180g 200g 45rpm Box Sets.

Eric Bibb - Friends - 180g 2LP

Product no.: PPAN013

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£42.99

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Description

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

Pure Pleasure / Manhaton - PPAN013 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - AAA 100% Analogue

Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering by Ray Staff at Air London

Limited Edition - Pressed at Pallas Germany

Eric Bibb had a big name for this recording session, which he can count on his friends: Odette, Ruthie Foster, Guy Davis, Taj Mahl, Charlie Musselwhite and Mamadou Diabate. In itself, perhaps nothing that tears you from the stool, there are so many star meetings. But not with this album, in which every musician really set his own accents and thus gave the Bibb-typical folk blues a further note. Harmonious in sound and yet so precise - a perfect recording! Sound 5/5 LP Magazine

Praise also goes to Pure Pleasure Records for deciding to issue this artist's-best recording on what is still the finest readily available music medium extant. Friends is Bibb’s masterpiece, and we are finally able to hear it in sound that will come up short only in comparison to the master tapes Audiobeat Sound 4.5/5 Music 4/5

"Friends" is the accurate and revealing title for New York bluesman Eric Bibb's tenth album since 1997. The cuts here feature rootsy folk and blues collaborations with different 'friends' in differing small group settings. The set starts with a killer acoustic slide duet between Bibb and Guy Davis on the nugget "99 ½ Won't Do". The contrast between Davis' sweet and smoky delivery and Bibb's husky wail — akin to Blind Willie Johnson's in places — offers a double-sided dimension in interpretation for the listener, as well. Elsewhere, Charlie Musselwhite gives a killer snaky harmonica performance on "Six O' Clock Blues". Taj Mahal makes two appearances; one in a duet on "Goin' Down Slow", and one in a trio with Bibb and Malian guitarist Djelimady Tounkara on a medley of the traditional "Kulanjan" and Bibb's own "Sebastian's Tune".

Speaking of Mali, and Mahal, Bibb also covers the elder bluesman's classic "Lovin' in My Baby's Eyes", with the great kora player Mamadou Diabate that rivals the original. There's also a gorgeous version of Guy and Susanna Clark's "The Cape", with guitarist Martin Simpson, Bibb's moving "For You" with Ruthie Foster, and "Tain't No Such Thing", a bright new folk song written and sung with legendary folksinger Odetta. Mohan Veena ace Harry Manx performs with Bibb on the high lonesome, droning blues of "Needed Time", and with Kristina Olsen on her "If I Stayed". The set closes with the tender "Dance Me to the End of Love", (an original, not the Leonard Cohen tune) with the Lovin' Spoonful Jerry Yester playing piano.

Given that most records of this type are mixed bags at best, with 'star-studded' collabs serving to muck up or water down rather than enhance performances, Friends is an anomaly. There is nothing that's obvious or overblown here, everything is subtly shaded, and the performers serve the songs and not themselves. The listener gets no sense of back-patting or self-congratulation, only the great pleasure of hearing this music in a revealing, emotionally honest way. Bravo.

Combine the talents of folk-blues star Eric Bibb with a host of accomplished musical friends and you have the makings of a significant album. No guarantees, mind you, because all-star sessions that are actually worthwhile are rare indeed. However, here, paired with the talents of Taj Mahal, Guy Davis, Odetta, Charlie Musselwhite, Martin Simpson, Harry Manx, Ruthie Foster and a host of others, Bibb is in his element, playing spare blues with a innate understanding of tradition. Songs such as "The Cape," "Taint Such a Much," (with Odetta) and "Dance Me Till the End of Love" (with pianist Jerry Yester) say so much so well that they could be considered hits for Bibb.

Friends also has wonderful sonics. There’s space aplenty, along with tone and timbre that sound real. Most of all, though, there is a sense of presence, the feeling of actually being in the company of the musicians. On the opening of "The Cape," for example, Bibb is in-the-room real, a three-dimensional figure standing slightly in front of the plane of the speakers. His and Martin Simpson's guitars are rendered with incredible detail -- from the sound of the fingers on the strings to how those strings excite the wooden cavity. Female vocals are reproduced just as vividly. Notice, for example, how immediate Ruthie Foster sounds on "For You." This LP issue -– I can’t call it a reissue because this is its debut on vinyl -- is light years ahead of the pale imitation that is the CD. Perhaps the reason is the sparseness of the recording. Most of the tunes employ only two or three musicians tops, all of whom are deftly defined by the LP's inherent high resolution.

Eric Bibb

Odetta, Ruthie Foster

Guy Davis

Taj Mahal

Charlie Musselwhite

Mamadou Diabate

Martin Simpson

Michael Jerome Browne

LP1 - Side A:

1. 99 1/2 Won't Do (feat. Guy Davis)

2. Six O'Clock Blues (feat. Charlie Musselwhite)

3. Goin' Down Slow (feat. Taj Mahal)

LP1 - Side B:

1. Lovin' In My Baby's Eyes (feat. Mamadou Diabate)

2. For You (feat. Ruthie Foster)

3. The Cape (feat. Martin Simpson)

4. 'Tain't Such A Much (feat. Odetta)

LP2 - Side C:

1. Needed Time (feat. Harry Manx)

2. If I Stayed (feat. Kristine Olsen)

3. Connected

4. Ribbons and Bows

LP2 - Side D:

1. Just Look Up

2. Cowgirl Queen

3. Kulanjan/Sebastian's Tune (feat. Taj Mahal, Djelimady Tounkara)

4. Dance Me To The End Of Love (feat. Jerry Lester)

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!

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