Please 
excuse the complete tome below. It's a combination of things, I'm too joyous and there's a lot to catch up on, because..
IT'S FINALLY HERE
The
Pro-ject X1 turntable arrived and I'm finally able to put together my first turntable setup! Due to Covid-19 delays it's going to be around 6 weeks until the stand will be ready, yet obviously 6 weeks is far too much time to have everything sat in boxes. So.. as I type this I'm currently spinning
Khruangbin – Con Todo El Mundo (sounds fantastic) and am finally in the nirvana of listening to records and all the rituals contained within. Heaven. We put together a random setup using the coffee table we had, which is long and narrow, and jutting it out from the wall into the room. Thin enough to have speakers either side and a bottom layer for the amp. I have to effectively do a press up to change the volume, but if anything was worth the exercise it's this.
I can't lie, I had to have the first 24 hours for myself. The first ever spin was VMP's pressing of
Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, and what an amazing start that was. What an incredible album, and it sounded absolutely amazing. I'm cleaning a record and playing it to make sure everything gets a clean and new inners. I indulged in a night of Van Morisson, Denzel Curry, Durand Jones, Black Pumas, Hizuru, Disque Debs and Maribou State. It was amazing. This morning I woke up and played Hizuru once more before another Durand Jones, and now onto the Khruangbin.
Here's a quick snapshot of the grab with Durand Jones & The Indications going strong:
I couldn't be happier. Everything worked immediately despite everything coming in afresh. A huge thank you to you all for your help and assistance, inspiration and encouragement. I wouldn't be at this point without it and I'm really grateful to you all. Nods to
@Joe Mac @kvetcha and
@Bsdmr2 for the repeat help and reassurance in the hardware thread while I err'd this way and that. Also to Yoss (forgive me I don't know your name here) on another forum who gave me the heads up that N&G was a thing. Invaluable advice to all.
Now for the other grabs!
First on the list is the
Death Stranding: Original Score by Ludvig Forssell, which actually happens to be the first record I bought. It was a preorder a couple of months ago now and really that active purchase is what sparked off the headbug that led to all this. Really happy with it. I like that by accident there's almost the 'three stages of splat' in the set. The yellow isn't really affected and remains largely as dots, the red is almost perfect to me, and then the green is after everything has bled out a bit. Was never completely sold on the yellow but the green is really nice like that providing a nice tint and looks much better than the mockup. The gatefold is just beautiful.
Please don't shoot me. I cleaned the table, this is pre-cleaning them and I put tabs under the label so it wasn't flat-on. I still know I have brought shame upon my household and will learn from my mistakes.
Now I know you all have your fancy VMP versions of
Unlocked by Denzel Curry x Kenny Beats but some of us newbies have to make do with the clear version! Ever since getting a feel for the praise for this record here and a recommendation from
@NathanRicaud (
) on joining I've been sinking deeper and deeper into it. Could have held out for the VMP version through one channel or another but thought it would be more fun to grab the clear and the upcoming comic/flexi-disc instead. Sounds great having been among my first plays last night, fantastic all round.
Nick Drake is someone my dad has always been a large advocate for and introduced me to his music alongside the likes of Zappa, Mountain, Neil Young and others when I was small. Neil definitely stuck with me the most of everyone but in later and more recent years I've found a lot from Nick's albums. My favourite of which is
Pink Moon by Nick Drake which is why it's the first into the collection, even beating Neil himself.
Next up we have an inspiration from
@kvetcha – unbeknownst to you when I saw you playing
Kiki's Delivery Service (OST) by Joe Hisaishi in a What's Spinning post my jaw hit the floor. I love Kiki's Delivery Service and knew the second I saw it complete with obi I needed to find it. The issue was I wasn't confident shipping from Japan on an item I wanted completely mint as returns would be a hassle for what could end up as a minor ding. Something that would still ruin it for me but be a hard press to send all the way back for. About a week ago I woke up to a Discogs emails with new things from my wishlist and there was Kiki, mint condition, in the UK, for less than it would cost anywhere else. Instantly messaged them and we discussed it and made sure it was mint and complete with obi and packed well.
In doing so they also offered
Porco Rosso (OST) by Joe Hisaishi which we haggled around for a bit as it wasn't immediately on my radar but I like Ghibli a lot and it was there, in the UK, mint as well. So they did a great price for both, shipped amazingly well and arrived exactly as described. I started to sweat taking them out of the sleeve to look at so I know they're a highlight of the collection and I'm looking forward to hearing them both.
Next up I'd spotted
Unplugged in New York by Nirvana and
Back to Black by Amy Winehouse on sale for really cheap so picked them up. Both great albums, first time hearing Unplugged was via a (bootleg?) VHS tape off of ebay. I was heavily into Nirvana at the time and this album was yet another of theirs that struck a chord with me back then.
Now, the
Live Vol.1 by Durand Jones & The Indications is an odd one
. I'm wanting to try and start collecting around Durand Jones and Black Pumas, not necessarily the variants but definitely the releases, and in doing so was looking for a mint version of this, in the limited edition blue. I found this on Discogs and went for it, and made sure it was mint with the seller. It arrived with a rather ugly ding on the bottom right and a split inner sleeve. No doubt occured during delivery, but still a write-off for what I was getting it for. The seller offered to either pay €10 to ship it back and they would send a replacement, or do the same and get refunded the whole amount, or take a €10 refund. Considering the record itself, shipping aside, was around €20 it seemed to make most sense to hold onto it and put the 10 toward a mint copy in the future. Flattened out the crease as best I can and can look alright when the light doesn't cast into it.
Opened it up and the Side B label appears to have been printed twice and there's fraying around the spindle hole. So ended up with something curious at least
Onto a collection of three more variants!
Departure by Kennebec is something I spotted during the LateNightTales Bandcamp sale as it's on their sister (?) label. I got the Mahogany edition which is effectively dark orange smoke in a lighter orange record. That said if you look for what they were going for and not the smoke for you can see it and it works well. My first venture into Soul Step Records is with
Consensual Wisdom by Bendigo Fletcher and I managed to snag the Party Monster variant. It looks a little swampy in flat light but catch some on it or behind it and it comes alive! Stunning to look at
The Khruangbin must be so joyful for you right now too! 
You remind me of myself when I started collecting vinyl! 
Justin Timberlake’s FutureSexLoveSounds is my 2nd favourite 
and Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury is my 3rd favourite of 2016! 
J Dilla’a Donuts is my 4th! 🎖Anyways, in a few years time, I recommend grabbing the Abbey Road half-speed mastered pressing of Back To Black! It also contains the B-sides and sounds much better than the original pressing! 
so glad to be here, the best recommendation you could have made!
You're so just ready to go all the time. No time to get stuck down by something, just onto the next positive vibe. It's always great to see someone excited by what they enjoy and you're never shy to help others discover something new and great 
. The hype from the first track never gets old. Thank you for the tips on Back to Black too 
