I did it again......

[Terryff]

On the weekend i went record shopping, bought donald fagan's the nightfly (ok its produced well but not really my cup of tea), Fish visage of Mirrors (again i bought this because i understood the production values were superb) which i found incredibly dull and, wait for it, Kraftwerk - Man Machine. I have to say the last album sounded simply stunning, absolutely incredible for it's age. very engaging and some subleties i had never before noticed appeared. 

Just goes to show you if you go shopping outside of your normal taste range, now and again amidst the duffs you get an absolute belter 

Credit again must go to the amp's phono stage and that cheap little pioneer turntable for producing the grin factor. 

 

[chebby]

I seldom buy records just because they are reputed to have great 'hifi' sound or production values.

I have to like the music.

I would rather have a roughly recorded LP of music I like than a perfect recording of something I don't.

I have made this mistake a few times in the past (usually the result of hifi mag record reviews alas) but life is waaay too short to try and make myself enjoy jazz-fusion or the sort of record that 'majors' in chord change squeeks on guitars (and grunts and snufflings from the musician) and yet 'minors' on musical enjoyment!

I learnt after a while that if the reviewer is raving about how you can holographically 'place' every member of the audience in a live recording then leave it well alone. The music must be cr## or they would be writing about that instead!

Luckily nowadays things like iTunes and youtube give me the opportunity to listen to stuff I have not heard, before I decide whether to buy the CD/LP or not.

Some of the jazz I enjoy goes back to the 1940s and even 1930s (Grappelli and Django at the Hot Club De France or Benny Goodman for instance) so one has to forget modern production values and just get in the groove.

A lot of good Reggae and Ska was recorded in tin sheds by 'engineers' who probably could not remember their own names at the time. What the heck? Who cares if you can dance to it?

 

[Anonymous]

Napster on my sonos, best thing ever for deciding on which cd's to buy. Napster is not of the greatest quality but it is listenable. Millions of tracks to choose from and then buy the cd if you like what you have listen to at a later date for improved sound quality.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

Abso-bleddy-lutely M1rfy - I'd be lost without napster. Listen to pretty much anything current, all for a tenner a month.

And yes, defo buy either the cd or vinyl rather than downloading!

 

[Terryff]

I tend to mix and match how i purchase albums, in the flesh for lp's, amazon or ebay for cd's and itunes and now amazon for decent quality mp3's. I guess i was trying to see if my tastes had widened with age, they clearly have not.ÿ

But as i said, it was worth it just for the kratwerk album.ÿ

 

[the record spot]

First heard Man MAchine about 30 years back when I was into electronic music in a big way (Jarre, Tanegrine Dream, Klaus Schulz, Tomita, etc.); loved it then and love it now. There isn't a bad track on it, but Neon Lights was always a favourite and The Model was ahead of its' time IMO.

 

[Anonymous]

Its funny I played man machine last week, still thought it sounded just as good, and I agree with record spot re the model.

 

[Terryff]

Agree totally but for me it was the first track that "hooked" me, the way that the bass on the last two beats is muvh lower etc, little things that set it apart from just an ordinary track. Again it was about enjoying the music, same thing that happened with Amused to Death recently.

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

This morning I got off the train and enjoyed my 10 minute walk to work, through the cold, dank backstreets of a northern ex-mining town, all to the joyous pulse of Man Machine.

The original vinyl version still sounds great, as you say. I was playing the "live" version released a couple of years ago. Stunning. Monday mornings just got bearable.