Beatles - Rubber Soul LP - Russian pressing

I acquired a Russian pressing of The Beatles - Rubber Soul (U.K.) EDIT yesterday at a garage sale. Can anyone identify the pressing for me? I'm a tad concerned that this might be from the digital master.

Thanks.

 

It is not digital. They used reel-to-reel copies (probably on a pro deck like Studer) from UK LPs. Those were weird releases - every label gives "radio broadcast" as the source for the LPs; that is because under the then Soviet laws this was not considered copyright infringement.

Pure collector's value, of course. The label says Rubber Soul, not Revolver.

The guy who owned the label was sort of a cult figure in the history of Russian rock music.

 

Thank you Sergei. My mistake. The album is indeed Rubber Soul as mentioned in the subject line of my first post.

 

I haven't seen any of those Antrop LPs in a long time. In addition to the Beatles, they also did a few Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple albums.

The company went under the name "Center of Rock'n'Roll Congregations of United Evangelist-Lutheran Churches of Russia" Of course nothing like that ever existed.

 

Sergei, here is a scan of the front and back covers.

 

Are you sure this isn't a digital master? The date at the bottom of the jacket says 1991.

 

Oh yeah. They took the trouble of translating the album and every song title.

I do not think too many of these were pressed; they must have used one of Melodiya's pressing plants (in Moscow, Leningrad or Riga), and Melodiya did not last very long afterwards.

Oops, I thought they did those earlier than in 1991. In fact, by that time it could have been digital. It is really hard to tell because those records really appeared out of nowhere, and were only around for a year or two, before most Russian pirate labels either went under or switched to CDs.

 

The fact that the label clearly states "St. Petersburg" is a dead giveaway that the record was pressed druring or after 1991, otherwise it would read "Leningrad". (Unless it was pressed before 1924, that is ...)

 

They most likely used early (probably Japanese) CDs, or maybe vinyl.

 

As for the Antrop LPs, I have consulted some vinyl enthusiasts in Russia, who have recently heard the records, and are usually quite reliable with their listening assessments.

The LPs appear to be digitally sourced, and sound worse than more recent (and probably digital) Western LPs Sorry about that.

In Moscow, they also issued a pirate version of Hey Jude on CD that was sourced from a pirate Far Eastern CD. A bootleg from a bootleg is not something you see too often. Probably a collector's item these days as well.

(All of these valuable insights were made possible by Yuricon and PB in Moscow. In case you are reading this - 10x again gentlemen)

 

I have a copy of the Russian White Album during that timeframe - it sounds incredible. And I have the UK white vinyl version, Japanese red vinyl mono, etc. It is one of the best examples I've ever heard. Maybe I got lucky with a tube mastered version.

And a variety of sources say many of these records were released with formal approval from Apple, but it is hard to know what is true.

 

Just found online today this oddity: a 8-track boot of a TMOQ Boot. Hard to beat as boot of a real boot of a pirate recording, and hope that some gort don't kick me out forever.

 

I havent't heard the Russian "Rubber Soul" for a long time and I'm not quite sure if it contains George Martin's infamous remixes. I'll check it out tomorrow. One thing I am sure of is that the sound quality was pretty good.

 

I just heard "Drive my Car" and "Nowhere Man" from the Russian "Rubber Soul" pressing. There's additional reverb ...

 

... and a few minutes after my last post I noticed that the label looks somewhat different than the one on top of this thread.

 

Comrade Sergei Dexter added that!

 

If it's the '87 remix, it must have been comrade Georgij Martinov.

 

I have this same LP. From what my ears tell me it sounds like it was cut from the '87 digital remix. That said, I found the sound of the pressing to be pretty good and enjoyable for what it is. Plus the cover is very cool. I also have the Revolver LP from the same series. The Revolver cover features a very different drawing done in the style of Klaus Voorman's original. For me, the covers were really the selling point since they were so unique.
--------- Chris