- Joined
- Apr 12, 2011
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Friday was a great day for reissued vinyl arriving on my desk. First the 3 new Big Beat 45s, then this new LP compilation featuring all of the Tropics killer 45 sides, plus a few unissued bonus tracks.
The sound appears to be great. I say appears, because I do not have a functioning reference system at the moment. So I'm playing it on my portable turntable, and it's cutting through loud and clear. I know for sure some of the tracks were re-mastered with care (since I supplied a few of them), and the entire LP sounds consistently good from start to finish. It's pressed on heavyweight, super-quiet black vinyl, with a great-looking cover and a 4 page full sized insert with some very cool photos and label scans. The insert also features a concise history of the band, and some clippings from newspapers from the day. All round a great package worthy of a strong recommendation.
The first 3 tracks alone pack a mind-blowing punch - "As Time's Gone", "You Better Move" and "For A Long Time". Originally released on 3 different labels (Columbia, Laurie and Thames), they sound great together finally on this new comp. Another highlight is their first 45 "I Want More", originally released on yet another two different labels, Knight and Freeport (the pressing featured here is Freeport). More coolness on side 1 are flipsides "Time" and "Black Jacket Woman", and "It's You I Miss", all worthy tunes sounding fantastic here.
Side 2 starts off strong with "This Must Be The Place" from their 2nd Columbia 45, a heavily cranked fuzz-crusted pounder racked with tortured screams and strangled lead breaks. Great! Of the unissued material, my favourite is "Laughing Again" which features strong melody, jangly guitar and harmony vocals. In honesty, most of the later material on side 2 just does not hold up to the greatness of side 1. However, it is well-chosen from the available material, and none of the tracks fall below an acceptable standard.
A job very well done by the crew at the Spanish Guerssen label. I'll be playing it (and the Big Beat 45s) all weekend!
The sound appears to be great. I say appears, because I do not have a functioning reference system at the moment. So I'm playing it on my portable turntable, and it's cutting through loud and clear. I know for sure some of the tracks were re-mastered with care (since I supplied a few of them), and the entire LP sounds consistently good from start to finish. It's pressed on heavyweight, super-quiet black vinyl, with a great-looking cover and a 4 page full sized insert with some very cool photos and label scans. The insert also features a concise history of the band, and some clippings from newspapers from the day. All round a great package worthy of a strong recommendation.
The first 3 tracks alone pack a mind-blowing punch - "As Time's Gone", "You Better Move" and "For A Long Time". Originally released on 3 different labels (Columbia, Laurie and Thames), they sound great together finally on this new comp. Another highlight is their first 45 "I Want More", originally released on yet another two different labels, Knight and Freeport (the pressing featured here is Freeport). More coolness on side 1 are flipsides "Time" and "Black Jacket Woman", and "It's You I Miss", all worthy tunes sounding fantastic here.
Side 2 starts off strong with "This Must Be The Place" from their 2nd Columbia 45, a heavily cranked fuzz-crusted pounder racked with tortured screams and strangled lead breaks. Great! Of the unissued material, my favourite is "Laughing Again" which features strong melody, jangly guitar and harmony vocals. In honesty, most of the later material on side 2 just does not hold up to the greatness of side 1. However, it is well-chosen from the available material, and none of the tracks fall below an acceptable standard.
A job very well done by the crew at the Spanish Guerssen label. I'll be playing it (and the Big Beat 45s) all weekend!
