Page 94 - Hi-Fi_News_-_December_2020 video

ALBUM

REVIEWS

AUDIOPHILE: VINYL

DR JOHN, THE NIGHT TRIPPER
The Sun Moon & Herbs
Speakers Corner ATCO SD33-362 (180g vinyl)
Dr John’s passing in 2019 had inspired a binge
as I worked through much of his canon, and
this reissue, serves as a fine memorial. Dating

from 1971 and technically his fourth solo LP
as ‘Dr John’ rather than ‘Mac Rebennack’,
it has guests including Eric Clapton, Mick
Jagger, Graham Bond and enough fi ve-
star studio musicians to let you know that
by this time, he was an A-lister, if mainly
considered a ‘genre’ musician. He was still
caught up in his weird funk voodoo shtick,
but the compositions are more akin to
listener-friendly New Orleans R&B. Gripping
throughout, the playing alone merits this
month’s main honour, but the sound seals the
deal: the bass is monumental. KK

Sound Quality: 95%
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JOAN ARMATRADING BOB DYLAN ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
Joan Armatrading Oh Mercy Psychedelic Sex Kicks
Intervention Records IR-029 (180g vinyl) Mobile Fidelity MFSL2-488 (two 45rpm LPs) Modern Harmonic MH-8233 (white vinyl LP + DVD)
Is there a hi-fi enthusiast over 60 who Reviewed in May 2019 on SACD, the album Unless you are an unreconstructed hippie,

doesn’t own this 1976 album? Like – then celebrating its 30th anniversary – who still uses terms like ‘Groovy!’ and
Breakfast In America, it was played to surprised this listener as I’m one of those ‘Far out!’ and smokes enough grass to
death at shows and in stores, but for good whose interest in Dylan tapered after 1970. keep Mexico solvent, this will baffl e you.
reason: Armatrading’s intense delivery was It is, in hindsight, regarded as a return to It’s the soundtrack to a long-forgotten
captured perfectly by Glyn Johns, and she form after a run of less-than-awe-inspiring exploitation flick from 1967, containing a

became – having proven as inimitable as releases, and I described it last year as mix of dialogue segments, poetry and sitar.
Kate Bush or Joni Mitchell – a genre unto ‘dark, moody, atmospheric and redolent Not hypnotic, Ravi Shankar-grade playing,
herself. Certainly not easy to shoehorn into of the era, shaped by Dylan’s inescapable but the wannabee twanging of the era
any category, Armatrading melded singer- political position of the time’. One of those with slithery tabla accompaniment. This
songwriter artistry with a hybrid Caribbean/ Dylan albums that grows on you, Oh Mercy is a curio for hard-core cineastes, and it
British attitude, seasoned with hints of jazz on vinyl is more pertinent in the context of deserves to be available, so again Modern
and folk, and earned herself a Top 10 hit this magazine, as the sound is astonishingly Harmonic performs a service. The white
with ‘Love And Affection’. Intervention has, good. The SACD was an ear-opener, but this vinyl pressing is clean, quiet and space-y
as usual, produced a breathtaking reissue, 45rpm LP version is even better, especially (in the groovy sense), but I still haven’t
right down to the quality of the sleeve. KK in those bottom octaves. KK mustered the nerve to watch the DVD. KK
Sound Quality: 90% Sound Quality: 90% Sound Quality: 80%
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94 | www.hifi news.co.uk | DECEMBER 2020