Good and Bad Things About Disk Union Japan Premium Blue Note Reissues
When I started this business about 3 years ago, these Disk Union Japan Premium Blue Note Reissues are not known outside of Japan.
I used to get a lot and posted and sold many titles and copies at eBay. They were not sold at high price you know...
BUT!!
Nowadays...things changed drastically.
The price is skyrocketing and really difficult to get on the market even here in Japan. You would have to pay more than 100 bucks and some titles, more than 350 bucks!!
Are these DU Premium Blue Note Series really good??
Well...this time, I just want to talk about good and bad things about these reissues.
1st, BAD THINGS..
1st Bad Thing is....
The Pressing Quality.
They used high quality, heavy 200g vinyl (which is fantastic) but...pressed with an old pressing machine being used during 50's and 60's in the US.
So, as long as I see them, the pressing quality is not that good to compare it to the pressings done here in Japan. But still, they did the best to maintain the quality I guess.
Among the copies I got in the past, I saw some warped little, or with scratches even if the copies are brand new.
The 2nd Bad Thing is....
The Master Tape Used.
They used the Original Mono Master at Blue Note.
The basic concept of these DU Premium Blue Note Reissues is
TO MAKE A PERFECT REPLICA OF THE ORIGINAL BLUE NOTE TITLES
That is why they only used the Original Mono Master. But as most of you guys know that from 1957 sessions to the early 60's sessions, Rudy Van Gelder recorded the sessions both Mono and Stereo. And with most of the Blue Note reissue projects, Stereo master is used and sound quality is really superb, right?
These 2 are the bad things I see.
What about the Good Things?
The 1st Good Thing is
The Sound Quality/Mastering, cutting Quality
This sounds contradicting to what I said about the bad thing. But what I want to enphasis is the mastering and cutting quality. Kevin Gray remastered and cut these DU reissues and he did a great job creating this sound!
The sound is really really super!
The 2nd Good Thing is
The Quality of the Sleeve
Man...they did a PERFECT JOB HERE!!
They used high quaity heavy paper and printing quality is out of this world!!
To tell the truth, The quality of US sleeves is not that good...sorry to say. I have never seen a good quality US sleeves...
With DU reissues, they really dug into every detail. If the original sleeve is a laminated jacket, they did that, if the sleeve is a gakubuhi jacket (frame cover), they restored it! Look at how precise and beautiful these jackets are.
Gakubbuchi jacket (Frame Cover) is also restored perfectly!
What about the back of the sleeve? Look at these fonts! PERFECT!
They also restored the label design just PERFECTLY!! If the original has Deep Groove, they restored it, if the original is Flat Edge, they restored it. Wow...this is really insane!
Look at this label. They restored the Lexington Label and DG. The color, fonts and DG, everything is PERFECT!!
What about the Flat Edge?
So, to me, These DU Premium Blue Note Reissues are the masterpiece of Blue Note Reissues!!
I really salute those who were involed to make this happen!!