Received the 4 I ordered from HMV Japan (all but Girl Talk and Misty since I own early japanese pressings of those already). So far have cleaned and spun Unicorn and Blue City. Both are excellent. Flat, clean, centered. If they are from digital, I can't tell. Really happy with these. I thought that all my Dusty Groove preorders got cancelled but then ended up sending Unicorn and Midnight Sugar so those will probably be off to a friend. I'm not really sure what happened with Dusty Groove...they cancelled some of my preorders pretty soon after I ordered and others who preordered after me still got theirs. The HMV ones worked out to be slightly cheaper anyway even with shipping from japan (it was $180 shipped for 4 albums from HMV).
I received Girl Talk and Unicorn from Dusty Groove today. Spinning Girl Talk now and it sounds awesome. I especially loved the bowed bass. Like @Mike H. if it’s digital I can’t tell. Very quiet record. I already have the 3 impex pressings so I’m not going to double up on those, but I missed out on Blue City so I may try Discogs…
So I reached out to the label for clarification on the source of these reissues. They just emailed me back and assured me that these were cut directly from the original master tapes, and not digital files.
These releases snuck by me... anyone have a line on some stock anywhere or extra to sell? Can only find Blue City and Girl Talk at a retailer, though shipping is a little steep. Still better than those Discogs prices...ouch.
Craftman is repressing all 6 of these plus 3 Ayako Hosokawa LPs on Dec 20. I just pre-ordered all from CD Japan. youve been warned
How is CD Japan with packaging vinyl for international shipment? I've only ever ordered CDs from them. Thanks.
Thanks for the heads-up! I found the represses on HMV last night, but the website checkout says they currently not shipping outside Japan (despite having international shipping rates posted in the Help section). I looked on CDJapan but didn't find them there yesterday, but I will check again now. I have only ordered vinyl from CDJapan once (3 of The Who albums issued last year), and it was well packed. Have also ordered scads of paper-jacket silver discs from them and their packing never fails to impress, so I feel pretty confident ordering from there.
That's disappointing. I figured I had time to finish work before placing an order. I think I snagged the last Unicorn, at least. I'll have to keep a look out for the other two. Crossing my fingers that Craftman will either increase the numbers of copies in this batch or keep repressing while the demand is there.
i made the mistake last time of waiting and then they all sold out, so I ordered as soon as insaw them today. Keep an eye on HMV
They are up on HMV (before CDJapan), but when I tried to checkout there, it told me they weren't shipping outside Japan at the moment. Works if I put in a US address, but it seems a bit convoluted (and expensive) to ship to a reshipper in the US and then on to Canada. I sent a message asking if this is a mistake. Not sure if they have English customer support, though.
i have never used HMV before but i know others have. CD Japan and Amazon JP are my go to, along with some other heavy metal shops and friends i have there.
I just ordered all 9 from HMV, seemed to work fine for me (thought about not getting Misty and Blow Up as I have the Impex of those, but what the heck, in a penny in for, well, a lot, but it's 9 records)
I have the 3 impex as well and was going to pass on them and then said screw it and ordered them, may just sell the impex
Looks like there are some interesting Japanese jazz reissues in March 2023 as well from what I saw on the site, but that was just a quick look
yep saw those as well, have them bookmarked. December 3 and 7 also sees lps of Sadao Watanabe, Fumio Itabashi, and 2x Yosuke Yamashita reissues, i preordered all of those as well.
So glad I found this thread, albeit a little late for those Blow Up and Blue City. These Craftsman Record reissues are some of the best sounding in my catalog. I’m curious to hear them in comparison to Impex reissues. That CD Japan website is glitchy AF. Has anyone had that issue? I checked out and it took me to an internal error page yet my order clearly went through with the emailed receipt.
