Moondog (2) – Moondog

Great Album. Great Pressing. Again and again and again and

There are definitely two different pressings of Prestige's initial run of 1956-57 reissues. One is from the Plastylite plant and has the distinctive "P" in the deadwax, a flat edge and a super heavy duty frame cover. I'm unsure of the origin of the other press or when it was issued but it lacks the frame cover and the "P". Both editions have the slim, blank spine.

I don't know what other people are listening to this album through (or on or with) but on my Technics SL1200Mk2 with a VMN40ML stylus through Wharfedale Lintons AND my Mordaunt Short Carnivals it sounds GREAT. The transients are all very robust and the animal sounds are recorded 'too hot' but that's not to do with the pressing or the mastering. The telling thing is that the violin and the piano are sounding authentic, not shrill OR distorted. These are primitive recordings from 1957 and the mastering of them for this particular issue is superb. My system is hardly top-end but anything below that might very well cause this record to sound poor. Nothing wrong with the master though.!

It goes without saying that it needs a wash before playing. Ironically our technology is doing a great job preserving and restoring primitive music that was recorded over 65 years ago. HOWEVER if only human beings these days could take greater care in pressing, operating, handling and packing (all needing quality control) then we wouldn't have filthy brand new records!!

This is as we can also see by the pictures uploded a 180 g vinyl version.

Shrill and distorted. Guess I should have read the other reviews and looked for a different version.

Marvellous record. Moondog was truly a very unconventional being... a pure artist by nature!
I turn to Moondog always when i need a reset my musical opinion. And this is indeed a worthy reissue. No complaints. I love the German period as well. There is a beautiful double CD compilation.

Is this an official release? Ten words words ten words.

The Prestige JP remaster (UCCO-5242) is the only competent CD reissue of this classic 1956 LP, originally titled "Snaketime Series"

Good stuff with very affordable price. Once properly cleaned and played through few times, most of the quality related annoyances are gone. Not very good first impression though. Music itself is quite deep stuff. Moondog have used lots of recorded sounds from the urban landscape as the instrument. Finding records like this is what makes record collecting so rewarding.

Not sure about others but my copy out of the box was pretty shite.