Billy Cobham - Total Eclipse - 180g LP

Product no.: SD18121

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Billy Cobham - Total Eclipse - 180g LP
£29.99
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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

Speakers Corner / Atlantic SD 18121 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio 

AAA 100% Analogue  - Limited Edition -  Audiophile Mastering - Pressed  at Pallas 

 Speakers Corner 30 Years Pure Analogue  This LP is an Entirely Analogue Production

Finally...an excellent vinyl reissue of this 70s classic...great mastering from Kevin Gray - LP

Classic jazz album originally released in 1974 on Atlantic. Musicians include John Abercrombie, the Brecker Brothers & Milcho Leviev.

Ever since his time with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra (1971-1973), drummer Billy Cobham is one of electric fusion jazz's greatest heroes. Total Eclipse was the third album he made as a leader within just a few months, and here again he composed all the numbers himself. In the opening 'suite' entitled "Solarization" (eleven minutes long) he already shows his broad and certainly refined stylistic spectrum. Cobham's music leaps from high-energy jazz-rock with wild guitar and thundering volleys on the drums to highly original improvisations on the piano and winds.

 Smooth electric Latin grooves and gripping funky numbers are not missing either. Cobham's handpicked band is bursting with virtuosos. A look at the names of the three-man wind section proves the point: Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, and Glenn Ferris are highlights in themselves. And the then 30-year-old band leader himself was the non plus ultra when it came to jazz-rock drumming technique - his amazingly rapid drum volleys are just as sensational today as they were then. With this album this exceptional drummer will thrill all fans of first-class fusion sound similar to Weather Report or Return To Forever.

Recorded by Ken Scott in 1974 at Atlantic Recording Studios & Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY

Produced by Billy Cobham & Ken Scott
 
Musicians
John Abercrombie electric & Ovation guitars
Mike Brecker flute, soprano & tenor saxes
Randy Brecker trumpet, flugelhorn
Glenn Ferris tenor & bass trombones
Milcho Leviev keyboards
Alex Blake electric bass
Billy Cobham traps, tympany, acoustic piano 
David Earle Johnson congas 
Sue Evans marimba 
Cornell Dupree  guitar 
 
Side One:
Solarization: a) Solarization b) Second Phase c) Crescent Sun d) Voyage e) Solarization-Recapitulation
Lunarputians
Total Eclipse
Bandits
 
Side Two:
Moon Germs
The Moon Ain't Made Of Green Cheese
Sea Of Tranquility
Last Frontier
 
AAA 100% Analogue   This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head 25 Years pure Analogue
 
MADE FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES
AAA 100% ANALOGUE - PURE ANALOGUE AUDIOPHILE MASTERING
We use the Original Tapes and work with only the Best Mastering Studios Worldwide
180 GRAM VIRGIN VINYL  PLATED & PRESSED AT PALLAS GERMANY
Faithful Reproduction of the Original Artwork and Labels
LIMITED EDITION Released in Limited Quantities
All Licences and Mechanical Rights Paid
 
                    Image result for pallas group germany vinyl pressing                  
 
Are your records completely analogue?
Yes! This we guarantee!
As a matter of principle, only analogue masters are used, and the necessary cutting delay is also analogue. All our cutting engineers use only Neumann cutting consoles, and these too are analogue. The only exception is where a recording has been made – either partly or entirely – using digital technology, but we do not have such items in our catalogue at the present time
 
Are your records cut from the original masters?
In our re-releases it is our aim to faithfully reproduce the original intentions of the musicians and recording engineers which, however, could not be realised at the time due to technical limitations. Faithfulness to the original is our top priority, not the interpretation of the original: there is no such thing as a “Speakers Corner Sound”. Naturally, the best results are obtained when the original master is used. Therefore we always try to locate these and use them for cutting. Should this not be possible, – because the original tape is defective or has disappeared, for example – we do accept a first-generation copy. But this remains an absolute exception for us.
 
Who cuts the records?
In order to obtain the most faithful reproduction of the original, we have the lacquers cut on the spot, by engineers who, on the whole, have been dealing with such tapes for many years. Some are even cut by the very same engineer who cut the original lacquers of the first release. Over the years the following engineers have been and still are working for us: Tony Hawkins, Willem Makkee, Kevin Gray, Maarten de Boer, Scott Hull, and Ray Staff, to name but a few.
At the beginning of the ‘90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the reissue policy was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC Compact Classics, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and others, including of course Speakers Corner, all maintained a mutual, unwritten code of ethics: we would manufacture records sourced only from analogue tapes. 
 
Vinyl’s newfound popularity has led many other companies to jump 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 from which to master: CDs, LPs, digital files and even MP3s. 
 
Even some who do use an analogue tape source employ a digital delay line, a misguided ’80s and ‘90s digital technology that replaces the analogue preview head originally used to “tell” the cutter head in advance what was about to happen musically, so it could adjust the groove “pitch” (the distance between the grooves) to make room for wide dynamic swings and large low frequency excursions. Over time analogue preview heads became more rare and thus expensive. 
 
So while the low bit rate (less resolution than a 16 bit CD) digital delay line is less expensive and easier to use than an analogue “preview head”, its use, ironically, results in lacquers cut from the low bit rate digital signal instead of from the analogue source! 
 
Speakers Corner wishes to make clear that it produces lacquers using only original master tapes and an entirely analogue cutting system. New metal stampers used to press records are produced from that lacquer. The only exceptions are when existing metal parts are superior to new ones that might be cut, which includes our release of “Elvis is Back”, which was cut by Stan Ricker or several titles from our Philips Classics series, where were cut in the 1990s using original master tapes by Willem Makkee at the Emil Berliner Studios. In those cases we used only the original “mother” to produce new stampers. 
 
In addition, we admit to having one digital recording in our catalogue: Alan Parsons’ “Eye in the Sky”, which was recorded digitally but mixed to analogue tape that we used to cut lacquers. 
 
In closing, we want to insure our loyal customers that, with but a few exceptions as noted, our releases are “AAA”— analogue tape, an all analogue cutting system, and newly cut lacquers.
 
60 Years 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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