the born again vinylphile

seventeen albums later...

noreply@blogger.com (strangedays) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:58:00 +0000

Restraint: it's something I have remarkably little of when I walk into a good record store.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise to anyone that my boyfriend and I went to the Ottawa/Montréal Bi-Annual Record Convention today and came home with seventeen new albums between the two of us. Oops!!

The show was something I'd been looking forward to for a while. I had read about it on the Birdman Sound blog about a month ago, and it sounded like the kind of event I had to at least check out for a bit.

I wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to go, as I was horrendously sick this past week. This also has created an extra-huge pile of work that needs to be done, so my stress level has also been through the roof. However, when I woke up this morning and felt a slight bit better than yesterday, I knew I had to get out of the house for a short while and check out some potential additions to my collection.

After arriving at Carleton University, where the convention was held, we obviously had to stop for a Tim Hortons caffeine boost (amusingly, it was noted that all of the garbage cans inside the lounge where the show was held were overflowing with empty cups and bags from Tim's... but I digress). With double-doubles in hand, we were ready to take on the crazy world of vinylphiles.

I really wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I figured that the show would be a decent size based on the location. At the very least, you have to chuckle when you see the obligatory guy who didn't want to leave the 80s behind, still dressed in top to bottom acid wash denim with a huge hair-band 'do (unless you are that guy! No offense, man... the music was great, so rock on!).

The show definitely exceeded my expectations, and it certainly did not help that there was a bank machine right outside the hall so that I could access enough cash to pay for my new finds. There was a good mix of new, used and rare material, and most of what I looked at was in pretty darn good shape (even in the bargain bins). As a student, I'm on a limited budget and looked longingly at a lot of the current albums and mint condition classic rock titles. The prices of some of the rarities nearly made my eyes fall out of my head! Obviously, though, I found quite a bit of good, low-priced material in my search--which took around FOUR HOURS! Another big oops!!

So, after spending a lot of cash and with over four hours of essay-writing time squandered, I am at home, gearing up to finish this essay through the night. I have a fantastic soundtrack to do so to (currently playing: side two of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Damn the Torpedoes), thankfully.

And I still have enough cash in my wallet to get my double-double in the morning!

Alan Cross's Must-Have Vinyl

noreply@blogger.com (strangedays) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:22:00 +0000

While on Twitter today, I saw an article written by Alan Cross posted to the Explore Music website. He lists some records which sound better than their CD counterparts and I thought it would be a good piece to share. (So far, I own a few of the ones on there!)

Must-Have Vinyl: What Records Sound Better Than Their CD Counterparts?
Posted by: Alan Cross | Oct 4 2009 8:20 PM

An email arrived the other day from a guy named Ren:

“Have you ever made a list of "Must have Vinyl" for any collection? You know, those definitive recordings that anyone with a turntable simply must have? I've started my collection beginning with the standard ‘Mom's Basement’ and a large collection from Kijiji. I picked up The Clash/London Calling and Pink Floyd /Dark Side of the Moon to begin rounding out the collection a bit. What's your top 10?”

A lot of great older albums have been ruined by their digital transfers. Too much compression, too much noise, too little care. (Thank God they finally fixed the Beatles catalogue!) In many cases, the original vinyl issue sounds richer and warmer than its digital progeny.

Despite being a reborn vinyl junkie, I’d honestly never thought about this before, which meant that Ren had opened a big can of words in my three-ring-circus brain.

I needed some criteria. Rather than assemble a list of must-have albums—that’s a different topic altogether—I tried to think of albums that sound best when played on a proper turntable through a proper two-speaker audio system. Ren is also talking about old-school vinyl, the kind of stuff you find in used record stores, forgotten boxes in the basement and online. That means I couldn’t consider any of that fancy virgin stuff, so I’m not going to include away from modern 180g and 220g reissues. However, audiophile labels which specialized in ultra-high quality vinyl releases (DCC, CBS Mastersound and a few others) were fair game.

After combing through the vaults in my basement, here are ten records from my collection that define my perfect personal great-sounding vinyl collection:

1. Who’s Next – The Who (1971)
Let’s establish that “great sounding vinyl” doesn’t mean “no distortion.” One of the cool things about analogue recording is that you can intentionally over-modulate certain aspects of the performance, resulting in a type of distortion that you just can’t get digitally. Pete Townshend and producer Glyn Johns pushed a lot of needles into the red for this album, the best example being Townshend’s guitars and Roger Daltrey’s best-in-class scream in “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Yes, you can hear tape hiss in some of the quieter passages, but I’ll gladly accept that in exchange for the warm fuzz of analogue distortion captured on vinyl.

2. Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd (1972)
Sorry to include with such a clichéd pick, but it’s the truth. The vinyl I have seems to have been a late 70s reissue on heavier, thicker vinyl that tracked the tone arm better and contained less rumble and hiss than I remember. Engineer Alan Parsons—who famously measured out the cash register samples using for “Money” using a ruler—made the most of the available eight-track recording studios at EMI’s disposal. “Time” and “Great Gig in the Sky” still sound brilliant.

3. Crime of the Century – Supertramp (1974)
Where I grew up, a copy of this album was required listening from the age of 13 onwards. I’m surprised it wasn’t included with the high school curriculum. The best song is the long fade-out of the title track, complete with low bass stabs from primitive synthesizers.

4. Aja – Steely Dan (1977)
Anyone who went shopping for a stereo system in the late 70s was well-served if they took this record along to demonstrate anything from amplifiers to speakers to the entire turntable assembly. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were uber-perfectionists in the studio. No wonder this record won a Grammy for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical.

5. This Year’s Model – Elvis Costello (1978)
Again, it’s not about the cleanness of the recording but about the dirt. The album was made quickly with more attention paid to performance than perfection. None of the subsequent CD issues I’ve purchased—and believe me, I have them all—seem to carry the raw power of that vinyl record I bought one Friday night at K-Mart.

6. Breakfast in America – Supertramp (1979)
The long slow fade up to the first piano flourish and the harmonic line in “Take the Long Way Home” were also used to sell many a speaker system. The drum sounds are astonishing.

7. The Wall – Pink Floyd (1980)
Canadian producer Bob Ezerin was called in to help Roger Waters organize a scattered mess of songs, ideas and arrangements. When he was finished, the four sides were an audiophile’s dream. If you ever get a chance, listen to “Mother” on the turntable you can find. Then tell me with a straight face that recording technology has improved since then. We’ve actually regressed.

8. Love Over Gold – Dire Straits (1982)
There’s a graphic in the artwork that proudly proclaims that the album was recorded on tape running at 30 inches per second. Back in the analogue days, the faster you ran your tape, the higher fidelity the recording. I love the production on 14-minute “Telegraph Road,” especially in the crispiness of the snare drum.

9. Stone Roses – Stone Roses (1989)
Yes, the original recording is muddy and a lacking in high end—but the sparkle that exudes from John Squire’s guitar and Mani’s high-hats on “She Bangs the Drums” still sounds far better coming from vinyl than any subsequent CD reissue.

10. Pretty Hate Machine – Nine Inch Nails (1989)
Four different producers helped part-time studio tech Trent Reznor refine the industrial vibe he was looking for. The differences between the original vinyl and the CD versions are a little tough to hear, but I’ve always been able to notice them in “Something I Can Never Have.” The rest of the time I’d have the volume turned up so loud that the needle would keep jumping out of the grooves.

There are a few records I could have picked from the 90s (Pearl Jam’s Ten and Nevermind from Nirvana come to mind), but by then it was all about digital and compression and loudness. No wonder people are curious about vinyl.

Avalon – Roxy Music (1982)
This was my late-night chillout record in college. Slick without being overproduced, the natural warmth of vinyl really shows through in the synths in the midrange.

feels like the first time...

noreply@blogger.com (strangedays) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:16:00 +0000

I discovered a fun record shop on my trip back home this past weekend, but I'll save that story for another time. For now, I thought I would write about an album that I listened to earlier today...

Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People was the first record I bought for myself--I purchased it at CD Warehouse before I even owned a turntable! The album has been one of my favourites since just after it was released; I actually include it on the list of albums that has literally changed my life. When I think of my late high school years, this album often plays in the background of my memories (fitting, considering that it includes the song "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl").

When I stop to think about it, You Forgot It In People is a pretty random mix of songs and sounds, but for some reason it is that randomness that makes it so cohesive. The music is wonderfully nuanced, emotional and dramatic. I stop short of calling it theatrical, because that would take the reality away from the music--perhaps the reason I love it so much is because it does seem so real and honest to me. So, when I saw it sitting in the record store, I couldn't resist dropping my cash on it. Even though I didn't have a way to hear it at the time, I planned on carefully packing it in my suitcase to listen to on my parents' turntable back home.

Soon after I made that purchase, however, I received my own turntable and began this crazy vinyl journey. I was thankful that I no longer had to worry about carting home the record to hear it (partially because I didn't trust my suitcase, and also because the turntable back home has been acting up lately!), and couldn't wait to hear it on my own time, in my own room, with no distractions.

The detail BSS puts into their music is extraordinary, bringing me to another reason I love You Forgot It In People: you can listen to it over and over again and focus on a different aspect of the music each time. I got exactly what I was hoping for when I listened to this album on vinyl for the first time--I heard all sorts of little features that I hadn't noticed in the same way on the CD! It was a new experience in and of itself, and I loved every moment of it. Luckily for me, it was only the first of many!

Click here to read a great review of You Forgot It In People from Pitchfork.

born again

noreply@blogger.com (strangedays) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:13:00 +0000

I have had vinyl in my life for as long as I can remember.

As a very young girl, I had my very own Sharon, Lois and Bram LP. I loved it, of course! My parents played a large variety of music from the 70s and 80s--particularly classic rock, which would come to be my favourite. Listening to vinyl was a huge influence, and I thought at the time that everyone my age had the same experience of hearing music in such a beautiful way.

As I grew older, it seemed that no one my age really knew much, if anything, about vinyl. Our turntable broke and the records sat in the basement, gathering dust. I listened to anything I wanted to on the radio or on tapes. Eventually, CDs and MP3s took over, and the thought of collecting records (so cumbersome!) was laughable to many.

Once I hit my early teen years, I went back down to visit the record collection that seemed to have been forgotten. I quickly realized how much amazing music I was missing out on (some of which I listened to in other formats, some of which I didn't), and began to pester my parents to get a new turntable. At first, they thought the idea was crazy. Once I reintroduced them to their own record collection, though, they gave it some more thought.

We eventually purchased a new turntable, much to my excitement. I would listen to various records late into the night, once I had gotten home from dance classes or hockey games and was working on essays for school. Once again, I fell for the rich, full sound that one can only hear when listening to vinyl. If I was stressed, I would choose a record that would soothe me. If I was angry, I would choose something to help me vent. If I was happy, I would choose something to dance and sing to. Our collection was in relatively good shape, and I cherished it.

The day came when I left home to attend school out of town. I jokingly asked if I could take the turntable and records with me, secretly hoping that my parents would, for some reason, oblige. Of course, they would not give up their collection and I was left without the music I loved so dearly.

Years passed and, thanks to a student's limited budget, I made do with what I had. My CD player and computer speakers were used and abused, constantly playing music, just as I was accustomed to. I would occasionally visit record shops, just to have a glimpse at what I could be hearing. Of course, whenever I visited home, I would be almost as excited to see the turntable and record collection as I was to see my family and friends.

A little over a week ago, I turned twenty one. For my birthday, I joked that I wanted a turntable (of course), never thinking that I would actually receive one. However, on the evening before my birthday, I was treated to a beautiful sight--and an even more beautiful sound. My boyfriend opened the bedroom door and there was a brand new turntable, still in the box, surrounded by a few records by some of my favourite artists and bands. The beginning of my very own record collection lay in front of me, and I was overjoyed. That evening, while listening to the Beatles' White Album, I knew I was an incredibly lucky person.

Of course, I now have the task of finding, purchasing and caring for my own records--something I was never required to do before. I have a lot to learn, but I am incredibly eager. We can only see what this exciting new journey will bring...