Keep your vinyl!
eveoflove | North York, Ontario Canada | 02/28/2010
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Made in CZE in 2009, Serial# SU-29034, Playing Time 33:52
Original released in 1979, it took 30 years for this offering to be available on CD; it is 1 of only a couple of Jan's albums that hadn't made it until now onto CD.
So for many of his fans, this has FINALLY made it, and they will be tempted to rush and buy this, either to retire their vinyl pressing, or simply to have yet another album by Jan. That sounds like a great idea, but unfortunately, the mastering is 1 of the worst I've ever heard: I don't know if it's because of the poor condition of the master tapes, or because maybe it was mastered from a vinyl copy with a worn out stylus, but the sound quality found on this CD is real bad (the louder you play it, the more obvious that is).
As far as content is concerned, Jan's guitar sound is very personal as always(he sounds like no other guitarist, just like Carlos Santana also has a distinctive sound); the musical direction was very different from his pervious albums, notably because of the presence of horns on almost every track. In addition, it is a lot less "progressive" and a lot more subdued, closer to the soft jazz genre.
So potential buyers have a strange dilemma here: either to buy a poor-sounding version on CD, or to wait for a re-release on a major label (this CD is on the "Superior" label, made in the Czech Republic!?!) Me, I'll still hold on to my vinyl pressing and resist the temptation of selling it on eBay... but that might be the fate of my CD!"
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1