Akarma Records: anybody heard of 'em?

I'm sure the real obscure stuff is, but none of the CDs I've purchased from them are needle drops. BTW I remembered on more CD I have from them...Bubble Puppy!

 

Cool...and that one's not a needle drop?

 

Some of tracks I have on mine are. However, most of those are needle drops from never before released material taken off a test pressings or other original sources held by the artist. The problem is going to be, on a lot of this obscure stuff, that there are probably no 'master' tapes anymore, and if there is, who knows where they would be. As I mentioned in an earlier post, an interview with an artist having Akarma releases stated - as best as I can recall - that when he and his group were younger they didn't necessarily wind up with copies of their own recordings. Some of the record companys, like Decca, were extremely tight and artists often didn't have much say while signed.

 

I have the red vinyl of Leigh Stephen's Red Weather. I like Blue Cheer and I always wanted to hear this solo album, but finding an original would be near impossible. The song "Another Dose of Life" is one of the darkest, grungiest songs of the late 60's, complete with buried vocals. Not a perfect album, but has its moments. It seems like the overall volume of the LP is pretty low. I'm not sure why. Maybe the sides are really long or something, I don't know for sure.

 

IIRC, Forced Exposure has quite a few of their releases at a decent price.

No affiliation etc, etc.

Cody

 

what are some of the better titles
sonically and musically speaking?

 

I recommend the Colwell-Winfield Blue Band CD "Cold Wind Blues". Not sure what the source is, but it sounds okay to me and its nice to have this available on CD. A long-time favorite of mine.

 

I bought one of those red vinyls, but it had a bad scufff at the end of side 2, so I returned it and just got the CD instead. I have an original on Philips, anyway; I just thought the red wax would be cool. I listened to the CD the other day after my initial post, and it didn't sound too bad.

 

looking to buy on vinyl
I've taken to prejudice with CD

 

is the Third Ear Band's re-issue of "the Magus" a safe bet?
"...their deal with Harvest Records at an end, and no new takers for the album in sight, the band faded away, to surface a handful of times in later years. The tapes, meanwhile, were carefully preserved by Kort, until finally Angel Air offered them a home....One wishes store staff good luck in the thankless task of choosing a genre bin for this set."
sounds like the tapes were licensed
I know that the label has been sketchy, but kinda I want to get it

 

Well, Angel Air CDs are superb. That much I can tell you. Often their titles feature mastering by Nick Watson at SRT. But if you want vinyl, I've no idea. Akarma issued "The Magus?" I didn't know that. They might have just pressed it from the Angel Air CD.

 

They have released most of Creedence Clearwater Revival LPs, some Canned Heat.

I bought the Creedence LPs because they were going very cheap, I wouldn't recommend them to anyone!
JG

 

I bought Akarma's repress of Mushroom - Early One Morning before Christmas.

Good pressing, if a little quiet. The four bonus tracks don't help - as the sides are quite compressed.

Side 1 of the original Hawk Records LP is now Side 2 on Akarma's pressing and vice versa.

 

Akarma are a buch of italian entusiast, who tries to reissue on vinyl valuable stuff.
Graphics are fine, pressing are so-so (and I'm afraid taken from CD's) I feel them try to do best as they can bur results are what they are. hope they do better in future

 

So where does everybody buy their Akarma stuff? I was just wondering who has the bargains on their stuff.

 

I have Canned Heats' "Living The Blues" CD on Akarma. It sounds great. The cover looks great, but both center spindles on the digipak are broken, so the discs fall out.

 

BAD BOOTLEG COMPANY IN ITALY...I am the singer for Coven and they released unauthorized materials on my band...

 

AKARMA also goes by the label ABRAXAS, which bootlegged my band...And also beware of HARD ROCK YANKEES...

 

akarma releases
http://www.discogs.com/label/Akarma

 

Here is the audio of an Akarma vinyl Atomic Rooster Death Walks Behind You 2013 reissue.From a seller on "ebay de" (German ebay) who posted it on Youtube.
Here is the ebay link
http://www.ebay.de/itm/LP-ATOMIC-RO...er_Unterhaltung_Music_CDs&hash=item1e7da40d17
Have read elsewhere the akarma use cd's as the source for the vinyl, but I have not bought one so I cannot verify this.
Jeannie Crane,widow of Vincent Crane of Atomic Rooster,advertises the akarma reissues on her site,so I presume she must be getting royalties from them.Don't know if she supplied master tapes to them.http://website.lineone.net/~jean.cheesman/records1.htm.If you listen to the audio on Youtube you can here very slight surface noise on the intro to the first track. Would'nt put me off buying it.Must put it through the main system to find out how it sounds.