Sunday vinyl

This is inspired by @dickturpin enjoying his vinyl collection. He posted these on Twitter, but I encouraged him to do a Hive post that has done well.

My vinyl collection is not massive. Some of it dates back over 40 years, but there have also been some additions in the last 10 years. I have most of my music on the computer, but it makes a change to use the old deck.

First up is The Fierce and the Dead. I bought this EP on CD a while back and have a signed copy, but when they sold off the last few vinyl copies I could not resist. It is a very good record. Stuart Marshall's drumming is excellent.

It is a single sided disk with some nice artwork on the reverse.

Here is one track from it.

Next up is Steven Wilson. I bought the expensive special edition of his 'to the bone' album that came with a big book, an extra CD and a 7" single of an instrumental tune called Antisocial. This is also single sided and a lot heavier than most singles. I am not totally sure I have listened to it before. It is in a similar vein to more aggressive parts of the album. I am not sure I will buy his latest one as he has taken a different direction lately.

The track is online of course.

Frost* are a band that ought to be better known. They could be considered prog, but there is a pop aspect to them too with keyboardist and main writer Jem Godfrey having written some big pop hits. I have seen them twice live. Once was a double header as the Scala in London with It Bites. Guitarist John Mitchell sings and plays in both bands. I bought this on clear vinyl and it came with a CD too. I saw them do it live at the Portland Arms in Cambridge, which is a tiny venue.

Here is the video for one of the songs.

The final selection for today is by no means a new album as it dates back over fifty years. I like Frank Zappa, but only have a tiny selection of his massive output. I put Hot Rats on my wish list and my better half bought it for my birthday a year or two ago. She managed to buy the LP rather than the CD, but I did not mind so much. I have Peaches En Regalia on a CD collection, but there are some other great tunes on here with amazing playing.

The Gumbo Variations is an extended jam.

I am listening on our old Technics SL-B210. I had to replace the belt in it a few years ago as it had perished with age. The audio takes a somewhat convoluted route to the speakers. The deck is plugged into an old Technics receiver with a phono preamp. That outputs to my Samson mixer and then into my M-Audio mixer that is connected to my powered monitors by Studiospares. I think the audio quality is great despite all that. I use the mixer so I can do my music recording from various sources. I could use it to record my vinyl too, but have not done so yet.

Rock on.