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

Chasing the Dragon - VALDC003 - AAA 100% Analogue -  180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

AAA 100% Analogue - D2D Live Direct Cut To Vinyl - Direct to Disc D2D

Mastered by John Webber Air London - Limited Edition - Pressed in Germany

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

 We should be grateful that someone is taking the time and spending the money to produce a direct to disk record but more grateful that the music lives up to the sonic promise - Sound 10/10 Music 10/10 Micheal Fremer Analogueplanet

100 Recommended All-Analog ressues Worth Owning - Michael Fremer Analogplanet 

The album was rehearsed, mixed and cut directly to vinyl, ALL IN ONE DAY!

And the overall sound quality? Well, I think our new album has the “jump factor”, but this time I hope that you will feel that Clare is standing right in the centre of the speakers and if there was a knob on the desk, which was marked foot tapping, I have this time been able to turn it all the way up to ten.  It will also be a unique opportunity to hear a master tape which we recorded at the same time at 30 ips on 1⁄2 “ tape

The great day dawned and with much trepidation we all turned up at Air studios at 9 AM. Remember, with a direct cut process, everything has to be recorded live in one take. There is no editing or mixing down or sweetening. You have only one day to rehearse, mix and cut both sides of the album.

No digital toys were used at all and the stereo signal from the desk was passed up two floors to John Webber, Air’s long-standing cutting engineer, who again used a Neumann VMS 80 lathe. Rupert Coulson created a fantastic mix and again I was looking for a “you are there” balance. Have we achieved it? Well, I loved the shuffling sound of the band turning the pages of the score and if you listen carefully, you can almost hear Chris the leader, counting everyone in.

The choice of microphone itself was obvious, for if you look at photographs of many of the old sessions recorded in the era, you will see a big fat sexy valve powered microphone, the ubiquitous Neumann U47. I have used this beautiful old mic on many sessions and even though its design is over fifty years old, I have really found nothing to touch its quality in the modern world. Our mixing desk was built by Neve over thirty years ago, which obviously also adds to the great warm sound. We opened Clare’s voice up a little by adding an EMT plate rather than a digital box of tricks

The album was rehearsed, mixed and cut directly to vinyl, ALL IN ONE DAY!

"Being a Direct Cut Disc, this meant that performing would need to be done all in one go without any post-editing. In my career, I have often found that musicians, narrators and actors perform better knowing that it is "as live"; often the 'security' of having the facility to edit any mistakes at a late date prompts hap-hazard performances…Being a live recording, with no stops between tracks, any rustling of pages or noises from trumpet and trombone mutes being picked up for quieter sections, or even vocal injections from the leader, Chris Dean, only add to the "liveliness" of the album." - Janine Elliot, Hifi Pig 

This vintage desk is one of three unique boards designed solely for AIR Studios. The first of the consoles was designed in 1977 and destined for AIR’s new facility on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. The legendary Beatles producer and founder of Air Studios, George Martin (1926-2016) was heavily involved with Rupert Neve in the design process of what was a radical new desk at the time. For the technical amongst you this 56 channel, 24 track desk has toroidal wound transformers, instead of the standard audio Neve transformers, just as toroidal transformers are favoured by many audiophiles, especially me. Sound quality was the key aim here, as it always should be.

Recording direct-to-disk is difficult enough. The entire side has to be cut in one long take. Consider a big band vocal album like this, which has four songs per side. The orchestra and singer have to be ready as soon as the cutting stylus hits the lacquer and then they have to perform flawlessly on each track, pausing but a few seconds between songs.
Often these records sound stilted and mannered as no one wants to produce a "clam" and ruin the whole thing but here everything works perfectly, with the mellifluous Clare Teal backed by The Syd Lawrence Orchestra—a brash and brassy ensemble. Incredibly, it was ll rehearsed, mixed and cut to lacquer at Air Studios in one day!, under the supervision of producer Mike Valentine and co-producer Francoise Valentine. So first, who is Clare Teal? She's well-known in the U.K. In 2004, the then thirty one year old singer was signed to Sony Jazz, in a deal that at the time was the biggest recording deal in U.K. jazz history. She grew up listening to her father's 78rpm record collection and fell in love with big band vocal music, particularly the records of Ella Fitzgerald. Teal, for all intents and purposes, sounds like a 1940's era singer transported to 2016, not just in her phrasing but particularly her vocal timbre. I can think of no other female vocalist today who hits this particular nostalgic mark and does so without it sounding forced or archaic. Instead it sounds refreshing and generous. The repertoire is of course familiar: "I've Got You Under My Skin", " Begin the Beguine", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead", "Night and Day", "Anything Goes", "That Old Black Magic" and "Too Darned Hot". Everyone's ears perked up when I played this at RMAF. The playing is crisp (under the direction of Chris Dean), the arrangements are dynamic with nicely placed hard-driving kick drum accents, and Clare sounds, for all intents and purposes, like the fourth Andrews Sister.  We should be grateful that someone is taking the time and spending the money to produce a direct to disk record but more grateful that the music lives up to the sonic promise. But next time, get the writing on the jacket's spine going in the right direction! Sound 10/10 Music 10/10 Michael Fremer www.analogplanet.com

Side A:
    1. I've Got You Under My Skin
    2. Begin the Beguine
    3. I Get A Kick Out of You
    4. Ding Dong the Witch is Dead
    
Side B:
    5. Night and Day
    6. Anything Goes
    7. That Old Black Magic
    8. Too Darn Hot