Definitive Audiophile pressings

Steven Wilson did an interesting compilation last year called Intrigue. It is early 80s proggy new wave and post punk

Strangely, it isn't streaming (at least not on Apple Music) but someone created a playlist that captures about 95% of the tracks

Wow, that's a really neat set. Almost like one of those "Left Of The Dial" compilations from a few decades back, but with deeper cuts.

Going to look for a copy of that.
 
Anybody know or have this release?
I was considering picking it up but from what I've read it is, at the very least a grey market pressing, as the originals go for like $2k and the dude behind the album is religious now (plus his son was killed by a drone strike after becoming radicalized and join Al-Quida). so I don't think an official reissue will ever happen unfortunately.

Does anyone has insight into the fidelity? I know unofficial release can vary wildly in quality from decent to absolute garbage and I would prefer to avoid the latter if possible.
I had the boot a few years back. Nothing great in fidelity, but not the worst. Think I sold it, as I didn’t pull it out much. There’s some good audio on YouTube of this one, it’s a pretty enjoyable album. I’m guessing this release will be about the same as the one that’s been available.

Here’s the one I had

 
Correct. Typically his stuff is cd/bluray. Don't think I have ever seen him do AAA. Even if he did go back to the master tapes he would digitize them to work on them.

I am staring pretty hard at his Hawkwind / Warrior on the Edge of Time vinyl remix on Amz right now. Anyone get that?
Amazon product ASIN B0C28J81DV
This has been high on my want list, but it's been hard to find a reasonably priced copy here.
 
Okay so I've already determined this is probably a fools errand simply due to how many dodgy pressings there are under the exact same barcode BUT.... sigh... Bjork "Post" and "Debut". Aside from the incredibly expensive 45s that each of these have from years ago, are there any actually good pressings that have been identified? With all the silence on her albums I figure it's probably best just to stream but it would be nice to have, kinda shocking there haven't been any proper audiophile pressings of her stuff aside from the early 45 pressings.
 
Okay so I've already determined this is probably a fools errand simply due to how many dodgy pressings there are under the exact same barcode BUT.... sigh... Bjork "Post" and "Debut". Aside from the incredibly expensive 45s that each of these have from years ago, are there any actually good pressings that have been identified? With all the silence on her albums I figure it's probably best just to stream but it would be nice to have, kinda shocking there haven't been any proper audiophile pressings of her stuff aside from the early 45 pressings.

I have European pressings from it must be approaching a decade ago and I’m happy with them. The American pressing at the same time was supposedly pretty crap. These are them.


I have the beige of this one but that’s a lot more expensive than this same press on black.


And I have this black one of post.
 
I have European pressings from it must be approaching a decade ago and I’m happy with them. The American pressing at the same time was supposedly pretty crap. These are them.


I have the beige of this one but that’s a lot more expensive than this same press on black.


And I have this black one of post.
Yeah but unfortunately those share the barcodes with like every single other pressing of the albums so pretty much impossible to track down...
 
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In getting ready to spin the Moondance 3 LP release I took a look at the bonus 2 LP's - and wondered if the RSD release from a few years back was now unnecessary.


While the 3 LP version does have most of the tracks, there are still a couple that aren't shared - so you do still need to have the RSD release if you want to have all alternate mixes and such available.

2018

Screenshot 2023-12-07 114357.jpg

2023

Screenshot 2023-12-07 114438.jpg

Here are the tracks on the RSD release that do not appear on the 3LP -

And It Stoned Me (Alternate Mix)
Into The Mystic (Take 14)
Glad Tidings (Alternate Version) - not sure if this is really Glad Tidings (Take 9), but I suspect it is different.
 
the same can be said with Radiohead right? seems like some bands/artists simply don't care.
It's not that they don't care about sonic quality. Radiohead put a fair bit of effort into their vinyl, for example.

It's more that many artists don't care for the 'audiophile' esthetic and the aura of exclusivity or elitism in the collector arena.
 
It's not that they don't care about sonic quality. Radiohead put a fair bit of effort into their vinyl, for example.

It's more that many artists don't care for the 'audiophile' esthetic and the aura of exclusivity or elitism in the collector arena.
More to the point about Radiohead (and they are sort of the antithesis of the rest of your post)… they seem to spend a lot of time on one edition of the vinyl and subsequent presses may be subpar because the label makes the choices, not the band.

We need more Neil Youngs who tell us the provenance of the source and clearly put effort into ensuring the vinyl is quality.
 
It's not that they don't care about sonic quality. Radiohead put a fair bit of effort into their vinyl, for example.

It's more that many artists don't care for the 'audiophile' esthetic and the aura of exclusivity or elitism in the collector arena.
Eh...they do "special editions" of most of their albums with big boxes, artwork, etc in limited versions. And they press their US pressings at crappy plants. So somebody doesn't care about the vinyl--maybe it's the labels. The Kid Amnesia release was an absolute joke with pressing issues, no quality control and they wouldn't replace any of the damaged records or repress it.
 
More to the point about Radiohead (and they are sort of the antithesis of the rest of your post)… they seem to spend a lot of time on one edition of the vinyl and subsequent presses may be subpar because the label makes the choices, not the band.

We need more Neil Youngs who tell us the provenance of the source and clearly put effort into ensuring the vinyl is quality.
LOL - Neil Young! There's the antithesis - an artist who for the past decade has put more effort into the sound than the music!

Do you really expect an active artist to attend the cutting session for every subsequent lacquer, or even listen to every test pressing?

And - all my Radiohead were pressed at either Optimal, Record Industry or the former EMI UK plant.
 
LOL - Neil Young! There's the antithesis - an artist who for the past decade has put more effort into the sound than the music!

Do you really expect an active artist to attend the cutting session for every subsequent lacquer, or even listen to every test pressing?

And - all my Radiohead were pressed at either Optimal, Record Industry or the former EMI UK plant.
All my Radiohead sounds like shit and was pressed at fucking united. I’ll just stick to the CDs.

I don’t expect them to attend all of that but I would tend to be more like Mr Young and want to make sure my fans get what they want - no matter where they are.

Also there are quite a few of us who dig what Mr Young is doing music wise. I still remember how blown away I was the first time I listened to Psychedelic Pill.
 
In getting ready to spin the Moondance 3 LP release I took a look at the bonus 2 LP's - and wondered if the RSD release from a few years back was now unnecessary.


While the 3 LP version does have most of the tracks, there are still a couple that aren't shared - so you do still need to have the RSD release if you want to have all alternate mixes and such available.

2018

View attachment 189837

2023

View attachment 189838

Here are the tracks on the RSD release that do not appear on the 3LP -

And It Stoned Me (Alternate Mix)
Into The Mystic (Take 14)
Glad Tidings (Alternate Version) - not sure if this is really Glad Tidings (Take 9), but I suspect it is different.
Yeah, I looked at it the other way and decided that since I have the 2020 KPG Moondance and the RSD Alternative Moondance with most of these extra tracks, I don't need this 3Lp version. We'll see if I hold to that. ;)
 
LOL - Neil Young! There's the antithesis - an artist who for the past decade has put more effort into the sound than the music!

Do you really expect an active artist to attend the cutting session for every subsequent lacquer, or even listen to every test pressing?

And - all my Radiohead were pressed at either Optimal, Record Industry or the former EMI UK plant.
All their US pressings are done at shit plants in the US or GZ with bad results. Probably the label's fault. It's just a shame to see an artist take so much care about how they record an album and the sonics on it and then put out a shit product to listen to it. Even some of the UK pressings sound crappy like A Moon Shaped Pool.

it's just frustrating because they clearly can make great sounding vinyl. The In Rainbows Disc Box sounds incredible. But the large majority of my other radiohead pressings sound pretty bad. And I can't afford the early OG UK stuff.
 
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