Pleiadians - I.F.O. [I.dentified F.lying O.bject] mp3 download

Enditaling

This is of course a classic album, so it might help others to know what a user with a perfect condition original Dragonfly lp thinks of this reissue/remaster. Firstly, the "galaxy" blue vinyl with red/purple swirl and silver dust looks great. You can't see the sliver glitter in normal room light, but the sun or artificial light brings it to life, and it does indeed resemble a galaxy. A thoughtful touch that adds to the overall gestalt. I also appreciated the liner notes, photographs of Pleiadians live and the great image from the unobtanium "Alcyone" 12" promo. On the debit side, fitting four lps into a double gatefold is a squeeze. Maybe this should have been a box set? Also, it must be said that whilst the dubious clarity of the name and title on the original vinyl cover has been nicely cleaned up, the cover art loses a substantial amount of the vibrancy, texture and detail of the original cover. On to the music. The live mix of the album is very nice to have. The tracks are all subtly different from those on the studio album, and that in itself is a valuable historical document. The sound is rather low in volume, but with decent clarity and detail. I think that this is a worthwhile improvement on the "Live in Athens" set which is mastered at too high a level and was not a great vinyl pressing. The more I listen to this the more I like it. I actually prefer some of these live tracks to their studio equivalents.The remastering of the studio album is also good, though it cannot be said to really improve on the original. Playing them back to back, I notice that the remaster does seem to bring out a bit more detail in the bass and treble, but it is at the cost of midrange presence and dynamics and the very nice black background of the original. This is typical of most reissues and remasters which seldom have the body or presence of the original pressing; with analogue tape this is perfectly understandable as the magnetic flux density of the tape ages, not to mention the often dubious electronics involved, but with a digital source it doesn't make quite as much sense. Did Sony/Philips lie to us when they billed digital as "perfect sound forever"? Excuse the tangent - this is a decent remastering and the pressing is good with hardly any surface noise or other anomalies. No tracking issues. Overall then this is a very nice piece of work by Draeke of Dat Records, showing an impressive degree of loving attention to detail. If you don't have an original Dragonfly vinyl then I can heartily recommend this one, and I have no doubt it sounds just as good on black or black/red swirl vinyl. ~*~