Until the last remaster, BGO's Get The Knack was my favorite mastering. (It's a great deal if you want their second album along with it.) IIRC, their twofer of the first two Pat Benatar albums sounds the same as the original US CDs — which is to say, pretty good. (The original Crimes Of Passion still sounds excellent to me.) BGO's UFO twofers also please me.
Honourable mention should be for the two Hollies Imperial twofers from 2011 which are a most for Hollies fans.and the Motels re-issues.
I recently got the BGO three-fer of Nicolette Larson's Nicolette/In The Nick of Time/Radioland and I think it sounds really, really nice. The only thing that would've made it perfect would've been if they added the fourth (Andrew Gold-produced) album All Dressed Up and No Place To Go.
I own two of their Mountain discs, Climbing and Nantucket Sleighride. Both are good and I like them better than the Columbia Legacy remasters. Particularly Nantucket Sleighride sounds excellent. Also have a few of their Tubes discs which I also enjoy and recommend.
Does anyone have any of their Charley Pride releases and care to comment? Looks like a good way to get his first 24 albums (sans Best Of compilations) in chronological order if the releases are up to par.
I have the BGO compilations that have these Charley Pride Albums: "Country Charley Pride" "The Country Way" "Pride of Country Music" "Make Mine Country" "Songs of Pride...Charley That Is" "In Person" "The Sensational Charley Pride" "Just Plain Charley" "Charley Pride's 10th Album" "From Me to You" "Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs" "I'm Just Me" I am happy with the sound quality, and since it's unlikely that these albums would be available on another label I'm glad I have bought them. The individual albums tend to be short, but there are usually four albums on a 2-CD collection. The sound is not bright and they definitely are not brickwalled, so if you like Charley Pride go for it while you can! As a rule I like the BGO releases and if I see a group or artist I like having an original album released I strongly consider getting it.
I have about 20 or so of their releases and the only one I really have a problem with is Shirley Bassey - Live at Talk Of The Town. The sound is horrible on it. The other half, Live at The Pigalle, is good though. Every other release I have gotten from them has been very good to excellent.
Well said. You can never have enough Pride in your collection. Since Bear Family Records hasn't shown much interest in the way of a comprehensive Charley Pride box set, these BGO sets may be the closest we come to owning these excellent country albums from one of the greatest of his era.
The only Charley Pride set to approach with caution is "Did You Think To Pray/A Sunshiny Day With Charley Pride/Sweet Country/Songs Of Love By Charley Pride." The track for the song 'You're Wanting Me to Stop Loving You' cuts out unexpectedly. Fortunately, BGO have already taken steps to rectify such issues. However, if you end up with the original pressing as I did, contact BGO immediately through their site and they will ship a replacement disc containing the amended audio.
They recently released the first four Janie Fricke albums on a two cd set (first time on cd for all), and are releasing the next four solo albums in November. Can't comment on the sound quality because they just walked in my door!
BGO are releasing some interesting country music title. They also have new 2CD sets containing 4 albums by Charlie Rich and Ray Price.
I just learned last night that they overhauled Dan Fogelberg's first album, Home Free, going back to the original masters to get the nice, dry mix, not available on CD elsewhere. I quickly ordered a copy. .
I have: Procol Harum: Procol Harum/Shine on Brightly, 2002 Steppeenwolf: Steppenwolf/Steppenwolf the Second, 1999 Leo Kottke: Greenhouse, 1997 Fleetwood Mac: English Rose, 2007 Blodwyn Pig: Ahead Rings Out, 1994 All are good, sound is fine, decent documentation. Downside: Osibisa: Osibisa/Woyaya, 2004; both discs were defective; there were very hard-to-see physical flaws in the data layer inside the polycarbonate, which was perfect. Bad QC, but I no longer have it, so I can't identify the pressing plant.
I have quite a few. The first one was the Johnny Rivers Rewind/Realisation twofer. Sonically, I can recall them being OK, though I was always a little suspicious of the 'Remastered' sticker on the front: as I recall, the booklets never included remastering details.
They had a Dave Mason twofer that had the same issue but, overall, their quality has been extremely good!
They're not very good at updating their website, they've got Merle Haggard as still recording and gigging! Release-wise though it's pretty up to date to me. I like BGO, generally quality releases at decent prices (what I've had anyway), I've stuff from them by: Jerry Lee Lewis Merle Haggard Rick Nelson Chuck Berry New Riders of the Purple Sage Phil Everly Ike Turner Joe Ely They've just released a 2 CD set with Little Richard 3 Reprise albums on, same price as a single disc, it's cool! Some of this stuff wouldn't be easily available if it wasn't for them so good on 'em. And who doesn't love a slipcased CD?!
Ten Years After - R&R Music the the World on BGO was a major improvement over the US. It sounds nearly identical to Steve's mastering on the AF.
Agree with everything, 'cept the slip-cased cds. I've certainly encountered a few that were so tight I had to dispose of the cases!