WAITING A REPRESS / BACK IN STOCK SOON
AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only, from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head
Pure Pleasure / Columbia PPAN CS9217 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - Columbia CS 9217
AAA 100% Analogue - Pressed at Pallas Germany - Limited Edition
Mastered at Ray Staff at Alchemy London - Bonus Tracks
This LP is an Entirely Analogue Production
The reissue’s sound is very close to the original, though it’s not quite as transparent and ethereal but taken on its own, it’s transportively good.An easy to recommend, outstanding reissue from Pure Pleasure.- Sound 10/10 Music 9/10 Michael Fremer's Stereophile!
There was almost certainly nothing fancy about the recording set-up for these sessions, but that may have worked in our favor half a century later. Because there’s also nothing at all standing between you and the ghost of Son House when you here the Pure Pleasure discs. They simply presented the simple recordings in a simply transparent way. Not much more to ask for after that, I’d say. If you’re a fan of House or the Delta Blues, you need these discs on your shelf. They’ve been around for a while so you may want to get moving. I’m glad I finally did, and I’m excited about my new Blues records. It’s a good day to have the Blues, y’all. - Sound 5/5 Hifedlity
After being rediscovered by the folk-blues community in the early '60s, Son House rose to the occasion and recorded this magnificent set of performances. Allowed to stretch out past the shorter running time of the original 78s, House turns in wonderful, steaming performances of some of his best-known material. On some tracks, House is supplemented by folk-blues researcher/musician Alan Wilson, who would later become a member of the blues-rock group Canned Heat and here plays some nice second guitar and harmonica on several cuts.“Reviewed in HiFi+ Issue 47 by Richard S Foster :
When he was "rediscovered" in 1964 in Rochester, New York, Eddie James House, Jr. was far from his birthplace of Riverton, Mississippi. House had 'retired' from the music business and was working for a railroad at the time, but he's a direct link to Charlie Patton one of the early pioneers of the Delta Blues. House played with Patton and by 1964 there weren't many people around that could make that claim. This re-issue offers way better sound then the original Columbia and we're also treated to an additional dozen tracks that have never before appeared on vinyl.
Whether you talk about 'Empire State Express' - a page out of Son's life -or 'Motherless Children', 'Shake It And Break It' or 'Levee Camp Moan', these are heartfelt blues. While his guitar playing - these sessions used a steel-bodied National guitar - wasn't the last word in style, there's a wonderful rawness and technical naivete about his playing. His vocal style is soulful and a little edgy... but there is something about it that just grabs you. Recordings by House are rare, his earliest work being done for 78's, with some individual tracks available on a 1967 American Folk Blues Festival disc, making this an indispensable document. I hope you enjoy this set as much as I do. Highly recommended. RECORDING 8/10 - MUSIC 9/10
If there’s to be a second blues revival after the first one in the early ‘60s that led to the “rediscovery” of neglected artists like Son House and even Robert Johnson, the first great analog revival occurring right now will lead the way.
It’s difficult to believe now, but by the end of the 1950’s artists like Johnson, Son House, and even Muddy Waters had been all but abandoned by American Negroes and had never had much exposure at all among white, suburban baby booming teenagers.
It took British kids and artists like The Rolling Stones to bring urban black blues to white Americans, and American fans like
Bob Dylan and Canned Heat’s Al Wilson to champion both urban and rural blues artists like John Lee Hooker and Son House to the new, young, racially open white audiences.
Actually, the LP era helped lead the way back to these roots by permitting compilations of 78rpm singles to be issued on single discs. Thus did Columbia issue two iconic Robert Johnson LPs back then, which were studied and absorbed by thirsty teens on both sides of the Atlantic.
Young people switching from singles to albums also made possible projects like this one, which brought Son House back from obscurity after he’d recorded some sides for Paramount in 1930 (nine, according to the liner notes, only four of which have ever been located), kicked around thereafter playing and doing menial jobs, and finally gave up playing in 1948.
1930 sounds like ancient history but when this album was recorded in April of 1965 at Columbia’s NYC studios, the same amount of time had passed, as between 1971 and now. Chew on that for a while as you listen to some classic rock issued that year or before!
Can just an old guy and a guitar keep you enthralled over two sides of an album plus a second album of outtakes and unreleased material? When the original single LP was issued in 1965 (CS 9217) it caused a sensation among blues fans and rockers taking up the cause because Eddie J. “Son” House, who’d recorded those sides for Paramount, plus a few others for, among others, Alan Lomax in 1942, had simply disappeared.
Wilson “discovered” him in Rochester, NY in 1965 where he’d moved in 1943 to work for The New York Central Railroad, and convinced him to return to “active duty,” which included appearing at the Newport Folk Festival and recording this album for Columbia.
If you pony up and buy this double set you will not be disappointed by the time Son House spends in your listening room spinning his timeless tales told in an authentic style long gone and you won’t be disappointed by the intimate, high quality sound.
House’s singing is controlled, powerful and evocative and his Nation Steel Reso-phonic guitar playing bends time and space. He manages to pull an orchestra’s worth of colors, a drum kit full of percussion and a pile driver’s dynamic range. Apparently the sides cut for Paramount are even more astounding but I haven’t heard them and you can bet they aren’t as well recorded. Disc two is an added bonus that won’t disappoint.
When you hear what House does on guitar, you’ll hear from where Robert Johnson and those that followed got the staccato repeated phrases, the hard rhythms and sudden slides, and you’ll hear the connection House forged between the country blues and what happened later in Chicago.
The reissue’s sound is very close to the original, though it’s not quite as transparent and ethereal but taken on its own, it’s transportively good.
An easy to recommend, outstanding reissue from Pure Pleasure.
The twelve tracks that make up sides C & D did not appear on the original vinyl LP release. This is their first time on vinyl.
Selections:
Side 1:
Death Letter Blues
Pearline/ Louise McGhee
JohnThe Revelator
Empire State Express*
Side 2:
Preachin' Blues
Grinnin' In Your face
Sundown
Levee Camp Moan**
Death Letter Blues(alternate take)
Levee Camp Moan**(alternate take )
Grinnin' In Your Face(alternate take )
JohnThe Revelator(alternate take )
Preachin' Blues(alternate take )
President Kennedy
Side 4:
A Down The Staff
Motherless Children
Yonder Comes My Mother*
Shake It and Break It
Pony Blues
Downhearted Blues
Pure Pleasure Records
The Restoration of the Art of Sound
180g Vinyl Mastered From The Best Available Sources
At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records. During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped 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 to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.
A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.
We should like to emphasize that Pure Pleasure Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle. We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production. To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.
There really is nothing quite like it. It’s the touch, the feel, you have to stop and stare, the cover, the real thing, even the smell.
Its tangible, you can feel it, see it, study it, muse/dream over it, it’s real, someone has spent hours and hours over its construction and presentation. Pure Pleasure Records is just that, Pure Pleasure and that is what it has set out to be.
The music and the physical record. Something to keep, treasure, admire and above all enjoy.Of course with vinyl it’s not just a record, it’s the cover, the sleeve notes, you are holding a unique package, produced by craftsmen.
Pure Pleasure Records bring you vinyl albums of quality Jazz - Blues - R+B - Soul - Funk, remastered by some of the best engineers in the world and pressed on 180 gram audiophile vinyl at what is probably the best pressing plant in Europe
Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering
Plated and Pressed at Pallas in Germany on 180 Gram Virgin Vnyl
Released in Limited Quantities
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!
