regular readers here shall be all too aware that i am an advocate of what has come to be known, if bewilderingly so, as "physical format music". i really, really don't like all this "streaming" business, to be sure. the music experience should be more than just listening to the music, look you see. owning the album, holding it, admiring the artwork, reading the liner notes, all that. much more better sound, too, especially pre "computer everything" music sounding like the artists actually wanted it to be heard, rather than how some "boffin" (or work experience kid) made it sound when "compressed".
but that's not to say physical media is without flaws. true, streaming has "buffering" if not an overt reliance on being "connected". tapes (actual) stretch, snap and get jammed. records, be it standard vinyl or another material get scratched and can "warp". compact discs are fairly robust, but every now and then one gets an issue with them. hence this post.
it (this) all starts with a random message off of my Dad. oddly he has recently mastered the dark arts of both "streaming" and "casting" said "stream" to another device. during this he found an album called The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, and encouraged me to check it out.
having read up a bit on the record, which you can also do starting here, i soon decided that this was an album one should totes hear properly. not one single aspect of the musicians involved suggested that computerised faffing with the sound to make it "stream" would be an agreeable thing. so off i went looking for a copy, which i eventually found for sale online. not (it has to be said) particularly cheap for a second hand disc, but all the same an not entirely unreasonable price was being asked for a relatively obscure, over fifty year old (!) album. let's leave it as being decently south of £10.
skipping (if you will excuse the term) ahead a bit and the disc (actual) eventually landed, coming on one of those rare days that Royal Mail elected to, you know, do the f*****g job they are supposed to and actually delivered post. i had a look at the disc, liked what i saw, and put it on.
the first fifty seconds (or so) went very well indeed, and i was immediately pleased that i had opted to listen to the album in arguably the finest, best quality possible. and then, if you will indulge playing the below video with sound "on", it went not so well.
oh dear. i stopped playing the disc (obviously), took it out, looked at it, saw no blemishes or marks, but all the same gave it a light clean with a soft tissue. played it again and the same thing. gave it another clean, could still see no flaws or marks, tried again and, well, the 4th instance of me trying after that one is what you can see (and hear) in the video.
quite the pity. figuring maybe if it was just the one (1) track that was a mess i could reasonably live with it, at least until i sourced another copy, i skipped to track 2 two). alas the very same kind of jittery stuttery thing happened again, only after 20 or so seconds. which meant that was pretty much that, especially since track two featured an uncredited (for no apparent reason) Ringo Starr on drums.
every now and then one gets this with a compact disc, but usually its a slight smear (like a fingerprint) or bit of dirt that can soon be wiped off and mend things. the "theory" with compact discs was always that they were kind of "self cleaning", with the logic being it is a f*****g laser in the machine; it will simply (effectively) "burn off" any dust or similar. having given this disc a decent clean, it seems alas it has a "mastering", "manufacturing" or "pressing" error.
well, these things happen, but not often. in close to 40 years (!!) of purchasing compact discs duds are a rarity. from memory there was a copy of Joshua Tree i had that "jammed", i think on In God's Country, but i have a dozen or so copies of that one. most bizarre one i can recall was purchasing a Grateful Dead disc (for my sister, she wanted that Truckin song), but an INXS album had been pressed on the disc instead. so, three "duds" in thousands bought isn't all that bad a ratio. problem here though is it may prove somewhat tricky to procure another copy of this one.
yes, then, "the kids" (and my Dad) who do all that "streaming" stuff can (presently) hear this album a good deal more better than i am able to with my supposedly superior format. hey ho.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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