デヴィッド・シルビアン* – Brilliant Trees

just compared this to the original UK and german pressings (listened to 'the ink in the well' on all three copies). this japanese pressing is by FAR the best one to have.

UK original mastered at townhouse was cut through a digital delay line, as with everything townhouse cut starting sometime in 1982. good bass texture and articulation, but vocal sibilants are choppy and smeary and horns sound mechanical. midrange is pretty thin but there's an appeal to the transients. biggest issue is how stuffy it sounds--spatially it's boxed in with no firm sense of instrument placement. the german pressing is easily better in every way (especially with vocal emotion) but warmer and thicker than i'd prefer.

meanwhile, this japanese pressing is the most spatially coherent and dynamically expressive. it's brighter (as common with japanese pressings) but not egregiously so, everything's more natural and realistic. this is the one pressing where vocal sibilants cleanly resolve rather than becoming garbled and smeary. transients are sharp when necessary but grounded in full-bodied textures, and the JVC supervinyl provides a clean background that enhances sonic contrasts. i'm not big on old japanese pressings of western music, though in this case, the japanese pressing is like a painting whereas the UK pressing is merely a decent photographic replication. all iterations of this album are thoroughly listenable, but this stands out and thankfully isn't too expensive.

equipment: rega p6, ortofon mc cadenza bronze, stein music 'the perfect interface' turntable mat, liberty b2b-1 phono preamp, hegel h95 integrated amp, mofi sourcepoint 8 speakers, spiral groove and audioquest cabling.

This Japanese pressing is sublime, plays/sounds far better than my previous UK version.

Sound is not good it's muddled very disappointing two reviews were positive. This is not one of my favorite Sylvian albums

I lucked up on a cheap NM used copy of this in a shop before vinyl was "cool". An excellent pressing!

I bought a UK press of this on the strength of a 12” of ‘Red Guitar’ I picked up in my local record shop. Absolutely loved the album and then found a NM copy of this Japanese press which is stunning, depth and detail definitely superior to the UK version.