59326Re: [motowntreasures] RARE EARTH : "Midnight Lady / Band Together" 2017 cd release
Expand Messages
Famille PINTUS
Today at 9:52 PM
Culture Factory CDs are fabulous and they look great. HipOselect FILL YOUR HEAD is a great boxset.
As for the best sounding RARE EARTH CDs released from master tapes, here are my picks :
DREAMS/ANSWERS : Culture Factory
Except "King of the Rainy Country" which is imho a hair superior on THE BEST OF... ANTHOLOGY SERIES from 1995.
GET READY : HipOselect (Culture Factory cd has distortion)
ECOLOGY : HipOselect (Culture Factory cd has distortion)
ONE WORLD : HipOSelect or Culture Factory. Culture Factory would be my choice because the art of the original lp is the best reproduced.
IN CONCERT : Culture Factory
WILLIE REMEMBERS... : HipOSelect or Culture Factory. Culture Factory had the edge because the art of the original lp is the best reproduced.
MA : HipOSelect.
[Beware of the stand alone 1994 US cd that has a huge glitch during "Big John Is My Name" and of the the 1994 European cd (same UPC!) which sound dull. The original 1989 European WD 72286 cd sounds ok.]
LIVE IN CONCERT : Culture Factory
(Unreleased 1974 live album, although with new artwork and maybe missing one song)
You still need HipOSelect for the best sounding B-sides and single edits / mixes. But some early pressings did duplicate a B-side and skipped another. So GREATEST HITS AND RARE CLASSICS is still needed, as well for many tracks from later RARE EARTH lps not released on cd (from master tape)
THE BEST OF... ANTHOLOGY SERIES (1995) is needed for other such later tracks, and for the "One World" medley taken from the deleted GENERATION lp. Not even counting a Sunliners cut and the best sounding "King Of The Rainy Country".
EARTH TONES is an excellent collection. And sometimes I wonder what the best source is between this and HipOselect'sFILL YOUR HEAD for tracks such as the complete "Get Ready" (the song)
THE COLLECTION (Spectrum) is very pleasant too.
BACK TO EARTH / RARE EARTH and MIDNIGHT LADY / BAND TOGETHER are lifted from clean vinyl. They sound very good. It's especially hard to tell BAND TOGETHER is a rip of from vinyl.
Also and although many will disagree with me, I wish the Natural Ressources MOTOWN INSTRUMENTALS lp would get a cd release as it contains, amongst other things, an exclusive edit of "Get Ready" which happens to be my favorite edit (better than the single imo)
Avoid Culture Factory cd's. Their mastering has brickwalled, limited and has awful EQ choices.
The vinyl project, w/b-sides, which I did in 2010 is FAR better than what Motown has ever done.
The only cd even half worth it is the Live In Chicago, but the song "Ma" was excluded...and most of the performances are different than what was on the test pressing.
The only positive about Culture Factory is how they replicate the album artwork. Their sound quality leaves a LOT to be desired.
