180g 200g 45rpm Box Sets.

Nilsson - Aerial Ballet - 180g LP

Product no.: LSP3956

£29.95

Price includes VAT, plus delivery

Available delivery methods: UK Tracked with Signature, UK Express, Airmail Tracked with Signature, UK Standard, Heavy Item

Description

AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Speakers Corner / RCA LSP-3956 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl

Cut & Mastered at Emil Berliner Studio by Rainer Mallard

AAA 100% Analogue - Limited Edition - Pressed at Pallas

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head 30 Years pure Analogue

Although by Nilsson’s second album, 1967’s Pandemonium Shadow Show, hints appeared of eccentricities that in later years would sometimes rise to the foreground, nothing from this period, 1968’s Aerial Ballet included, would have alienated fans of MOR and soft rock. Interesting, then, that the band most credited for dramatically reshaping pop music saw in Nilsson a kindred spirit. Perhaps that’s because the Beatles recognized that, as mind-blowing as Sgt. Pepper originally seemed, its music hall stylings, old-fashioned horn charts, baroque pop, and chiseled songcraft were right up Nilsson’s alley. And if at times Nilsson is under the Fab Four’s spell—tracks like “One” and “Mr. Tinker” clearly evoke songs like “Eleanor Rigby” and “She’s Leaving Home”—in some ways Aerial Ballet seemed to prefigure the less ornate White Album. There quirky little ditties like “Little Cowboy” and its reprise would have seemed right at home, not to mention the whimsy of cuts like “Mr. Richland’s Favorite Song” and “Bath.” Add the most endearing cover of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’” imaginable and you have an essential piece of pop music history—and fortunately Speakers Corner’s quiet noise floor and crisp, clean sonics serve it well. Sound 4/5 Music 5/5 JW The Absolute Sound

The Speakers Corner reissue of this pop classic is simply perfect. The Pallas pressing is dead quiet and it captures the very highest peaks and lowest valleys of this very dynamic analog recording. My only complaint is one I have with all early Harry Nilsson recordings: I don’t know which microphones engineers used and how they placed them during those sessions, but none of them could quite withstand the full force of Nilsson’s amazing three-and-a-half-octave vocal range. Listeners with great systems will hear a bit of distortion during the singer’s loudest passages, but that’s not the fault of this reissue.The best compliment I can pay to a reissued LP is to beg the folks responsible for it to find a way to go deeper into the artist’s catalogue. The Audio Beat

To define in a nutshell the music of Harry Nilsson in accordance with his personality can easily become a fiasco. The American singer-songwriter might well share his reputation as a multi-talented eccentric with a number of other musicians. However, his highly unusual style and his »satirical catchy pop songs [composed] with the sparkling eye of a cynic and the tearful eye of a nostalgic« (rororo Rock Lexicon) cannot be pigeonholed. Nilsson packaged derisive lines, spiced with a pinch of self-irony, in suspiciously pleasing yet carefully selected tunes. His cultivated and astonishingly supple voice basked to the full in bittersweet phrases, aided by elaborate, melting, slushy arrangements with strings and winds. Several of the wonderfully fresh numbers from "Aerial Ballet" reached top places in the charts. "Everybody’s Talkin’" became world-famous through its use in the film "Midnight Cowboy" and brought Nilsson his first Grammy award. The song "One" soared to the top ten of the charts. The other light and airy songs now invite you to create your very own hit list. Every single number makes great listening!

This Speakers Corner production was manufactured 100% analogously, with the use of the analogue mastertape and analogue mastering. All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: 1967 and 1968 in RCA Victor's Music Center Of The World, Hollywood
Production: Rick Jarrad

TRACK LIST:
SIDE 1
1. Daddy's Song
2. Good Old Desk
3. Don't Leave Me
4. Mr. Richland's Favorite Song
5. Little Cowboy
6. Together

SIDE 2
1. Everybody's Talkin'
2. I Said Goodbye to Me
3. Little Cowboy
4. Mr. Tinker
5. One
6. The Wailing of the Willow
7. Bath

$Nilsson\u0020\u002D\u0020Aerial\u0020Ballet\u0020\u002D\u0020180g\u0020LP$

25 Years pure Analogue

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head

Are your records completely analogue?

Yes! This we guarantee!

As a matter of principle, only analogue masters are used, and the necessary cutting delay is also analogue. All our cutting engineers use only Neumann cutting consoles, and these too are analogue. The only exception is where a recording has been made – either partly or entirely – using digital technology, but we do not have such items in our catalogue at the present time

Are your records cut from the original masters?

In our re-releases it is our aim to faithfully reproduce the original intentions of the musicians and recording engineers which, however, could not be realised at the time due to technical limitations. Faithfulness to the original is our top priority, not the interpretation of the original: there is no such thing as a “Speakers Corner Sound”. Naturally, the best results are obtained when the original master is used. Therefore we always try to locate these and use them for cutting. Should this not be possible, – because the original tape is defective or has disappeared, for example – we do accept a first-generation copy. But this remains an absolute exception for us.

Who cuts the records?

In order to obtain the most faithful reproduction of the original, we have the lacquers cut on the spot, by engineers who, on the whole, have been dealing with such tapes for many years. Some are even cut by the very same engineer who cut the original lacquers of the first release. Over the years the following engineers have been and still are working for us: Tony Hawkins, Willem Makkee, Kevin Gray, Maarten de Boer, Scott Hull, and Ray Staff, to name but a few.

At the beginning of the ‘90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the reissue policy was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC Compact Classics, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and others, including of course Speakers Corner, all maintained a mutual, unwritten code of ethics: we would manufacture records sourced only from analogue tapes.

Vinyl’s newfound popularity has led many other companies to jump on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source from which to master: CDs, LPs, digital files and even MP3s.

Even some who do use an analogue tape source employ a digital delay line, a misguided ’80s and ‘90s digital technology that replaces the analogue preview head originally used to “tell” the cutter head in advance what was about to happen musically, so it could adjust the groove “pitch” (the distance between the grooves) to make room for wide dynamic swings and large low frequency excursions. Over time analogue preview heads became more rare and thus expensive.

So while the low bit rate (less resolution than a 16 bit CD) digital delay line is less expensive and easier to use than an analogue “preview head”, its use, ironically, results in lacquers cut from the low bit rate digital signal instead of from the analogue source!

Speakers Corner wishes to make clear that it produces lacquers using only original master tapes and an entirely analogue cutting system. New metal stampers used to press records are produced from that lacquer. The only exceptions are when existing metal parts are superior to new ones that might be cut, which includes our release of “Elvis is Back”, which was cut by Stan Ricker or several titles from our Philips Classics series, where were cut in the 1990s using original master tapes by Willem Makkee at the Emil Berliner Studios. In those cases we used only the original “mother” to produce new stampers.

In addition, we admit to having one digital recording in our catalogue: Alan Parsons’ “Eye in the Sky”, which was recorded digitally but mixed to analogue tape that we used to cut lacquers.

In closing, we want to insure our loyal customers that, with but a few exceptions as noted, our releases are “AAA”— analogue tape, an all analogue cutting system, and newly cut lacquers.

60 Years Pallas

Audiophile Vinyl - Made in Germany For over 60 years the family business in the third generation of the special personal service and quality "Made by Pallas" is known worldwide. Our custom PVC formulation produces consistently high pressing quality with the lowest surface noise in the industry. Our PVC complies with 2015 European environmental standards and does not contain toxic materials such as Lead, Cadmium or Toluene. Our vinyl is both audiophile and eco-grade!

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