Red House Painters 4AD vinyl boxset - April 2015

recieved in mail, may be able to listen to tonight (?)

 

Strange. 4AD site says the albums have shipped UPS, however there is no tracking number and I have not received any email from them??

 

I would get in touch with them, email or phone. My tracking shows, gone from NY to Jersey City. Now it needs to get to the West Coast

 

Well, I sent an email to 4AD last night. No response, but the lps were delivered this afternoon. Good thing I work out of the house as these would have been destroyed by the heat.

 

Got mine today. The sound is really good.

But, every piece of vinyl has marks and scuffs.

Some are noisy, but I haven't tried cleaning yet.

Don't know if I will or not, they're so scuffed up, I'm probably going to send them back.

The "Bridge" cover looks horrible. It's so washed out,
it's orange/red instead of the sepia look.

Whooshing on Ocean Beach.

Looks like they have stamped matrix numbers.
In this format: 115413E1/A
Anybody know where they were pressed?

It's a GD shame.

 

At least try cleaning them, before reporting here how bad they are.

 

The first thing I said was the sound is really good.
Cleaning isn't going to get rid of the scuffs and whooshing.
I'm just one of those people who expects new vinyl to not be all scuffed up.

 

I'm with you, don't like spending good money on new vinyl with scuffs, marks and whooshing.
My main concern was the (some are noisy comment)

 

Oh yeah, all are flat, not a single warp!

 

I got a tracking number yesterday and my bundle should be here by the end of the week. I'm a bit discouraged by the early reports of quality control issues but we'll see. I always clean new vinyl before playing it so I hope that will result in quiet surfaces. Anyone know where these were pressed?

 

They're GZ then, same as the gold. Exact same sonic issues I had with the box set. 4AD have admitted they've had some issues with GZ, but presume it was too late to pull out of doing the black pressings there.

 

Who says this box was manufactured by GZ???

 

The gold box was manufactured by GZ. The stampers show it, the label confirmed it.
But, I guess, to answer your question literally, I did. Just above. And earlier.

 

Where and when did the label confirm this?

 

In an email exchange I had with them, but anyone who knows what a GZ runout groove stamp looks like can tell from looking at the records.

 

Of course but I STILL haven't opened mine. And maybe I will never open and simply sell it if this comes indeed from GZ. Which is like the biggest deal breaker EVER. Since I try to avoid GZ releases this is a bit annoying to be honest.

Of course some people like GZ but I don't want to get dirty records. And only last week I found a GZ pressing where I least expected it ("Specter At The Feast" by BRMC). And of course it was full of dust and fingerprints. Bummer...

 

Ah, I see. Yes, I'd give up now. Still sells for more than the black vinyl bundle. None are silent. I had two I was reasonably happy with. A third they replaced easily enough and it was a bit better. With 'Ocean Beach', we've been through three copies and they're currently trying to find me a quiet copy by testing it themselves. Not optimistic.
It was a nice idea, but as soon as I saw the runouts I figured it was bad news.

 

Listening to RHP / Down Colorful Hill new black reissue. Cleaned on VPI. Vinyl is flat. There were sleeve scuffs on each side but no deep scratches. Playback so far (just on first song as I write) a little bit of crispies here and there but nothing overwhelming to take away from the music.
Deadwax info (stamped) 115411E1/A 115411E2/A

Side 2 has little bit more noise for first 4-5 minutes but settles.....kinda up in the air as to the quality control. Sonically from a mastering standpoint I think DCH sound great!

 

I think this is the last time I pre-order anything. Had I read this thread before ordering these, I'd have held off. As it is, they'll arrive soon anyway and we'll see what develops. I will say my Sticky Fingers (US and Italian cover versions) and On Every Street offerings have been quite acceptable sonically, though they look terrible. Both done at GZ. I can handle visually ugly better than sonically ugly, though I'd rather deal with neither. Hopefully, anyone doing reissues will realize using GZ cripples sales. The good news is they've added more presses. The bad news?....They've added more presses.

 

I don't know how you can judge the quality of these disc if you didn't clean them. The paper sleeves leave so much dust and small bits that these had to be cleaned. Once clean, I was expecting these to be noisy from what I was seeing on the surface. Strangely enough they are pretty quiet and sound quite good. The ONLY issue I have is with the first song on Down A Colofrful Hill. There are 3 segments of static. Not a mark on the vinyl that would cause it, at least none that I see.

 

You're right, I don't know what I'm doing or talking about.
My powers of observation are terrible, and I don't deserve to listen to vinyl.
And when I said "Some are noisy, but I haven't tried cleaning yet.", I didn't mean that
I knew that cleaning would help. And when I said "The sound is really good.", I wasn't talking about the quality.

 

Got my black vinyl bundle yesterday. All were sealed, but Ocean Beach was missing the second record. That side of the gatefold jacket was completely empty - no sleeve, no record. E-mailed customer service but haven't heard back yet.

 

I wish that Caldo Verde had handled this release, all the way down to the mastering.

 

Got my bundle today, first thing I did was check to see if both LP's were in the Ocean Beach Jacket, they were. Gonna clean these LP's and then take a listen. Sorry to hear about your missing LP.

 

Got my bundle and cleaned them all in the Audio Desk. As noted before, they were cover in dust and there is some surface scuffing most likely due to the abrasive cardboard sleeve they crammed these in. Why? Why would they do that? Anyway, so far the discs are pretty flat and play back surprisingly quietly with very good sound.

My biggest issue was with the first song on side two of Down Colorful Hill as noted above. My issue however was a glob of dried glue about 3/4 into the track. I assume this came from the cover somehow. I really wasn't sure how to handle it as I've never come across this before. What seemed to work was Goo Gone, yes Goo Gone. Wasn't sure what that would do to vinyl but it was unplayable the way it was anyhow. It plays through with just a few minor pops whereas before it would surely have destroyed the stylus. They definitely could have produced these with more care but it's not a total loss. The content is great, of course.