Best Record You Have Ever heard
My kids moved recently, and among the vinyl that surfaced was my favorite of all time. I’m listening to it now via Spotify but I sure remember this in vinyl from the 80s--wish I had the system then that I have now (though it's all CD and digital). I need a hi res download... Title: The Fantasy of Indian Drums Artist: Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao Label: Polydor of India 2392 913 Stereo Year: 1980, I believe. It has also been reissued, though I haven't heard the reissue. Sound-staging on this album is hallucinatory--there’s no other word for it. Especially side 2. People are all around me playing different instruments. Bells behind the lamp, drums on the stairs, tablas moving across the wall. A violin on the couch next to my chair. On the couch! "There are times when reality comes closer. In a field, in the actual air" |
I am a jazz guy so for me the best of the best is going to be jazz, and as anyone who knows anything about jazz will concede, the first and foremost jazz performer of all time was Louis Armstrong. The rarest of his early recordings is "Cake Walking Babies from Home" with Clarence Williams' Blue Five, OKEH, January 8, 1925. The cleanest reproduction of it on vinyl can be found on the Time-Life Giants of Jazz, Louis Armstrong set, record 1, side 1, which also has excellent copies of the more famous Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings. As an audiophile recording, this is a non-starter, but as music, in the words of Duke Ellington, it is beyond category. |
I unfortunately can’t think of a single "Pop" album I love both musically and sonically. Those two qualities seem to be mutually exclusive in Popular music, at least as far as my taste in that music is concerned. Cat Stevens Tea For The Tillerman is great sonically, but musically? No thanks! Classical LP’s are different---there are a fair number I own excellent in both regards. A lot of the Harmonia Mundi titles, both French and U.S., are imo really fine musically and sonically. There is a U.K. label that specialized in Baroque (whose name escapes me at the moment, and my LP’s are still in cartons, waiting for me to set up my new racks---IKEA’s EKET) that issued a series of recordings by Brit Trevor Pinnock. Solo performances on harpsichord of Baroque material---excellent performances in great sound. Listened to through QUAD ESL’s, the harpsichord appears right before my eyes and ears, I feeling as if I am in the room in which the performances took place, the enveloping recording-venue room sound filling my listening room. Fantastic! If you ever see any of the Ark label LP's, grab 'em. Speaker designer Robert Fulton (R.I.P.) recorded local Minnesota amateur church choral groups, and the sound is absolutely amazing---very transparent, delicate, natural. Maybe the most lifelike recorded vocals I've ever heard, including any and all direct-to-disc LP's, the sound of which I love. And I find the musical groups charming, even if not of professional caliber. I would much rather listen to some amateurs than many pro's I could mention! Steve Perry, Michael McDonald, Geddy Lee, or Kevin Cronin, anyone? |
Sorry, I’m breaking the rules as I have only heard this digitally and it is fantastic, but it IS available for pre-order on vinyl: Trombone Shorty : Parking Lot Symphony Release date: 2017 http://amzn.to/2pjTV3i Fat and tight, has the greatest combination of being a fun musical experience with superb musicianship AND a great recording. Fat because the sound is HUGE dynamically and soundstage wise.... tight because there is nothing loose, sloppy or maudlin about the performance. Every note struck with precision. |
Allman Brothers Band Live at Fillmore East on Pink Label Capricorn Released July 1971 Capricorn Records |
Uriah Heep´s first 3 albums really, UK originals - my first ones were actually original c-cassettes, bought the vinyls shortly after - David Byron can sing everything with huge manly & clean vocal style from heartbreaking ballads "Come Away Melinda", pop, blues "Lucy Blues", heavy rock "July Morning" rock´n´roll, jazz/prog "Wake Up, Set Your Sights", soft jazz/rock "The Park", folk, to operatic heavy metal "Bird of Pray" with ease. 1st album is an incredible mix of many rock styles and "Salisbury" completes the flawless union/fusion of a rock group and a symphony orchestra. And "Look at Yourself" is the ultimate heavy metal album. And frankly all 7 first albums still the best for me since the incredibly versatile 70´s. Musically I mean. David Byron and Gary Thain, the greatest musicians forever ´cos they lived only for the music Thanks guys and my dear Dad who bought me my first humble Island c-cassette that changed my life forever RIP |
A bit off the beaten path the Decca recording of the complete Stravinsky Pulcinella done by Ansermet and the Suisse Romande. Not the suite. I have it on a London Stereo Treasury re-release and that Decca sound is rich, 3 dimensional and Stravinsky neo-classical astringent. Great impact. I think it's '66. For those who love Stravinsky and Pergolesi it's a must have. The little known vocalists are wonderful and sing in a characterful way that no longer exists in classical vocalists. I brought it to Stereo Exchange to test out a turntable and the young salesman was really impressed by the sound after we had listened to some pop lps. |
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I’ve got over 600 vinyl albums (and 800 CDs/SACDs) and there are quite a few I think are stunning, but my favorite is: William Russo, Street Music, Op. 65, A Blues Concerto San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Corky Siegel/Harmonica, Russo/Piano Deutsche Grammophon 1977 - 2530 788 Side B is Gershwin’s - An American in Paris which is almost as good as Side A. The vinyl pressing itself is dead silent. Dynamics are full and non-compressed. |
All the Sheffield Lab direct to disc recordings produced by Doug Sax are just excellent and among the very best recordings ever made but the music can leave you wanting. Certainly not this one and a few others including the superb Thelma Houston and Pressure Cooker mentioned above. "The King James Version" Harry James and his Big Band Sheffield Labs Direct to Disc 1976 Produced by Doug Sax and Lincoln Mayorka |
mmakshak, Quicksilver; Happy Trails. Great record!!!!!! Back to the OPs rule; to many to pick one. I have most that are mentioned so far. Casino Royal, Dusty Springfield, Burt Bacharach is everything HP said it was; if you have the right copy/ pressing. Have (4) copies, only (2) are right. My vote for recently released is: Santana Abraxas , MFSL, UD1S - 001. Absolutely Spectacular |
I'm going to hi-jack this thread for just a moment, as this record loses out on the sound quality, but for the musical ideas, and the number of people who haven't heard it, Quicksilver Messenger Service, "Happy Trails". Note: this is a mostly electric guitar album, and probably is not for most people's tastes. It also gives away it's age(the era it was made). Maybe it's the best record you "never" heard. It definitely is not an "audiophile" recording. |
Happened just recently, actually. Knocked me out so much I posted a review of it in the Music section. "Things Are About to Get Weird," by Pinebender. 2x33 rpm, on Lovitt Records, released in a limited edition of 200. Released in 2000, engineered by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio. Simply put, I have seen this band many times. This recording recreates that experience, in state-of-the-art analog (Albini is nuts about that) sound. |
Since we're talking sound and performance, I'd vote for Prokofiev PC #2 w/ Frager and Leibowitz on RCA, Alto reissue for what it's worth. I'm glad to see that someone above also likes it. Decca was pretty hit and miss with the PCO, (and luckily it seems someone finally bought the orchestra a decent bass drum for the Prokofiev)< but this recording is stunning. Just listen to trombone pedal notes with bass drum in 5th mov't. Luckily a stunning performance by all as well. Leibowitz is on fire for once as well; I wish I could feel the same enthusiasm for his (own orchestration) of Night on Bald Mountain, apparently included on the 45RPM. For sound alone, Sheffield Lab's direct to disc of Leinsdorf conducting Debussy's Faun and Stravinsky's Firebird, sooooooo far better than their other D2D offerings, (new hall?) but what a snoozefest performance-wise. |
Absolutely! Every time I get a reissue I check the lead-out groove. If I see a little blocky-looking "BG" I go "YES!" Standouts include the Classic/Everest Pines/Fountains of Rome I just got Wednesday, "Come Away with Me" by Norah Jones, "Temptation" and "Don't Smoke in Bed" by Holly Cole, "L.A. Woman" and "Morrison Hotel" by The Doors, and several Diana Krall albums including "From This Moment On." I also have the Speakers Corner reissue of Janos Starker Bach Suites on Mercury Living Presence. I grew up listening to the originals; my brother is a professional cellist. I have an original pressing of the mono. It's a little munged from being played on a poorly tracking console, which is what inspired me to pay up and get the reissue, which is fabulous in every way. Starker set the gold standard for the Bach Suites on this one, and 45 years later it still is. |
