Solid Air [VINYL]

Product Information

Free ‘Fire and Water’ – Cut from digital transfers from the original ¼” tapes, recently prepared by Free remastering engineers Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham i have a few now , this one , john martyns bless the weather and one world , and a free tons of sobs

if you love this album as much as i do then you want this press , and it is still reasonably priced The vinyl L.P. is an analogue sound carrier. Therefore the size and shape of the groove carrying the music is directly related to whatever the music is doing at any particular point. By reducing the speed by a factor of two the recording stylus has twice as long to carve the intricate groove into the master lacquer. Also, any difficult to cut high-frequency information becomes fairly easy to cut mid-range. The result is a record that is capable of extremely clean and un-forced high-frequency response as well as a detailed and solid stereo image. A great album…as a single overall expression ‘Solid Air’ flows beautifully and shows the entire spectrum of music that John Martyn has at his fingertips.” (Sounds 7/4/73) Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.Solid Air…if I had to decide, would probably rank as my favourite of the whole lot.” (Andy Childs, ZigZag No.41) The Police ‘Ghost in the Machine’ – Cut from a high-resolution digital transfer from the best known ¼ analogue tape in existence

HMV Press release, “LIMITED EDITION GREEN VINYL LP, 500 ONLY, HMV EXCLUSIVE AVAILABLE FOR ONE DAY ONLY ON 18TH JUNE 2016.Go Down Easy and Don’t Want To Know proved to be chill-out masterpieces decades before the phrase had ever been invented. I’d Rather Be The Devil is viciously wild with echo drenched guitar, however Martyn will always be remembered for May You Never, a delightful song of kindhearted advice that he recorded in one take at two in the morning accompanied only by his acoustic guitar.

Source: Digital transfers made from the original ¼” MONO masters (with edits) from Atlantic Studios NYC, 1967 – transfers were made at Sterling Sound, NYC, in 2013 The translucent green Solid Air must have sold well for HMV and so they decided to have another go, this time on blue vinyl! The exclusive HMV store release of Solid Air on translucent blue vinyl was released 13 October 2018. On stage he would transmute his solo entity into thunderous aural multitudes – a Niagara Falls of abstract sonic textures, which could bathe you and bend you like Jah Shaka’s thunderous dub at the reggae sound systems. Martyn’s continued “cool factor” was due in part to his deft deployment of the then still new-ish foot-controlled pedals, phasers and pedals to aerate and implode conventional guitar sounds. Considered by many to be his finest, and without doubt his most famous album, the enduring theme of love epitomizes Martyn’s philosophy on life.

Of course, it is not as simple as running everything at half rate. There is an EQ curve applied to all vinyl records and by running the lathe at half speed, all the frequencies are wrong. However, the technical staff at Abbey Road have had new custom built filters installed which allow Miles to practice half speed cutting to the full on a modified Neumann VMS-80 lathe.

Cut by Miles Showell, one of the world’s leading exponents of half speed cutting, these are among the very finest vinyl pressings that these albums have ever received. Half speed mastering has resulted in “superior high frequency response (treble) and very solid and stable stereo images”, and pressed to a very high standard in Germany, ensuring top notch sound quality. Source: Digital transfers from the original ¼” tapes, recently prepared by Free remastering engineer Andy Pearce. Further details are provided in the press release kit (below) which includes a detailed explanation of the mastering process. Released by Universal Music on 6 May 2016 (delayed from 15 April 2016) on high quality audiophile vinyl.

Credits (7)

Universal Music have launched a new series of special vinyl releases, including classic titles from The Rolling Stones, Simple Minds and The Police, under the ‘Half Speed Mastering’ banner… This album was cut from a high-resolution digital transfer from the best known analogue tape in existence. Only minimal sympathetic equalisation was applied to the transfer to keep everything as pure as possible. Also, as this was an analogue, vinyl only high quality release, I did not apply any digital limiting. This is added to almost all digital releases to make them appear to be loud and is responsible for “the loudness war” and in almost every case is anything but natural and pure sounding. This album was cut from a high-resolution digital transfer from the best known analogue tape in existence. Only minimal sympathetic equalisation was applied to the transfer to keep everything as pure as possible. Also, as this was an analogue, vinyl only high quality release, I did not apply any digital limiting. This is added to almost all digital releases to make them appear to be loud and is responsible for “the loudness war” and in almost every case is anything but natural and pure sounding. Free / Fire and Water (half-speed mastered vinyl) The idea with this method is that the recording stylus has twice as long to carve the intricate groove into the master lacquer and high-frequency information is easy to cut because it’s not high frequency any more – when played half speed it’s mid-range, which is easier to cut. The advantages are supposed to be a record that is capable of an ‘extremely clean and unforced high-frequency response’ and a detailed and solid stereo image. The Rolling Stones, ‘Exile on Main St’ – Cut from 24bit/96khz digital transfers supplied by The Rolling Stones and made from original ¼” tapes