Audiophile Vinyl

Tony Rice
Church Street Blues
Craft Recordings CR00673 (180g vinyl)

What a sleeper of an LP! The first-ever vinyl reissue of this guitar-and-voice-only bluegrass classic is so blindingly superior for both content and sound that I am ashamed at not finding it back in 1983. The late Rice was a bluegrass icon, his playing so smooth yet fast and detailed that it ranks with the genre’s best, his influence reaching performers of the calibre of Ricky Skaggs and David Grisman. Here he solos on songs from Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Bill Monroe, Jimmie Rodgers, Tom Paxton – a stunning ‘Last Thing On My Mind’ – and an intriguing version of Hamilton Camp’s ‘Pride Of Man’ which contrasts brilliantly with Quicksilver Messenger Service’s hard rock take. KK

Sound Quality: 95%

The Blue Aeroplanes
Beatsongs Deluxe
Chrysalis CRVX1632 (two 140g clear vinyl LPs)

Record Store Days turn up interesting reissues, this time the long out-of-print-on-vinyl 1991 release from this Bristol indie/art rock outfit. What’s notable about their fifth studio effort is how they took to heart recording on the Left Coast. The sessions at Sunset Sound Recorders and Ocean Way Recording (founded by Allen Sides, who’s a bit of an audiophile) provided influence tangential to their arch Britishness: this could have come from any Laurel Canyon-based band circa-1968. Remastered from the original tapes, with extensive liner notes, it features their unrecognisable reworking of Paul Simon’s ‘The Boy In The Bubble’ and has four bonus tracks. KK

Sound Quality: 90%

The Mugwumps
The Mugwumps
Sundazed LP5652

Fans of The Lovin’ Spoonful and The Mamas & The Papas have long known about this short-lived precursor to both groups, its output consisting of superb, early folk-rock treasures. Name-checked in The Mamas & The Papas’ ‘Creeque Alley’, the members included that group’s Mama Cass and Denny Doherty, whose vocals make this sound like the quartet which gave us ‘California Dreamin’’; future Lovin’ Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanovsky; and James Hendricks – not to be confused with Jimi. When they later found success, these 1964 recordings were swiftly issued as an LP in ’67. It’s so polished you wonder why it wasn’t released during the group’s existence. KK

Sound Quality: 85%

Santana
Caravanserai
Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-524 (180g vinyl)

This lush-sounding fourth release from 1972 moved Santana further into jazz without abandoning an iota of Latin-rock fusion. Reinforcing the transition was a count of six instrumentals among the ten tracks. As ever, Santana showed immaculate taste in their influences, including Miles, Coltrane, and Joe Zawinul, this time adding lyrics to music by Antônio Carlos Jobim for ‘Stone Flower’. The rest of the album was composed by the band members, and the feeling was more spiritual, as illustrated by the inner cover quote from yogi Paramahansa Yogananda. The following year, Carlos Santana would issue Love Devotion Surrender with Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. KK

Sound Quality: 90%