orel (04/19/83)
A not about Angel and EMI. Angel is, I believe, now a subsidiary of Capitol Records, which, in turn, is owned by EMI (the self dubbed "greatest recording organization" in the world). With regard to the relative quality of the records, hou5e!mat is correct -- the EMI (British -- Parlaphone, Gramophone, or whatever the big L on the records is for) pressings are far superior. The Beatles recordings are a case in point. Not only did Capitol rearrange the albums, which meant renaming them and including only 11 cuts instead of 14, but the sound quality was awful. Capitol even dubbed over the Beatles on some tracks to accentuate the drums and make it seem louder (I cna point to some particular examples that I have on "The Beatles Second Album" that are almost unrecognizable next to their originals on the British "With The Beatles." The Beatles were not too happy with Capitol's butchering of their work -- the famous album cover for "Yesterday and Today" (a Capitol compilation record which has no British equivalent since all of the tracks had already been released on other British albums) was a result. Anyway I avoid Capitol (and Angel) whenever possible, and am very thankful that current exchange rates are making imports affordable. -- Matt Orel decvax!yale-comix!orel