Al Green - Call Me - 180g LP

Product no.: XSHL32077

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Al Green - Call Me - 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 / Hi - XSHL 32077 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

AAA 100% Analogue - Limited Edition

Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering - Pressed  at Pallas Germany

Speakers Corner  30 Years pure Analogue

Sound 9/10 Music 10/10 Hifi + - Doubt you wil find a copy that sounds as good as this reissue pressed on perfect pallas vinyl

The original Memphis recording has enough grease and grit in it to grow collards and cornbread straight up out of the ground. When you add those types of sonics to a true audiophile remaster and put it all on a pristine disc, you get what this is. And “what this is” is the sweetest experience of some of the tastiest Soul music ever made. This is not hyperbole. It’s almost factual. - Sound 5/5 Hifedity

Call Me is the 1973 masterpiece from America's last great soul singer, a vulnerable, sensual, spiritual, and sexy album. Sent soaring by the bluesy accents of the Memphis Horns and held to Earth by the rock-solid, wide-open groove of drummer Al Jackson, the subject here is nothing less than Al Green's soul, a battle expressed beautifully in his otherworldly voice

What connects celebrity chefs and pop stars is their fine nose for ingredients, especially when hot and spicy ones are mixed with milder elements to create an aromatic result. A combination of 'sweet' and 'funky' is the secret of Al Green's gloriously sentimental and sensual pop songs, which in the sexually free Seventies were often referred to as "songs to make love by".

What swings along gently is, however, Al Green's subtly controlled falsetto, which he can tone right to the threshold of audibility. But watch out! This music belts out some fiery sounds right from the very first number. The sinuous, swinging request in the brilliant hit single "Call Me", the relaxed and groovy "Stand Up", with its sharp wind interjections which demand one's unerring attention, are typical for Green's style, just as is his almost disturbing capability to gain comfort from loneliness

("I'm So Lonesome, I Could Cry"). This rhythmically powered music can best be described as light, intensive, dynamic but never flashy ("Your Love Is Like The Morning Sun"). It finds its earthly culmination in soul (I'm Waiting) and spiritual depth.

Al Green reached his creative peak with the brilliant Call Me, the most inventive and assured album of his career. So silky and fluid as to sound almost effortless, Green's vocals revel in the lush strings and evocative horns of Willie Mitchell's superbly intimate production, barely rising above an angelic whisper for the gossamer "Have You Been Making Out O.K.." With barely perceptible changes in mood, Call Me covers remarkable ground, spanning from "Stand Up" -- a call to arms delivered with characteristic understatement -- to renditions of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away," both of them exemplary fusions of country and soul. Equally compelling are the album's three Top Ten hits -- "You Ought to Be With Me," "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)," and the shimmering title cut. A classic.

Musicians:
Al Green, vocals
Donna Rhodes, Sandra Rhodes, Charles Chalmers, background vocals
Wayne Jackson, trumpet
Andrew Love, Ed Logan, tenor sax
James Mitchell, baritone sax
Jack Hale, trombone
Howard Grimes, Al Jackson, drums
Leroy Hodges, bass
Charles Hodges, organ, piano
Tennie Hodges, guitar
Archie Turner, piano
The Memphis Strings

 

 1. Call Me (Come Back Home)

2. Have You Been Making Out O.K.

3. Stand Up

4. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

5. Your Love Is Like The Morning Sun

1. Here I Am (Come And Take Me)

2. Funny How Time Slips Away

3. You Ought To Be With Me

4. Jesus Is Waiting

Recording: 1973 at Royal Recording Studios, Memphis, TN, by Willie Mitchell

Al Green - Call Me - 180g LP

25 Years pure Analogue
 
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.
 
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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