AAA Vinyl

Taking a break from High End Munich coverage of which there's a lot more, brings me to Analog Spark's recent reissue of Bernstein Conducts Rhapsody in Blue/American In Paris (Columbia MS 6091).

The Southern California retro-band Calling Cadence signed to Hi-Res Records recently released an eponymously titled debut album recorded, mixed and mastered "the way they used to" make albums: recorded and mixed to analog tape and mastered by Kevin Gray from the analog master tape, and pressed at RTI on 180g vinyl. The cover image of an 8-track tape helps seal the retro-deal as does the music.

This limited to 1000 copies lavishly packaged "one-step" edition of John Coltrane's Lush Life sold out shortly after it was announced. Did you miss anything? If it's a favorite, probably. I hesitated to review it, much like I don't review The Electric Recording Company's limited editions that almost immediately sell out upon release announcement, but given Craft's uneven release history (unlike that of ERC), a review seems appropriate.

Here's a vinyl transcription at 96/24 of "Rocks Off" from an original Artisan mastered copy of Exile on Main Street. After the band finished their overdubs in Los Angeles they ran the tape over to Artisan for vinyl mastering. This is the version to own.

The Electric Recording Company announced today it will be releasing John Coltrane's ground breaking 1959 Atlantic album Giant Steps cut from the original Atlantic master tape using a mono cutter head on its 1965 all tube Lyrec cutting system.

A reader recently asked if analogplanet would review some “heavier” musical material. I pointed out that we reviewed Volto! and The Mars Volta, among other purveyors of heavy guitar-based grooves, but that we’re not locked into bands with volt references. I referenced the Polish prog-metal band Indukti