All Things Vinyl

[Vyn]

My mom has thousands of 45s that she transferred to MP3s, which I enjoy digitally.

That's pretty cool!

[Zzzptm]

Thank you. Having those MP3s makes doing a show based on 50s music a LOT easier!

[Jack the Stripper]

My LP data entry is complete! Quick stats:

1164 total pieces
797 are first pressing originals
121 are white label promotional copies
119 are re-issued pressings
74 have promotional labels (just not white)
21 are half-speed mastered copies
16 are test pressings
6 are bootlegs
5 are picture disks
3 are acetates
1 is a counterfeit (fucking Snake Bite Love)
1 is a puzzle (More Songs About Buildings and Food - it's a promo item, the cover of the LP is a puzzle)

Oldest: May 1956 (I have some 78's and some Edison disk that are like 83rpm, but can't play any of them so didn't count them)
Newest: September 2021

I have some box sets stashed away that I didn't include, and a small stack of 45s I need to get to, but this is the mainline collection. As much as it was a time sink, it was fun to go through all of them. Found a few I forgot I had, didn't find a few I thought I did have lol.

Congrats on cataloging your vinyl collection onto a data base Vyn. Such a mammoth and meticulous task. Especially if you’re cataloging pressing/catalogue numbers. I started doing mine a few years ago on discogs and thought I’d start with my Metallica collection. Got halfway through Ride The Lightning and gave up.

You have a good amount of promos Vyn

[Vyn]

Thanks Jack! It took a long time lol. Now I just need to keep up with it. A lot less painful that way!

[Scott]

Vyn,
That's very impressive!
When you say 'bootlegs', do you mean live bootlegs? I saw both bootleg and counterfeit listed and my brain was curious, haha.

[Vyn]

Thanks Scott!

I make the distinction between a bootleg and a counterfeit in that a bootleg is not marketed or passed-off as anything other than an unofficial recording, whereas a counterfeit is marketed as being "the real thing".

Edited to add:

For example, I have a Russian copy of an album called "Black Sabbath". It's a compilation that came out ~1990. I consider it a bootleg, because even people in Russia knew that it wasn't an official release. Similarly, I have a very nice 12" with Planet Caravan on one side and Solitude on the other. It came out around 2008 and even announces it is unofficial. Also categorized as a bootleg by me.

Obviously things like Sabbath's Paris concert or the "Sabotaged" box are live bootlegs.

Whereas Motorhead's "Snake Bite Love" is a counterfeit. Whoever made it did so with the intention of selling it as an original Steamhammer release.

Until recently, I had another counterfeit in my collection: "Introducing the Beatles" by the Beatles.

Whereas I bought Snake Bite Love for $50 from some guy, I had acquired the Beatles record as part of a stack someone gave to me years ago. I took it out back and set it up on a stand and shot it with an H&K SP5K-PDW lol.

[Charger]

New SAVATAGE Goodies arrived today!

GUTTER BALLET grey stone vinyl w/ Thorazine Shuffle single and a cool poster and STREETS double blue vinyl!




Sadly the Gutter Ballet one was bit damaged on one corner...not from transit to Mystic Productions to here as it was (once again) perfectly packaged but that damage had to have happened when the vinyl was shipped to them...bit unfortunate...

[Jack the Stripper]

^Nice!

I actually received my “Fight for the Rock” & “Hall of the Mountain King” limited coloured vinyls from Mystic today after a 16 week journey. Id actually given up on them thinking they were lost or stolen but they miraculously arrived out of nowhere this morning. In perfect shape too but I have some concerns that they may be warped a little as they don’t sit flat on top of each other.

Not sure whether I’ll order from Mystic again as it takes too dam long and it’s getting into warmer weather in Europe and I fear a 12-16 week boat trip in a hot shipping container may not end well for vinyl. Might have to hunt down Gutter Ballet & Streets elsewhere.

[Vyn]

Good haul for both of you!

[Charger]

Something seems to be off with the polish mail now...as these took nearly 3 weeks to arrive now...and usually they've been here in a week or so...


It does seem bit of a risk for a boat trip indeed.... I hope you can get them somewhere closer Jack...and hope that they would have been delivered via air mail.

There is a courier shipping option at Mystic too but that's crazy expensive just from Poland to Finland...god only knows how much it might be for down under!

[Vyn]

I had received an email notifying me about this deck a month or so ago. This morning is the first chance I've had to actually read about it.

Summary of my thoughts: It's a $700 package being sold for $1600.

That's not a ding on the quality, assuming that it delivers on its listed specifications (and I'm confident it would), it should pair up nicely with a lot of different gear. The extra $900 is, of course, the "Metallica Fee".

Although a person can easily go out and put together a turntable that matches (or exceeds somewhat) the specs of this deck for ~ $700, there is nothing else out there with that design.

For a fan of Metallica who happens to be in the market for a turntable, I think it would be pretty cool. But although I am a Metallica fan, it's not for me.

https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/metallica-turntable/

[Charger]

That's nuts...the price that is...

I guess if you want to make a bunch of rich bastards even richer this is for you but otherwise I can't really understand it at all...

[Zzzptm]

Buy 3 and Gene Simmons will personally deliver them!

[Vyn]

I spent some time today listening to a Black Sabbath bootleg. It's a 12" 45rpm titled Planet Caravan/Solitude. Which, as the title suggests, has Planet Caravan on side A and Solitude on side B. Both are the studio versions. It actually sounds good - the copy I have is pressed very well and the vinyl is dead quiet. More information about it can be found at Discogs, here:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1311219-Black-Sabbath-Planet-Caravan-Solitude

As you can see from the discogs site, there is a second track on side B. Discogs indicates that track B2 is a spoken word track by Mr. Crowley.

This is true. But doesn't tell the whole story. Here's what I've concluded about track B2:

First, there are actually three tracks on side B. The third track is another from Crowley, and it's short, but it is a separate and distinct track. I'll refer to it as B3.

Both B2 and B3 are taken from wax cylinder recordings that Aleister Crowely made in the early 1900s. As such, they are faint and extraordinarily scratchy. But from what I can tell, the transfer to vinyl was top-notch; the source material is what it is.

B2 seems to be Crowley speaking in Enochian, reciting The Call Of The First Cthyr.

B3 is Crowley speaking in English, some sort of ritualized "closing statement".

I can't be sure about the Enochian bit. It simply sounds like so much nonsense to me, but comparing it to an online release of his wax recordings, the one titled The Call of The First Cthyr seems to match. I wasn't able to locate the B3 recording online.

Coming off of B1, "Solitude", the spoken word stuff is somewhat jarring. But after listening to it repeatedly I've come to feel that B2 and B3 flow well after Solitude, the ambiance is maintained and the sense of otherworldliness is even heightened by their inclusion. Would make for some awesome background music for a dark night if one wanted to spook themselves out. So to speak

If anyone has any thoughts or insight into tracks B2/B3, I'd be interested to hear them, because the only thing I am sure of is that B3 is spoken in English lol.

[Zzzptm]

Wait, is this a secret listening party being done remotely?

Do you have a transcript of some passages from B3? I'd want to dig up and see if I could find a possible full text of what he was saying.