{"product_id":"towerbackt_2604-2xx","title":"Tower of Power - Back To Oakland - Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a stitch that plays 20 times at a light to moderate level at the start of track 1 on side 2, \"Time Will Tell.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe love this funky music and have long been delighted with how wonderful the best pressings can sound. This may be Tower of Power’s best; certainly it’s one of their most consistent and well-recorded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Big Group Of Musicians Needs This Kind Of Space\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the qualities that we don't talk about on the site nearly enough is the SIZE of the record's presentation. Some copies of the album just sound small -- they don't extend all the way to the outside edges of the speakers, and they don't seem to take up all the space from the floor to the ceiling. In addition, the sound can often be recessed, with a lack of presence and immediacy in the center.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOther copies -- my notes for these copies often read \"BIG and BOLD\" -- create a huge soundfield, with the music positively jumping out of the speakers. They're not brighter, they're not more aggressive, they're not hyped-up in any way, they're just \u003ci\u003ebigger\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eclearer\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd most of the time those very special pressings are just plain \u003ci\u003emore involving\u003c\/i\u003e. When you hear a copy that does all that -- a copy like this one -- it's an entirely different listening experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSonic Issues\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe biggest problems we found in our shootout were:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSome edge to the horn sound (the kind of \"detail\" that some audiophiles might prefer but that to our ears would be a source of listener fatigue in the long run).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStuck-in-the-speakers low-resolution sound, by far the most typical, wherein the ambience and spaciousness of the studio are noticeably compromised.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAnd lack of bass, which either takes the rhythmic quality out of the music, the drive so to speak, or makes the horns sound thin, which is a not a sound we tend to like, on this album or any other, although most of the audiophiles that I've met seem not to mind it all that much.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Wrong Kind of Clarity\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMuch of what passes for clarity in some systems is just a lack of lower mids and thin bass response -- woofers too small, not enough of them, the same old story. There are many commentaries on the site concerning this very issue and I recommend you check a few out when you have the time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMusic like this needs full-bodied sound to do what it's trying to do; you need to be able to move lots of air in your listening room to bring this music to life. You can be sure this band full of horn players was moving huge amounts of air in the studio. Would have loved to been there!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Sheffield Record -- So Dry\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome of you no doubt know that there is a Direct to Disc on Sheffield by this band. I can tell you without question that this particular LP is clearly better sounding than that one, which tends to be annoyingly dry. This band's recordings as a rule tend to be on the dry side, with little in the way of studio echo or ambience. The Sheffield is even more dryly recorded than their other albums, at least on the copies that I have played.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus and maybe a bit better is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful originals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Must Own Record\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe consider this recording a \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22soul-masterpiece%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMasterpiece\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e that belongs in any serious soul collection. Others that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-soul-collection%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Tower of Power","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51743654412584,"sku":"towerbackt","price":74.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/towerbackto.jpg?v=1774371757","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/towerbackt_2604-2xx","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}