Awesome sound but low volume
4 Stars
Posted
Sunday, March 20, 2022
by
Brian VanPelt
The record appears to be made with lower than normal volume levels. Because of that, I had to turn up the volume and that exposed the record's surface noise. Overall, the vinyl is pretty quiet - like the new Classic Reissue Series from Blue Note.
Take any version of this album and apply a sharpening filter to it, and that's the album you get here. The splashy cymbals have been tamed, but a bit too much, so some of the cymbal sound seems removed. It's true that the cymbal strikes were overbearing in previous versions, but the masterer was a little too agressive in taming those strikes.
The sound is excellent except for the missing music (only the cymbals are affected). If not for that and the low volume level, this would easily be a 5 star album. It really is a significant improvement on previous versions.
The second record is worthless except for Big Tree, Blue Sea.