Vinyl: EAGLES, Desperado UK NIMBUS SUPERCUT AUDIOPHILE NEAR MINT LP

UK NIMBUS SUPERCUT VINYL LP.

The Eagles' lowest selling album and not a favourite of many, but here at Raisedonrecords, we actually think it is their finest hour - a full-on cowboy-outlaw-concept album in the prog-rock tradition, the only comparable achievement in this field is perhaps Willie Nelson's lober-cowboy concept album Red Headed Stranger. Desperado is a brilliantly played, excellent selection of songs from full-out rock on 'Outlaw Man' to lilting waltzes like 'Saturday Night' - Glyn Johns' production is breathtaking, he manages to place every single instrument in a place where you can hear it precisely, and the vocals shine with perfection. The album didn't do all that well when it was released, probably because it lacked a big hit single - which begs the question as to why the ballad 'Desperado' wasn't pushed to radio, for surely a hit single that never was this song must be...anyway, it's a great album by the original Eagles as a quartet, performing that blend of country and rock they borrowed from Gram Parsons and made their own. Regular copies of this title can be easily found for a few dollars on CD or vinyl, so why pay a King's Ransom for this copy? Because it is arguably the best ever pressing of Desperado - a limited edition (about 1,000 copies were pressed) virgin vinyl bonifide Supercut. We have compared this pressing to USA first standard issue pressings (most of which come on noisy, bargain-basement vinyl), a USA white label promo (the best of the non-Nimbus bunch with often noisy vinyl but admitedly a fine mastered pressing by Atlantic) and a UK first issue (sadly, a clean sounding but a rather dry mastering).

This UK Nimbus Supercut is on pristine high quality near-silent vinyl, it is certainly the quietest and cleanest vinyl we have ever heard (all the Supercuts are excellent pressings), the dynamics are stunning and the bass is finally where it should be: sat firmly in the groove. These Nimbus pressings definately managed to achieve something in the lower end that no other mastering does. This particular title is one of the Holy Grails of Nimbus Supercuts (as it was one of the lowest selling, the Eagles were not that big in the UK until 'Hotel California' came along). These Nimbus albums are increasingly hard to find at any price, this one is near-impossible.

The limited edition UK Nimbus Supercut Records were mail-order only audiophile vinyl LPs, pressed & mastered for readers of 'Hi-Fi Today' and 'Practical Hi-Fi' magazines. Gerald Reynolds, the owner of Nimbus Record Company, said to the English magazine 'Hi-Fi News & Record Review' (July, 2010): "One of the hi-fi magazines in the 1970s, Practical Hi-Fi did a wonderful job in getting the original master tapes for LPs, from artists like Supertramp and Joan Armatrading, and we cut and pressed them as supercuts. Although we archived one of everything, we did not keep stocks - which is a real pity because they now change hands at hundreds of pounds a time ".

Nimbus Records have somewhat legendary status within the audiophile circle for their 'Supercut' releases; they mastered each release from the original master tapes (Desperado was mostly recorded in the UK, so it is possible first generation master tapes were in the UK) using the best available mastering processes, employing many techniques for each release that were not commonly used. For example, generally when bass moves from channel to channel on an LP, groove modulation is employed to reduce the movement of the stylus and this results in this bass being centered more over both channels. Most audiophiles would argue that this - and in fact anything, which changes the original recording should be avoided although this is common practice on most LPs. For example, the release of 'Joan Armatrading' had bass moving from channel to channel in several places, but Nimbus did not limit this, resulting in an outstanding pressing.

Nimbus also had the ICI company produce an extremely pure vinyl for the LPs, which has amazing frequency reproduction and is virtually noise free - similar in quality to the 'super vinyl' used on earlier Mofi pressings. Due to their rarity and small pressing quantities, they are often more expensive than audiophile LPs from other labels, but the sums paid can be justified by the outstanding quality of the pressings, and the fact that they tend to rise in value over time and as such are deemed investments by some audiophiles. Of course, it might be better to put them in the safe under lock and key, but they are records, and they are designed to be listened to...

MATRIX NUMBERS IN RUN-OFF GROOVES: SIDE A: NIMBUS ENGLAND K53008 - A1 M2 JWG 3 MPT V JH / SIDE B: NIMBUS ENGLAND K53008 - B1 M2 JWG 3 MPT V JH

SLEEVE: EXCELLENT, MORE NEAR MINT REALLY, IT LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT HAVE IN THE RACKS OF A RECORD STORE TODAY!

DISC: NEAR MINT. THIS ALBUM WAS BOUGHT NEW IN THE EARLY 1980s IN A NEW-OLD-STOCK VINYL SALE AT AN AUDIOPHILE DEALERS STORE. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THESE DISCS DID NOT SELL THAT WELL AT THE TIME AND MANY COULD BE FOUND FOR A FEW QUID BRAND NEW IN THE LATE '70s AND EARLY '80s - HARD TO BELIEVE NOW, AND THOSE DAYS ARE LONG-GONE. THIS DISC HAS BEEN PLAYED TWICE BY THIS ONE OWNER ON A TOP END HI FI, IT HAS NO MARKS OR SCRATCHES, NO SPINDLE WEAR, AND PLAYS AND SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

THIS ITEM SHIPS FROM THE UK:

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