That’s pretty much where I spend my most of my time.
Brian Davison, every which way-- US Mercury is fine. Not crazy expensive for a clean copy. Sounds a lot like early Traffic. White boy blues shouter plus jazz and exotic motifs.
Blast Furnace- S/T Danish RSD copy- You won’t want to spend the money for an original Danish pressing. Interesting mix of hard rock and almost Broadway show tune melodics.
Air-Air (Googie Coppola) on Embryo or the Be With remaster (cheaper and very close, despite digital sourcing)- a lost voice, stunning, the band was Herbie Mann’s back up band, some stellar players. If you like jazz rock of the old style with a really good female voice, this is one such record.
To name a small handful.
Lately, I’ve been spending time in the spiritual jazz space, but the price of original pressings has skyrocketed. Some of the Strata-East catalog has been reissued by Pure Pleasure and makes the records more accessible; some of the more obscure stuff, like Lloyd McNeill, which were issued on his own, private label, Asha (also the name of an album)-the masters are gone, the reissues are needle drops and don’t convey the same way an original pressing does.
There are a million more. It’s a fun process to discover them.
PS: I'm not sure there is a real way to characterize collectors vs audiophiles as to who holds the right priorities. I find a lot of audiophiles stay with very safe stuff that has been audiophile approved and is reissued again and again. I like to play outside the sandbox a little. The trick is to find musically satisfying or interesting (to you) material that hasn't been done to death and also sounds good. I'll often down tick a little on sonics out of musical interest or variety. I grew up in the 'audiophile' community and eventually found that very limiting in terms of musical choice. I like to encourage people to get out of the "rut" and play whatever the XXXX they like: proto-metal, reggae, fusion, hard prog, early stoner rock. Whatever. Turns. You. On.
Brian Davison, every which way-- US Mercury is fine. Not crazy expensive for a clean copy. Sounds a lot like early Traffic. White boy blues shouter plus jazz and exotic motifs.
Blast Furnace- S/T Danish RSD copy- You won’t want to spend the money for an original Danish pressing. Interesting mix of hard rock and almost Broadway show tune melodics.
Air-Air (Googie Coppola) on Embryo or the Be With remaster (cheaper and very close, despite digital sourcing)- a lost voice, stunning, the band was Herbie Mann’s back up band, some stellar players. If you like jazz rock of the old style with a really good female voice, this is one such record.
To name a small handful.
Lately, I’ve been spending time in the spiritual jazz space, but the price of original pressings has skyrocketed. Some of the Strata-East catalog has been reissued by Pure Pleasure and makes the records more accessible; some of the more obscure stuff, like Lloyd McNeill, which were issued on his own, private label, Asha (also the name of an album)-the masters are gone, the reissues are needle drops and don’t convey the same way an original pressing does.
There are a million more. It’s a fun process to discover them.
PS: I'm not sure there is a real way to characterize collectors vs audiophiles as to who holds the right priorities. I find a lot of audiophiles stay with very safe stuff that has been audiophile approved and is reissued again and again. I like to play outside the sandbox a little. The trick is to find musically satisfying or interesting (to you) material that hasn't been done to death and also sounds good. I'll often down tick a little on sonics out of musical interest or variety. I grew up in the 'audiophile' community and eventually found that very limiting in terms of musical choice. I like to encourage people to get out of the "rut" and play whatever the XXXX they like: proto-metal, reggae, fusion, hard prog, early stoner rock. Whatever. Turns. You. On.