Classic 70s Blues-Rock-Jazz There’s a fair chance you haven’t heard of Tom Waits. Despite the uniqueness of his voice and the length of his glowing career, commercial visibility hasn’t really found Tom organically. In fact I only became exposed to his work last year, when I encountered “Rain Dogs” on a list of 100 Albums […]
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Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik [20th Anniversary]
Red Anniversary Vinyl 1991 was a sensational year for music, especially for a youth such as myself. The year brought us (amongst others): Pearl Jam’s “Ten”, Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, Metallica’s black album, Guns ‘n Roses “Use your illusion I & II”, U2’s “Achtung Baby”, Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous”, and.. Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”. […]
Read MoreBlack Sabbath – Black Sabbath
One of the best debut albums of all time? This album needs absolutely no introduction. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past two decades (including missing Ozzy Osbourne’s reality TV show) you would have heard of Black Sabbath. It is said that Sabbath introduced the early pioneers of heavy metal, and if […]
Read MoreThe Church – Of Skins and Heart
Take a leaf out of their book Perhaps it is because The Church’s frontman Steve Kilbey and guitarist Peter Koppes came from my home town of Canberra that their music is nearer and dearer to me than similar music of the era. Either way, their strong melodies make for some iconic Australian tracks, and their […]
Read MoreLed Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II [US 1st]
True first press impresses This isn’t an Australian release, and has no connection to my country… However, the background to the release of this iconic album is too good not to write about. The story goes that the (now) legendary audio engineer Robert (Bob) Ludwig, at an early stage in his career, was the original […]
Read MoreBob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited [Export]
Export Vinyl Back in the 1970s in Australia, parallel importation of vinyl records created arguably a very niche collectable – the redacted or “donut” labels and sleeves of Columbia Records pressings. Some background: This arrangement ended in 1961 when Columbia formed its own international organization, CBS Records, in 1962, which released Columbia recordings outside the […]
Read MoreHunters & Collectors – Human Frailty
An Iconic 80s Album You’re going to see a lot of Australian albums from the 1980s on this site, and why not? It was my favourite era for Australian music. So let’s take a look at this cracker of an album from Aussie legends Hunters & Collectors. The band were starting to really hit their […]
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INXS – Kick
A Huge Hit Album In the 1980s, INXS hit the big time. An Australian band had hit the international music scene like few had previously. They seemed to go from hit to hit and strength to strength, leaving behind the Land Down Under for Europe and the US. The high point is arguably 1987’s “Kick”, […]
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A “Grail Find”
Last month, I casually browsed an Australian site called Gumtree. It’s a classifieds site which allows people to place free ads online, and I tend to check for listings relating to vinyl records on an ad-hoc basis. I was just relaxing, browsing on my phone, when I came across a new listing which featured five […]
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Simon And Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water
A classic revisited Simon and Garfunkel’s 1960s masterpiece revived in the 1980s as a part of CBS’ Mastersound series, featuring half speed mastering as an audiophile release. This was a huge upgrade from a heavily scratched original pressing that I had initially. The Release This album surely requires no introduction. There are some of Simon […]
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