We already have a thread about video game music on vinyl, but as of this week I have a working turntable for the first time in many years and maybe we can also have a general thread about records.
My maternal grandfather died when I was very young. He’d been an orchestra conductor with an eclectic music collection. My favorite record of those my mother inherited from him was Kaleidoscopic Vibrations by Gershon Kingsley and Jean-Jacques Perrey. I used to ask to listen to this album frequently when I was very young (my sister and I referred to it as “the silly record”), and it’s probably responsible in part for my lifelong affinity for electronic music.
I picked up my own copy in high school when I bought a turntable at a garage sale. Fortunately, even today, this and other Perrey & Kingsley records are not terribly expensive.
The turntable that I have now is a modern entry-level model with Bluetooth, which is very convenient in that it doesn’t require its own speakers. This is what it looks like:
The first thing that I played on my new turntable after setting it up was Animated Violence Mild by Blanck Mass. Not only is that an excellent album, but the vinyl is an appealing translucent green. (I also have World Eater, which is similarly attractive. Maybe even more attractive.)
I learned just the other night that there is a dedicated record store in my city that’s been open for five years. I went there today and picked up Every Open Eye by Chvrches. Apparently some albums these days come in several colors, some more rare than others. I probably got the least-rare version of this one, since it cost about the same as a CD. But I still like its white color.
Blue Note recently started issuing what they are calling their Tone Poet series. They got the major dudes behind the beloved Music Matters pressings to handle these. Produced in similarly lavish fashion: thick sleeves, all analog direct from the tapes baby, etc., but now for $25-30 instead of $50-75. They seem to be focusing on stuff that was previously overpriced/harder to acquire second-hand.
I got the pressing of Kenny Burrell’s first record and it sounds (there are bongos though you gotta be bongo tolerant) and feels great, if I was more interested in buying records right now I would buy all the other releases.
my most sentimental records are the ones that my gf and I played over and over and over when we were first dating. I happened to have been working in a record store at the time and was bringing home records all the time. All the Brian Eno up thru Another Green World… The Great Unwashed… The Clean Oddities… Tronics’ Love Backed by Force among them.
We have since slowly collected all the Arthur Russell albums that have been repressed in recent years & we cherish them as they contain some of the most incredible music ever made.
my 70s pressing of another green world is one of my favourite things i own, and the reissue of world of echo with the fake press sticker that just says “unintelligible” on it with no-one attribute as the source of the quote. in short, I Agree With This Post.
others i really like: stockholm monsters’ “alma mater” which you can get pretty cheap bc nobody cares abt this band
and my copy of full force galesburg which took forever to find and has beautiful liner notes incl. a quote from ho chi minh.
One album that I’d like to own eventually is Paradia by Roland Bocquet. I’ve been a big fan of Bocquet ever since Baseballkappe mentioned his music in an old SB thread.
I’d also like to pick up some Bernard Fevre records at some point, such as those Black Devil Disco Club ones.
theres a couple more muslimgauze records i want, the punk store near me has a good industrial section (where i always find muslimgauze… was he industrial I thought it was like called DARK AMBIENT at the time or something, whatever) with a bunch of stuff in it that they ONLY SELL TO LOCALS
blue vinyl blade ii soundtrack
iron butterfly - in-a-gadda-da-vida
mazarati - mazarati
elvis costello - my aim is true
chicks on speed - glamour girl
an ugly german release of dhs - house of god with a bunch of remixes
the only vinyl i own is this and the ray parker jr ghostbusters single, i’d consider getting into vinyl if i had more space but this is a v solid collection already
The last time I heard 2 Unlimited was when I rented the SNES game BioMetal. My favorite part of that game was the sound some of the larger enemies made when they died.
Another thing I’d like to have on vinyl but will probably never spring for is a Novalis album or two.
daphny already linked tonetta vol. 2 - I have a misprint of tonetta vol. 1 with a smudge on the cover that makes it look cooler, i love tonetta - so here’s some others
gobble gobble - lawn knives/end of days single (i had cecil frena sign this. he drew a bird)
muslimgauze - rape of palestine
boris - pink
will take pictures from my collection when i get home.
For as into music as I am, I’m not huge on vinyl, but I do have some favorites. My parents’ worn copy of Are We Not Men is the only way I like to hear that album. I could never bring myself to get a pristine perfect sound forever CD copy. My very first record as a young kid was a bunch of music from Doctor Who. Later on, for a long time my prized possession was the Sonic Youth self titled as that was the only way to hear it, and I think I spent “a lot” for a used record for an unemployed high school kid at the time (25?). There was a magical moment a couple years back where I went diving in the dollar bin at a small store I rarely go to specifically for David Drew’s Safety Love on a total whim and somehow found it like three records in. Oh and I totally have that Xiu Xiu 7” featuring a certain forum member.
I finally have a decent stereo setup so I’ve been trying to get back into my record collection but in the process ended up needing to justify my 8 track player (an absolutely horrid format) and my reel to reel (which I should probably just use to record my own bullshit).
Oh yeah, I have a framed copy of Are We Not Men’s UK picture disc version that came with this weird cheaply pressed disc of this women who sounds some kind of chemically influenced talking about Devo. And a letter from General Boy.
