Omissions in your collection you keep forgetting about?

[Johnny Vinyl]

For me it's Italian Prog. I have some stuff on FLAC, but I've been wanting to get some vinyl copies so I can enjoy these works on my system. Unfortunately (for me) every time I go and have a browse for vinyl at various dealers I get sidetracked and it totally skips my mind. It's frustrating and I obviously need more focus.

Do you find yourself doing likewise?

[Bill Hart]

oh, yeah, and then i'll flag some searches and forget about it again. I have been filling in that particular niche recently, and in some cases, have relied on earlier Japanese pressings b/c the original Italian pressings can be dear. Ken Golden has been a font of info on this front.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Yeah...Ken is awesome. . Thanks for the tip on Japanese pressings! I just created a file on my phone, so hopefully that'll help.

[Bill Hart]

John- the first Scorpions album is very good and different from their later stuff. The original German Brain pressing is quite pricey, but there is a slightly later Metronome/Brain 2001 that was pressed only a couple years later--1974--that not only sounds great but is a fraction of the price of the original pressing. It may not have the collector's panache of the original Brain label, but it's a relative bargain. (It handily outshines the original Canadian pressing I had for what that's worth).

[lasercd]

Collecting Italian prog vinyl releases is like walking into a hornet's nest. If you are careful in what you go after you are probably safe and there are some bargain options.

Original Italian pressings now generally sell for stratospheric prices although they have actually fallen a bit over the past year as the Russian collectors have seemed to back away. Traffic on Ebay for this stuff is definitely down. The market seemed to peak about 2-3 years ago.

Here are less expensive options:

1. King Records in Japan had their Seven Seas and Nexus vinyl imprints. In general the pressing are uniformly outstanding. Tape source was probably safety copies. It doesn't matter, the sound is fabulous. The Italian original pressings tended to be noisy so whatever you lose in the tape generation you make up for it in the pressing itself. Nexus was the evolution of the Seven Seas label. Quality is the same - its essentially a name change. A later name change to Crime Records isn't nearly as good. Most likely digitally sourced and to be avoided.

The "better" titles on Seven Seas and Nexus command decent money but a fraction of what OG pressings from Italy run.

2. In the late 80s/early 90s, my friends at the Vinyl Magic shop in Milan had Fonit Cetra custom press a series of titles. These can be detected by the LPPxxx catalog number. They are taken from new stampers created from the original plates. These are generally cheap. If you are interested email me at [email protected] and I can send you a list of titles they had pressed.

3. In the late 70s, Fonit Cetra did their own reissue program, often changing cover art and album title but working with original stampers. These sell dirt cheap - no one pays attention to them.

The Vinyl Magic shop closed and eventually evolved into BTF Distribution. They have an ongoing reissue program of classic Italian prog titles. Although I have not personally sampled any of them I have been told that they are digitally sourced. Sony and Universal have on occasion done a vinyl reissue as of late but I'm not confident in the sound quality of any of them. Perhaps they are fine. I don't know. Luckily they are inexpensive so it may be worth poking around. A customer of mine recently bought L'uovo Di Colombo from me and said it sounded great. Caveat Emptor.

Ken Golden

[Johnny Vinyl]

Awesome info Ken and thanks so much! I've copied/pasted your post and added it into my phone. This'll really help out for my next vinyl run!