Kamasi Washington - The Epic - New West Coast Spiritual Jazz

Well I am not being so lucky as I am finding significant pressing issues with side 1 I have tried two copies, one bought from amazon.co.uk and another from juno.co.uk and both have exactly the same issues in exactly the same places. Sounds like non-fill type distortion to me particularly noticeable about 4 minutes into track 2. As the music goes from loud to quiet, I hear a constant "swishing" noise out of the right speaker and all the brass instruments are distorted out of the right channel too. The problem actually starts earlier into the track than that, but because its louder it could get overlooked. This problem continues for several minutes

 

Listening to my copy now, on Side 1 of Disc 1, have to say track 2 fairs bad so far. Its full of buzzing clicks/fuzz on the right. Rubbish. I don't think a clean is going to fix this.

 

Ah, that's exactly what I was trying to describe in my post......

Where did you get your copy from?

 

I pick it up yesterday (on cd) and am enthralled with it already. People who like long jams should be checking this out, regardless if they're into jazz or not.

 

Has anybody checked out the hi-rez download yet? Is it a different (less compression happy than the CD) mastering? Sorry to repeat myself, but my interest in this album will increase tenfold if there's actually an un-compressed digital version to listen to.

 

Amazon UK. Its only on side 1, tracks 1 and 2 until about 2/3rds of the way through track 2 and it stops. Thankfully for good.

 

Thankfully not on my copy. All 6 sides are clean and without problems from start to finish.

 

I do hear a "whooshing" during Isabelle, but no distortion in the instruments. I prefer to hear it as brushwork on the snare drum. It's only present for a quiet passage where brushwork would be appropriate.

Love the packaging and the sound from this album. Great work Kamasi and Brainfeeder!

 

"Isabelle" is played with sticks, no use of brushes at all

 

he's saying he's reimagining the defect in his pressing as a musical decision in order to be cool with it.

 

ew

 

I returned my other two copies, and received one from Amazon.de just in case a better batch went there. But no, it's exactly the same with the same problems others describe. If you really don't have it, then I suspect its to do with the choice of stylus/diamond profile. What stylus are you using?

 

Haha right? Bummer. I listened to mine again with attention to the sections in question and nada. Totally clean. Hope you guys with issues can find good copies.

 

sorry if linked before...i missed it if so

 

My copy just showed up in the office mail Monday. I wasn't there to pick it up so, tonight I'll have to do a listening session. Look forward to that.

 

As I mentioned in the post above yours, it is possible that stylus/cartridge choice may be an influencing factor on whether this defect gets picked up or not. Having tried 3 copies from 3 different places, I think I have to give up on this. But my last attempt was mentioning the problem by email to Brainfeeder and also on their Facebook page in the hope they have some good copies stashed away somewhere

 

Sound clip taken with a handheld recorder of the right channel in part of track 2. All the distortion you hear is what is coming out of the speaker, not introduced by the recorder.

https://clyp.it/m4ryitrd

 

That just sounds like good ol' fashioned surface noise to me. A lot of the new vinyl I buy has passages that sound like that. Have you washed the record? If not, sometimes that will help.

I just got mine in the mail yesterday. Hoping to spin it tonight.

 

Yes....washed with an Okki Nokki. Surface noise is one thing, but this is loud for surface noise as normally the music pushes that noise to inaudibility...but this is dominating the sound completely. I didn't also record all of the build-up to this section where there is quite a bit of loud crackle, also from the right channel. It's not impossible to listen to it of course, but as the rest of the 5 sides are good, it is really a shame this side isn't.

 

wow that sounds dreadful. unless you somehow purchased the album 45 years ago, I would definitely send it back.

 

Ortofon 2M Bronze on a Rega RB303 arm.

 

ok, that's not "good ol' fashioned surface noise." whatever he's got there is very atypical (and I complain about probably a third of the new vinyl I buy). that sounds like an abundance of surface noise and frankly, the noise is so excessive, I'd be curious to know if on playback he's seeing a buildup of debris on the stylus.

 

Agreed. That's some noticeable noise.

 

Interesting....as that's a fine line stylus, not really different from my Dynavector XX2 MK2 line contact stylus. Maybe yours really is just a good copy.....and in Europe at least, maybe a rarity!

 

Just to be sure, I have re-listened to that track, this time on headphones. The sound you hear is on my copy as well, but fairly low in the right channel. At no point does it overshadow the music. Also, there is crackle here and there throughout the track and a split second loud beep noise in the right channel at one point. The swooshing sound, however, does not come that forward on my copy/system as it does in the clip you posted, nor does the crackle sound as loud.