Audiophile Vinyl

Bryan Ferry
Mamouna/Horoscope
BMG BMGCAT796DLP (two LPs)

Our Digital Album of the Month in March, this also warrants top rating, too, even though it contains less material. To recap, it’s the 30th anniversary remastering of 1994’s Mamouna, Ferry’s first entirely self-composed solo album. The CD set unveiled the unreleased Horoscope, a lost-in-the-shuffle album which insiders and hardcore fans knew about, that was finally made available in approved form. The transition to vinyl, however, sacrifices CD3’s ten demos and works-in-progress later used on both Horoscope and Mamouna, plus a track for 2014’s Avonmore. Diehards may want both, but the superior sound of the half-speed mastered LPs more than makes up for the loss of the outtakes. KK

Sound Quality: 95%

December’s Children
December’s Children
Sundazed LP5676 (Pink vinyl)

Surely there’s a finite number of lost US 1960s/’70s rock bands, but here’s another terrific discovery (or maybe rediscovery?) – from Ohio rather than San Francisco, LA, New York or Boston. Eclectic rather than wholly psychedelia, this band – named after The Rolling Stones LP? – featured male and female lead vocals, superb harmonies and evocative guitar and organ sounds, in a mélange of hard rock, pop, blues and country. First issued in 1970 and recalling Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother & The Holding Company, original pressings are costly just for being a Mainstream title, but its value is as a cornucopia of the era’s music. KK

Sound Quality: 85%

Jethro Tull
The Chateau D’Hérouville Sessions 1972
Chrysalis 0190296664281 (two LPs)

Ian Anderson (who is – let’s be honest – Tull) ensures the group’s archives are as carefully curated as Neil Young’s, leaving little worthwhile material unreleased. This double LP’s 16 tracks (plus a fourth side of works in progress) were recorded in Paris in 1972 between Thick As A Brick and A Passion Play. Derived from the latter’s 2014 CD/DVD box set, it’s an abandoned project that yielded two songs which would appear on 1974’s War Child. Like The Beach Boys’ Smile and Bryan Ferry’s Horoscope [see above], this fits in between ‘raw’ and ‘finished’, and you must read the hilarious liner notes before indulging. A reject it may be, but it’s still pure Tull. KK

Sound Quality: 85%

Harold Land
The Fox
Craft/Contemporary CR00708 (180g vinyl)

Recorded in 1959, released in 1960, remastered in 1969, this superb slice of LA jazz – like Mingus’ Blues & Roots reviewed last month – reinforces the links between the two genres. It’s not quite as rootsy as Mingus’ homage, an initial listen categorically placing this in the up-tempo ‘hard bop’ category. Tenor saxophonist Land is joined by Dupree Bolton (trumpet), Elmo Hope (piano), Herbie Lewis (bass) and Frank Butler (drums), the sax and drums in particular reminding us how ‘right’ were recording techniques in the 1950s. Collectors note: this edition, in the Acoustic Sounds Series, was remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original tapes. KK

Sound Quality: 90%