AUTOMATIC 18
Group: Members
Posts: 30
Joined: Aug. 2012 |
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Posted: Sep. 27 2013, 16:05 |
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I bought this today thinking I was buying the yellow vinyl edition but I ended up with the black, (always read the label). Anyway I always heard black vinyl is the best for sound quality, we'll that depends on the virgin vinyl quality I guess. I'm a long time Oldfield listener and own all the LPs and CDs of course. So I unwrapped the Five Miles Out LP, I love the painting on the cover and it's one of the best LP covers ever and one of those covers that does not work on the small CD format. I read the sleeve notes that mainly stuck to the tale of the flight Mike and friends were nearly doomed on during a tour in '81, and the tour itself. Not much is spoken about the actual recording, and much is stuff most fans will already know. I popped the record on my Rega Planar 2 turntable and dropped the needle waiting for the 'chica, chica, chica, chica' intro to Taurus II. Well that opus on Side 1 passed by in an uneventful way. The mix sounded a little dead and muffled. I guess compression is the villain here. The bottom end is tighter but the instruments did not leap out in the way I was expecting. Like I said it's tighter but not an improvement in any way from my original 80s vinyl copy. I must add there was a lot of surface crackle and noise in the quieter parts, so the disc is pretty shoddy in that respect. This was shrink wrapped, this was it's first spin. I flipped it over to Side 2 and again snap, crackle and pop intruded throughout 'Family Man'. The sound was a little better here, more treble and tight bass on this track but again heavy compression making the overdubbed drums sound like dust bins being kicked over. Sadly 'Orabidoo's' soft and lullaby-like into was marred by surface noise (I have thousands of LPs, and lots of used ones that are 30-40 years old and don't sound this bad! What the hell is gone wrong here? Are all the pressings like this?) but the percussion on the main section sounded pretty punchy and the first treat this LP offered my ears so far. This track now sounds better than it used to. On to 'Mount Teidi" then, which is a percussive tour de force with beautiful melody. This Mike perfected with Simon Philips on percussion, on the following LP, in the climax of 'Crises' itself. The percussion again has more depth and the sound now harks back to QE2 more than ever, but again there is a muddy sound from the overall mix. Now we come to the last track, 'Five Miles Out' itself. The bass is rubber-band tight and sounds superb. The mix is clear, the drums are big and the guitars spell D-A-N-G-E-R! If only the rest of the LP sounded this good, but it does not. I am a bit disappointed overall and kind of thankful I didn't spend more on the yellow vinyl version as I now feel this would be Five Miles Out - The Ornament! If anyone is thinking of buying this LP, hang fire and get a very good copy of an original, which will cost less that a Big Mac!
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