Procol Harum - A Salty Dog - 180g LP

Product no.: MFSL1-474

Procol Harum - A Salty Dog - 180g LP
£42.93
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AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Mobile Fidelity - MFSL1-474 -  180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

AAA 100% Analogue - 3,000 Numbered Limited Edition -  Pressed at RTI

Mastered by Kreig Wunderlich from the Original Master Tape at MFSL

Half Speed Mastered on the Mobile Fidelity The Gain 2 Ultra Analog System

The Absolute Sound Super Disc List      TAS Harry Pearson Super LP List

For those who loved this record in 1969 it surely stood the test of time. It still has the atmospheric goods and the ability to send your mind packing for 40 minutes or so, helped by really fine sonics (thanks Ken!). So how do these three versions compare? All are excellent though the new Mo-Fi reissue offers the greatest dynamics, the best bass extension and the most vivid harmonics—particularly on the strings  If you love this record I think you will be very happy you bought Mobile Fidelity's reissue. Your happiness will begin on the opening track when Brooker begins singing and the strings enter. You've never heard Brooker sound so tonally "Brookerish", nor have the string harmonies ever sounded so lush and "right". A great job by the Mobile Fidelity team! Sound 9/10 Music 9/10 Michael Fremer www.analogplanet,com

Can't say enough about the band, the album, and of course, MoFi meticulous process. , Stunning remaster of my favorite Procol Harum album. These are numbered so don’t miss it. LP review

A Salty Dog Mastered from the Original Master Tapes and Strictly Limited to 3000 Numbered Copies on Mobile Fidelity  

Procol Harum stood apart for its aptitude to blend classical figures with rock motifs without coming across as self-indulgent or contrived. Graced with commanding mood pieces, the group's 1969 album – appointed with evocative artwork that pays homage to the Player's Navy Cut logo – exhibits the band's distinctive talents and genre-jumping breadth with an idyllic fusion of performance, composition, and sound. 

Procol Harum Fuses Classical Structures, Rock Motifs, and Sweeping Melodies with Unparalleled Virtuosity: A Salty Dog Features Intertwined Symmetry Between Piano, Organ, Guitar, and Strings  Mastered from the Original Master Tapes for Reference-Level Sound, Clarity, and Presence: Super-Dynamic Mobile Fidelity
 
A call for "all hands on deck" opens Procol Harum's third album, and with the command, an effort that witnesses the band coming into its own as a collective capable of fusing classical structures with rock motifs via an expertise, virtuosity, and style matched by none of its peers is on its way to making history. A Salty Dog survives as proof no other artist ever sounded like Procol Harum – while also demonstrating few collectives boasted a lineup full of such ace instrumentalists. Stacked with exploratory themes, boundary-crossing directions, and sweeping melodies, A Salty Dog proudly veers off traditional course and ventures to intrepid places forbidden to even the most thrill-seeking groups of the highly experimental era.
 
The intertwined symmetry between organist Matthew Fisher and pianist Gary Brooker, central to every song on the set, gets revealed with newfound detail, openness, and clarity. Produced by Fisher, A Salty Dog now resonates with a presence and immediacy stunted on prior editions. The full-bodied tones, front-to-back imaging, and grand dynamics inherent on this audiophile edition elevate the 1969 favorite to landmark status. In addition, the evocative cover art, which pays homage to the Player's Navy Cut logo, is reproduced in faithful-to-the-original fashion.
 
The cinematic breadth of the sonics parallels the scope of the bold arrangements, which include strings, recorders, bells, celeste, and a myriad of guitars. Brooker and Fisher split vocal duties, save for on "Crucifiction Lane," which boasts a rare lead from marvel-in-the-making Robin Trower. The latter's prodigious guitar lines add another distinctive element to the compositions and further up the ante of the interplay between Brooker and Fisher. Trower accents tracks such as the topsy-turvy "The Milk of Human Kindness" with bluesy vibes and jolts "Juicy John Pink" by way of jukejoint energy. Not to be outdone, B.J. Wilson's still-unsung percussion draws from R&B and swing techniques to supply a natural albeit firm footing.
 
For all the proficient playing and narrative storytelling, the most impressive feat surrounding A Salty Dog remains its accessible complexity and relative modesty. Procol Harum never comes across as pretentious, self-indulgent, or contrived. Anchored by Fisher's unique Hammond M102 organ riffs, the works function as a summation of their parts. Tunes like "Wreck of the Hesperus" serve as wondrously varied tapestries stitched with swelling chamber rhythms, barbed thickets of distortion, and thundering progressions. It's a ravishing picture of majestic subtlety and sheer power.
 
NME wrote shortly after the record's release that "the most exciting facet of this tremendous album is not so much that it contains the Procols' best recorded works to date, but that their potential is still nowhere near being fully spent." Rolling Stone concurred, observing, "‘Too Much Between Us' is the kind of song you can float away on – its background and vocal of marimba and acoustic guitar in a perfectly understated waltz-time are beautifully ethereal."
 
A notable footnote, Fisher departed Procol Harum shortly after the release of A Salty Dog, permanently impacting the band's trajectory and sound. His performances here are just one reason this inimitable album carries sway nearly five decades after its release. Experience it as it's meant to be heard and secure your lowest-numbered copy

This album, the group's third, was where they showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range, A Salty Dog was recorded in a reasonable amount of time, giving the band a chance to fully develop their ideas. The title track is one of the finest songs ever to come from Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of progressive rock ever heard, and a very succinct example at that at under five minutes running time -- the lyric and the music combine to form a perfect mood piece, and the performance is bold and subtle at once, in the playing and the singing, respectively. The range of sounds on the rest includes "Juicy John Pink," a superb piece of pre-World War II-style country blues, while "Crucifiction Lane" is a killer Otis Redding-style soul piece, and "Pilgrim's Progress" is a virtuoso keyboard workout.

Acoustic Guitar – Matthew Fisher, Robin Trower
Bass Guitar – David Knights
Drums, Congas, Tabla – Barrie Wilson
Engineer – Henry Lewy
Guitar – Gary Brooker
Lead Guitar – Robin Trower
Organ, Marimba, Rhythm Guitar – Matthew Fisher
Piano – Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher
Producer – Matthew Fisher
Recorder – Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher
Vocals – Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher, Robin Trower

Selections:
1. A Salty Dog
2. The Milk of Human Kindness
3. Too Much Between Us
4. The Devil came From Kansas
5. Boredom
6. Juicy John Pink
7. Wreck of The Hesperus
8. All This and More
9. Crucifiction Lane
10. Pilgrim's Progress

 

Procol Harum - A Salty Dog - 180g LP

 
 

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GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ is a proprietary cutting system built and designed by legendary design genius Tim De Paravicini, with consultation from one of MFSL’s founding fathers – Stan Ricker, an audio engineer responsible for many of MFSL’s most heralded past releases.

The GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ system is comprised of a Studer™ tape machine with customized reproduction electronics* and handcrafted cutting amps that drive an Ortofon cutting head on a restored Neumann VMS-70 lathe. (*It is worth noting that independent studies have confirmed that the GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ system can unveil sonic information all the way up to 122kHz!)

First and foremost, we only utilize first generation original master recordings as source material for our releases. We then play back master tapes at half speed enabling the GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ system to fully extract the master’s sonic information. Our lacquers are then plated in a specialized process that protects transients in the musical signal. (Due to this process, there may be occasional pops or ticks inherent in initial play back, but as the disc is played more, a high quality stylus will actually polish the grooves and improve the sound). We further ensure optimum sound quality by strictly limiting the number of pressings printed for each release. These limited editions, in addition to being collectors’ items, ensure that the quality of the last pressing matches the quality of the first.

As you can imagine, all these efforts involve a tremendous amount of time, technology, cost and effort. The introduction of GAIN 2 Ultra Analog™ maintains Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s position as the world’s leading audiophile record label, where a passion for music with extraordinary sound quality matters most.

 
https://store.acousticsounds.com/images/FormatIcons/180gram.jpg RTI 180 HQ Vinyl

 
Record Technology is a world class record pressing plant located in Camarillo, California. We have been operating since 1974, pressing for most audiophile record labels and for many quality minded independent and major record labels from around the world.

 

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