David Ayers

But Nippon Columbia isn't owned by Sony/BMG. Columbia (American Graphophone) sold its Japanese subsidiary, which became Nippon Columbia, when it was feeling the pinch in 1910 (and its UK subsidiary in 1921, shortly before it went bust). MG So good luck to anyone who decides to sort that out.

Savoy is owned by Columbia in Japan, so good luck to anyone who decides to sort that out. They did great mini-LPs of Stylings, Windows and Hot Line, and Fresh Sound have a twofer of those records (on Spotify).

Dark blue bar at top of forum, 'custom', ta-da...

Sadly not visible on UK Spotify... So now... do I buy an LP set that is worth more than my actual non-functioning deck? So I'd have to fix the deck...or buy a new one...?

Two things on European reissues. 1) Very occasionally these are legitimate non-PD, as with the Fresh Sound releases licensed from RCA. 2) The majors are in Europe too (EMI Blue Note!) and if they wished could reissue more, here, without having to pay the artists. Euro-Mosaics come to mind. I think they basically don't because it isn't worth the cost of doing the remastering etc. to any kind of standard and their business models don't allow for the trickle of sales which these issues would generate. I know there are 'answers' to the two things I just said but they are worth mentioning.

It was only when I got to the end that I realised I had read the same thing four times. (I had my Heidegger reading group this afternoon so that would explain why I am inoculated to reading the same argument over and over...)

I'm aware that Michael Cuscuna is prejudiced against them, but... 1) There isn't much Blue Note material that hasn't been done already 2) It would make money, which is something Mosaic seems to need right now 3) Who else is gonna do it? 1) There is plenty of good Blue Note material that hasn't been done, but just not from the 40s-60s. 2) I would personally love a Three Sounds set, but I doubt very much that it would make money. The Three Sounds sold well back in the day, but that sort of fan base, for the most part, no longer exists. 3) Who else is gonna do it? As I understand, the European labels have started releasing box sets of the individual CDs. I already bought mine long ago as expensive japanese imports. The problem with a Three Sounds set is how would you do it? The albums were all pieced together from sessions, and a lot of the material is very light, so each album is very much an entertainment package. So to put things back in session order would probably weaken it, and there's a lot of stuff which might make for an over-sized and possibly not very compelling set. I've got a lot of Three Sounds albums on CD, I'd have no appetite for a box, and to be honest you have to absorb quite a lot of trivia on any given album - that's just what it is. There will be no Select as those are a thing of the past, otherwise you could do an entirely re-edited Best Of type set, but that would not please collectors and might not work anyway. In any case there is a 4CD euro-version which is probably all most people want.

Here it was national record shop day at the weekend. The local HMV was closed that morning for stock-taking. I read an article about record shops in the online paper. In the vox pop comment section one guy had written that he'd been buying CDs since the year dot and still loved to do so, but that at times even he found himself standing in a record store wondering what the hell, really, he was doing there.

My problem is time. I just counted six unopened big box sets here. I get through one a year, if that. So at that rate...

Time was that we'd have had a countdown, rushed to get sets we had never previously even considered, patted each other on the back for sets ordered or arrived, commiserated the late click of procrastination. How we are today: the Complete Johnny Guitar Watson set disappears from the last chance list and no-one considers it worth a mention. It was Johnny Guitar Watson, wasn't it?

(another reason to go back to my old CDs is that it is cheaper than buying new ones)

Hm. Don't know if I am just running on memory with Chronochromie. That's why it's time for me to go back to my Messiaen CDs!

A great loss to us here in London.

I'm with you on those Garrison solos

MG, once you have done that, when you put in a CD you can right click on 'find album info' and see what it give you. You can either accept that information ('Finish') or press 'Search' in which case it offers you alternatives if there are any. You can then take a look at what it is offering.

Tools>Options>Library> ta-da

With gracenote you are stuck with what the company entered. With WMP you get what anyone has entered and often there is a choice. Sometimes a kind person has done all the work. If I can't get the results I need on gracenote I look to WMP and whatever their system is called.

The Abbado is an amazing bargain. You get his entire Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Mahler and Schubert, such Bruckner as he recorded, plus some Haydn and Mozart. No concertos. Great set though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-22057246

Welcome! Cheaper as an artwork than a Damien Hirst anyway...

By the way, the way to achieve what Scott wants is to click 'View New Content' and to select the left menu option 'New Since My Last Visit'

By the way, I actually did tell him that. The moment was only marginally more awkward than I had anticipated...

yeah ... given the price differential with the CDs and the nature of this materials - breakdowns, false starts, etc., I can't see why the lps would interest anyone ... The LPs will be great and LP-buyers don't have so much to go after any more. I am certainly going to buy the CDs (my LP set-up is a bit rusty). I think people will be interested and if my LP set-up were in order I would be too.

It's Easter and I would like to take your opinions on Messiaen's orchestral works. I notice these can be had as a great 10 CD set from DG, most of which I already have. I am long familiar with Turangalila, Chronochromie and with Eclairs. Just revisiting Canyons. I don't really love Turangalila but know it and have heard it in concert (where it truly takes on its full, mad dimension!). Eclairs I have long liked though now find it less than fully compelling or convincing. The Boulez recording of Chronochromie is a marvel. Coming back to Canyons, which I thought of maybe as yet-more-birdsong and didn't properly absorb, I find myself pretty much at home in it and it moves right up my chart. I didn't get on with Transfiguration and haven't listened to it in some time. Tried again Concerts a quatre (excuse lack of diacritical marks in this post, by the way) but didn't get on with it that much. Other pieces I have yet to return to. Anybody else have opinions?

I'm going to mark them all as read so I don't have to read them all. No-one will ever know and think how much time I can save!