Greetings to the New Brunette

I picked up twenty-three records in Camden yesterday from a bin of £1 LPs and 50p 12"s, all UK pressings unless noted.

Alan Parsons - I Robot [German]

All About Eve - S/T

Billy Bragg - Greetings to the new Brunette [12" MT]

Copland / Rodeo, Billy the Kid [CBS A1/B1]

Dave Brubeck - Newport 1958 [Fontana] First UK pressing of Columbia release

Dorati / Tchaikovsky - 1812 [Mercury mono 'JJ']

Dot Allison - Substance [12" Damont]

Eton Crop - Yes please bob

Eurythmics - Be yourself tonight [Precision SM (Stephen Marcussen), German]

Eurythmics - You have placed a chill in my heart [12", Utopia MS]

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax [12" 1U/3U Sterling]

Housemartins - Sheep [12"]

Mary Coughlan - Tired and emotional [German] Irish singer's debut

Orchestra Makassy - Agwaya

Pretenders - Hymn to her [12", Masterdisk, Damont]

Rod Stewart - Smiler [Keundun]

Soup Dragons - I'm free [12" test pressing 'Pound cutmaster peach' 'Adrenalin'] An anthem for me at the time, just leaving school and going out on my gap year.

Stranglers - Live (X Cert) [Porky] 1977/78 live sets

Toyah - The changeling [Townhouse AW]

Ultravox - Monument the Soundtrack [Townhouse] 'Vienna' live!

Ultravox - Quartet [Townhouse]

Various - The Marquee, 30 legendary years [2LP 1989 digital]

I listened to the CD of this classic rock collection when it came out. Fantastic. I sought out compilations of The Who, Yardbirds, Hendrix, Bowie, The Jam, Stranglers, T Rex, Mott the Hopple, all based on hearing them here first. The LP looks like digital mastering unfortunately (not untypical in 1989).

Woodentops - Giant [Where's my mango crumble / regimental]

Deadwax finds: Tape One, Townhouse, TelDec, Timtom

I spend an innordinate amount of time looking at the inscriptions on an LP's deadwax to discern who mastered a particular pressing, where it was mastered or pressed, and whether it was a first pressing. The pursuit is very much like train spotting or stamp collecting, but the goal is entirely sensual, the hunt for the breath of life in well-mastered recorded music.

The inscriptions are made by the cutting engineer, and amount to a signature of authorship. The one above is maestro Wally Traugott 'Wly' whose tag is a sign of quality. The cryptic notes that I add next to my LP purchases are typically transcriptions from the deadwax.

This week, I picked up a stack of vinyl from the Record & Tape Exchange (again), and have now exhausted that branch (time to move on to the other branches). All are UK pressings unless noted. A good few are mastered at Tape One by engineers like Bilbo (Dennis Blackham), 'JA' and 'Pound', although its hard to make out the last one, and I'm unclear which engineer that relates to.

David Bowie - Heroes [Bilbo Tape One] £2

David Bowie - Pin Ups [JA Tape One, 1u/1u] £2

David Bowie - Scary Monsters [Townhouse] £2

Echo and the Bunnymen - Porcupine [German] £1

Elton John - S/T [DJM] 10p.

Eurythmics - Touch [DMM Teldec Germany] 50p

Everything But the Girl - Eden [Tim Young, b a1/b2 Tim Tom/CBS, German] 50p

Frank Sinatra - The Concert Sinatra [Anxious] £1

Frank Sinatra & Count Basie [Reprise, anxious Frank, UK] £1

Genesis - S/T ['POUND Ta1PE'] 30p

Heart - S/T [No mention of TML or Mike Reese] 50p

Heaven 17 - Penthouse and Pavement [Bilbo Tape One, 1u/1u] £1

Hollies - Live Hits [Polydor 1976] 10p

Paul Robeson - The glorious voice of... [MFP]

Ry Cooder - The slide area [Strawberry - no mention of Bernie Grundman or A&M]

Tom Jones - At the talk of the town [Decca mono unboxed] 10p

Tom Jones - Delilah [Decca stereo unboxed] 30p

Tom Jones - This is Tom Jones [Decca] 10p

And in Exmouth Market, my local store marked down its £3 bin to £1, and I happened to arrive just as they'd finished making the change.

CDs
Anais Mitchell - The Brightness [Righteous Babe 2007] My son managed to soak this one in his toy sink, so I had to rinse of the dishwashing soap and let it dry before listening.
Anne McCue - Koala Motel [Cooking Vinyl 2006]
Arthur & Yu - In camera [Memphis Industries 2007]
Dave Fischoff - The Crawl [Secretly Canadian 2006]
David Sanchez - Coral [Sony 2004, SACD]
Erin McKeown - Sing you sinners [Nettwerk 2006]
Fever - In the city of sleep [Kemado]
Ghosty - Grow up or sleep in [Broken Horse 2005]
Igor Koshkendey - Music from Tuva [Secret World 1998]
Jackie Leven - Oh what a blow that phantom dealt me! [Cooking Vinyl 2006]

This ones a pleasure. Playful lyrics, confident, simple folk blues from Scottish veteran.
Lightning Seeds - Tilt [Epic 1999]
Liimanarina - Supermarket [Bad Vugum, Finland / Drag City 1995]

These lofi Fins were so ramshackle, that headphone listening was painful. There's not much on them, but the punk Fall / Half Man Half Biscuit shambolic production is intriguing, and of course, there being from Finland.
Maria McKee - Late December [Cooking Vinyl 2006]
Mark Eitzel - Candy ass [Cooking Vinyl 2005]
Richard Butler - Richard Butler [Koch 2006]
Rolling Stones - Bigger Bang [Virgin, Dutch 2005]
Simphiwe Dana - The one love movement. On Bantu Biko Street [Gallo 2006]
Undertones - Dig yourself in deep [Cooking Vinyl 2007] A satisfying listen. There's no "Teenage Kicks", but good powerpop.
Yppah - You are beautiful at all times [Ninja Tune 2006]

Decca classical boxed set bonanza

The portrait of a grumpy Beethoven graces the cover of one of the hotter Decca titles. The store clerk was surprised that this title was priced so low - he'd seen it go for a lot more (the photo is from a bedraggled, stickered up copy on eBay priced at $80. My shiny copy in London, £4).

In among the pop finds below are eight classical boxed sets on the Decca label. Previously I collected the US RCA Living Stereo (and mono) andMercury Living Presence labels. Now I'm grabbing every UK Decca original pressing I can find, often at charity stores. The UK sellers haven't cottoned on to the collectability of the Decca narrow band pressings. The earlier wide band pressings are well recognised as collector items, even at Oxfam, but the later 60s/70s pressings often sound outstanding, and for many titles are the first pressings, with great talent like Benjamin Britten and Georg Solti as conductors.

ABC - That was then but this is now [12" Townhouse] 10p

Britten / Elgar - Gerontius [Decca SET 525-6] £2

Dorati / Hadyn - Schopfung [Decca D50D] £3

Jam - This is the modern world [Allen] £3

Japan - Tin drum [Artisan?] 30p

John Lennon - Mind games [1u] £2

Julian Cope - Trampolene [12" 1U] 10p

Katrina and the Waves - Walking on Sunshine [12"] 50p

Maazel / Berlioz - Romeo and Juliet [Decca Set 570-1] £4

Munchinger / Bach - Brandenburg [Decca 5BB 1301] 50p

Previn / Gershwin - Rhapsody in blue [EMI ASD 2754] 10p

Prince - When doves cry [12" Damont] £1

Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl [German, no mention of Precision Lacquer or Steve Marcussen] 30p

Schmidt-Isserstedt / Beethhoven - 9 Symphonies [Decca SXLB 6470-5] £4

Solti / Beethoven - Piano Concertos [Decca SXGL 6564-7] £4

Solti / Mahler - Symphony 2 [Decca SET 3225-6] £2

Solti / Wagner - Das Reingold [Decca SET 382-4] £2

Vinyl haul from March 12

The Record and Tape Exchange had another batch of vinyl bargains yesterday. All are UK pressings unless stated.

BB King - Friends [Quad USA] £1

Bob Weir - Heaven Help the Fool [US Sterling] 50p

Cocteau Twins - Head Over Heels - £1

David Bowie - John I'm Only Dancing [12" 1979] £2. One of my favorite Bowie tracks, although not sure which version here I first heard (1972 or 1975)

Everly Brothers - Golden Hits [Warner green] £1

Everly Brothers - Some hearts [Mercury 1982, Dutch] 30p

Gene Vincent - Rock n Roll masters [1985 Bob Jones] £6. I had this confused with the Bop Just Won't Stop compilation that has had positive reviews. On the upside, someone actually owns up to mastering this compilation, so it could be decent.

Japan - Cantonese Boy [12" Bilbo] 50p

Japan - The art of parties [12" Townhouse] 50p

John Lennon - Rock and Roll [1U/1U] £2

Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues [CBS orange A1/B2] £6

Louis Armstrong - Greatest hits recorded live [Brunswick stereo 1970 2a/1a] £1

Michelle Shocked - Captain Swing [1u/1u. No mention of Precision Mastering in dead wax]
10p

New Order - Confusion 93 [12" Timtom] 50p

Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale [Classic Records 45RPM 12"] £4

Procol Harum - Whiter Shade of Pale / Salty Dog [Fly Twofer. The debut is a mono stamper 1U/1U but probably the dodgy US mastering] £7

Ray Charles - Do I ever cross your mind [CBS 1984 TML-M] 10p

Robert Johnson - Crossroad Blues [10"Aldabra 'Porky'] £2

Solti / Mahler - Symphonies 4, 8, 9 [Decca narrow band 5 LP box] £3

Stonewall Jackson - Up against the wall [PRT 'Damont'] 30p

Stranglers - Nice in Nice [12"] 50p

Tom Paxton - How come the sun [Reprise 1971 a1/b1] 50p

Various - Backtrack 2 [Track] £2

Various - The Free Design, Redesigned Vol. 2 [Light in the Attic 2004 'Freq'] £1

And a few £1 CDs:
Adult - Gimme Trouble [Thrill Jockey]
Awesome Color - S/T [Ecstatic Peace 2006]
Brakes - The Beatific Visions [Rough Trade 2006]
Black Helicopter - Invisible Jet [Ecstatic Peace 2006]
Bonde do role - With lasers [Domino]
Caroline Martin - I had a hundred more reasons to stay by the fire [Small Dog 2004]
Charlatans - Up at the lake [Universal 2004]
Films - Don't dance rattlesnake [Rough trade 2006]
Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway
Jai-Alai Savant - Flight of the bass delegate [City Slang 2007]
Jenny Toomey - Sings the songs of Franklin Bruno [Misra 2002]
Julie Sokolow - Something about violins [Western vinyl 2006]
Klima - S/T [Peacefrog]
The Loves - Love [Track and field 2004]
Misha - Teardrop sweetheart [Tomlab 2006]
Orbit Service - Songs of eta carinae [Beta-lactam ring 2006]
Rafter - Music for total chickens [Asthmatic Kitty 2006]
Tacticians - Some kind of urban fullfillment [Setanta 2007]
Tenebrous Liar - S/T [Fire 2007]
Various - Wish on a star [Dreamy 2001]
Von Spar - Xaxapoya / Dead voices in the temple of error [Tomlab 2007]
Wolf and Cub - Vessels [4AD 2007]
X27 - Antilove [Narnack]

March 7 vinyl haul from Record and Tape Exchange

This evening revealed that given enough time the Record and Tape Exchange eventually prices down records to the point where they're a good deal. All of these had the standard R&TE price label where they price down each month, and many had been in the shop for almost a year. They're all UK pressings unless stated, and decent condition vinyl, but covers often worn around the edges.

Charlatans - Indian Rope [12" The Exchange. 'Everyone will want to know me now'] 50p

Charlatans - Then [12"] £1

Cocteau Twins - Tiny Dynamite [12" Townhouse] 50p

Dexy's Midnight Runners - Too Rye Ay [Reissue?] £1

Echo and the Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here - £1

Elvis Costello - Almost Blue [F Beat UK] 50p

Elvis Costello - Don't let me be misunderstood [German 12"] 10p

Elvis Costello - Every day I write the book - 30p

Elvis Costello - Get happy [Tomtom CBS] £1

Elvis Costello - Goodbye cruel world [German] 50p

Elvis Costello - I'm your toy [12"] 10p

Elvis Costello - Spike [German] 50p

Elvis Costello - Trust [Porky Prime Cut] 30p

Harry Nillson - A little touch of Schmilsson in the night [RCA] 50p

Harry Nillson - Son of Schmilsson [RCA] 30p

Harry Nilsson - Aerial Ballet [Stereo original] £4

Inspiral Carpets - Dragging me down [Creation 12" promo] 30p

Inspiral Carpets - Two worlds collide [Creation 12" promo] 30p

John Lennon - Shaved Fish [1U/1U] £2

I'm hoping this is a first pressing, since the stamper is '1u', however, there's more handwritten script, so possibly not.

Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen [Stereo original A2/B2] £2

Microdisney - Town to town [12" - "send all the irish back to ireland / send all the English back to Germany - Townhouse DMM"] 10p

Monsoon - Ever so lonely [Phonogram promo 12"] 30p

Simon and Garfunkel - Bookends [Stereo original, A4/B1] £2

Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge over troubled water [A2] 30p

The Jam - The Gift [Arun] £2.

Incidentally, I saw Paul Weller with two kids (his I assume) in Maida Vale last weekend, the same day he performed at the Roundhouse in Camden.