and even punk undertones I thought was so very different, whereas the Beatles were clean populist manafactured and inauthentic when they started out (my opinion only, not trying to start any flamewar!). I adore the later Beatles work when I felt they found their own identities in their songs. But early Stones for me was far more authentic and real, with true social matters in the lyrics rather than teenage girl songs like "Love Me Do".

Songs like "Paint It Black", "Sympathy For The Devil" and were so very different for the time.

So here it is, this essentially completes the albums I'd want to collect, and then some

After about 6 hours of listening, I'm all Stoned out. This is an amazing set!

 

[Tron1982]

Wonderful !!!
I'm speechless

 

[SpyderTracks]

A couple of classic dance singles through, reissued for the first time

Andain - Beautiful Things and Summers Calling

Tiesto - Adagio For Strings

 

[SpyderTracks]

A few doozies came through

Muddy Waters - Folk Singer Analogue Productions 45rpm, considered the best version of this to date

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out Analogue Productions 45rpm. This is one of those must have Jazz all time great albums, and supposed to be an amazing pressing. Really looking forward to this. This I think completes the big Jazz titles I was after.

And then in a separate delivery from Acoustic Sounds eBay site, I was lucky enough to grab the last copy of:

The Doors - The Doors Analogue Productions 45rpm, also considered the ultimate pressing to date, although ERC are just about to release this (at 450Euros though!). I love these mailers, always feels like Christmas when one of these come through!

 

[SpyderTracks]

A couple of classics today.

From bottom to top

Al Di Meola - Friday Night In San Francisco. This is the Impex 45rpm, just acoustic Spanish guitars recorded live, really nice.

Mason vs Princess Superstar - Perfect (Exceeder) from 2007. This was posted on twitter as an anniversary of the track, and I LOVE this track, so good!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Defected sampler #14

Buena Vista Social Club - 25th anniversary book edition cut by Bernie Grundman

 

[Tron1982]

Defected sampler #14

Buena Vista Social Club - 25th anniversary book edition cut by Bernie Grundman
View attachment 35924

I gifted buena vista social club to my grand parents last year
It was a truly heartwarming moment
This vinyl is perfect

 

[SpyderTracks]

Couple came through today

Ryan Davis - Through The Mirror Glass - This is a Reflections release

And then quite a cool one, this is the first release from Kevin Gray on his new label Cohearant Records with their all tube cutting and recording system. I had to pick this up, I love Kevin Grays work at the best of times, but when it's an all tube system recorded with Tube Mics and in one room live, then it has to be in the collection.

This is Kirsten Edkins - Shapes & Sound

 

[Tron1982]

one question :
WHERE ARE THE TOES ? are they missing ? did something happened ?
ok, it's 3 questions, but, nonetheless, i'm already outside XD

 

[SpyderTracks]

Some really exciting ones for a new band to me.

These are from an American Band out of Nashville, no ones heard of them, I put a query up if US people had heard them in the States and only one person said they had. They just do zero promotion at all, just don't think they're particularly interested in touring etc, just taking it easy. They've been going for about 20 years.

They're called Hammock. Big huge full band and orchestra ambient soundscapes, absolutely beautiful, hugely over produced, but it just sounds so buttery smooth, really lovely.

The top one is their new album, Love In The Void

Bottom right is their second newest album Oblivion Hymns, and the left is a few bonus tracks for Oblivion Hymns, little companion disk.

I've got a few more of their albums on the way.

This is the title track from the new album to give you some idea, and you can pick up vinyl and cd's / digital from Bandcamp

 

[SpyderTracks]

Lou Reed - Transformer, the Speakers Corner all analogue cut which is supposed to be fantastic, I've been after a copy of this for a while now.

Then on an Audio forum I'm on, a friend of Kirsty McGee alerted to us that she's moving house, so offloading some records and CD's. She gave me the CD for free which was really kind.