About Last Night's Dream (Pure Pleasure) by Johnny Shines:
It's no wonder that this album, cut in 1968 with British blues maven Mike Vernon at the helm, works so well. When you team a rejuvenated Shines with his longtime compadres Horton, Spann, bassist Willie Dixon, and drummer Clifton James, a little blues history was bound to be made.
"Johnny Shines is the ultimate Delta bluesman, combining the classic styles he learned as a youth into a very personal style, fluent, creative and forcefully talented as both a singer and guitarist" – Jim DeKoester
"He rates amongst the most important and individualistic blues stylists of the post-war years" – Pete Welding
"A forceful explosive blues singer whose strong, vibrato laden voice possesses a range and sensitivity which is rivalled by few other bluesmen" – Peter Guralnick
Musicians:
- Johnny Shines (vocal, guitar)
- Otis Spann (piano)
- Big Walter Horton (harmonica)
- Willie Dixon (bass)
- Clifton James (drums)
Recording: June 1968 in Chicago by Malcolm Chisholm
Production: Mike Vernon
About Pure Pleasure
At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records.
During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.
A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.
We should like to emphasize that Pure Pleasure Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle.
We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production.
To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.
|
