"...this is an excellent reissue that will bring good musical cheer and acid flashbacks to aging and not so aging analog loving hippies worldwide." - Michael Fremer, www.musicangle.com, Music 8/10, Sound 8/10

 

TONE staff collector Tom Caselli, always on the alert for additional clean copies of these LPs, notes that early stamper originals are “tough to find that aren’t beat. These were the ultimate party records back in the 60s.” If you can find them, early stamper black label Capitol LP’s are the ones you want. Clean copies fetch about $100 each. UK import pressings can go for twice that amount, and it remains open for debate about whether they sound any better than US versions.

Compared to the later-version Capitol LPs, Pure Pleasure’s reissues sound fantastic and reveal layered sound, not unlike my favorite Dead albums. The sound instantly brings back a 60s jam band vibe, and both records offer tremendous depth and guitar texture.  What the albums lack in modern studio trickery, they make up for in spades with soulful performance. The self-titled set possesses a soundstage with more depth than width, with only an occasional drumstick hitting the rim of a snare on the far right or left to remind you that this is, in fact, a stereo recording. Hearing “The Fool” restored to its former glory is worth the price alone.

 

While barely a year separate the S/T record and Happy Trails, the latter possesses a much bigger and cleaner sound. The sound spreads well beyond the speaker boundaries, and guitars occupy not only a larger space but enjoy greater prominence on the recording. Happy Trails also has stronger dynamic contrast than the first, with instruments convincingly fading into the distance, and much greater low-level detail, revealing more nuances in the guitar playing.

Pure Pleasure has more QMS titles on the way. For now, this pair makes for an excellent addition to any psychedelic collection. ToneAudio

 

 

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